Who are the Roma -- also colloquially called "Gypsies"?  Where did they come from, and how did they end up all over Europe?  How have they endured through persecution, expulsions, and political upheaval, without a state or country of their own?  We trace the path of this remarkable and resilient people from their mysterious origins in India to their arrival in Constantinople and medieval Europe and through the wave of persecution and ethnic cleansing in the 1600s.

Please sign on as a patron at any level to hear part 2 -- tracing the journeys of the Roma through the revolutions and national awakenings of the 19th century, the Holocaust, and modern politics -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/51774522

Update:  A contemporary historian, Kristina Richardson, has recently researched the lives and customs of the longstanding Romani group in medieval-era Egypt, commonly called the Ghuraba.  It seems likely that at least one major Roma group that migrated into Europe, particularly western Europe, derived from the Ghuraba.  One can see Richardson discussing her work in various places, including here:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERSduCs3Afg

Image:  Gypsies telling fortunes, in Cosmographie Universelle, Munster, 1552.

Suggested further reading:  Angus Fraser, "The Gypsies";  Isabel Fonseca, "Bury Me Standing."

Please support this podcast and hear the recent lecture on the Founding Fathers! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

History of the Roma ("Gypsies"), part 1 -- From Ancient Origins to the Eighteenth Century

We follow the long struggle to build power, wealth, and lasting harmony on the rich but harsh and unforgiving landscape of China – from early farming villages, to the quasi-legendary early emperors, through dynasties obsessed with ritual and divination, the age of fragmentation and warring states, and finally, the dramatic quest for unification by the ruthless emperor that gave China its name.  We learn the causes and contexts for the creation of the first Great Wall, the invention of wet rice farming and hydraulic engineering, the composition of ancient classics like the I Ching and the Art of War, and the appearance of the powerful philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism.

Hear my next lecture on China here:  https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/china-pt-2-water-and-music-early-chinese-philosophy

Suggested further reading:  Li Feng, “Early China”;  Yap & Cotterell, “The Early Civilization of China”

Image:  Bronze ceremonial vessel from Zhou dynasty

Please sign up as a patron to hear the next Myth of the Month -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

China, pt. 1 -- Making the Middle Kingdom

We have all seen images of axe-wielding Vikings raining destruction upon the shores of medieval Europe -- but who were these berserking Norsemen and where did they come from?  What society produced them?  How did the Scandinavians of the Viking age understand the world and their place in it?  We examine the Norsemen's complex and mysterious cosmos described in the poems and prophesies of the Eddas, and compare it to the realities of survival, trade, kingship, politics, warfare, art, gender, and the family in Scandinavia from the eight to eleventh centuries, as reconstructed from surviving documents and the latest archaeology.

Image:  top section of the Hunninge picture stone, island of Gotland, Sweden, 8th century.

Music:  "In the Hall of the Mountain King," from Peer Gynt suite, composed by Edvard Grieg, performed by Czech National Symphony Orchestra, published by Musopen.

Suggested further readings:  Neil Price, "Children of Ash and Elm";  Else Roesdahl, "The Vikings"

Please sign up as a patron to hear all patron-only materials, including "Myth of the Month 20: Conspiracy Theories" -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

The Vikings, pt. 1 -- In the Norsemen's World

For over a century, scholars, politicians, and pundits have debated the supposed causes of the First World War, from German naval provocations to the rising global tide of nationalism. All of these explanations tend to ignore the simple fact that the war began in eastern Europe, triggered by regional feuding and violence in what had previously been the Ottoman provinces.

We begin our exploration of the roots of World War I by following the struggles of the declining Ottoman Empire to hold its ground and contain ethnic and religious strife as Western powers circle like vultures around the so-called "sick man of Europe."

Image:  View over Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, to the Bosporus

Suggested further reading:  Alan Palmer, "Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire."

music:  "Fandango," by Scarlatti or Soler, midi file version by El Gran Mago Paco Quito.

Please become a patron to support the podcast and hear patron-only lectures, including upcoming Myth of the Month: Culture -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Origins of the First World War, pt. 1 -- The Ottoman Empire

At the height of their power in the Baroque Age, the Habsburgs aspired to rule the entire world; by the end of the ninetheenth century, they strove merely to maintain control over the volatile lands of the upper Danube valley.  We trace how the Habsburgs' domains evolved from a messy collection of local duchies into an absolutist empire, and finally into a complex military-industrial state, the home of artistic modernism, which was nonetheless threatened with destruction by a welter of nationalist movements and by the rising power of Serbia and Russia.

Previous lecture on Central Europe & the Rise of the Habsburgs:  https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/age-of-absolutism-1-central-europe-and-the-rise-of-the-hapsburgs

Image:  Painting by Johann Nepomuk Geller of Emperor Franz-Josef walking in the gardens of the Schonbrunn in winter, 1908

 Suggested further reading:  Mason, "The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire";  Sked, "The Decline & Fall of the Habsburg Empire";  Kohn, "The Habsburg Empire"; Rady, "The Habsburgs: To Rule the World."

music:  J.S. Bach, Sonata No. 4 in E Minor, played on pedal clavichord by Blaint Karosi.

Please support this podcast to hear patron-only lectures, including an upcoming examination of the history of Bosnia -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Origins of the First World War, pt. 3 -- Austria-Hungary

We consider the rich, often mysterious, and fraught history of Bosnia -- a longtime borderland of East and West, disputed between rival empires, religions, and civilizations -- and trace how the politics of this small, mountainous Slavic country set the stage for the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, and in turn, the outbreak of a global war.
Image:  interior of the "Painted Mosque," Travnik, Bosnia
Please sign on at any level to hear patron-only lectures, including on Germany, Japan, and the July Crisis --https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

UNLOCKED: Origins of the First World War, pt. 4 -- Bosnia & the Assassination

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only:
We consider the turbulent history and politics of the country most often blamed for the outbreak of the First World War -- Germany.  The youngest of all the combatant nations in World War I, The German Reich's deep class, regional, and religious divides drove Kaiser Wilhelm and his inner circle to seek national aggrandizement abroad as a source of unity at home--which inadvertently led them to unite their rivals against them and dragged them into a war not of their making.

Suggested further reading:  Christopher Clark, "Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia";  Mary Fulbrook, "A Concise History of Germany."

Image:  Hand-Colored Photograph of Kaiser Wilhelm II in Tangier, Morocco, 1905

Please sign up at any level to help keep this podcast coming and to hear all patron-only lectures:  https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

UNLOCKED:  Origins of the First World War, pt. 6:  Germany

We trace the tortuous path by which a scattering of villages in a marshy lagoon, founded by refugees from violence and political breakdown, forged their own stable and cohesive independent republic which would last for a thousand years, and with it a splendrous city where East and West mingled, a sprawling trade network linking Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and finally a waterborne empire that was the forerunner of the modern European colonial states.
Image: Detail of a woodcut illustration showing a view of Venice, by Reuwich & Schoffer, 1486.
Suggested Further Reading: Morris, "The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage"; Madden, "Venice: A New History"; Ferrarro, "Venice: A History of the Floating City."
Please sign on as a patron to hear patron-only tracks, such as the series on the Epic of Gilgamesh:  https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

The Impossible City: The History of Venice -- pt. 1: From Asylum to Empire

We follow Korea's thousand-year struggle to maintain its integrity and independence, fending off cataclysmic invasions by the Mongols, the Manchus, and the samurai of Japan, and repeatedly transforming itself -- from a confederation of Buddhist warrior-nobles, to a strictly Confucian surveillance state, to a fledgling modern industrial nation -- before finally falling to Meiji Japan.

Suggested reading: Han Woo-Keun, “The History of Korea”; Michael J. Seth, “A History of Korea” & “A Brief History of Korea”; Takashi Hatada, “A History of Korea”; Ki-Baek Lee, “A New History of Korea”

Image: Seokguram Grotto, outside Gyeongju, late 700s

Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures! -- www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632


Korea, pt. 2 -- The Perfect Kingdom

We follow the convulsions of Italian society -- foreign invasion, popular revolution, peasant revolt, liberal reform, Romantic pageantry, diplomatic dirty dealings, and patriotic war -- through which the residents of a fragmented, poor, and backwards section of Europe overthrew the puppet regimes of foreign rulers and challenged the internal power of the Church, to seize control of their own destiny and create a new nation-state that would take its place among the major powers of the world.

Image: "The First Italian Flag Taken to Firenze," by F.S. Altamura, 1859.

Suggested further reading: Lucy Riall, "Risorgimento"; John A. David, ed., "Italy in the Nineteenth Century."

Musical passage: "Va, Pensiero" from Nabuco, Lyrics by Temistocle Solera, music by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra

Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures, including the recent series on the Dead Sea Scrolls and on the Epic of Gligamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

Italy: Revolution, Risorgimento, & Unification, 1789-1870

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only:  We review the diplomatic landscape of Europe on the eve of war in the summer of 1914—and then trace the dizzying cascade of events that followed after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. We get a handle on the ensuing crisis that ricocheted through embassies, banquet halls, and barracks all across Europe, and plunged all the great powers of the continent into a war that soon spread around the world.

Suggested further reading: Christopher Clark, “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914”; Margaret MacMillan, “The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914”; Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August.”

Image: Photograph of nine kings (George V of Britain seated, center; Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany standing, in red), at Windsor, for funeral of Edward VII of Britain, May, 1910.

Please sign up to hear all patron-only lectures, including recent series on the Dead Sea Scrolls & the Epic of Gilgamesh:  https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

UNLOCKED:  Origins of the First World War, pt. 13 -- The July Crisis & the Outbreak of War

We follow the paths by which the bishops of Rome – leaders of what had been a small church on the fringe of the Christian world – established themselves as the foremost spiritual leaders of Western Christendom and with time, as supreme heads of the global Catholic Church.  We follow the dramatic turns in the Papacy’s fortunes, as Popes alternate between pinnacles of power and prestige, commanding lands and armies, launching Crusades and outwitting emperors, and extreme lows of feebleness and humiliation, overruled by councils and overthrown by foreign kings.  We consider how the Papacy made use of the Renaissance and struggled to respond to the Protestant Reformation—before examining the history of the modern Papacy and the more recent Popes for Part 2.

Suggested further reading:  Norwich, “Absolute Monarchs : A History of the Papacy”;  La Due, “The Chair of Saint Peter : A History of the Papacy”

Please sign up, at any level, to support the podcast and hear patron-only lectures! --  www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632  

Image:  Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, offering submission to Pope Alexander III, as part of Treaty of Venice, 1177, as depcited in a fresco in Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, by Spinello Aretino, ca. 1407

The Keys of Heaven & Earth: The History of the Papacy -- pt. 1

We examine the roots of the American practice of "deportation" -- from colonial banishment of heretics, through the political upheaval over Alien & Sedition Acts, to the age of Chinese Exclusion -- which paved the way for the federal government to exercise virtually unlimited & absolute power over aliens, whom they placed outside the protection of the Constitution.

Suggested further reading: Kanstroom, "Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History"

Image: East Asian women & children in a holding cell, Angel Island immigration station, Calinfornia, ca. 1920

Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures, including the most recent on the modern history of the Papacy! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

The History of Deportation in America -- pt. 1: Banishment By Another Name

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only:  The most massive and momentous manuscript discovery of modern times, the Dead Sea Scrolls blew the lid off of the long-mysterious world of messianic and apocalyptic ferment before the destruction of the Second Temple—yet it took decades of conflict and struggle to bring them to public light. We trace why the scrolls became the object of a long international struggle, what they actually say, and what they reveal about the roots of the Bible, Christianity, and modern Judaism.

Suggested further reading: Lim, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction”; Collins, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography”; Shanks, ed., “Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the Biblical Archaeology Review”; Eisemman & Wise, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered”; Wise, Abegg, & Cook, eds., “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation.”

Image: Portion of the Temple Scroll

Please sign up as a patron, at any level, in order to hear patron-only lectures, including the series on the Epic of Gilgamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

UNLOCKED:  The Great Archaeological Discoveries, pt. 8 -- The Dead Sea Scrolls

We follow how deportation policy has evolved, expanding massively in the aftermaths of World War One and World War Two, while shifting its main targets -- from political radicals and dissidents, to organized criminals, to "undesirable" racial and ethnic groups including Asians and Mexicans. We examine the changing laws and judicial rulings that have carved out an exception for deportation, allowing the government nearly unlimited and unchecked power, with no recourse to the protections of the Bill of Rights -- and finally, we consider how the Trump administration's recent failed attempts to deport supporters of the Palestinian cause might lead to a small crack in the wall sealing the deportation process off from the courts and the Constitution.

Image: Cartoon of the Buford or "Red Ark" departing from New York, Evening Star, Dec. 22, 1919

Suggested further reading: Kanstroom, "Deportation Nation"; Drinnon, "Rebel in Paradise: A Biiography of Emma Goldman"; Muzaffar Chishti and Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, "Tapping Ancient Wartime and Security Laws," etc., Migration Policy Institute, <https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trump-registration-alien-enemies-insurrection>

Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures, including the most recent on the modern history of the Papacy! -- www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

The History of Deportation in America -- pt. 2: Expelling the Twentieth Century

Nations:  What are they?  Are they defined by language, by “culture,” by blood, or something else?    How do you know if you are part of one? —and  is everyone in the world a member of one nation or another?
We follow how the rise of medieval kingdoms and universities and the print revolution made it possible for people in the West to imagine themselves as part of extended kinship groups united by a common language and ancestry, how these abstract “nations” differed from all earlier social groupings, how nations have developed a standard template for national history and mythology, and how since the French Revolution, “nationalism” has inspired the loyalties and fired the passions of millions.
Finally,  we consider how scholars and critics have torn the concept of the nation to shreds, and then have tried to account for the profound transformations in consciousness and time made it possible for people to conceive of themselves as belonging to nations in the first place.

Apologies for the osprey squawking in the background of the lecture!

Suggested further reading: B. Anderson, "Imagined Communities"; Ernest Renan, "Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?"; Grosby, "Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction"; Potter, "The Historian's Use of Nationalism and Vice Versa"

Music:  “Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix” / “Forets Paisibles,” from the opera-ballet “Les Indes Galantes,” by Jean-Philippe Rameau & Louis Fuzelier, 1735, performed by Les Arts Florissants, with vocalists Patricia Petibon & Nicolas Rivenq -- used with the kind authorization of Les Arts Florissants

Please sign up as a patron at any level to hear patron-only lectures, including the series on the Epic of Gilgamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

Myth of the Month 25:  Nations

We follow how a remote landmass on the far western fringe of Europe became the home of a lasting Gaelic civilization and a major center of classical and Christian knowledge, before coming under attack by Viking raiders and Anglo-Norman invaders.  We examine the English Crown’s shifting and increasingly desperate strategies to control Ireland, and the long battle over control of land and religion before Ireland was finally subjected to Protestant domination following the Glorious Revolution.

Recommended further reading:  Cronin, “A History of Ireland”; Foster, ed., “The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland”; Ranelagh, “A Short History of Ireland”;  Roberson, “The Irish Ice Sheet,” <https://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glacial-geology/british-irish-ice-sheet/the-irish-ice-sheet/>

Music: “Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix” / “Forets Paisibles,” from the opera-ballet “Les Indes Galantes,” by Jean-Philippe Rameau & Louis Fuzelier, 1735, performed by Les Arts Florissants, with vocalists Patricia Petibon & Nicolas Rivenq -- used with the kind authorization of Les Arts Florissants

Image: Lavabo, Mellifont Abbey, Ireland

Please sign up as a patron at any level to hear patron-only lectures, including the series on the Epic of Gilgamesh! -- www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

Ireland:  From Prehistory to the Protestant Ascendancy

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only:  
He is the earliest human being whose name and life story are known to history. We examine the origins and contents of the most ancient narrative ever found anywhere on Earth, and trace how it has been rediscovered, re-used, and re-translated in the modern world, becoming a living and evolving text in a time of anxiety over the fate of civilization.

Please sign on as a patron in order to keep the podcast going and to hear patron-only lectures, including part 2 on the Epic of Gilgamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

Image: Sumerian bas-relief sculpture of a man subduing a bull, possibly representing Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven, 2200s BC.

Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal

Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem."

UNLOCKED:  Myth of the Month 24: The Epic of Gilgamesh -- pt. 1: The History

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only --
We examine the Epic of Gilgamesh as a piece of literature, for its strange dream-like style and form, its points of similarity to Biblical and ancient Greek and European mythology, and finally, its deep levels of psychological and political allegory, ultimately revealing the love between Enkidu and Gilgamesh as a parable of the fraught relationship between civilization and the wild.

Image: Gilgamesh grappling with Enkidu; illustration by Wael Tarabieh.

Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: Historiansplaining – Unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal

The SOAS's recordings of scholars reading Akkadian texts: https://www.soas.ac.uk/baplar/recordings

Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem"; Rivkah Scharf Kluger, "The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh."

UNLOCKED:  Myth of the Month 24: The Epic of Gilgamesh -- pt. 2: Analysis

Audio track from the new video, "Red, White & Royal Blue: A Historian's Analysis -- pt. 4: The Political Ideology of RWRB"--

Intro:  Why the Politics of RWRB? – 0:00:30
Sec. 1:  Idealism vs. Realism – 0:16:21
Sec. 2:  The Hidden Agenda – what is left out of RWRB – 0:52:29
Sec. 3:  The Trade Wars – 1:28:25
Sec. 4:  The Elusive Democratic Majority – 1:40:09
Conclusions:  Power & Pride – 1:47:45

We examine Red, White & Royal Blue as a window into the ideology of the Democratic Party and the liberal middle class in the early 21st Century, including its attraction to free trade, the Sun Belt, and particularly Texas, as symbols of the so-called “Emerging Democratic Majority” that would supposedly rule the rest of the century. We question the film’s basic opposition between idealism and realism and all of the implicit value judgments that it carries, and finally consider how the film excludes or avoids discussion of class and material issues, through a comparison with the 2014 British film “Pride.”

View this video on youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPEb9Zxx9eE

Please become a patron of historiansplaining in order to hear patron-only lectures --   / u5530632   -- and the see this video in its entirety without ads! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/1420325...

"I Do Not Need a Lecture from You About Idealism" -- The Political Ideology of RWRB

We read ghost-related poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lola Haskins, & Stanley Plumly, as a thank-you to patrons and a meditation on the field of history.

Please sign on as a patron in order to hear patron-only lectures, and to vote in the current poll on the next archaeological discovery for the series, "Doorways in Time":  https://www.patreon.com/posts/announcement-in-142272603

Most of my recent apperance on the Katie Halper show can be seen on youtube, beginning about here: https://youtu.be/aScGDE4CuHk?t=4398

Image: photograph from photobook, "Epitaph," by Brendon Burton

Halloween Reading & Thank you to Patrons

We follow the rise of civilization and of powerful empires in West Africa before the slave tade, based upon iron-working and the traffic in gold and salt across the Sahara, followed by the spread of wealth and power southward, towards the gold fields and the tropical forests, and finally the reverberating impacts of the arrival of Portuguese traders on the coast, which paved the way for the rise of the Atlantic slave trade.

Suggested further reading:  Rodney, “History of the Upper Guinea Coast”; Ajayi, ed., “History of West Africa,” vol. 1

Image:  Sculptural head from Ife, bronze & brass, ca. 1300s

Please sign on as a patron to hear patron-only lectures, including upcoming installment on Central AFrica:  https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

Cities of Iron & Gold: West Africa Before 1700

Excerpt of a lecture for patrons only for 1 year:
We explore the tumultuous history of Central Africa, embracing the enormous Congo rainforest, the great rift valleys, the Indian Ocean coast, and the gold fields of the Zambezi basin, as formidable kingdoms—Kongo, the Swahili cities, and the mysterious Great Zimbabwe—emerged in the tropical landscape, adapted to the traumatic incursion of the Portuguese, and eventually struck back against European power, through diplomatic schemes, military struggles, and religious awakenings. This same region of the world produced some of the most remarkable and towering figures in African or world history, such as King Afonso I and Queen Nzingha, as well as many of the first captives to be taken to the New World, including the “twenty-and-odd negroes” that were famously landed at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619.

Please sign on as a patron of historiansplaining in order to heat the full lecture:  https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

Image: Bronze crucifix, Kongo, 1650-1750, High Museum of Art

Suggested further reading:
Van Reybrouck, “Congo: The Epic History of a People”;
Edgerton, “The Troubled Heart of Africa: a History of the Congo”;
Wills, “An Introduction to the History of Central Africa”;
Heywood, “Njinga of Angola : Africa's Warrior Queen”
Samuel, “The kingdom of Ndongo and the Portuguese,” <https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-kingdom-of-ndongo-and-the-portuguese>;
Thornton, “The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684–1706”


Excerpt:  Crucible of the Continent: Central Africa before 1700

The beginning of a series of lectures on the Middle Ages.  We start by throwing out the junk, such as the notions that medievals smelled bad and liked to hunt witches, and then look into the mystical and apocalyptic roots of the idea that history should be divided into three ages.
Become a patron of Historiansplaining in order to hear the next lecture, on the "Dark Age," in which the medieval civilization first arose -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/8814492

Middle Ages 1: Exploding the Myth of the Middle Ages

We examine the forces that led the Pope to put forward the far-fetched scheme of mobilizing Christian knights to reclaim Jerusalem in 1095, and briefly consider what lesson the launching of the first Crusade holds for our own world almost 1,000 years later.
Become a patron of Historiansplaining in order to hear the lecture on the First Crusade and how it miraculously succeeded in capturing Jerusalem -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/11130531

Middle Ages 5: The Crusades -- Why Did They Happen?

We consider how best to understand the origins of the laws and customs of the Jewish people, or what we call "Judaism."  We begin by dispelling the notion that Judaism (or any other belief system apart from Christianity) can properly be called a "religion" -- a category that derives originally from Christian practice and does not make sense anywhere else.  We further examine the roots of the idea of "Judaism" as a concept for the Jewish way of life, concluding with a careful analysis of the meaning of the ancient Greek word "ioudaismos," which originates in the Book of Maccabees.  Finally, we trace the best possible explanation for the origins of the Jewish people in the Bronze-Age Near East, using archaeological evidence including an ancient Egyptian monument and the vandalized ruins of Canaanite temples.  Ultimately, we should be able to understand Judaism and its God as the creations of a particular Middle Eastern people not entirely unlike their ancient neighbors.
Special thanks to Daniel Boyarin for his help and inspiration.
Please become a patron at any level in order to hear the next lecture, on "The Jews of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution" -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/14535522

Judaism -- What Is It and Where Did It Come From?

We dissect the origins of the Hebrew Bible (also called the Old Testament by Christians), excavating the deepest layers of the collection of holy books, including the very ancient songs and prayers that were likely passed on orally for centuries before being written down, the scholarly theories of the lost documents that were stitched together to form Genesis and Exodus, and the differing points of view of the various prophets, scribes, and propagandists whose books made their way into the Hebrew canon.  Through this excavation, we discover a Bible comprising many voices, many facets, and many hidden meanings.
Please become a patron at any level, to hear the next lecture, on "Who Wrote the Bible? -- New Testament" :  https://www.patreon.com/posts/13773778

Who Wrote the Bible? -- Hebrew Scriptures

We join in the ongoing quest for the historical Jesus -- the struggle to unearth and understand who Jesus really was, what he said and did, and how he inspired a movement.  We trace the basic bare-bones facts that can be deduced from early Christian writings and brief references in other texts, including Jesus' baptism and crucifixion.  We throw out the flimsy theories of hacks like Reza Aslan and Bill O'Reilly, as well as the junk theory that no Jesus existed at all, and instead examine the new archeological evidence that helps to account for some of the strangest passages in the Gospels.
Please support these lectures! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

The Historical Jesus

Most of the human story is so-called "pre-history," which in fact is inseparable from history and still going on today. We trace the origins of the human species around 300,000 years ago in Africa, including our early adaptation into long-distance hunters.  We examine our long and awkward co-existence with other human-like species such as Neanderthals and Ebu Gogo, as well as our slow development of critical technologies like sewing and pottery that allowed us to out-compete them.  We trace the dangerous and improbable journey across sea channels and deserts that a small band of our distant ancestors had to make in order to populate the entire world beyond Africa.  Finally, we consider the mysterious roots of the technology that eventually allowed for the rise of urban civilization -- agriculture.
Please sign on as a patron to hear the sequel -- "Land of Vital Blood: Pre-Columbian America" -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/15158590

In Search of the Dawn: Human Prehistory

What did people do when the Roman empire fell apart around them?  Recent scholarship, based on new archeological discoveries and techniques, argues that in the "dark" centuries between 450 and 750 AD, the people of western Europe, from conquering kings to ordinary peasants, improvised new political alliances, maintained law and order, improved the productivity of their land, and invented new crafts and art forms, building a resilient and inventive society on the foundations (often literally) of the old.

Please support this podcast -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Suggested further reading:  Peter Wells, "Barbarians to Angels"

Cover image:  Visigothic bronze belt buckle with garnet and glass inlays, belonging to a woman in Spain, mid-6th century AD;  image provided by Cleveland Museum of Art.

Back to the Dark Age:  How People Adapted to the Fall of the Roman Empire

History lectures by Samuel Biagetti, a historian (and antique dealer) with a Phd in early American history; my dissertation was on Freemasonry in the 1700s. I focus on the historical myths and distortions, from "the Middle Ages" to "Race," that people use to rationalize the world in which we live.   More info at www.historiansplaining.com

Please see my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632, if you want to keep the lectures coming, and to hear the patron-only materials.

Historiansplaining

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks