15 Minute History

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), which pitted a left-leaning Republic, suported by the Soviet Union,  against right-leaning nationalists, supported by the Nazi, more than 35,000 people from more than 50 countries went to Spain to fight against fascism for the Republic. Today’s guest, Lisa Kirschenbaum, talks about who some of those people were and […]

Guest Julia Gossard shares her research into the fascinating world of child ambassadors who were expected to live in two worlds and create lasting relationships between France and a global network of allies.

Lauren Henley describes the events of 1884-85, but also discusses how these murders tell us something about the uneasy racial history of the postbellum south, and also asks what drives our fascination with serial killers and unsolved mysteries.

Today's guest, Sheila Fitzpatrick, discusses some of the myriad interpretations that have been given to the 1917 revolutions, judgments about its success and importance, and offers insight into Russia's own subdued attitude toward the centenary.

In which we take the occasion to ask the important questions like: how in the world did we get to 100 episodes?

As we near the 99th anniversary of Armistice Day, Ben Wright from UT’s Briscoe Center for American History, takes a look at World War One on our very own home front: the storied Forty Acres of the University of Texas at Austin.

Guest Gustavo Cerqueira explores the cultural sterotypes that centuries of slavery left in post-emancipation Brazil, and the ways that teatro negro sought to re-position Afro-Brazilian people--literally--on the national stage.

Guest Tatjana Lichtenstein has studied the Zionist movement in Czechoslovakia and gives us a glimpse into the interwar period when Czech Jewish leaders saw the possibility of being accepted into European society.

Julia Gossard walks us through the connections between Louis XIV's absolutist rule and a fantastic series of events that's become known as "The Affair of the Poisons."

Returning guest Jeremi Suri (UT-Austin) takes a long historical look at what has made presidents successful in the role of chief executive, and asks whether the office has evolved to take on too much responsibility to govern effectively.

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Steven Hahn of New York University helps us turn this political buzzword into a historical phenomenon from a time period in American history that has a number of parallels with our own.

Guest Andrea Gutierrez introduces us to epic South Asian poems from the beginning of the first millennium that past the Bechdel test, when women's narrative critiqued, cajoled, narrated, and provided guidance for the devout.

First year history graduate student John Carranza, specializing in disability history, sheds some light on historical representations of disability, and how modern understanding of disability is informed by the past.

Steven Mintz has long been interested in the transformations of family life through the ages and, in this episode, talks about how nearly everything we think we know about family life would be unrecognizable even a century ago.

Preeminent civil rights scholar Peniel E. Joseph, discusses Carmichael, using his life as a prism through which to view the transformative African American freedom struggles of the twentieth century.

How does a fossil become a celebrity? Lydia Pyne shares vivid examples of how human ancestors have been remembered, received, and immortalized.

Our guest today, Heather Williams, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of Help Me Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery.

Brian McNeil specializes in history of United States foreign relations, and is currently revising his book manuscript titled, Frontiers of Need: the Nigerian Civil War and the Origins of American Humanitarian Intervention, the subject of this episode.

A few years ago, scholars suggested that the Agricultural Revolution in mankind's deep past might have been nothing short of a disaster. Not so fast, says Rachel Laudan, this week's guest, while raising some new questions of her own.

Philippa Levine from UT's Department of History and Program in British Studies walks us through the contemporary British politics and rocky history of Britain and the EU that contributed to this historic decision.

On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed the iconic Main Building tower on the University of Texas at Austin campus with a small arsenal of weapons and opened fire.

Simone de Beauvoir's seminal work, The Second Sex, is a dense two volume work that can be intimidating at first glance, combining philosophy and psychology, and her own observations.

Guest Ahmad al-Jallad shares his research that’s shedding new light on the writings of a complex civilization that lived in the Arabian peninsula for centuries before Islam arose.

Guest Ashley Dean just completed her doctorate in history at Emory University examining the impacts of this pre-modern trans-Pacific linkage whose far-reaching impact touched nearly every part of the globe.

Guest Ben Weiss discusses the earliest encounters between indigenous Africans and European medical practitioners.