The Askhistorians Podcast

In another return visit, Doug Priest, /u/TenMinuteHistory stops by! You can last hear him on Episode 95 talking about the revolution before the revolution in Russia and Episode 86 where we talked about what it takes to be a historian, the tools and background you need Doug has his PhD in Soviet History from Michigan State University. Currently, he is the Digital Managing Editor at Townsquare Media and the incoming president of H-Net which is the OTHER largest academic history and social sciences forum online. Today we are going to continue our discussion on methodology. We want to tackle a topic we’ve seen come up a lot lately - bias. You can follow Doug on Twitter @10MinuteHistory and Brian @brimwats.   You can find the Jill Lepore piece we discuss here. Discussion thread here.  © 2019 Brian M. Watson    

Today on the pod we're chatting with (tenured) Professor Daniel Bessner about the adjunctification of academic life: both its impact on academia and ways that people are fighting back.    You can follow Professor Bessner on Twitter @dbessner

Today we are joined by a flaired member of the AskHistorians community, /u/PartyMoses! Better known to his friends and family as Adam Franti, who got his MA at Eastern Michigan University. We will be talking today in general terms about the War of 1812 and focusing on the argument of his masters thesis, which centers around nationalistic historical narratives of the war that unfairly criticize the militia. Adam also used to give tours about the war of 1812 at Fort Mackinac so he has great insight into the interesting stories!   Discussion thread.   © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today on the AskHistorians podcast, we're joined by ante-bellum slavery expert, moderator and contributor extroardinaire Pat (or Freedmenspatrol), to discuss the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In this episode we look at the nature of slavery in the United States in the early 1800s, the explosive tension between pro- and anti-slavery advocates, and the enormous political battle which unfolded over slavery and the statehood of Missouri.    You can follow Pat as /u/freemenspatrol on Reddit, or join us in the podcast discussion here! ~96 minutes

Today on AskHistorians Aloud we have a fantastic answer by /u/mimicofmodes, fka /u/chocolatepot, who answers In the late 19th century, what was a "sports corset"?

Today we're talking with Dr. Roel Konijnendijk about the career of Victor Davis Hanson. Hanson began as a scholar of Ancient Greek warfare but in recent decades he has transformed himself into a pundit. We discuss the implications that this transformation had on his reputation and later work.   You can follow Roel on twitter at @Roelkonijn or on Reddit as /u/Iphikrates.    You can follow the conversation on the subreddit here.

/u/mikedash, also known literally as Mike Dash, author of a number of books, answers the question In the Godfather part II, the mafia emerged only after a proto-organized crime group, the Black Hand, was superseded. Was there anything that distinguished the mafia from this group, other than who was giving orders?   © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we are joined by /u/EnclavedMicrostate, who is a flaired user on AskHistorians on the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion. Together with guest host Bernardito, we talk about a conflict with many misconceptions: The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864). We explore the myths, the realities and the actual history behind the rebellion to explore this critical moment in 19th century Chinese history. Is it true that over 20 million people were killed in this conflict? Who truly was the leader of the Taiping? This, and much more, in this fascinating episode.

Today, we are releasing part two of our two-part series of interviews of historians at the American Historical Association this year.   On this episode we have an interview with G Patrick O'Brien (@historia_passim) about his dissertation, tentatively titled “Unknown and Unlamented: Loyalist Women in Exile and Repatriation, 1775-1800,” examines loyalist women in Nova Scotia and addresses questions of identity, community formation, and the maintenance of kinship networks in the late-eighteenth century.   We also have an interview with Nathan Tye (@Hobo_History), a historian of the nineteenth and twentieth century United States. His research documents the fascinating but misunderstood lives of hobos, tramps, and others transient populations that traveled the country by freight-hopping from the 1870s through 1930s.   We also have @hmcbee87, who is a Public History PhD Candidate at Middle Tennessee State University, about WWII relics brought back by soldiers and what they tell us about war, people, and museums.  

Today, the always-fantastic lcnielsen combines a number of his previous answers on Manichaeism to give us a fantastic overview of what it is and what it entails! See his answers on the topic here: Manichaeism is the only major world religion I could think of to be completely destroyed across multiple national boundaries as the result of severe persecution. What about Manichaeism was so terrifying to every single polity in late antiquity that caused such persecution? Why did Zoroastrianism stop spreading?, was it because the Persian Empire was conquered? Has there ever been a movement to unite Islam, Christianity and Judaism? If so, did any of its proponents draw a similarity between the Holy Trinity and the three branches of Abrahamism?  

Today we are joined by a number of historians at the recent American Historical Society Conference in Chicago. First up, we have our very own Corey Bowen, aka /u/Commodorecoco, a PhD student at UIC and the Field Museum, and an archaeologist in his own right! Then it is Eric G.E. Zuelow is chair of the Department of History and Philosophy and an associate professor of European history. He specializes in modern Britain and Ireland, with a particular emphasis on the histories of tourism and national identity. Zuelow is author of SO MANY BOOKS and editor-in-chief of Journal of Tourism History which is published three times per year by Routledge. Zuelow is editor of the Histories and Cultures of Tourism book series, published by Cornell University Press and he is a member of the editorial board for the Britain and the World book series which is published by Palgrave; he deals with titles covering the period after 1688. In addition, he is currently co-editing the Oxford Handbook to the History of Tourism and Travel

/u/mimicofmodes answers the question "How did women get to wear the pants around here?"   Link to answer. 

Today we are joined by /u/kaisermatias, who is a flaired user on AskHistorians on 20th c. Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Hockey.  kaisermatias is better known to his friends and family as Matt Lerner, and he is here today to talk to us about the history of hockey! We talk about the history of hockey--it's rules, equipment, styles. Then we talk about hockey's important role in Canadian culture and history before turning to the 1972 Summit Series between the USSR and Canada--the first Miracle on Ice--and what it meant then and still means today. Finally, we conclude with the strangest and wildest thing about hockey--the Stanley Cup. Discussion thread here.   © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today one the AskHistorians Aloud podcast, cleopatra_philopater discusses the history of lesbianism in the medieval Middle East.   Link to answer.   © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today on AskHistorians Aloud -- /u/mimicofmodes answers the question "when did it become acceptable for women to smoke too?   Link to answer here.

This week on the AskHistorians Podcast we managed to sit down with three of the wonderful women of @dig_history to talk history podcasting, #twitterstorians, Jill Lepore, What to Expect When You're A History-Loving Highschooler, what #history can learn from #librarylife and so much more! Find Dig - A History Podcast here: https://digpodcast.org/ Historians joining us today: *Averill Earls, PhD* Averill is an historian of modern Ireland and sexuality, and writes about same-sex desiring men, policing, and Dublin’s queer urban spaces. She is an Assistant Professor of History at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA, where she teaches everything except American History. In addition to making podcast episodes with the amazing women of Dig, she is the Assistant Layout Editor at Nursing Clio. She’s published a range of pieces on teaching, literature, and the history of gender and sexuality with collaborative history blogs like Notches and Nursing Clio. When she’s not teaching, podcasting, or moonlighting as a member of

Join us today as Terminus-Trantor answers how maps were made in medieval times.

(44:35)   Today we talk with Dr. Edward J. Watts, author of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny (Basic Books, 2018) about how Rome transitioned from a republic to an empire, and the politics of economics and social accountability.   You can find his book here.   The /r/AskHistorians discussion thread for this podcast can be found here

A special release podcast today: interviews that Brian Watson did with Brant Ellsworth of Children's Folklore Review and Willa C. Liburd Tavernier for Open Access week at Indiana University. This podcast episode is licensed under CC-BY. 

This week we are joined by Caitlin Smith-Oyekole, a Ph.D. candidate in American literature at the University of Notre Dame, where she focuses on doubt in American literature from the Great Awakening to the Civil War. Previous projects have focused on print culture and musical practice in colonial New England, the incipient crisis of authority in 16th -century radical Protestant rhetoric, and more. She is here today to talk to us about the history of the superhero narrative, from Golden Age Superheroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe!   Discussion thread here.  © 2019 Brian M. Watson