Steelcan909 talks with Dr. Justin Sledge of the YouTube channel Esoterica about his experiences in public historical outreach, YouTube, and his own methodology. 56 min.

EdHistory101 talks with Susan Brewer about her book, The Best Land: Four Hundred Years of Love and Betrayal on Oneida Territory. 

Steelcan909 talks with Andrew Rakich of Atun-Shei films about his new release, the Sudbury Devil.  The episode is split into a spoiler free section and a spoiler section.  Spoilers for the movie start at 30 minutes.  75 minutes.

Today we're joined by Robert M. Sarwark, Visiting Fellow in Publishing History at Harvard University's Houghton Library, to talk about librarianship and his research into the history of the book during the time of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. 

You can find him on Twitter as @RaMerrix.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we're joined by Professor Joshua Specht of Monash University to talk about his new book Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America (Princeton University Press, 2019).

You can find him on Twitter as @joshspecht. 

Today we have Dr. Eric Rauchway, a professor at the University of California, Davis. Professor Rauchway has expertise on U.S. policy, social, and economic history from the Civil War through the Second World War. He has consulted for government and private agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice and a major Hollywood studio.  

Professor Rauchway's recent research focuses on the New Deal and the Second World War. He has written several books on how federal policy affects the US economy, and how the economy —international and domestic— influences U.S. policy. His research has been featured in the New York Times and on National Public Radio. He has just finished a book on the conflict between Republicans and Democrats over how to combat the Depression at its worst, in 1932-1933. 

You can find him fighting the good fight on Twitter @rauchway and his books here https://www.amazon.com/Eric-Rauchway/

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

On today's episode we're talking with Professor Tamara Walker (Assistant Professor of History at the University of Toronto), about her book Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing and Status in Colonial Lima (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

You can find her book here.

In another return visit, Doug Priest, /u/TenMinuteHistory stops by!

You can last hear him on Episode 95 talking about the revolution before the revolution in Russia and Episode 86 where we talked about what it takes to be a historian, the tools and background you need

Doug has his PhD in Soviet History from Michigan State University. Currently, he is the Digital Managing Editor at Townsquare Media and the incoming president of H-Net which is the OTHER largest academic history and social sciences forum online. Today we are going to continue our discussion on methodology. We want to tackle a topic we’ve seen come up a lot lately - bias.

You can follow Doug on Twitter @10MinuteHistory and Brian @brimwats.

You can find the Jill Lepore piece we discuss here. Discussion thread here. 

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

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 militia. Adam also used to give tours about the war of 1812 at Fort Mackinac so he has great insight into the interesting stories!

Discussion thread.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

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 slavery and the statehood of Missouri. 

You can follow Pat as /u/freemenspatrol on Reddit, or join us in the podcast discussion here!

~96 minutes

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 conversation on the subreddit here.

Tyler Alderson talks with members of the Australian Haydn Ensemble about historical performance in classical music. From instruments to techniques, the ensemble aims to play the music of the 18th century the way that composers like Haydn and Mozart would have heard it. 39m

/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. Is it true that over 20 million people were killed in this conflict? Who truly was the leader of the Taiping? This, and much more, in this fascinating episode.

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 of identity, community formation, and the maintenance of kinship networks in the late-eighteenth century.

We also have an interview with Nathan Tye (@Hobo_History), a historian of the nineteenth and twentieth century United States. His research documents the fascinating but misunderstood lives of hobos, tramps, and others transient populations that traveled the country by freight-hopping from the 1870s through 1930s.

We also have @hmcbee87, who is a Public History PhD Candidate at Middle Tennessee State University, about WWII relics brought back by soldiers and what they tell us about war, people, and museums.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

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 to every single polity in late antiquity that caused such persecution?

Why did Zoroastrianism stop spreading?, was it because the Persian Empire was conquered?

Has there ever been a movement to unite Islam, Christianity and Judaism? If so, did any of its proponents draw a similarity between the Holy Trinity and the three branches of Abrahamism?

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 specializes in modern Britain and Ireland, with a particular emphasis on the histories of tourism and national identity. Zuelow is author of SO MANY BOOKS and editor-in-chief of Journal of Tourism History which is published three times per year by Routledge. Zuelow is editor of the Histories and Cultures of Tourism book series, published by Cornell University Press and he is a member of the editorial board for the Britain and the World book series which is published by Palgrave; he deals with titles covering the period after 1688. In addition, he is currently co-editing the Oxford Handbook to the History of Tourism and Travel. He is on twitter at @EZuelow.

After that we have Amy-Elizabeth Manlapas a high school history teacher, podcaster and consultant She says talked with writers about what high school is like in the 21st century, how dual-enrollment works, and how a kid might just get away with hiding a secret identity. She has a Master’s Degree in History from Georgia State University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in History from Mercer University. She is on twitter at @amymanlapas

Finally, we have Jason Herbert!. He is a historian interested in the relationships between Southeastern American Indians, Europeans, and Africans in the 18th and early 19th centuries. His dissertation examines the social, political, demographic, and ecological transformation of Florida following the introduction of livestock in the sixteenth century through the expulsion of much the region's native inhabitants in the nineteenth century. In addition, He is the creator of Historians At The Movies, a multimedia experience that connects historians and others each week via their favorite films. You can find him on twitter at @herberthistory or look for the hashtag #HATM.

Discussion thread is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ahamgy/askhistorians_podcast_128_askhistorians_asking/

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

/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 history before turning to the 1972 Summit Series between the USSR and Canada--the first Miracle on Ice--and what it meant then and still means today. Finally, we conclude with the strangest and wildest thing about hockey--the Stanley Cup.

Discussion thread here.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

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*

Averill is an historian of modern Ireland and sexuality, and writes about same-sex desiring men, policing, and Dublin’s queer urban spaces. She is an Assistant Professor of History at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA, where she teaches everything except American History. In addition to making podcast episodes with the amazing women of Dig, she is the Assistant Layout Editor at Nursing Clio. She’s published a range of pieces on teaching, literature, and the history of gender and sexuality with collaborative history blogs like Notches and Nursing Clio. When she’s not teaching, podcasting, or moonlighting as a member of the Cabot Creamery Co-operative social media team, she enjoys board games, baking, and puppy snuggles. Averill tweets from @aearls.

*Sarah Handley-Cousins, PhD*

Sarah is an historian of disability and gender in the American Civil War. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of History at the University at Buffalo. Her forthcoming book, to be published with the University of Georgia Press, is about disabled Union veterans during and after the Civil War. In addition to a PhD in History from the University at Buffalo, Sarah holds a BA from Wells College and an MSEd from Niagara University, and is an alum of the New York State Council for the Humanities Public Humanities Fellows. You can find her writing on Nursing Clio, where she is also an Editor, and various digital news outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times. She enjoys unresolved romantic tension (in books and movies), visiting the Gettysburg National Military Park, and heated blankets. Sarah tweets from @sarahbelle721.

*Marissa C. Rhodes*

Marissa is an independent information professional and PhD candidate in History at UB. Her dissertation tells the stories of lactating women for hire in the Atlantic world during the Revolutionary era. In addition to a BA in History from Niagara University, Marissa has an MLS from UB. She is a former fellow at APS, The Library Company/HSP & the Lapidus-Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. But most importantly, she’s super into running, red wine, British television, and murder (as much as someone can be into murder without actually doing them). Marissa tweets from @iLURVhistory.

(and in spirit)

*Elizabeth Garner Masarik*

Elizabeth is an historian of the welfare state and women in Progressive Era America. She is currently completing her PhD in History at the University at Buffalo, working on her dissertation and teaching American History. Elizabeth holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA from UB. She is a 2017-18 Fellow in the University at Buffalo Institute for the Research on Women and Gender and 2018-2019 Humanities Institute fellow. She was recently featured by the Texas Tribune as an authority on Mexican-American relations in the borderlands of Texas. She had a forthcoming article, “Por la Raza, Para la Raza: Jovita Idar and Progressive-era Mexicana Maternalism in the Texas-Mexican Border,” in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly . Somehow she also has time to be a savvy blogger, and a totally badass powerlifter. Elizabeth tweets from @EGMasarik.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

Steelcan909 talks with James Currie about the recent proliferation of books about the crusades written by conservative Catholic writers and their sympathizers.  Two books are examined for their ideaological dimensions and what they say about the crusades and their reception almost 1000 years after their events.  Warning signs for biased history books, inter-Catholic disputes, the relationship between Catholic "historians" and the Catholic Church, and alternative reading suggestions are discussed.  58min.

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. She is here today to talk to us about the history of the superhero narrative, from Golden Age Superheroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

Discussion thread here. 

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

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 us today about the nature of doing history, what it would have been like to be a soldier in the American Civil War, and the UNTOLD sexual history of the American Civil War. You wont get this story anywhere else!

Please take the podcast improvement and opinion poll here. 

Discussion thread is here.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

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 of the time was wartime is an open question. But even during the Peloponnesian War, there were several uneventful years, in which Sparta did not call out the levy of the Peloponnesian League and Athens had only men from the Lists in various expeditionary forces. In such times you, as a regular farmer, might escape military duty altogether. And if your city-state wasn't a member of the League or a subject of the Athenian Empire, you might be fighting your own petty wars, but otherwise you'd be left mostly alone.

It is anyone's guess how often you would actually be involved in a battle. Given all the factors I've mentioned, regardless of your city-state's foreign policy, I am of the opinion that the answer is probably closer to "once or twice in a lifetime" than "every year". However, given the lack of comprehensive source coverage, and the fact that historical accounts sometimes casually mention several battles in the course of a single campaign, my guess may well be wildly off the mark.

Jeremy Salkeld talks with Dr. Mitch Maki of the Go For Broke National Education Center about Japanese-American internment, the 442nd Infantry Regiment, and the Japanese-American campaign for redress and recognition in the postwar decades. Also discussed are relations between Hawaiian-born and continental-born Japanese-Americans, and the efforts of the Go For Broke center's efforts to promote awareness and bring about positive social change. 36 mins.

This week we are thrilled to have the host of EdHistory 101 podcast, and great AskHistorians flaired member UrAccountabilityBuddy, who is better known as Jenn Binis! In this episode we literally trace the entire history of education in America, diving deep into some weeds of discussion. I think you will enjoy it greatly. Please do go and subscribe to Ed History 101 wherever you get your podcasts and also please support us on patreon.com/askhistorians as it really does help to keep this show going

Join us here for a discussion thread.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we're talking with fellow mod u/Georgy_K_Zhukov about dueling in the 19th century United States.

Today, a history of the condom from /u/AnnalsPornographie / @HistoryOf Porn. Link to answer.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we are joined by AskHistorians user /u/mimicofmodes, flaired in the History of Western Fashion. She is better known to her friends and family as Cassidy Percoco, an independent historian of fashion, textiles and material culture. She is the author of Regency Women's Dress: Techniques and Patterns 1800-1830, the host of A Most Beguiling Accomplishment podcast, and a collections manager at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association and talks to us today about  some aspects of history in public life--what it is like to work in a museum and to teach history to the public

You can also catch her on Episode 45 talking about Regency Era Fashion and on Episode 100 talking about AskHistorians under the hood, as in what it is like to moderate and run an academic history subreddit on the internet.

 © 2019 Brian M. Watson

In this episode of AskHistorians Aloud, sunagainstgold answers "Were women voters subject to vote suppression campaigns in the 1920s like those forced on African-Americans after Reconstruction?"

Link to question and answer: here. 

Today we talk with Dr. Timo Schaefer, author of Liberalism as Utopia The Rise and Fall of Legal Rule in Post-Colonial Mexico, 1820–1900 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), about how Liberal projects and ideals affected the legal system in 19th century Mexico.

You can find him on Twitter as @TimoHSchaefer

You can find his book here.

Today's episode is a little bit different! Instead of your regularly scheduled episode we are coming out with a preview of a new AskHistorians Podcast feature, AskHistorians Aloud! This feature is meant to bring some of the amazing work being done on the subreddit everyday to your ears here. 

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we talk with Dr. Roel Konijnendijk (@Roelkonijn on Twitter) about the myths surrounding the Battle of Thermopylae in popular culture. In particular, we compare scholarship on the battle with the mid-aughts film 300, Directed by Zack Snyder.

Today we talk with /u/UncoveredHistory, better known as Jason Aglietti. He is a public librarian in Baltimore and he just finished his Master’s thesis from University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he wrote and defended his thesis The Friends They Loathed: The Persecution of Maryland Quakers During the Revolutionary War.

Jason will tell us all about the lives of the Quakers in the American colonies from their founding to their persecution in the revolutionary war. This is NOT the history you usually hear about the revolutionary war, and Jason gives us a lot of new things to think about!

Finding The Maryland 400, the history project Jason worked on and talks about can be found here. Jason's blog is here.

Discussion thread.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

Morgan Lewin Campos chats with Dr Claire Aubin (@ceaubin on Twitter) about the challenges of studying fascism and violence in the current global political climate, as well as the problems sensationalistic and revisionistic historical writing creates for public history. (68 mins)

Today we talk with Max (AKA u/Commustar on Reddit) about tribes, tribalism, and nationality in Africa.

You can find the discussion thread here.

Today on the AskHistorians Podcast we are joined by Dr Adam Rodman of the BedsideRounds Podcast! Prepare for the ultimate crossover episode as we discuss the history of the body, of medicine, and of physicians. This is a great episode and please enjoy it, love it, rate and review it!

You can find Adam @AdamRodmanMD and his podcast at http://bedside-rounds.org/.

Discussion thread is here. 

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we're talking about the ways in which 17th and 18th century Russia gathered intelligence on the Far East with Professor Gregory Afinogenov, who is currently Assistant Professor of Russian Imperial History at the University of Georgetown.

He's on Twitter as @athenogenes.