History of Human Thought

Connecting The Present

Becoming "Modern"

Myths of the Month

We examine how medieval scholars battled over the meanings of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and of the Christian religion, while illiterate artisans made breakthroughs in architecture, engineering, metallurgy, and alchemy.  The vast body of medieval scholarship came under attack during the Renaissance as so many "metaphysical obscurities," while today we stand on the precipice of a true Dark Age of ignorance.
Become a patron to hear the next installment -- Middle Ages 10: Sex and Sexuality in the Middle Ages -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/11878439

Middle Ages 9: Knowledge and Ignorance in the Middle Ages (and Today)

We cap off the series of lectures on the Middle Ages by piecing together how the people of the high and late Middle Ages understood their place in the cosmos.  From the lowliest peasants to popes and emperors, medievals believed they formed the limbs of a living, breathing social body, and that body or tree was part of a Great Chain of Being connecting rocks and dirt to stars and planets and ultimately to God.  Through these metaphors we can understand why medievals disapproved of commerce and abhorred high finance.  We end with a commentary on the great, crowning statement of the late medieval mind, the prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Please support these lectures, at https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Middle Ages 11: The Pulsating Body -- The Medieval World View

We examine the enigmatic and elusive figure of Columbus, from his likely Jewish background, to his bizarre and hairbrained scheme of sailing to Asia, his brutal and chaotic invasion of the West Indies, his struggle to defend his honors and titles, and finally his apocalyptic vision of his own role in the End Times.  We consider how Columbus, a fairly obscure and rejected figure after his death, came to be held up as a symbol of both the best and the worst of the American psyche.
Please support these lectures to keep them coming! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Columbus -- The Tragedy and the Enigma

Exactly five centuries ago this month, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, thus sparking the Protestant Reformation.  He was concerned not with freedom of thought nor with abuse of power by the Pope, as moderns might like to think, but with exposing the false doctrine that a person’s good actions can earn them a place in Heaven.  Wracked by guilt and fear of going to hell, Luther had found relief only in the idea of a free, unmerited salvation.  We consider Luther’s tactics in his war to reform the church, from his obsession with excrement to his attacks on Jews, all of which stemmed from his fundamental belief that he was engaged in a war for the soul of the Church against Satan and the Anti-Christ.  [Contains adult language]
Please sign on as a patron in order to hear the next installment in this series on "The Century of Splintering: The Reformation in its Swiss and Radical Phases, 1519-1619" -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/18658722

Martin Luther: Shout at the Devil

The first part of an examination and discussion of Douglas Murray's controversial book, "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam" (Bloomsbury, 2017), and its dire warning that a wave of migrants with beliefs and customs inimical to the West are on the verge of changing Europe forever.  We weigh his careful debunking of elite mythology about immigration against his own falsehoods and manipulations of the facts.  Finally, we consider his harrowing portrayal of a continent adrift without a sense of purpose, history, or belonging, and the truly difficult questions that it raises.
Please sign on as a patron to hear the second part of this review! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/16314679

Book Review: "The Strange Death of Europe" -- Part 1

The early modern era – from the 1400s through the 1700s – is the monarchical age par excellence, with  royal courts presiding over consolidated realms and monstrous armies capable of crushing smaller neighbors and internal rivals.  The map of Europe transformed, and the reasons were, firstly, technological: the printing press broke through previous barriers to the creation of texts, allowing for the rapid spread of new ideas and propaganda, while new infantry tactics and gunpowder allowed royal governments to batter down the power of mounted knights and castles.  Society became ever more centered on royal power and patronage, leaving behind a vestigial nobility to seek out a new role in the world or give way to nostalgia, as dramatized in the first great psychological novel, Don Quixote.  We conclude by considering Cervantes’ novel as a touchstone of the shift from the medieval world, where reality is defined by social relationships, to the modern, where reality is defined by the senses.
Please sign on as a patron in order to hear the next lecture in the series -- on "Making the Modern State: Spain, Portugal, and the Inquisition"! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/16827184

The Print and Gunpowder Revolutions, 1300-1700

We trace how Portugal and Spain, two previously marginal European kingdoms, rapidly and unexpectedly exploded onto the world scene, building a chain of fortified colonies stretching from North Africa to China, and conquering the larger and richer empires of Mexico and Peru.  The early Iberian colonizers sought to continue the tradition of the Crusades and the Reconquista, and saw their foreign conquests as steps towards retaking Jerusalem; the benefited not only from superior weaponry and navigation, but from cataclysmic disease epidemics that brought the Pre-Columbian empires to their knees.
Please contribute what you can in the spirit of knowledge and inquiry! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632
Suggested further reading:  Russell: "Prince Henry 'The Navigator': A Life";  Restall, "Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest";  Brading, "The First America."

Spanish and Portuguese Expansion and the Conquest of the Americas

All of history is, to one degree or another, mythology -- the weaving of a coherent, usable narrative out of the chaos of people's lives.  We consider how societies all over the world, since before the beginning of civilization, have developed myths to explain the world that they experience.  We also trace some of the major schools of academic history, which have tried to fashion overarching storylines to give meaning to human struggles -- from Biblical providential history to Marxism to postmodernism.  We begin by examining the most central myth of the origins of American society: the "first Thanksgiving."
Suggested further reading:  Giambattista Vico, "The New Science";  Marc Bloch, "The Historian's Craft";  Hayden White, "Metahistory"
Please sign on as a patron to hear the first "Myth of the Month" lecture -- on "The Enlightenment" -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/17538756

The Myths We Make: Using the past as an ideological tool

We trace how a small group of scholars, obsessed with classical antiquity, mastered the more ancient form of Latin, thus unlocking the worlds of Roman and Greek politics.  Seeing themselves as the peers and equals of the ancient statesmen, the "humanists" called for a new form of learning aimed towards action and ambition.  Machiavelli sketched out the path to princely power, Erasmus excavated the original meanings of the Bible, and Michelangelo captured the subtle powers of the human body.  The humanists invented the idea of a "modern" era distinct from the "Dark Ages," and furthered the transformation of Europeans' grasp of reality -- from a realm defined by social relationships to one defined by the senses.

Please become a patron of this podcast in order to hear the next lecture in this series -- on: "The Life of the Commoners -- Adaptation and Rebellion, 1400-1600" -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/18094403

Suggested further reading:  Jacob Burckhardt, "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy";  JGA Pocock, "The Machiavellian Moment";  Pamela Smith, "The Body of the Artisan"

Renaissance Humanism

Universities are unique -- a quintessential product of the High Middle Ages that has miraculously survived and even flourished in the modern world. In the first part of the history of universities, we examine the origins of the first universities in the power struggles of Popes and emperors; the ways that medieval students learned, lived, and annoyed their elders; and the ways that universities adapted to and withstood serious challenges from Renaissance humanism and the republic of letters.
Next will be the rise of universities in America, the modern research university, and the current crisis of academia.

Please support Historiansplaining, in the spirit of knowledge and inquiry, and to get patron-only lectures such as part 2 of this history of universities:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/25222358

Suggested further reading:  Walter Ruegg, ed., “A History of the University in Europe,” 4 vols.;  William Clark, “Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University”;  Olaf Pedersen, "The FIrst Universities."

Image: "Master and Scholars," illustration from "L'Image du Monde," copybook by Gautier de Metz, 1464, in collection of British Library.

Intro music: Domenico Scarlatti, Sonata in D minor, played on harpsichord by Wanda Landowska.

History of Universities, Part 1:  Flower of the Middle Ages

--In time for Passover, this lecture on the myth of the Exodus from Egypt, which I recorded solely for patrons one year ago, becomes public for all.--

We examine the origins and the political and theological meanings of the myth of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.  We consider the possible real historical events that might underly the exodus story, including the argument put forward in Richard Elliot Friedman's new book, The Exodus.  Finally, we trace some of the many ways that peoples around the world, from the early Christians to Rastafaris, have adopted the exodus myth and cast themselves as the new Israelites.

Please sign on as a patron in order to hear the next installment in this series – “Myth of the Month 3:  The Exodus” – https://www.patreon.com/posts/18937861

Myth of the Month 2: The Exodus

After one year for patrons only, the fourth Myth of the Month becomes free for the public:

Do societies become more "secular" as they become modern? Do science, technology, or democracy weaken religious belief?  We consider theories of secularization ranging from Max Weber's story of "disenchantment" to Charles Taylor's "A Secular Age."  Current survey data show a dramatic rise in the number of "nones" -- those who do not adhere to any particular religious group, even though most of them still pray, read scriptures, or express belief in God.

Please support this podcast in order to hear all patron-only lectures -- including Myth of the Month #5 -- Capitalism! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/20915273

Suggested Further Reading:  Charles Taylor, "A Secular Age";  Max Weber, "Science as a Vocation";  Pew Research Center, "In America, Does More Education Equal Less Religion?"

Image of abandoned church courtesy of Emma (https://www.flickr.com/people/27505473@N02) via Flickr.

Myth of the Month 4: Secularization -- or, Send in the Nones!

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.