Reflecting History

The fall of the Roman Empire is one of the great stories in all of history. Wars, political turmoil, barbarian invasions, moral decay, and economic decline are often some of the reasons given as the chief causes of the fall of the western empire in 476 AD. However, historian Kyle Harper would argue that climate and disease play a pivotal role in the story as well. Climate change seems to be a diff...

Happy Thanksgiving everybody, here's a bonus episode I put out on the Patreon bonus feed a few months ago. Hopefully you find it useful.  Bullshit is one of those concepts that is difficult to define, but that didn't stop philosopher Harry Frankfurt from attempting to get a better grasp of it. Most of us are familiar with the ways that bullshit has infiltrated our jobs, daily lives, and even polit...

When we think of the historical process, we often think of archives, books, libraries, primary sources, and journals. And we should. But sometimes there is a useful element to informal history-the interactions, relationships, memories, and stories that academics often don't bother to study. They aren't scientific, but they add color. They can fill in the gaps and add clarity, personality, and mean...

When deadly and traumatic historical events transpire, there is usually plenty of attention paid to these important events. But less often studied is the scars and ripples of sadness that emanate in the lives of ordinary people after events like this. The Cultural Revolution provides a poignant example of the scars and memories that ordinary people in China still hold to this day, the ways it impa...

History is the study of the past. Oftentimes we tend to forget that history still existed and is worth studying during times that wouldn't be considered earth-shattering or momentous. Could the study of "ordinary history" teach us something important about the way we look at the past? Could it teach us something about ourselves specifically or human nature in general? This is part one in a three p...

In this episode, I had a chance to sit down with Lan Cao and Harlan Van Cao. We discussed a number of topics, including:  Lan's experience and life as a refugee of the Vietnam War and how that experience reverberates in Harlan's life, immigration and assimilation, discrimination, identity and the importance of finding equilibrium and balance in life, memory, letting go vs. remembering, the bystand...

Slavery is a difficult topic to learn and teach about. Combine this with some of the big picture problems inherent in most education systems and there is bound to be misconceptions and confusion abound. This episode tackles just a few of these myths and misconceptions through the work of a few notable historians.        -Consider Supporting the Podcast!- Leave a rating or review on apple podcasts...

A team of scientists returns home from a journey to investigate the causes of a massive supernova. What they discover in the remnants of the cloudy nebula will change humanity forever. The chief astrophysicist of the mission must wrestle with questions of science, faith, and senseless evil. Arthur C. Clarke's award winning science fiction short story "The Star" provides an opportunity to examine q...

What do we mean when we say that a civilization collapsed? This is an extremely common way to speak about ancient societies and governmental systems. It typically carries a negative connotation, but did these "collapses" actually represent decreases in the well being of the human beings who fell victim to them? A similar series of ponderings can apply to the term "Dark Ages." Dark for who? Why? In...

Personal identity and the self are major concepts of historical and philosophical study. But applying these concepts to others IS history. It's a major purpose of what we do. This episode discusses the famous thought experiment "the Ship of Theseus," and Greg Egan's excellent short story "Learning to Be Me." The lessons learned from these sources can help us think about our current crisis by remem...

If the civilizational narrative of progress as a result of human use of agriculture is flawed, then why did states and civilizations develop? How do we define a state? Were the earliest states single entities that magically appeared when enough people congregated in one area, or is it again better to think of states as one method of organization on a carousel of early human organization and activi...

In what ways did early humans landscape and change the environment over time? How did early humans develop agriculture? Why was grain such a staple crop for early humans? While the standard historical narrative seems to depict the discovery of agriculture as a single watershed moment that humanity never looked back from, it might be more useful to think of agriculture as one technique in a carouse...

In some ways, common historical narratives form the backbone of our study of history. There are certain historical stories that are as old as history itself, and are thus taken for granted by the historical layman. One of the most common historical narratives is a narrative of progress: human beings lived as hunters and gatherers, until eventually learning how to farm-the development of agricultur...

As David Foster Wallace points out in his famous commencement address "This is Water," life is filled with simple realities that are difficult to talk about or even comprehend. Upon close examination, sometimes these simple and boring platitudes can have deeper meanings that change the way we look at the world. From the purpose of education, to exercising control over what we think about, to the t...

The Allegory of the Cave from the ancient Greek philosopher Plato is one of the oldest and most discussed philosophical works in history. Prisoners are chained up in a cave, thinking the shadows they see on the wall in front of them represent all that reality has to offer. Plato's cave has obvious parallels to a modern world in which people seemingly live in the same world, but a different reality...

Economic history is notoriously complex and difficult to gain insight from. Nazi history is notoriously complex and strangely enough it seems many ignore the lessons that should be gleaned. Combine these two realities and the result is a Nazi economic history that is controversial and potentially misleading. Some have claimed in recent years that while not wanting to condone Hitler's atrocities, h...

In the aftermath of the Bosnian Genocide, oral historian Selma Leydesdorff interviewed the female survivors of the tragedy. She was able to discover and document the strength and determination that each survivor of catastrophe possesses. The women of Srebrenica tell incredible tales of life before the war, life as a refugee, the experience of being part of an ethnic cleansing campaign, and of cour...

The town of Gorazde in eastern Bosnia was promised protection from ethnic cleansing. In the midst of mass murder, violence, and chaos, the United Nations designated Gorazde, Srebrenica, and other locations as "safe areas." Refugees and victims of ethnic cleansing flocked to these areas for safety and protection. The people of these towns celebrated, thinking their suffering was finally over. But w...

The Bosnian War is known historically for it's vicious cruelty. Ancient hatreds and the impact they had on the people of Bosnia are often used as a primary explanation for the conflict. Kenan Trebincevic was a survivor of the war, wracked by hatred and anger. After escaping his homeland to America, he made a visit to Bosnia years later to face down his past and get vengeance for what he and his fa...

As Bosnia was torn asunder by war and destruction, a newspaper known as  Oslobodjenje endured the heat of the Siege of Sarajevo and gained worldwide recognition for it's reporting and it's ability to continue publishing papers in a war zone. Their building was destroyed, their supplies were minimal, and their people were killed, but somehow the paper endured. The reporters at  Oslobodjenje provide...

For this episode, I sat down with author and historian S.C. Gwynne to discuss the American Civil War and his latest book, "Hymns of the Republic." We talked about Lincoln's opinions on slavery, the causes of the Civil War, why many refuse to see slavery as the primary cause of the war, the African-American experience during the war, medical disasters during the war and the role of Clara Barton, th...

Hatred is often given as the historical reason for wars and other nasty events throughout history. There was certainly plenty of it to go around in Bosnia during the 1990's, but how have historians been able to make sense of it? Why did neighbors, friends, and countrymen begin to turn on each other and do horrible things to each other? Is the best answer simply hatred? Or is there something deeper...

For well over two years, Bosnian Serb forces bombarded Sarajevo in an attempt to destroy the city and break the spirit of the people who lived there. Thousands of civilians (including children) were killed in an attempt by Bosnian Serb forces to divide the city and stir ethnic hatred. People lived without food, running water, electricity, or heat. While survival became the priority for most ordina...

No one who lived through it will ever forget what happened in Bosnia during the 1990's. What had been a unified and (mostly) peaceful region only a few years before melted down into war, chaos, and genocide. The causes of the war are hotly debated, probably due to the complexity of the conflict. Ultimately it was ethnic, political, and religious differences that merged with nationalism to give the...

Historians, philosophers, and armchair historians have often pondered the role of chance in history. To what extent does randomness or luck dictate what happens to us? Are the events of history just a random spin on the wheel of fate, or is there a more determined explanation of historical events? Bringing up questions about historical free will, determinism, and cause-effect relationships, this e...