The AskHistorians Podcast

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...

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 sl...

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 conve...

/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the question In the Godfather part II, the mafia emerged only after a proto-organized crime group, the Black Hand, was superseded.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. I...

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...

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...

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 speciali...

/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...

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* Av...

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...

Today on AskHistorians aloud, hillsonghoods answers the question "How did people throughout ancient history explain static electricity?"   Link to question and answer: here .

In this week's podcast, we talk to AskHistorians flaired user u/rusoved, a historical linguist with a special focus on Slavic and Albanian linguistics. We discuss how historical linguists work backwards from modern language and dialects to work out how things used to be, as well as how the field itself developed and where it may be going on the future.

Today we have on askhistorians flaired user /u/nilhaus, better known as James McAllister to his friends and family. He has worked in a variety of fields including journalism, IT and government, but he returned to grad school and got his MA and his PHD (ABD) in American History and public history. He is working on his dissertation with an aim of beginning work in a museum afterwards.   He talks to...

New interview episode on Friday! For now, enjoy an AH Aloud episode! I often hear people say that the Irish Potato Famine was more a genocide than a true famine. How accurate is this claim?   Link to answer.

Today on AskHistorians Aloud, hillsonghoods answers the question : Is the concept of mental ilness a modern phenomenon?   Link to question and answer: here . 

In this episode of AskHistorians Aloud, we talk about conscription in the Ancient Greek world. Iphikrates answers "I'm a farmer in 500 BC in a typical Greek city-state. How often will I get called to mobilize for a battle?"   Link to answer: here .   Update: Someone has pointed out that a bit of the outro got recorded over the answer! Terribly sorry about that. Here is the missing text: How much o...