The AskHistorians Podcast

Tyler Alderson talks with u/Valkine, otherwise known as Stuart Ellis-Gorman, about his new book The Medieval Crossbow. Ellis-Gorman discusses what we do and don't know about its origins, its history as a weapon "fit to kill a king," and the many legends and tall tales surrounding the crossbow. He also talks about continuing to do academic research outside of traditional academia. 55m.

For the 200th episode, guest host Jennifer Borgioli Binis (EdHistory101) spoke with one of the country's pre-eminent scholars on American higher education and McCarthism. Dr. Schrecker shares her experiences as a researcher, historian, and woman in academia. 1 hour, 11 minutes.

Tyler Alderson talks with Joan De Jean about her new book Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast. We discussed the complicated lives and legacies of the women who were shipped from France across the Atlantic to the Louisiana colony. 52m.

Fraser Raeburn talks with Jason Steinhauer about how the internet has shaped the consumption and production of historical knowledge, as detailed in Jason's new book,  History Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past . 40 minutes. A transcript of this episode will be forthcoming.

Morgan Lewin talks with Stegan Aguirre Quiroga about his new book, White Mythic Space: Racism, the First World War, and Battlefield 1 , and about the construction of idealized representations of whiteness in the histories of Argentina and Chile. 1 hour.

In this special episode of the AskHistorians podcast, /u/hannahstohelit and /u/EnclavedMicrostate talk about one of the more unusual history-related conspiracy theories of recent years: Tartaria. Why are thousands of internet users convinced of the existence of a lost empire in Eurasia? Where does post-Soviet nationalism come into it? And why are they so obsessed with big buildings? All this and m...

Tyler Alderson talks with GRAMMY-Award winning pipe organist and Juilliard professor Paul Jacobs about the history of the instrument and his upcoming recital series of the music of César Franck. 34 mins.

In this episode, Morgan Lewin (/u/aquatermain) speaks with Meg Hyland (/u/kelpie-cat) about her Women Of 1000 AD project, a digital public history project and teaching tool that showcases the histories of women from all over the globe who lived in and around the year 1000 CE through hand-made illustrations and thoroughly researched write-ups about their lives and cultures. 65 mins.

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with Dr. Joseph W. Ho on the subject of his new book, ' Developing Mission: Photography, Filmmaking, and American Missionaries in Modern China'. While missionary photographers in China have often been approached either as missionaries or as photographers, Dr. Ho's book approaches the subject in its entirety, discussing the role photography played in the mi...

Tyler Alderson talks to fellow moderator u/Steelcan909 about the religion of the Norse, often called "Norse mythology." They discuss what we do and don't know about religious practice, the truth behind popular conceptions of the Norse gods, and why this religion has continued to feature heavily in pop culture. 

In this episode, Morgan Lewin (u/Aquatermain) talks with Dan Howlett (u/dhowlett1692) about disability in early America.  In this conversation, they cover how to define disability historically, how to find disability in the archives, and how disability shaped events like the Salem Witch Trials. 53 minutes.

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with Trevor Culley about the Cyrus Cylinder, an inscription dictated by the first ruler of the Persian Empire. Aside from the text of the cylinder and its historical context, also discussed is the use of the cylinder in modern Iranian nation-building. 48 mins.

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with /u/DGBD, better known as Tyler Alderson, about the history of the banjo. Discussed are the instrument's origins and development, on the cultural place of the banjo on both sides of the Atlantic, and of its relationship to issues of racism and identity. 70 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks with Alex Fox Rudinski, who is looking into the intergenerational effects of the trauma veterans experienced in World War II. From the veterans themselves through to their children and even grandchildren, this trauma has had an impact on many families' lives. Rudinski also talks about the challenges of researching the effects of trauma in a time period when these effects were...

In this Conference Special, Morgan (u/Aquatermain) speaks to Claire Aubin about her study of Holocaust perpetrators immigrating to the US, the emotional strain of studying a horrific period of history, and the work of the Emotionally Demanding Histories Group.

In this episode, Morgan Lewin talks with /u/Starwarsnerd222 about the ways that the origins of the First World War are discussed in textbooks aimed at students of international secondary school curricula. What do they do well? What do they not? How far do they adhere to contemporary historiography, and how far do they hold onto older tropes? And where do we go from here? Find out all this and more...

Tyler Alderson talks with Brynn Derwen, whose research into the history of footwraps includes wearing them most days! Derwen talks about why and how footwraps were used in many cultures around the world, particularly in militaries, and offers some pointers for how to try them yourself!

Tyler Alderson talks to Laura Castro-Royo about her research on Jinn, the source of Hollywood's "genie" trope. She also talks about presenting history in non-traditional spaces, including streaming on Twitch as Las Plumas De Simurgh.

In this episode, /u/Gankom talks with Dr. Lauren Lefty, Dr. Andrew Feffer, and /u/Kugelfang52 about the assault on the anti-racism programs of New York City teachers between 1930 and 1960. Notably, these efforts, often led by communist teachers, were opposed not only by conservative educators, but by liberal groups as well. The ultimate destruction of these efforts wrecked community building proje...

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with /u/starwarsnerd222 about great power politics of the late nineteenth century, focussing on British foreign policy from the end of the Crimean War in 1856 to the eve of the First World War in 1914. How did British officials and diplomats react to changing world circumstances, if they did at all? What sorts of crises did they respond to, or not depen...

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with /u/Lubyak about the Second Sino-Japanese War, discussing its background, its wider context, and the question of why Imperial Japan was unsuccessful in achieving its aims. 32 mins.      

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with /u/Iphikrates about the beginnings of academic military history in 19th century Prussia. Why, in a state so strongly associated with its military traditions, was the academic study of military history so heavily opposed both from the academy and from the army? How did the field emerge despite this opposition? Who were the big names? What sorts of c...

In this episode, /u/Kugelfang52 talks with /u/Toldinstone about various topics of interest from his upcoming book on Greek and Roman society, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants . Included are the following questions: "Did they believe in monsters, ghosts, and/or aliens?" "Why are so many of their statues naked?" "Why didn't the Greeks or Romans wear pants?"  "What were the greatest d...

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with /u/Hergrim about women in medieval warfare, and at how their actual roles diverged from those prescribed by the authorities of the day and many today imagine them. Discussed are how women fought in combat, performed critical supporting roles for armies, and indeed led them in war; also considered are how warfare affected civilian women and how wome...

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with /u/IlluminatiRex about veterans of the First World War who, either before or after the war, lived in one town in Connecticut, and about how the local histories of small towns fit into the history of the wider world. 18 mins.