The AskHistorians Podcast

Today we are once again joined by Kyle Pittman - AKA u/Snapshot52 on the subreddit - for a discussion of the concept of sovereignty in the context of indigenous nations. (66 minutes)

Today, we are lucky to be joined again by /u/freedsmenspatrol! He is here to talk to us about about the entire history of the assault on Charles Sumner on the senate floor on May 22, 1856. He also give a detailed account of the events leading up to the caning, including episodes from the battle over the Fugitive Slave Act so a listener can understand how events lead up to the Civil War.  It will g...

Today we're joined by Professor Lorien Foote (Texas A&M University) to talk about Union prisoners in the Civil War South. Specifically, the prisoner exchange system, the role of 19th century concepts of honor, and how these prisoners escaped as the Confederacy broke down towards the end of the war.   You can check out the discussion thread in the subreddit  here .

A special bonus episode: a microhistory of the military orders in Scotland!

This week we have a great interview with /u/Rhodis on the military orders, like the Knights Templars, Hospitallers and others!  Today he will be gong us a thorough and factual history of these military orders, which often swirl with myth and legends and provide fodder for thousands of fantasy authors. Expect a special bonus episode next week on the military orders in Scotland.   Come Join us In th...

Today Doug Priest (u/TenMinuteHistory on the subreddit) will explain the 1905 Revolution. This less well known precursor to the 1917 Revolutions, illustrates how the repeated failure to resolve Russia's most pressing economic, political, and social issues would set the stage for the overthrow of the Tzar over a decade later. (61 minutes)   You can find the discussion thread in the mainsub here .

Today we are joined by Andrew Mangham, an Associate Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture at the University of Reading, UK. He writes about the intersections between literature and the history of medicine, with a particular interest in crime, death, and the darker sides of humanity. His most recent book is a study of Dickens and Forensic Medicine entitled Dickens's Forensic Realism. It a s...

In light of the upcoming 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, Professor Peter Wilson talks with us about the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century.   You can find the discussion thread here .

Today we are joined again by  /u/Commiespaceinvader here to tell us about the history of fascism, what it and how it works, and really giving us context for how a fascist system is born, works, and dies. (52m) Discussion thread here!   © 2019 Brian M. Watson

We talk with Dr. Matthew Nicholls, Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Reading, and the creator of the Virtual Rome project. We discuss the difficulties of creating a 3-D, street-level map of Ancient Rome, as well as the upcoming massive open online course based upon it. (33min) Dr. Nicholls' previous AMA on AskHistorians. The next session of the online course of  Rome: a Virtual...

On today's episode we have Professor Cindy Ermus, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Lethbridge, explaining the Plague of Marseille in terms of the (relatively) new field of Disaster History. (56 min)   You can find the discussion thread on the subreddit here .

This podcast is a recording of the AskHistorians presentation at the National Council of Public History this past April. You can read the full-text of the speeches here: https://redd.it/682ta1 As usual, here is the discussion thread for the episode on the AskHistorians subreddit. You can read our papers here: https://askhistorians.com/conferences/ncph2017.html

In this concluding episode, we discuss the aftermath and fall-out from the Battle of Jutland, including the debate over the actions of the British commanders of the Grand Fleet. Also included is discussion over whether British ship designs at the time were flawed, leading to increased casualties. We conclude by putting the role of the battleship in naval warfare, particularly after WWI, in context...

In this first of two episodes we cover the lead-up and ultimately the clash between battleships at Jutland. We discuss the changing technologies and tactics of naval warfare at the time, before moving on to the battle itself. (51min)

Join us for a special bonus episode in conjunction with our Weekly Monday Methods threads where we discuss theory, history and the practice of historians. This is an extra little bit of our last episode where we spent some time debating postmodernism, where history is today, and where we go from here. (34m)   Come join us in the discussion here ! © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Doug Priest (/u/TenMinuteHistory) gives an absolutely fascinating and in-depth look at the 'meta' of history--that is, a conversation on historiography and historical thinking. This is an episode that will be really focused on the nuts and bolts of doing history and how historians think and the places they come from. You can consider it your own personal grad school theory crash course! This week'...

Antonio Curet, archaeologist and curator at the Museum of the American Indian, in Washington, DC, talks with us about the Taíno civilization of the Greater Antilles. (99min)   Please leave us your thoughts and questions in the discussion thread in the subreddit, which can be found here .

Dan Howlett discusses the Salem Witch Trials and his approach to them using social network analysis. While the focus of the episode is on a digital humanities approach to historical research, the episode also covers the underlying social and political tensions, as well as the general atmosphere of paranoia, in the Salem area at the time. (36min)

In part two of a two-part series on the European Armoring Industry, WARitter joins us to discuss just exactly how the knights in shining armor got their shining armor. Wrapping up from a discussion of how exactly metal ore was transformed into armor, WARitter takes us onwards through a whirlwind tour of the history of the guilds, peoples and places that made up the armoring industry, and how armor...

In part one of a two-part series on the European Armoring Industry, WARitter joins us to discuss just exactly how the knights in shining armor got their shining armor. The first half of this two part series explores the techniques and the strategies from turning raw ore into beautiful armor, and how some of these techniques shifted over time. Next episode will bring an hour-plus long discussion on...

We explore the life and legacy of the Classical Greek general, Iphikrates with AskHistorians user Iphikrates. Famous for his use of light troops and for military reforms related to those troops, we trace the surviving evidence of Iphikrate's life and career to investigate the timing, scope, and even existence of those reforms. Along the way, the conversation touches upon the Athenian socio-politic...

Snapshot52 joins us to discuss the concept of cultural genocide in the context of the US government's American Indian policy. In particular, we look at the creation and evolution of obligatory boarding schools for American Indian children. (75 min).   Join the discussion!

Andres Pertierra joins us to discuss the interactions between Cuba and the United States starting in the Colonial Era and extending through the mid-20th Century with the Batista regime. Along the way we discuss Americans changing their names to fit in, the plantation economy, the problem of slavery, American shipping concerns, and the tensions between independence and annexation. (85min).

AnnalsPornographie discusses morality and immorality in late 16th and 17th Century England, as urbanization, population increase, and a growing middle class combined to form new approaches to controlling the morality of society. We discuss the debauchery of the court of Charles II, the moral backlash of the Glorious Revolution, and finally delve deep into the workings of the Society for the Reform...

The conversation with CptBuck continues as we move south from Anatolia and the new state of Turkey into the regions of Mesopotamia, Syria, and the Levant. The politics and conflicts which led to the borders and formation of the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Israel/Palestine are all discussed, as well as a quick digression into Egypt. We end with a discussion on whether the borders of t...