The Askhistorians Podcast

Tyler Alderson talks with Dr. Jacob Baum, Dr. Sydnor Roy, and John T Conrad about their project translating Adam Contzen's Ten Books of Politics. The Ten Books has never been translated out of its seventeenth-century neo-Latin, and the project is one that will be open to the public who wish to provide commentary, advice, or simply practice with untranslated Latin, as they continue to build a corpus of translation. 64 mins.

Morgan Lewin and Tyler Alderson discuss the popular urban legend that classical music composer Ludwig van Beethoven was actually Black. While the answer is a definitive "no," the reasons for this myth's enduring popularity say a lot about race, class, and the prestige attached to classical music. 39 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks with the authors of the book We Are The Land: A History of Native California about the struggles and triumphs of indigenous people, and what lies ahead. Also discussed is the process of writing a wide-ranging history, and how to approach commonly-told narratives from a different perspective, upending stereotypes and generalizations. 49 min.

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with Seb Lewin ( /u/aquatermain ) about the circumstances surrounding the May Revolution of 1810 against Spain, and how the road to independence started for the United Provinces of Río de la Plata and the subsequent Republic of Argentina.

In this episode, Jess Munoz talks to u/Aquatermain about his new album of Catalan art songs. Munoz discusses the history of the Catalan language and its suppression, and how you learn to sing in a language that you don't speak. More information about Visca L'Amor can be found on Jess' website at www.jessmunoz.com

In this episode, Morgan Lewin (/u/aquatermain) talks to Avan (/u/Starwarsnerd222) about the geopolitical causes of the First World War. 29 mins.

In this episode, Dr Darren Layne (u/Funkyplaid) talks to u/Aquatermain about the 275th anniversary of the battle of Culloden and the end of the Jacobite uprising. Topics include Darren's work on the digital history of Jacobitism, the myth and reality of the Jacobite uprising, and why the battle of Culloden remains so compelling for so many people.

In this episode, u/Lubyak and u/Kugelfang52 discuss Lubyak's recent answer on the Japanese-German alliance

Tyler Alderson talks to Robert C Ritchie, author of The Lure of the Beach, about the rise of the beach resort. Class, health, and (of course!) sex all play a part in the story of our fascination with the sandy shoreline. 57 mins.

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with Trevor Culley (Trevor_Culley) about an answer the latter wrote on the subreddit about depictions of Alexander the Great in Persia. Building from that answer's discussion, this episode takes us from the fragmentary bits and pieces of the Alexander legend in Babylonian inscriptions and Middle Persian papyrus fragments, up to the developed form found in Sasanian letters and medieval epic poetry. 20 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks with Jason Dyer about the public computing movement and early computer games, including the seminal "Hunt the Wumpus." 64 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks with u/EnclavedMicrostate about an answer he wrote on the European influence (or lack thereof) on the Taiping Rebellion. Rather than looking at the Opium Wars as a root cause, he discusses other uprisings in China at the time, and examines the effect of ethnic, economic, and other tensions. 38 min.

In this episode, P.H. Jones and Johannes Breit discuss one of the largest publishing hoaxes of the 20th century: The Hitler Diaries. When German journalist Gerd Heidemann entered a world of Nazis, old and new, WWII memorabilia, and collectors of Hitler paintings in the 70s, he never expected to find the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler. Allegedly smuggled out of East Germany, this was the find of a lifetime. While Heidemann and his employer, Stern, already had dollar signs in their eyes, they didn’t expect to find themselves at the centre of one of the largest journalistic and publishing scandals of the last century that would ruin them, make the forger a star and humiliate Rupert Murdoch. Jones and Breit will take you through the whole story that involves everything from Hermann Göring’s Yacht to a forger of German lunch vouchers to David Irving and that ends with several millions Mark missing and several people in prison.

Tyler Alderson talks with with Cristina Groeger, whose new book The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston explores how education has been used to both alleviate and exacerbate inequality. Using 19th and 20th century Boston as a case study, she takes a critical look at how our concepts of education and the institutions that provide it have been shaped by those in and out of power, and gives us an idea of what we can do to work towards a more equitable society today.

Tyler Alderson talks will Bill Taylor, author of the new book Fugitive Freedom: The Improbable Lives of Two Impostors in Late Colonial Mexico. Taylor pieces together the lives of two men who impersonated priests, and discusses how they fit with the ideal of the vagabundo in popular culture of the time. How and why did they operate on the margins of society, and what does it say about that society? 

In this episode, Seb Lewin (u/aquatermain) discusses Meg Hyland's (u/Kelpie_Cat) research into work songs sung by itinerant herring gutters from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Topics include the similarities between herring work songs and the Tango, the surprisingly not-safe-for-work lyrics and why one heritage boat captain refuses to led nuns aboard. In what is perhaps a first for an AskHistorians Podcast episode, we are also treated to a live rendition of one of these songs by Meg.

In this episode, Naama Cohen joins us to discuss the British mandate in Palestine from 1922 to 1932, when memoirist and children’s author Douglas Duff served as a policeman there. How did British servicemen view Palestine, their role in it, and the local populations? Find out this and more.

In this episode, /u/Kugelfang52 joins us to discuss the topic of censorship in Texas history textbooks before and after the Second World War. How were decisions made about what or what not to include? How did the rhetorical tools used to counter fascism get turned on anything deemed 'Communist'? Find out this and more on this week's episode.

In this episode, four members of the AskHistorians panel discuss Vikings, their popular culture portrayals and how the legend of the looting, pillaging bearded norsemen is far from an accurate portrayal of these historical figures.

Tyler Alderson talks with Richard Templeton, author of Across the Creek: Black Powder Explosions on the Brandywine. Templeton tells the story of the workers who made the powder that turned DuPont into one of the world's largest chemical companies, and the deadly accidents that cut many of their lives short. 56m. Warning: This episode contains frank discussion of the aftermath of a gunpowder mill explosion and its physical effects on victims.