Installments on specific peoples, events, places and modern-day power structures across the globe – too unique for any one playlist – these are expertly researched deep-dive explorations into worlds old and new, from the beginnings of human history in Africa and later in China, India and in Europe, to the modern-day observations when traversing the Great Britain of today… to the origin of policing and the eighty years of Jim Crow laws in America to the modern saturation of money in American politics, plus the peoples left out of most history text books like the Roma “Gypsies”, the British & Irish “Travellers”, and the peoples of Pre-Columbian America, and the peoples of central Asia…plus the origins of World War I by region, along with a comprehensive history of Florida, from ancient indigenous civilizations to the colonial power struggles to present day…
Featured Playlist Episode:
Fortresses on Sand: The History of Florida pt. 1
We discuss the complex and multilayered history of Florida, beginning with the prehistoric peoples that survived in and mastered the tropical landscape, built monumental mound complexes, and formed powerful kingdoms that would eventually confront the first European invaders. More…
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Special-Topic Episodes
The scale and horror of the First World War were possible only after the Nineteenth Century’s double revolution in the nature of war. Warfare – including weaponry, strategy, and command – had remained mostly unchanged for three centuries, from the early integration of firearms in the 1400s until the French Revolution; the campaigns of Napoleon unleashed a new era of mass mobilization and nationalistic fury, while a series of haphazard improvements massively multiplied the killing power and reach of firearms, tearing open a battlefield “killing zone” unlike anything that prior generations of soldiers could have imagined. We follow both the breakdown in the old distinctions between war and civil society and the breakneck advance in land and sea warfare that set the stage for the nightmare of World War I.
Also see:
- Origins of the First World War, pt. 10 – Japan
- Becoming Modern: The Print and Gunpowder Revolutions, 1300-1700
- Origins of the First World War
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Japanese riflemen defending a breastwork embankment, Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5.
Margaret MacMillan on War & 19th-century society.
Nicholas Murray on the emergence of trench warfare in The Evolution of Warfare to 1914.
Suggested further reading: Nicholas Murray, “The Rocky Road to the Great War”; Margaret MacMillan, “The War That Ended Peace”; Hew Strachan, A Clausewitz for Every Season”
We trace the evolution of Japanese society – including the tensions between its peaceable, Buddhist-inspired aspect and its martial aspect; its extraordinary transformation in the Meiji period, from an antiquated hermit kingdom to a dynamic modern power; and its crucial alliance with its European mirror image, Great Britain – which set the stage for its role in the First World War.
Dan Carrick & Japanese singers’ performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1885 adaptation of the Meiji anthem, “Miya Sama”.
A Japanese rendition of “Miya Sama”.
Image: the grand receiving room of Nijojo, Kyoto
Suggested further reading: Perez, “The History of Japan”; Mason & Caiger, “A History of Japan,” 2nd ed.
This episode is currently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website:
Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more
Use the Patreon App or Patreon website for the best listening experience of exclusive patron-only content…
I’m already a supporter – go to the episode on Patreon
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- Origins of the First World War, pt. 9 – Great Britain
- Origins of the First World War, pt. 11 – The 19th-Century Revolution in Warfare
- Myth of the Month 13: Feudalism
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Things You Don’t Know
We consider the efforts of the British state, in the Victorian era and in the early 20th century, to maintain its position as the premier naval and imperial power on Earth, and to contain the political and military challenges from the borderlands of the empire, the German challenge from Europe, and the series of internal threats to the British social system – including the radicalized labour and women’s suffrage movements and the bitter fight over Irish Home Rule, which brought the United Kingdom to the brink of civil war mere weeks before the assassination in Sarajevo.
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- The other installments in Imbalances of Power: 11 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
- More from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Liberal Party propaganda poster promoting the People’s Budget, ca. 1910.
Suggested further reading: George Dangerfield, “The Strange Death of Liberal England.”
In the age of absolutism, France had towered over European life and politics — the only nation that was a major land power on the Continent and a colonial metropole with an overseas empire at the same time. Yet by 1900, tossed about by repeated revolutions and coups and torn asunder by often petty internal culture wars, France was falling behind its rivals to become almost a second-rate power. Once the Radical Party rode the Dreyfus Affair into government, they had to rush to reposition France to try to take advantage of the tensions and instability in the Balkans, and prepare the nation to possibly face off once more against their archival across the Rhine – Germany.
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- Becoming Modern: Age of Absolutism 3: Bourbon France, 1589-1789
- Myth of the Month 6: Political Left and Right
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Illustration of the “degradation” ceremony of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, in Le Petit Journal, 1895.
Christopher Clark’s lecture on “France and the Origins of the Great War”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx_V4NAUuW8
Suggested further reading: Romier, “A History of France,” Norwich, “A History of France,” Maurois, “A History of France.”
Although more often remembered only as a bloody battleground, Belgium – along with its smaller neighbor, Luxembourg – was critical to the strategic landscape of Europe, and played a pivotal role in spreading the war in 1914 beyond the European Continent, making it into a true World War. Both created as independent states in the nineteenth century, Belgium and Luxembourg were linchpins in the delicate balance of power, as well as crucibles of the new social divides in a secularizing and industrializing Europe.
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- Becoming Modern: Martin Luther – Shout at the Devil
- Myth of the Month 4: Secularization – or, Send in the Nones!
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Painting of the Citadel of St. Esprit, Luxembourg, by JMW Turner, 1839.
We consider the turbulent history and politics of the country most often blamed for the outbreak of the First World War – Germany. The youngest of all the combatant nations in World War I, The German Reich’s deep class, regional, and religious divides drove Kaiser Wilhelm and his inner circle to seek national aggrandizement abroad as a source of unity at home – which inadvertently led them to unite their rivals against them and dragged them into a war not of their making.
Suggested further reading: Clark, “Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia”; Mary Fulbrook, “A Concise History of Germany.”
Image: Hand-Colored Photograph of Kaiser Wilhelm II in Tangier, Morocco, 1905
This episode is currently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website:
Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more
Use the Patreon App or Patreon website for the best listening experience of exclusive patron-only content…
I’m already a supporter – go to the episode on Patreon
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- More from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Things You Don’t Know
We examine the geography and history of Russia, from the origins of the Kievan Rus in the Early Middle Ages, to the tumultuous time of industrialization, emancipation, and radical subversion at the start of the Twentieth Century. We try reconstruct the circumstances and mindsets that led the Russian state to back up their allies in Serbia, in order to maintain their tenuous foothold in the Balkans and their pretenses of leading and protecting the Slavic world.
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- In the Ocean of Land: The History of Central Asia — pt. 1
- In the Ocean of Land: The History of Central Asia — pt. 2
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Luzhetsky Monastery, Mozhaysk, Russia
We examine the unique and complex history of Bosnia, at once a borderland and a world unto itself, and the only Slavic country in which Islam has ever been the majority faith. With the help of readings from the classic novel, “The Bridge on the Drina,” we trace how Bosnians’ confused search for a national identity and a national destiny led ultimately to the fateful assassination that triggered a world war.
Image: Travnik Mosque, Bosnia
Suggested further reading: Noel Malcolm, “Bosnia: A Short History”; Ivo Andric, “The Bridge on the Drina.”
This episode is currently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website:
Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more
Use the Patreon App or Patreon website for the best listening experience of exclusive patron-only content…
I’m already a supporter – go to the episode on Patreon
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- More from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Things You Don’t Know
At the height of their power in the Baroque Age, the Habsburgs aspired to rule the entire world; by the end of the ninetheenth century, they strove merely to maintain control over the volatile lands of the upper Danube valley. We trace how the Habsburgs’ domains evolved from a messy collection of local duchies into an absolutist empire, and finally into a complex military-industrian state, the home of artistic modernism, which was nonetheless threatened with destruction by a welter of nationalist movements and by the rising power of Serbia and Russia.
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- Age of Absolutism 1 – Central Europe and the Rise of the Habsburgs
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Painting by Johann Nepomuk Geller of Emperor Franz-Josef walking in the gardens of the Schonbrunn in winter, 1908
Suggested further reading: Mason, “The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire”; Sked, “The Decline & Fall of the Habsburg Empire”; Kohn, “The Habsburg Empire”; Rady, “The Habsburgs: To Rule the World.”
We consider the history and explosive politics of the often-forgotten Eastern European nation that set the events of the First World War in motion: Serbia. We examine the country’s emergence and brief flowering as an Eastern Orthodox kingdom in the high Middle Ages, its fall to the Ottoman advance, its many years of quiet resistance in religion and song, its re-emergence amidst the Napoleonic wars and the Ottoman breakdown, and finally, its long-frustrated quest to fulfill its purported destiny of reunifying the Southern Slavs, which led a militant and conspiratorial secret society to murder their own country’s king and to smuggle teenage assassins across the border to kill their rivals’ crown prince.
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- More from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Golubac Fortress, eastern Serbia, seen from across the Danube River
Intro & Outro music: Bach, Sonata no. 4 in E Minor, played on clavichord by Balint Karosi
For over a century, scholars, politicians, and pundits have debated the supposed causes of the First World War, from German naval provocations to the rising global tide of nationalism. All of these explanations tend to ignore the simple fact that the war began in eastern Europe, triggered by regional feuding and violence in what had previously been the Ottoman provinces.
We begin our exploration of the roots of World War I by following the struggles of the declining Ottoman Empire to hold its ground and contain ethnic and religious strife as Western powers circle like vultures around the so-called “sick man of Europe.”
Also see:
- The other installments in the Origins of the First World War
- 2023 in Historical Context: Dividing the Harvest
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: 19th-century French postcard of the Sublime Porte.
Suggested further reading: Alan Palmer, “Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire.”
We follow the dramatic evolution of Indian civilization after the fall of the Gupta empire, tracing from the spectacular rise of trade, art, and new religious movements in the southern kingdoms, through the tumult and fragmentation of the northern statelets and the cataclysmic invasions of raiders from Central Asia, and finally to the creation of Islamic states in the subcontinent just in time for the arrival of the first European ships in Indian ports.
Also see:
- India, pt. 1: Creating Civilization in South Asia
- India, pt. 2: Foundations of Hinduism
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Brihadisvara Temple, Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, 1003-1010 AD.
They rained terror and destruction on Christian lands across Europe as far as Spain and Constantinople, before turning their attention away from raiding towards permanent settlement and the founding of new societies, from Ukraine to Normandy to Greenland. There has never been an explosion of exploration and aggression quite like the Viking expansion of the early Middle Ages – we discuss the motives behind the expansion, which are rooted in the religious mismatch between Scandinavia and mainland Europe, the technologies that made it possible, the prizes and targets at which they aimed, the victories and setbacks that they encountered, the imprints that they left behind, and the winds of change that ultimately brought an end to the Viking adventure.
Also see:
- The Vikings, pt. 1 – In the Norsemen’s World
- The Middle Ages: Anglo-Saxon England and the Vikings, 757-1066
- Middle Ages 2: The Dark Age – The Beginning of the Medieval World
- History of the United States in 100 Objects # 4: The Maine Norse Coin
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Music: “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” from the Peer Gynt suite, by Grieg, performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, published by Musopen
Image: The âLindisfarne Stone,â a gravestone from Lindisfarne Monastery, Holy Island, 9th Century
In the final lecture on Florida, we examine how the tropical state, thanks to innovations like DDT, orange-juice concentrate, and air conditioning, was able to boom at an unimaginable pace, rocketing into the top five biggest states in the union, with massive scientific and artistic communities, a diverse immigrant mosaic, and after the Civil Rights movement, exceptionally volatile and unpredictable politics. We consider the importance of the last great expression of Florida utopianism — namely, Disney World — and the shift into a perceived playground of anarchy and American dreams gone mad, as personified in the notorious “Florida Man.”
Rolling Stone article outlining ways to help Florida, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico following Hurricane Ian.
Also see:
- The other installments in Fortresses on Sand – The History of Florida – 6 Episodes
- More from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested further reading: Gannon, “Florida: A Short History”; Nolan, “Fifty Feet in Paradise: The Booming of Florida.”
We consider how the crisis of legitimacy and breakdown of order following the downfall of the Zhou dynasty spurred on a flowering of philosophy, as various scholars and sages sought new principles to guide life and achieve harmony, giving rise to the enduring teachings of Taoism and Confucianism, as well as other long-forgotten sects ranging from draconian legalists to humanitarian pacifists.
Also see:
- China, pt. 1 – Making the Middle Kingdom
- Doorways in Time: The Great Archaeological Finds — 3: The Terracotta Army & the Tomb of Qin
Image: Song-era painting of a landscape with three men laughing, symbolizing Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.
We follow the southward-racing juggernaut of modern Florida, from statehood in 1845 to the 1930s – the insatiable quest of visionaries and megalomaniacs, from Jewish utopians, to slave-driving planters, to evangelical missionaries, to black politicians, to hotel magnates, to messianic cult leaders, to women’s suffragists, to Cuban revolutionaries, to bohemian poets, to impose a sense of order upon the chaotic and unruly wilderness of tropical Florida. Though ignored in our national mythology and dismissed as a southern backwater, the state was the site of the first confrontation of the Civil War, and of the longest-lasting and most aggressive Reconstruction regime, which created the first universal public school system in the South and fostered the first booming tourist economy in America, spearheaded by none other than Harriet Beecher Stowe. We conclude our journey through Florida with an examination of Florida literature, ending with an analysis of Wallace Stevens’ ode to Florida, “The Idea of Order at Key West.”
Also see:
- The other installments in Fortresses on Sand – The History of Florida – 6 Episodes
- More from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested Further Reading: Foster & Foster, “Beechers, Stowes, and Yankee Strangers: The Transformation of Florida”; J. T. Kirby, “Mockingbird Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South.”
We follow the long struggle to build power, wealth, and lasting harmony on the rich but harsh and unforgiving landscape of China – from early farming villages, to the quasi-legendary early emperors, through dynasties obsessed with ritual and divination, the age of fragmentation and warring states, and finally, the dramatic quest for unification by the ruthless emperor that gave China its name. We learn the causes and contexts for the creation of the first Great Wall, the invention of wet rice farming and hydraulic engineering, the composition of ancient classics like the I Ching and the Art of War, and the appearance of the powerful philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism.
Also see:
- China, pt. 2 – Water and Music: Early Chinese Philosophy
- Doorways in Time: The Great Archaeological Finds #3: The Terracotta Army & the Tomb of Qin
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested further reading: Li Feng, “Early China”; Yap & Cotterell, “The Early Civilization of China”.
Image: Bronze ceremonial vessel from Zhou dynasty.
From 1763 to the 1840s, Florida was repeatedly tossed and traded among the British, Spanish, and American empires, as all sorts of adventurers — from Greek and Turkish indentured workers, to Scottish speculators, to Seminole warriors, to West African widows, to British Army deserters, to Mexican pirates, to “Cracker” cattle-herders — attempted to establish themselves and exploit the subtropical landscape. Under American rule, two societies take shape in the Florida Territory — one of cotton plantations and the other of backcountry homesteads — and come to loggerheads over questions of development and ultimately, the idea of statehood.
Also see:
We consider the struggles of European colonists and missionaries, indigenous tribes, and African laborers to protect their territories and secure their freedom through two tumultuous centuries of Spanish rule in Florida. From the first arrival of yellow fever, to the construction of an indestructible limestone fortress, to the creation of the first black-led town in America, the Spanish era laid the foundations of a distinctive Floridian society which miraculously persisted and was never conquered by its powerful enemies to the north.
Also see:
After 1500, Florida becomes a battleground in a new struggle for control of North America; we discuss the repeated doomed attempts by French and Spanish adventurers, from Ponce de Leon to the Huguenot colonists at Fort Caroline, to establish a foothold in Florida, until Spain finally succeeds in creating a lasting European stronghold at Saint Augustine.
Also see:
- The other installments in Fortresses on Sand – The History of Florida – 6 Episodes
- Becoming Modern: Columbus – The Tragedy and the Enigma
- Becoming Modern: Spanish and Portuguese Expansion and the Conquest of the Americas
- Becoming Modern: The Life of the Commoners – Adaptation and Rebellion, 1400-1600
- History of the United States in 100 Objects # 5: Set of Chevron-Patterned Glass Beads, ca. 1500
- The other installments in Violent Metamorphosis: The Americas before, during, and after European Colonization
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
We discuss the complex and multilayered history of Florida, beginning with the prehistoric peoples that survived in and mastered the tropical landscape, built monumental mound complexes, and formed powerful kingdoms that would eventually confront the first European invaders.
Also see:
- The other installments in Fortresses on Sand – The History of Florida – 6 Episodes
- The other installments in Violent Metamorphosis: The Americas before, during, and after European Colonization
- More from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Gulf of Mexico
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 contexts that led to the outbreak of civil violence: the town’s Indian origins in the Trail of Tears; the massive cattle and oil booms that gave rise to a powerful and organized class of business magnates; the city’s chaotic and crime-ridden expansion, which fueled vigilantism, including lynchings of both white and black victims; and the patriotic frenzy of the First World War and the Red Scare, with its hysterical fear of Bolshevism and revolution. Finally, we consider the recovery of Tulsa from the shocks of the 1921 massacre, the Klan’s reign of terror, and the Depression, after which it has evolved into a comparatively liberal cultural capital amidst the conservative Plains Midwest. Tulsa is an extreme example in miniature of America’s tumultuous and confused rise to industrial power.
Also see:
- Myth of the Month 21: The Old West
- Myth of the Month 3: Race
- The other installments in Violent Metamorphosis: The Americas before, during, and after European Colonization
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested further reading: Courtney Ann Vaugh-Roberson and Glen Vaughn-Roberson, “City in the Osage Hills.”
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 mobilization and funneling of large amounts of money into the political realm; we focus especially on the little-known but pivotal “Powell Memo” of 1971, in which a lawyer for the Tobacco Institute decried the rising tide of attacks on the “free enterprise system” and proposed a coordinated counter-offensive by the business class that sounds uncannily close to our present reality. The Powell Memo forms a critical moment for understanding the intense politicization of judicial appointments, the ubiquity of paid political advertising on the airwaves and in print, and ironically, the rise of a new “anti-capitalist” radicalism.
Also see:
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 literature, giving rise eventually to the flourishing Maurya and Gupta empires and the inventions of the Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu religions.
Also see:
- India, pt. 2: Foundations of Hinduism
- India – pt. 3: The Rise of the South & the Islamic Conquests
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Image: Asoka pillar with lion amidst the remains of Vaisali, Bihar, India.
Travellers, Tinkers, Gypsies, Kale, Scottish Travellers, Gypsy Travellers, Romani Gypsies, Romanichal, Pavee, Showmen, Van People, Boat People, Bargers – All of these multivarious peoples, with different ancestries, religions, and traditions, their different languages, dialects, and “cants,” share in common a longstanding itinerant lifestyle and the distinct identity that stems from it. Roving all around the British Isles and sometimes settling down, the various tribes of Travellers have provided metal goods, horses, music, and entertainment to British and Irish markets for centuries, but have become the flashpoint of political fury and even of violence in the twenty-first century.
Also see:
- History of the Roma (“Gypsies”), part 1 – From Ancient Origins to the Eighteenth Century
- History of the Roma (“Gypsies”), part 2 — A Stateless People in Modern Europe
- Imbalances of Power: 10 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested Further Reading:
- Katherine Quarmby, “No Place to Call Home”;
- Becky Taylor, “Britain’s Gypsy Travellers: A People on the Outside,” https://www.historytoday.com/archive/britains-gypsy-travellers-people-outside
- “Genomic insights into the population structure and history of the Irish Travellers,” https://www.nature.com/articles/srep42187
- “Apocrypha to Canon: Inventing Irish Traveller History,” https://www.historyireland.com/apocrypha-to-canon-inventing-irish-traveller-history-2/
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 the twentieth century, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust — called the “Devouring” in Romani. We consider the lives of remarkable Roma of the modern age, such as the boxer Johann Trollmann and jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, the birth of a pan-Roma identity movement in the 1970s, the anti-Roma backlash of the 2010s, and finally the possibility that the Roma may be drawn into the geopolitical maneuverings of modern India.
Image: “El Jaleo,” by John Singer Sargent, 1879-80 Suggested Further reading: Angus Fraser, “The Gypsies”; Isabel Fonseca, “Bury Me Standing.”
This episode is currently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website:
Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more
Use the Patreon App or Patreon website for the best listening experience of exclusive patron-only content…
I’m already a supporter – go to the episode on Patreon
Things You Don’t Know
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 in the 1700s, and what sort of opposition and persecution did they face? What was their relationship to radical groups like the Illuminati? We examine to the growth, expansion, and divides in Freemasonry in the eighteenth century, all of which laid the groundwork for the Craft to influence the course of the age of revolutions.
Also see:
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 the past two hundred years in response to urban growth, immigration, and labor unrest, and the struggles over who controls the police and their activities.
Also see:
- The other installments in Violent Metamorphosis: The Americas before, during, and after European Colonization
- More from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Further Reading: Roger Lane, “Urban Police and Crime in Nineteenth-Century America,” Crime and Justice, Vol. 2 (1980), pp. 1-43, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1147411?seq=1
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 health and psychological impacts did it leave behind? What are the enduring questions and mysteries that science and history must unravel? And how has our art, literature, and popular culture remembered — or more often, forgotten — this great disaster?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 humankind and killing more people than the World War that nonetheless overshadowed it in the public mind. The second installment will consider the lingering impacts of the pandemic, its enduring mysteries, and the possible reasons it has been forgotten.
Also see:
- The Spanish Flu pt. 1 – A World in Ashes, 1918-1920
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested Further reading: Laura Spinney, “Pale Rider”; Alfred Crosby, “America’s Forgotten Pandemic.”image: angel monument, Hendersonville, N.C., which formerly belonged to the Wolfe family of Asheville, N.C., and inspired the title of the novel, “Look Homeward, Angel”
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 humankind and killing more people than the World War that nonetheless overshadowed it in the public mind. The second installment will consider the lingering impacts of the pandemic, its enduring mysteries, and the possible reasons it has been forgotten.
Also see:
- The Spanish Flu pt. 2 – The Great Flu and Modern Memory, 1920-2020
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested Further reading: Laura Spinney, “Pale Rider”; Alfred Crosby, “The Forgotten Pandemic.” Image: Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Spanish Flu, 1919
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 contemporary central Asians try to navigate the dangerous shoals of environmental disaster and rampant corruption, often while tethered to older Islamic, Turko-Mongolic, and nomadic traditions — particularly in the looming shadow of a resurgent China.
Also see:
- In the Ocean of Land: The History of Central Asia – pt. 1
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested further reading: Peter Golden, “Central Asia in World History”; Gavin Hambly, “Central Asia”; Rene Grousset, “The Empire of the Steppes”; Colin Thubron, “Shadow of the Silk Road”; Sahadeo and Zanca, “Everyday Life in Central Asia”
Correction: The word “Tajik” originally meant “non-Turk” or “Persian,” not “Muslim”.
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 Ghenghis Khan. Few Westerners learn the dizzyingly complex and tumultuous history of Central Asia, even though it forms the linchpin connecting all the major civilizations of the Old World, from Europe to Persia to China. Finally, we consider the unsettling paradox of the Mongol empire, which fostered a vibrant cosmopolitanism at the same time that it brutally repressed subject peoples.
Also see:
- In the Ocean of Land: The History of Central Asia – pt. 2
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Suggested further reading: Peter Golden, “Central Asia in World History”; Gavin Hambly, “Central Asia”; Rene Grousset, “The Empire of the Steppes”
I recently returned from a family trip through Great Britain, and want to share with my patrons the sights that we saw in England, arranged chronologically, from Stonehenge to the “Crystal Phallus.” The layered remains of Britain’s past ages – Roman, Gothic, Georgian, Victorian – encode their builders’ vastly different hopes and visions for the island kingdom. The country is full of extraordinary scenery, but the attempt to “see England,” even in such a simple act as boarding a train, entangles us in the unending struggles over who defines such a complicated nation. Next installment: Scotland.
This episode is currently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website:
Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more
Use the Patreon App or Patreon website for the best listening experience of exclusive patron-only content…
I’m already a supporter – go to the episode on Patreon
Also see:
- Imbalances of Power: 11 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution
- The History of Scotland, the Romance of Scotland, and “Outlander”
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Things You Don’t Know
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-gathering peoples invented agriculture and built cities and empires that rose and fell across the centuries, all depending on human power, without the benefit of pack animals. We consider the shared norms and practices that seem to unite the diverse and far-flung peoples of the Americas, such as intensive multi-crop agriculture, fascination with astronomy and the calendar, and a highly formalized diplomatic language governing war and peace.
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Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more
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Also see:
- History of the United States in 100 Objects # 1: Panther Effigy Pipe, 200-500 AD
- History of the United States in 100 Objects # 2: Statuette of a Farming Goddess, ca. 1100 AD
- Becoming Modern: Columbus – The Tragedy and the Enigma
- Becoming Modern: Spanish and Portuguese Expansion and the Conquest of the Americas
- Fortresses on Sand: The History of Florida – pt. 1
- The other installments in Violent Metamorphosis: The Americas before, during, and after European Colonization
- And more from the entire Special-Topic Episodes Playlist
Things You Don’t Know
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, including our early adaptation into long-distance hunters. We examine our long and awkward co-existence with other human-like species such as Neanderthals and Ebu Gogo, as well as our slow development of critical technologies like sewing and pottery that allowed us to out-compete them. We trace the dangerous and improbable journey across sea channels and deserts that a small band of our distant ancestors had to make in order to populate the entire world beyond Africa. Finally, we consider the mysterious roots of the technology that eventually allowed for the rise of urban civilization — agriculture.
Also see:
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 climate of racial pseudoscience that pervaded the late 1800s. We consider the different ways that Jim Crow was enforced in different parts of the country — in the South, with state action and paramilitary repression, and in the North, through exclusion from the labor movement. Finally, we consider how World War II and the integration of unions helped to bring about the collapse of Jim Crow society.
This episode is currently available to Patrons only, on the Patreon App and website:
Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more
Use the Patreon App or Patreon website for the best listening experience of exclusive patron-only content…
I’m already a supporter – go to the episode on Patreon
Things You Don’t Know
Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more
Use the Patreon App or Patreon website for the best listening experience of exclusive patron-only content…