Podcasts by Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
History lectures by Samuel Biagetti, a historian (and antique dealer) with a Phd in early American history; my dissertation was on Freemasonry in the 1700s. I focus on the historical myths and distortions, from "the Middle Ages" to "Race," that people use to rationalize the world in which we live. More info at www.historiansplaining.com
Please see my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632, if you want to keep the lectures coming, and to hear the patron-only materials.
Further podcasts by Samuel Biagetti
Podcast on the topic Gesellschaft und Kultur
All episodes
Update, and Teaser: Jesuit Brass Medallion with Ignatius Loyola from 2022-02-18T18:07:11
I give an update on my historical activities this winter and plans for the podcast, as well as a brief teaser from the latest installment of the History of the United States in 100 Objects.
My ...
Uncovering the Medieval Slave Trade -- A Conversation with Hannah Barker from 2022-01-15T18:49:35
Before Columbus had even set foot in America, medieval Europe and the Islamic Middle East already had a long history in trading and exploiting slaves. An important branch of the slave trade involve...
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2021 in Historical Context -- Global Crisis, Labor Unrest, and "It's A Wonderful Life" from 2021-12-29T05:23:22
We consider the strange ambiguous developments of this year, including the political paralysis in the US, the furors over mask and vaccine mandates, and most importantly, the labor reshuffle or "gr...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 14: The Winthrop Alchemical Physician's Chair from 2021-12-20T16:52:22
UNLOCKED after 1 year for patrons only:
--Wainscot great chair with turned and carved ornaments
--Made of Oak, by unknown maker in New York or Connecticut, 1660-75
--Owne...
Blood and Oil: The History of Tulsa from 2021-12-14T05:45:25
America marked this year the 100th anniversary of the race massacre that destroyed the Greenwood district of Tulsa, the so-called "Black Wall Street," but left out of the commemorations were the co...
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Unlocked: Myth of the Month 14: Astrology from 2021-12-05T14:42:10
Unlocked after a year for patrons only:
Why do we divide history into epochs separated by "revolutions"? Astrology. How did Magellan chart his course around the globe? Astrology. How did Ro...
Doorways in Time: The Great Archaeological Finds -- 3: The Terracotta Army & the Tomb of Qin from 2021-12-04T22:09:56
In 1974, group of Chinese farmers drilling a well in a parched field in a far northwestern corner of China found pieces of terracotta sculpture, which would point the way to East Asia's greatest ev...
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Taking Stock of Money in Politics: The Powell Memo Fifty Years Later from 2021-11-16T14:24:44
At a time of intensifying hope and anxiety over the direction of the Supreme Court, we take stock of how the lawmaking process and the judiciary have changed over the past fifty years with the mobi...
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Myth of the Month 18: Robin Hood -- pt. 1: The Master of the Forest from 2021-11-01T02:14:06
In the first installment on the Robin Hood mythos, we consider how the legend of Robin Hood has evolved from a series of brutal tales of a medieval outlaw bandit in the fifteenth century to that of...
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India -- pt. 2: Foundations of Hinduism from 2021-10-16T02:13:14
What do Hindus believe? What rituals, traditions, and ethical principles does one follow as a Hindu? What does Hinduism say about the soul and spiritual enlightenment? We trace the development i...
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India -- pt. 1: Creating Civilization in South Asia from 2021-09-30T20:27:05
We discuss the complex geography of the Indian Subcontinent, and how early societies in India, beginning with the mysterious Indus Valley Civilization, developed cities, technology, art, and litera...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 17: The Hiawatha Belt from 2021-09-14T15:12:06
--Made of leather, sinew thread, and wampum (quahog shell) beads, ca. 1400s
--In possession of the Onondaga Nation, central New York
This most ancient and precious ceremonial wamp...
Unlocked: History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 12: The Naylor Bowling Ball, 1670-1700 from 2021-09-11T13:22:18
Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only:
America's oldest bowling ball, found in the backlot of a colonial house in Boston, and what it reveals about the Puritans' futile struggles against ...
Chasidic Judaism: What is it and where did it come from? from 2021-09-04T18:23:32
Michael of "Xai How Are You" and I discuss the history of the Chasidic / Hasidic movement, a Jewish lay mystical and pietistic movement, which applies the insights of Kabbalah to everyday life and ...
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Doorposts and Gates: How Jews Have Subdivided Themselves Through History from 2021-08-29T11:53:02
Michael of "Xai How Are You" and I discuss the different ways that Jews have distinguished themselves into groups and sub-groups, from the Biblical tribes to the Sephardic and Ashkenazi ethnic grou...
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The Green Knight: History, Myth, and Modern Shame -- A Historian's View from 2021-08-12T12:53:01
We consider the narrative structure, symbols, and meanings of the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the context of the Middle Ages and the Arthurian cycle, and how the movie has been adju...
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Before Jamestown: When England Colonized the Amazon -- A Conversation with Melissa Morris from 2021-08-06T16:01:04
How did the early colonists in Virginia know that they could profitably grow a species of tobacco from South America? They learned about it from the series of mostly short-lived English, French, a...
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Thank you to patrons & Teaser: The Nag Hammadi Library and the Gnostic Gospels from 2021-07-30T21:19:04
I mark the milestone of surpassing 100 patrons with a thank-you and a clip of my patron-only lecture, "Doorways in Time: The Great Archaeological Finds -- 2: The Nag Hammadi Library," which deals w...
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UNLOCKED: Myth of the Month 12, Finale: The Historical King Arthur from 2021-07-24T14:21:12
Released to the public after one year for patrons only:
Archaeology, geography, linguistics, textual analysis -- all of these fields of knowledge must be brought to bear on a centuries-old ques...
1066: Sailing Into the Storm from 2021-07-13T13:10:11
1066 -- the year of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest -- is the most famous date in English history. Few understand, though, that far more happened in this cataclysmic and pivotal yea...
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Dutch Batavia and the Ideology of Early Modern Empire -- A Conversation with Deborah Hamer from 2021-07-09T04:02:31
Were the Dutch proto-capitalists? Were they Americans before America? What was the Dutch East India Company, and how did it work? I talk to Deborah Hamer -- historian, research associate at the ...
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Myth of the Month 17: Anglo-Saxonism from 2021-06-27T01:25:52
Who the heck are the "Anglo-Saxons," and why are Americans getting all lathered up about "Anglo-Saxon institutions"? Find out where the Anglo-Saxon myth came from and how over the past three hundr...
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History of the British and Irish Travellers from 2021-06-15T04:47:23
Travellers, Tinkers, Gypsies, Kale, Scottish Travellers, Gypsy Travellers, Romani Gypsies, Romanichal, Pavee, Showmen, Van People, Boat People, Bargers –
All of these multivarious peoples,...
History of the Roma ("Gypsies"), part 2 -- A Stateless People in Modern Europe from 2021-05-27T21:42:12
We follow how the Roma or Gypsies rose to a period of toleration and even renown as the quintessential musical masters of the Romantic era, only to fall under renewed persecution and suppression in...
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History of the Roma ("Gypsies"), pt. 2 -- A Stateless People in Modern Europe from 2021-05-27T21:42:12
We follow how the Roma or Gypsies rose to a period of toleration and even renown as the quintessential musical masters of the Romantic era, only to fall under renewed persecution and suppression in...
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History of the Roma ("Gypsies"), part 1 -- From Ancient Origins to the Eighteenth Century from 2021-05-14T03:22:14
Who are the Roma -- also colloquially called "Gypsies"? Where did they come from, and how did they end up all over Europe? How have they endured through persecution, expulsions, and political uph...
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Doorways in Time: The Great Archaeological Finds -- 1: The Sutton Hoo Treasure from 2021-04-30T23:45:34
Why was the excavation depicted in "The Dig" the most important archaeological discovery ever made in Britain, or arguably in all of Europe? How did some artifacts found in a mound near an English...
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Freemasonry -- Its Growth and Spread Before 1789 from 2021-04-18T17:40:25
How did Freemasonry expand in the 1700s from a small, secretive fraternity in Lowland Scotland to a massive global network, with lodges from the Caribbean to Russia to India? Who became Freemasons...
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War & Pandemic, a Historian's Perspective; and Teaser: "The Founding Fathers" from 2021-04-06T19:04:18
Since the Covid-19 pandemic has killed over half a million Americans, is it historically sound to say that the disaster is "bigger" than World War II? What do such comparisons mean, and are they i...
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Emergency Podcast: The Royal Crisis in Historical Context from 2021-03-13T13:41:31
The messy exit of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from the royal family marks the third great crisis of the British monarchy in the past hundred years – following the abdication of Edward VIII to ma...
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The Voynich Manuscript, the "World's Most Mysterious Book" -- A Historian's View -- pt. 2 from 2021-03-04T16:22:34
The Voynich Manuscript -- often called the "world's most mysterious book" -- consists of 116 leaves of parchment covered in outlandish botanical and astrological drawings and thousands of lines of ...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 15: The Newport Spirit Bundle, 1700s from 2021-02-22T15:48:34
A small cloth sack, containing nails, beads, glass, and a cowrie shell, found under the floorboards of the garret of the oldest house in Newport, Rhode Island, points toward the continuation and ad...
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The Sabbatai Zevi Messianic Movement from 2021-02-14T21:15:29
I discuss, with Michael of "Xai, how are you?", the life and times of Sabbatai Zvi, the purported messiah of the 1660s, and the massive messianic awakening that he sparked and that swept across the...
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The Voynich Manuscript, the "World's Most Mysterious Book" -- A Historian's View -- pt. 1 from 2021-02-11T14:53:08
The Voynich Manuscript -- often called the "world's most mysterious book" -- consists of 116 leaves of parchment covered in outlandish botanical and astrological drawings and thousands of lines of ...
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Myth of the Month 15: "The State" from 2021-01-27T13:00:37
What did Shakespeare mean when he wrote that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”? Why do we call independent countries “states” endowed with “sovereignty”? Why do historians and philoso...
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UNLOCKED: History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 10: The Peregrine White Cradle, ca. 1620 from 2021-01-26T13:00:27
Unlocked for the public after one year for patrons only:
--Made of willow wicker on a wood frame
--Made ca. 1620, most likely in the Netherlands
--Allegedly brought on th...
Creating the Caribbean -- The Colonial West Indies, pt. 1, 1496-1697 from 2021-01-13T12:00:27
How did a chain of sparsely populated islands, stalked by earthquakes, hurricanes, and deadly tropical diseases, become the most powerful and prosperous colonies on earth? We trace how bands of ad...
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Unlocked: Myth of the Month 10, pt. 4: the Shakespeare Authorship Controversy from 2021-01-09T01:59:45
Unlocked for the public, after one year for patrons only, the final lecture of the series on Shakespeare:
Could it be that "Shakespeare" wasn't Shakespeare? -- That someone else, perhaps a...
Special Comment: Our Wonderful Year; & Teaser: The Winthrop Alchemical Physician's Chair from 2020-12-29T15:26:26
What to make of this wonderful year? I venture into a little punditry, and give a clip from my patron-only lecture on the enigmatic alchemical physician's chair that belonged to John Winthrop Juni...
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The early church, pt. 2 -- Houses Divided from 2020-12-17T01:56:01
How did the early church hammer out a shared set of practices and teachings out of the welter of confusion and bitter contestation among Montanists, Docetists, Donatists, Paulines, Gnostics, and Eb...
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The Early Church, pt. 1 -- Christianity on the Road from 2020-12-14T22:05:39
How did a small movement of Jewish fanatics, devastated by the ignominious demise of their leader, rise to become the official state religion of the Roman empire, Armenia, Georgia, and Ethiopia? W...
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TEASER -- Myth of the Month 14: Astrology from 2020-12-07T03:17:41
Teaser sample of "Myth of the Month 14: Astrology."
Become a Patron at any level to hear the complete Myths of the Month: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44717945
Description: Why ...
Age of Absolutism 3: Bourbon France, 1589-1789 from 2020-11-21T13:53:39
When we speak of "absolutism," most of us think immediately of Louis XIV, the Sun King, and his splendrous court at Versailles. But those glittering images cover over a centuries-long struggle by t...
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Colonial Latin America -- The Baroque Age, 1542-1764 from 2020-11-10T04:11:45
How did a series of brutally conquered states and forced labor camps evolve over 200 years into a flourishing empire of trade, art, and culture? How did this new civilization manage land, money, an...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 13: Dutch Iron Fireback with a Robed Figure from 2020-10-27T01:36:32
--Made of cast iron, probably in the Netherlands, ca. 1650
--found at the Schuyler Flatts, Colonie, New York
--held by the New York State Museum
A mysterious fragment of an iron fi...
England, Interrupted: The Interregnum and Restoration, 1650-1685 from 2020-10-13T22:05:28
What happened to England in the power vacuum left in the wake of the execution of Charles I? Why were the Puritans, so pious in morals and strict in governance, unable to create a lasting Commonwe...
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Myth of the Month 13: Feudalism from 2020-09-29T12:00:24
Feudalism – it’s what they did in the Middle Ages! Nobles controlled the land and extracted labor from the serfs, and everyone from peasants to great lords was arranged in a big hierarchical pyram...
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Scientific Revolution, Part 2 -- The New Powers, 1660-1800 from 2020-09-16T02:52:02
How did the Restoration of the English monarchy and the dawn of empire set the stage for the peculiar set of practices and assumptions that we now call "science," and how did they begin to unlock p...
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Anglo-Saxon England and the Vikings, 757-1066 from 2020-09-08T00:45:03
How did a set of seven fractious kingdoms unite into a new kingdom, known as "England," while under almost constant attack by Viking berserkers from across the North Sea?
Please support th...
The Origins of Policing -- from the Middle Ages to the First World War from 2020-08-25T19:17:43
Why do we have uniformed officers called "police" who do things (like patrolling streets and investigating missing persons) that we call "policing"? We trace the evolution of law enforcement over ...
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The Trials of Bolivia: A Conversation with Oliver Rhoads Murphey from 2020-08-12T00:58
Why did the US government support and supply substantial aid to a left-wing revolutionary government in Bolivia in the 1950s, at the same time that it was undermining or overthrowing similar regime...
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Updates, Thank You, and Teaser: The Historical King Arthur from 2020-08-04T15:54:12
I give updates on my ridiculous pursuits, and thanks to my 75+ patrons, as well as a juicy teaser for my patron-only lecture on the "real" or "historical" King Arthur.
The Twitter poll on what ...
Unlocked: History of the United States in 100 Objects, 8 -- Pueblo Communion Chalice from 2020-07-29T02:00:06
Unlocked for the public after 1 year:
-Ceramic chalice, decorated in Jemez black-on-white style, with crosses
-made in pueblo of Giusewa, between 1598 and the 1630s
-found in the r...
Myth of the Month 12: The Arthur Cycle -- pt. 2: The Rise and Fall of Camelot from 2020-07-16T22:45:11
When Jackie Kennedy told reporters that she and the late President used to listen to the soundtrack of the musical "Camelot," the word immediately caught on as the name for the Kennedy White House ...
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Myth of the Month 12: The Arthur Cycle -- pt. 1: Creating "King Arthur" from 2020-07-13T15:10:12
Why does the earliest known picture of King Arthur show him riding on a goat and charging towards a deadly cat-monster? How has the tale of King Arthur and his knights evolved since it first emerg...
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Unlocked: Myth of the Month 8: "The West" from 2020-07-07T16:00:31
After one year on Patreon for patrons only, Myth of the Month #8 becomes open to the public:
The notion that there is a coherent society that can be called "the West" or "Western Civilizat...
Crossing the Waters: Britain in the Dark Age from 2020-06-11T13:05:43
Romans, Brythons, Picts, Angles, Gaels, Saxons, and Jutes -- how did this kaleidoscopic welter of contending tribes crystallize into the medieval Christian kingdoms we know as England and Scotland...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 11: Human-Effigy War Club, ca. 1640s from 2020-05-26T20:55:13
--Made of Hickory wood, shells, and copper on the Atlantic coast of North America, ca. 1640s
--Held in the collection of Skokloster Castle, Sweden
This elaborately carved and ornamente...
The Spanish Flu, pt. 2 -- The Great Flu and Modern Memory, 1920-2020 from 2020-05-05T14:29:25
What is the legacy of the greatest pandemic to hit the globe in the past two centuries, carrying away 3% of the entire human race? What has been its after-life through the past century?
What h...
The Spanish Flu, pt. 1 -- A World in Ashes, 1918-1920 from 2020-04-29T19:14:52
In this first installment on the great Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-20, we consider the staggering scope and deep reach of the viral disease that swept the world three times, infecting one third of...
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Myth of the Month 11: The "1619 Project" and the place of slavery in American history from 2020-03-30T21:51:07
The 1619 Project -- an essay collection published in last August's New York Times magazine -- has ignited intense debate about American history, raging outside the walls of academia. Commemorating...
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Special Comment, and How are my listeners? from 2020-03-23T20:01:38
What can I say? I'm alive and well, how are you?
Image: bronze statue of the Archangel Michael, atop the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, commemorating the end of a plague.
Through a Glass Darkly: The 1980s in Current Television -- A Conversation with Sonia Saraiya from 2020-02-17T12:00:10
What is with the spate of 1980s themes on current "prestige" television? Is it Gen. X. nostalgia for their youthful days in suburban malls? Or something more? Television critic Sonia Saraiya dis...
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Back to the Dark Age: How People Adapted to the Fall of the Roman Empire from 2020-02-06T05:14:57
What did people do when the Roman empire fell apart around them? Recent scholarship, based on new archeological discoveries and techniques, argues that in the "dark" centuries between 450 and 750 ...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 6: Bronze Cannon with Fleur-de-Lis Emblem, 1540s from 2020-02-03T13:48:53
Unlocked for all listeners after one year for patrons only:
-about 10 ft. long
-made in France, ca. 1540s
-lost in shipwreck, ca. 1562-5
-located on bottom of th...
Beyond Plymouth Rock: The Deep Beginnings of New England -- A Conversation with Michael J. Simpson from 2020-01-15T21:22:49
Anticipating the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Plymouth colony, Michael J. Simpson and I discuss the deep background of the creation of "New England" -- the long history of contact, exchan...
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Teaser -- Myth of the Month 10: The Shakespeare Authorship Controversy from 2020-01-10T00:15:04
Could it be that "Shakespeare" wasn't Shakespeare? -- that someone else, perhaps a highly-educated aristocrat, actually wrote the works attributed to the actor from Stratford? Am I a crackpot for ...
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Unlocked: Myth of the Month 6: Political Left and Right from 2019-12-29T14:37:57
Unlocked after one year for patrons only, a discussion of our fixation with organizing political views into an axis "left" against "right":
As new political parties -- left-populists, neo-...
Myth of the Month 10: Who Was Shakespeare? -- pt. 3: "The Maiden's Organ" from 2019-12-15T15:28:24
How could Shakespeare have possibly allowed his sonnets -- personal, sexual, and often scandalous -- to be published? I advance my own theory to account for the printing of the most shocking book ...
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Myth of the Month 10: Who Was Shakespeare? -- pt. 2: "Comfort and Despair" from 2019-12-10T14:29:58
What do Shakespeare's sonnets actually say? What can they tell us about the life or character of the man who penned them?
Not only romantic and philosophical, the sonnets are erotic, desperate...
Myth of the Month 10: Who Was Shakespeare? -- pt. 1: The Monument and the Man from 2019-11-13T01:55:52
Who was William Shakespeare? He is far more elusive, and his life more obscure, than his fans and biographers will admit. We consider the massive, bloated mythology that has built up around the g...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 9: Bartmann Jug with Guelph Coat-of-Arms, 1600-1610 from 2019-10-14T21:55:23
--Made of salt-glazed stoneware, in Frechen, Germany, ca. 1605
--Found at James Fort, Jamestown, Virginia
--Held in Collection of Historic Jamestowne
In some ways, this Bartmann (o...
The Road to Civil War: Class Conflict and Constitutional Crisis in Stuart England, 1603-1650 from 2019-09-28T12:54:58
Struggles between chief executives and legislatures are dominating the news on both sides of the Atlantic, as Americans debate impeachment and the UK is engulfed by a Brexistential crisis. Most of ...
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Myth of the Month 9: The US Constitution and the Origins of the Senate and Electoral College from 2019-09-09T00:36
Why does our government work the way it does? Is it supposed to represents citizens, or states? We consider the origins of the U. S. Constitution, particularly the creation of the controversial b...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 4: The Maine Norse Coin from 2019-08-29T11:25:49
After one year, my lecture on the only authentic pre-Columbian European artifact ever found in the United States becomes public. Please support this podcast on Patreon to hear the patron-only lectu...
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In the Ocean of Land: The History of Central Asia -- pt. 2 from 2019-08-13T04:34:27
We trace how the conquests of the infamous Tamerlane, the “great game” of imperial rivalry, and the revolutions of modern Russia shaped the map of central Asia that we see today. We consider how c...
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In the Ocean of Land: The History of Central Asia -- pt. 1 from 2019-08-08T23:00:21
We consider the vast sweep of Central Asian history, from the first nomads to tame the horse and gain mastery of the steppes, to the splendrous cities of the first Silk Road, to the rise of Ghenghi...
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Freemasonry -- Its Origins, Its Myths, and Its Rituals from 2019-07-24T12:57:16
Freemasonry: What is it? Where does it come from? What is one taught as a Freemason? What do they do in their closed-door rituals -- and why? Freemasonry in the 1700s is my own field of research, ...
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Update And Teaser for "Myth of the Month 8: The West" from 2019-07-11T16:02:55
I give an update on my suspicious activities over the past month, and give a little preview of my latest patron-only lecture, on the myth of "The West" or "Western Civilization."
Become a ...
Myth of the Month 4: Secularization -- or, Send in the Nones! from 2019-06-11T22:35:55
After one year for patrons only, the fourth Myth of the Month becomes free for the public:
Do societies become more "secular" as they become modern? Do science, technology, or democracy we...
Age of Absolutism 2: Tudor England, 1485-1603 from 2019-06-06T18:07:27
We follow the five Tudor monarchs’ struggle to consolidate power in royal hands and forestall a collapse back into the civil wars that ravaged England in the 1400s. Beyond the soap operas of Henry ...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 7: The Dorion Mission Seal, ca. 1680s from 2019-05-21T01:27:14
-Seal stamp, made of Bronze, with image of St. Catherine of Alexandria
-made in Spain, ca. 1680s, possibly earlier
-used by Santa Catalina de Guale mission, in Georgia and Florida
-foun...
History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 2: Statuette of a Farming Goddess, ca. 1100 AD from 2019-05-17T13:47:34
-Found in Monroe County, Illinois
-Made of bauxite or "flint clay"
-Dated to early 12th cent. AD
One year after being shared with patrons only, this second installment of History o...
Special Comment: Monarchy, Magic, and the Modern Romance of "Game of Thrones" from 2019-05-10T12:44:58
Two secret informants and I continue our conversation stemming from Game of Thrones, wherein we consider the relationship of monarchy and magic to the malaise of modern life. Why did British ruler...
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Notre Dame and the Nine Lives of Gothic Cathedrals from 2019-04-21T12:37:58
We put the disastrous fire at Notre Dame de Paris into historical perspective -- by considering the history of Gothic cathedrals, their cosmic religious meanings, and their remarkably powerful and ...
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Milestone: 2 Years of Constant Historiansplaining from 2019-04-16T03:08:41
I take stock of the growth and reach of the podcast, Historiansplaining, who is listening, who is contributing, and how I seem to be especially appealing to Canadians. I preview possible upcoming t...
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Myth of the Month 2: The Exodus from 2019-04-02T13:16:43
--In time for Passover, this lecture on the myth of the Exodus from Egypt, which I recorded solely for patrons one year ago, becomes public for all.--
We examine the origins and the politi...
Myth of The Month 7: Game of Thrones from 2019-03-24T17:01:33
We examine George R. R. Martin’s new mythology for the middle class: the TV series Game of Thrones and the series of books upon which it is based. Martin and his collaborators draw on the 15th-cen...
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History of Universities, Part 2: A Crumbling Tower? from 2019-03-08T04:52:22
In the second part of our exploration of the history of universities, we discuss the apotheosis of the university in the American republic, the rise of the German-style research university, and the...
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History of Universities, Part 1: Flower of the Middle Ages from 2019-02-26T02:59:18
Universities are unique -- a quintessential product of the High Middle Ages that has miraculously survived and even flourished in the modern world. In the first part of the history of universities,...
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Book Review: "Why Liberalism Failed" -- Part 2 from 2019-01-13T19:51:08
I discuss the various strengths and weaknesses of Patrick Deneen’s critique of liberalism, and put forward my own slightly different argument that liberalism is like a cargo cult – taking ordinary ...
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Book Review: "Why Liberalism Failed" -- Part 1 from 2019-01-13T01:24:24
In the first half of my discussion of Patrick Deneen's "Why Liberalism Failed," I examine the structure of Deneen's argument, tracing his effort to connect present-day crises in education, science,...
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Special Comment: The "Sokal Squared" Hoax and the Academic Cult from 2018-11-29T20:11:02
I have a conversation with a friend in the scientific field about the recently exposed "Sokal Squared" academic hoax, by which three junior professors concocted a series of intentionally absurd, no...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 5: Set of Chevron-Patterned Glass Beads, ca. 1500 from 2018-11-12T23:26:36
-Set of nine chevron-patterned glass beads
-Made in Venice, ca. 1500
-Found in Telfair, County, Georgia
A fistful of Venetian glass beads may be the crucial clue to tracing the ro...
Update to Listeners, Thanks to Patrons, and Happy Birthday to Mom from 2018-11-06T20:50
I update my patrons on future plans for the podcast despite a pause of more than two months, and encourage listeners to comment on what they want to hear about in coming months.
Please rate and...
Age of Absolutism 1: Central Europe and the Rise of the Habsburgs from 2018-09-09T16:19:42
We follow how a relatively obscure family of Swiss counts took advantage of the chaos of the late Middle Ages to become the most powerful dynasty in the history of central Europe, towering over Eur...
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Myth of the Month 5: Capitalism from 2018-08-22T13:54:59
There is no such thing as capitalism. With debates over the relative meanings and merits of socialism and capitalism currently flaring up in the United States, we examine why “capitalism” is an un...
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Scientific Revolution, Part 1 -- Alchemy and Apocalypse, 1500-1660 from 2018-08-10T14:22:45
We unearth the tangled roots of the earliest forms of modern science, beginning with the radical alchemical theories of the rabble-rousing healer called Paracelsus, and running through the heated...
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The History of Scotland, the Romance of Scotland, and "Outlander" from 2018-07-24T20:16:52
What is behind the popularity of Outlander? Why have crazed fans of the show from around the world begun to overrun Scottish castles? – and why did the UK Prime Minister secretly meet with TV exec...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 3: Scarlet Macaw Feather Sash, ca. 1150 AD from 2018-06-23T00:28:57
-Sash made of Yucca rope, leather, squirrel pelt, and scarlet macaw feathers
-Found in Lavender Canyon, Utah
-Dated to Ancestral Pueblo Civilization, ca. 1150 AD
Made with more tha...
Age of Ice and Fire: The General Crisis Of The Seventeenth Century from 2018-06-07T02:28:58
We trace the waves of crop failure, famine, pestilence, and war that swept over Europe in the 1600s as the climate sank into a “Little Ice Age” and armies literally marched across frozen seas. In ...
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The Catholic Reformation from 2018-05-30T01:53:36
We examine the long movement for reform stretching from the Middle Ages through the 1600s, in which Catholic leaders strove to centralize and standardize church teachings. Mystics like Teresa of A...
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Myth of the Month 3: Race from 2018-05-21T13:24:49
We examine the origins of racism, or the notion that the human species can be subdivided into distinct and observable biological categories. The notion of human "races" began as a strategy for div...
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The Century of Splintering: The Reformation in its Swiss and Radical Phases, 1519-1619 from 2018-05-07T13:46:21
We explore the new, contending forms of Protestant Christianity that sprang up in the wake of Luther, including the strict, austere Swiss Reform embodied in John Calvin’s Geneva, and the radical an...
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History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 1: Panther Effigy Pipe, 200-500 AD from 2018-04-30T15:58:35
PANTHER EFFIGY PIPE
-Found in Posey County, Indiana
-Carved from Steatite
-dated to the MIddle Woodland Period, 200-500 AD.
In the first of the series on American objects and a...
Witchcraft and the Great Witch-Hunt, 1484-1700 from 2018-04-19T14:29:51
We trace the roots of the idea of witchcraft in the "cunning folk" of the Middle Ages. We consider how the church and state began to fuel fear of witchcraft and persecute witches in the tens of th...
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The Life of the Commoners -- Adaptation and Rebellion, 1400-1600 from 2018-04-10T13:14:14
We examine how Europe's peasant majority worked, played, and survived in the late Middle Ages and the early modern era, including the elaborate customs governing land tenure, marriage, and inherita...
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Renaissance Humanism from 2018-03-22T13:20:51
We trace how a small group of scholars, obsessed with classical antiquity, mastered the more ancient form of Latin, thus unlocking the worlds of Roman and Greek politics. Seeing themselves as the ...
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Myth of the Month 1: "The Enlightenment" from 2018-03-13T20:57:27
There was no Enlightenment. Steven Pinker’s new book, “Enlightenment Now,” is a classic re-statement of the myth of the Enlightenment which holds that in the 1600s and 1700s, Europeans threw off t...
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Update and a Challenge to My Listeners from 2018-03-04T23:03:05
I briefly discuss the growing audience for Historiansplaining, and sketch plans for future shorter lectures on historical myths, some of which will be patron-only. Finally, I pose a hypothetical q...
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The Myths We Make: Using the past as an ideological tool from 2018-03-01T15:25:51
All of history is, to one degree or another, mythology -- the weaving of a coherent, usable narrative out of the chaos of people's lives. We consider how societies all over the world, since before...
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Spanish and Portuguese Expansion and the Conquest of the Americas from 2018-02-15T15:55:58
We trace how Portugal and Spain, two previously marginal European kingdoms, rapidly and unexpectedly exploded onto the world scene, building a chain of fortified colonies stretching from North Afri...
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Making The Modern State: Spain, Portugal, and the Inquisition from 2018-02-06T00:51:14
We explore European monarchs’ early quest to consolidate royal power and establish their subjects’ direct loyalty to the crown. In particular, we trace the early triumphs and slow declines of the ...
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The Print and Gunpowder Revolutions, 1300-1700 from 2018-01-23T23:46:30
The early modern era – from the 1400s through the 1700s – is the monarchical age par excellence, with royal courts presiding over consolidated realms and monstrous armies capable of crushing small...
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Book Review: "The Strange Death of Europe" -- Part 2 from 2018-01-09T18:51:27
In the second part of our discussion of Douglas Murray’s “The Strange Death of Europe,” we examine the history of social cohesion and identity in Europe. We point out Murray’s failure to mention B...
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Book Review: "The Strange Death of Europe" -- Part 1 from 2018-01-07T22:41:11
The first part of an examination and discussion of Douglas Murray's controversial book, "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam" (Bloomsbury, 2017), and its dire warning that a w...
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Islam 2: From the "Golden Age" to the Fundamentalist Reaction from 2017-12-05T23:46:06
We trace the tortured path of Islam over the past 1,000 years, from the “Golden Age” of art, philosophy, and interreligious tolerance under the Abbasid empire to the rise of oppositional movements ...
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Islam 1: Muhammad, the first Caliphate, and the core teachings from 2017-11-20T21:20:10
We trace the shocking and rapid rise of Islam in the 600s, as a confederation of desert towns and tribes unite around Muhammad and his prophesies from the Abrahamic god, then swiftly launch a stunn...
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Land of Vital Blood: Pre-Columbian America from 2017-11-01T13:47:40
The Americas before Columbus were not an idyll frozen in time. They were a world of struggle and ambition, with a history just as complex and tumultuous as Europe's. We trace how hunting-gatherin...
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In Search of the Dawn: Human Prehistory from 2017-10-24T14:33:12
Most of the human story is so-called "pre-history," which in fact is inseparable from history and still going on today. We trace the origins of the human species around 300,000 years ago in Africa,...
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Goodbye to Catalonia? from 2017-10-10T23:28:12
What is going on in Catalonia? We trace the long history of the small region in Spain’s northeastern corner, considering how medieval rebellions, dynastic struggles, and radical anarchist unions a...
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Milestone: 5,000 Plays -- Thanks to My Patrons from 2017-10-05T22:41:06
I trace the locations of my growing base of listeners, from Brazil to Berlin to Michigan to the Philippines, and send a tremendous thank-you to my patrons who have made it possible for this podcast...
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Martin Luther: Shout at the Devil from 2017-10-02T23:24:32
Exactly five centuries ago this month, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, thus sparking the Protestant Reformation. He was concerned not with freedom of thought nor...
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The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution from 2017-09-25T00:16:37
We trace the winding paths by which Jews, after the diaspora, sought out social and economic niches in which they were able to survive within European Christian society. We uncover the origins of t...
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Columbus -- The Tragedy and the Enigma from 2017-09-19T00:01:46
We examine the enigmatic and elusive figure of Columbus, from his likely Jewish background, to his bizarre and hairbrained scheme of sailing to Asia, his brutal and chaotic invasion of the West Ind...
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Jim Crow's America, 1880-1960 from 2017-09-09T11:45:29
We examine the three pillars of Jim Crow civilization -- segregation, disfranchisement, and terroristic violence -- and their roots in the corrupt bargain of 1877 that ended Reconstruction and the ...
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The Confederacy -- Its Roots and Its Legacies from 2017-08-22T00:39:47
We explore the history behind the statues being destroyed across America in a wave of iconoclasm -- when and why they were erected, and what they represented. We consider the roots of the Confeder...
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The Historical Jesus from 2017-08-17T19:02:53
We join in the ongoing quest for the historical Jesus -- the struggle to unearth and understand who Jesus really was, what he said and did, and how he inspired a movement. We trace the basic bare-...
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Who Wrote the Bible? -- New Testament from 2017-08-09T23:50:19
We consider the long ideological struggles in the early church that led to the gradual collection of a canon of Christian writings that we now call the New Testament. We trace when, where, and why...
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Who Wrote the Bible? -- Hebrew Scriptures from 2017-07-30T03:44:27
We dissect the origins of the Hebrew Bible (also called the Old Testament by Christians), excavating the deepest layers of the collection of holy books, including the very ancient songs and prayers...
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Judaism -- What Is It and Where Did It Come From? from 2017-07-18T00:06:19
We consider how best to understand the origins of the laws and customs of the Jewish people, or what we call "Judaism." We begin by dispelling the notion that Judaism (or any other belief system a...
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Middle Ages 11: The Pulsating Body -- The Medieval World View from 2017-07-06T18:00:08
We cap off the series of lectures on the Middle Ages by piecing together how the people of the high and late Middle Ages understood their place in the cosmos. From the lowliest peasants to popes a...
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Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle Ages from 2017-06-21T06:54:59
We examine the ways that medieval people described, displayed, and generally failed to control their sexual appetites. While theologians sermonized on the dangers of carnal lust, parishioners surr...
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Milestone: 1,000 Plays -- Who and Where Are My Listeners? from 2017-06-16T05:04:14
I send a thank-you message to my listeners and patrons marking the podcast's 1,000th play, and discuss where in the world -- from South Dakota to Malaysia -- you are located, according to Soundclou...
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Middle Ages 9: Knowledge and Ignorance in the Middle Ages (and Today) from 2017-06-01T02:28:02
We examine how medieval scholars battled over the meanings of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and of the Christian religion, while illiterate artisans made breakthroughs in architecture, enginee...
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Middle Ages 8: The Knights Templar from 2017-05-25T21:49:06
We examine the true history of the first brotherhood of warrior-monks, who rose to extraordinary power in the High Middle Ages, functioned as a shadow empire reaching from Jerusalem to the far corn...
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Middle Ages 7: The Later Crusades and Their Legacies from 2017-05-17T02:22:36
We examine the long train of crusading expeditions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, from the triumphs of Richard the Lionheart to the trainwreck of the sack of Constantinople. We consider ...
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Middle Ages 6: The First Crusade from 2017-05-11T15:23:56
We follow the bloody deeds and improbable victories of the first crusading army, as it slogs its way through Syria toward the ultimate prize.
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Middle Ages 5: The Crusades -- Why Did They Happen? from 2017-05-03T20:55:13
We examine the forces that led the Pope to put forward the far-fetched scheme of mobilizing Christian knights to reclaim Jerusalem in 1095, and briefly consider what lesson the launching of the fir...
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Middle Ages 4: The Late Middle Ages from 2017-04-26T16:43:05
We discuss how the civilization of the High Middle Ages broke down under the onslaught of the Black Death, peasant uprisings, and the gunpowder revolution.
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Middle Ages 3: the High Middle Ages from 2017-04-20T03:35:15
We examine the flourishing of the Middle Ages between 1000 and 1300, which gave us chivalry, Gothic cathedrals, epics of King Arthur, and nearly all of the romantic images that we still associate w...
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Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age -- The Beginning of the Medieval World from 2017-04-13T02:55:08
In the first of three lectures on the three periods of the Middle Ages, we examine the fall of the western Roman empire, the rise of Christianity, and the creation of new hybrid society in Europe. ...
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Middle Ages 1: Exploding the Myth of the Middle Ages from 2017-04-05T03:42:39
The beginning of a series of lectures on the Middle Ages. We start by throwing out the junk, such as the notions that medievals smelled bad and liked to hunt witches, and then look into the mystic...
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