15 Minute History

Guest Kristin Wintersteen has worked on the history of industry subject to the temperaments of on-again off-again current cycles in the Pacific, and how the boom and bust of one of the first superfoods has led to new discussions about global nutrition.

Guest R. Joseph Parrott takes a look at the indecisive position the United States took on decolonization after helping liberate Europe from the threat of enslavement to fascism.

This episode takes a new look at how the Paris Commune's radical government managed to find support from rich and poor, conservative and liberal, to try to regain dignity in the face of France’s brutal defeat.

Guest Kristie Flannery found Diego's story in the Spanish colonial archives, and narrates his tale in the broader context of the powerful political and economic forces at work in Spain's global empire.

Guest Christopher Rose has been following the headlines and puts the discovery of the Birmingham Qur'ān within the larger field of Islamic and Qur'ānic Studies, and explains how the text might raise as many questions as it answers.

James Joshua Hudson describes surprising finds he made conducting fieldwork in Hunan that offer a glimpse into the deeply layered social tensions on the eve of the downfall of the Qing dynasty.

In the early part of the 20th century, Texas became more integrated into the United States with the arrival of the railroad. With easier connections to the country, its population began to shift away from reflecting its origins as a breakaway part of Mexico toward a more Anglo demographic, one less inclined to adapt to existing Texican culture and more inclined to view it through a lens of white r...

Our first roundtable features three experts who've taken the destruction of sites where they've worked and lived seriously, and are working to raise awareness of the importance of antiquities in danger around the world.

Guest Mike Loader gives an enthusiastic look at high drama at the peak of the cold war, which gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of the Soviet Union from a different perspective.

Our first episode of Season 4 explores the little known history of slavery in Iran, how it came to be abolished in the 19th century, and how Iranian society has slowly forgotten its involvement with the human trade.

Guest Jessica Werneke has just completed her doctorate that looks at this oft-overlooked aspect of Soviet society, and discusses the turbulent world of amateur photography in the Soviet Union.

Dominic Lieven of the London School of Economics has spent his career examining problems of political stability in Europe in the 19th century, and helps us understand the world on the eve of its first global war.

Imagine the pressures of translating a sacred text whose language is well known and imbued with religious significance and symbolism. Leonard Greenspoon from Creighton University has done just that with translators of the Jewish Bible over the centuries.

Guest James Martin from UT’s Department of History describes the motivations for President Nixon’s historic unilateral reaction and how it affected both Americans as well as our ally across the southern border.

Adam Shapiro from Birkbeck University describes how evolution was first received in the United States, and the debates that led up to its most famous test–the Scopes “Monkey Trial” held in Dayton, Tennessee, in the 1920s.

Professor Julia Guernsey from UT's Department of Art and Art History combines the methodology of history, art history, and archaeology to offer a new look into this mysterious period at the beginning of recorded history in the Americas.

Guest Richard Bautch from St Edward's University in Austin discusses current thinking about the formation of the Pentateuch during the time of Ezra.

Art Historian Stephennie Mulder has spent the past decade working in Syria and shares a new look at history of Sunni and Shi'a in Syria during the medieval period; and how both histories are threatened by ISIS and the Syrian Civil War.

Shainool Jiwa illuminates an often overlooked chapter in the history of Islamic sectarianism, one in which religious differences were used to unify diverse populations under the rule of a minority government, rather than to divide and alienate them.

Ben Wright of UT’s Briscoe Center for American History has been working with the Bexar archives to document how Spain’s–and Texas’s–efforts to divert sources of food and funding to American colonial troops.

Guest Henry Wiencek explores the deep contradictions and equally varied representations of John D. Rockefeller, the self-made millionaire whose name became synonymous with industry and free enterprise.

In picking up where Episode 57 left off, guest Shahrzad Ahmadi describes the tragic turn of events that sent shockwaves through the nascent Islamic community, and that continue to reverberate today.

Nearly every world history textbook on the market explains the origins of sectarianism in the Islamic world as a dispute over the succession to Muhammad. It seems simple—but was it?

Guest Michelle Daneri helps us understand contemporary thinking about the ways that Spanish and Native Americans exchanged ideas, knowledge, and adapted to each others' presence in the Southwest.

Guest Brian Levack explains that medieval accusations of witchcraft are not supernatural at all, but based in the human need to explain the ordinary cycles of birth, death, sickness, wellness, and the constant struggle between rich and poor.