Historically Thinking

“He was a bold man who first ate an oyster,” observed Jonathan Swift; and in fact the first human interaction with the Atlantic Ocean was probably eating shellfish, traces of which can be found along the Western Cape of South Africa dating back 160,000 years ago. When humans began to finally live in numbers along the ocean coast, their culture changed. They took their food from it, and from the shoreline, and their metals from the rocks and marshes along its coast. In time they built boats capable of venturing along those coasts, and then gradually farther and farther out. All of this, my guest John Haywood argues, was foundational for what was to come. He writes:  The history of the pre-Columbian Atlantic is…the where and when that Europeans served their apprenticeships in ocean navigation, commerce and colonialism, and that saw them formulate the ideologies they used to justify their territorial claims and their exploitation of colonized peoples. When Europeans finally broke out onto the world’s oceans in the sixteenth century, they already had everything they needed to secure global domination. John Haywood is a historian of the Vikings, and of the early maritime history of the North Atlantic. The author of numerous books, his latest is Ocean: A History of the Atlantic before Columbus.

“India has 2,000,000 million gods, and worships them all,” wrote Mark Twain, following his 1896 speaking tour of British India. “In religion other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire.” Twain was exaggerating, but perhaps only a little. Consider that Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism all took form some 2,500 years ago in South Asia, that they and their offshoots are now practiced by hundreds of millions of people around the world, and you will see how that wealth has been spread about.  In his new book Religions of Early India: A Cultural History, Richard H. Davis explores how that wealth was accumulated, and how it began to be spent. Beginning from before the earliest written records–which are, for a Western historian, astonishingly early–he traces the story forward to thirteen hundred years before the present, in approximately 700 AD, just as the entire Afro-Eurasian world was about to be transformed by the advent of Islam.  Richard H. Davis is Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Religion at Bard College.  His primary research and teaching interests include classical and medieval Hinduism, Indian history, South Asian visual arts, and Sanskrit. He is author of, among numerous other books, The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography. Religions of Early India is his most recent, and is the subject of our conversation today.

Clare Mulley, an author known for uncovering the stories of women in World War I and II, joins to discuss Elzbieta Zawacka—a Polish mathematician turned courageous resistance fighter. They explore Elzbieta's daring life, from leading women's military training to organizing espionage networks in Nazi-occupied Poland. Her unique role as the only female parachutist during the war is highlighted, alongside the struggles she faced post-war. The conversation reveals the often-overlooked contributions of women in the fight for freedom, illuminating their heroism and resilience.

Andrew Hui, an Associate Professor at Yale-NUS College and author of "The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries," dives into the fascinating realm of the sixteenth-century studiolo. He highlights how these private sanctuaries nurtured intellectual growth amidst societal turmoil. Topics include the influence of solitude on literary figures like Don Quixote and Dr. Faustus, the significance of personal sanctuaries in fostering creativity, and the transformative power of reading. Hui draws connections between past and present, exploring the cultural legacy of book collecting and solitary reflection.

Eric A. Moyen and John Thelin, experts in higher education, dive into the fascinating history of college sports in the U.S. They explore how collegiate athletics evolved from student-led competitions to a major influencer on university identity. The duo discusses the symbiotic relationship between sports and academia, the tensions of commercialization, and the impact of desegregation. They also highlight the financial challenges facing today’s athletic programs and question the sustainability of this unique American institution.

Join James Chappel, Gilhuly Family Associate Professor of History at Duke University, as he unpacks how the 1935 Social Security Act revolutionized American perceptions of aging. He highlights shifts from stigmatized language to dignified terms like 'senior citizens.' The discussion dives into the impact of advocacy groups, the evolution of retirement from elites to the working class, and Florida's rise as a retirement hotspot. Chappel emphasizes the importance of recognizing older individuals' active roles in society and calls for innovative approaches to aging policy.

Eugene Finkel, Kenneth H. Keller Professor at Johns Hopkins and author of "Intent to Destroy," dives deep into the historical struggle for Ukrainian identity against Russian domination. He unpacks Russia's persistent oppression tactics since the 19th century, including cultural erasure and famine. Unlike past attempts, Ukraine's recent unification against aggression marks a significant shift. The conversation also touches on the Cossack legacy, the impact of Soviet policies, and the evolution of radical nationalism, prompting a reevaluation of historical narratives.

As today’s guest writes in the introduction of her new book Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson, “For more than two hundred years, John Dickinson has suffered from an image problem that no one in his day would have thought possible." In Signers’ Hall at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the statue of John Dickinson stands alone in a corner, hand pensively on chin, apart from the action of the Federal Convention…Alternatively, they might imagine him in the manner of the musical 1776, strutting across a stage, ever to the right, never to the left, with ruffles aflutter, singing jubilantly about his conservatism. There he at least possesses the virtue of energy. Or they could imagine him as HBO’s pale, sweaty, scowling disbeliever in the American cause, opposite a stalwart John Adams. But none of these images of him is accurate.” That is if we have any images of him in our heads at all–which, to be honest, is highly unlikely. This conversation aims to change that.  Jane E. Calvert is Founding Director and Chief Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project, which under her guidance has produced three of a projected 13 volumes of Dickinson’s prolific output. She is the authority on Quaker political thought, which she has delineated in Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson. Penman of the Founding is now the definitive biography of John Dickinson, and hopefully the basis for much more scholarly work.

A forensic reconstruction of Saint Rose of Lima From the early 16th century, and for over two hundred years after that, a series of convulsions within the Christian church of Western Europe led to its splintering, but also to an incredibly rapid movement of ideas and practices to the four corners of the earth. These convulsions—or reformations—were responsible not only for changes in the practice and beliefs of Christianity, but dramatic social and cultural changes everywhere they occurred. Even though these changes have usually been told as the story of men, women were often at the heart of these reformations. On every continent with the exception of Antarctica—which, to be fair, was undiscovered and therefore unpopulated—women drove forward the transformations of religious life. From royal thrones and the homes of prominent reformers, to the monasteries in Peru and the shores of the southernmost home island of Japan, the stories of how women participated in these reformations gives us not only a fuller picture of these extraordinary events, but a new way of thinking about them and defining them. My guest Merry Wiesner-Hanks is distinguished professor of history and women’s and gender studies emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is the author or editor of thirty books, the most recent of which is Women and the Reformations: A Global History, which is the subject of our conversation today.   For Further Investigation Previous conversations somewhat related to this one are with Ron Rittgers on Luther's reformation; with Tara Nummedal on Anna Ziegelerin and the curious case of the Lion's blood; and with Michael Winship on "the warmer sort of Protestants" "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Herrnhut Jon Sensbach, Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World

His lectures at the College de France were so popular that people arrived at the lecture hall at least an hour in advance. When he finally spoke, it was standing room only, with men literally climbing in the windows. During his first visit to New York, his presence on the Columbia University campus caused one of the earliest recorded traffic jams. And when the French government sought to encourage the United States to enter the war in 1917, they chose him as one of their principal emissaries, given his intellectual heft and worldwide celebrity. This was the philosopher Henri Bergson, and if you are an English speaker you might be forgiven for not knowing about him, or having heard the name once or twice, but not being aware of why. He was in many ways emblematic of the Belle Epoque, and as that era was interred in hastily dug trenches during the autumn of 1914, Bergson’s celebrity and influence seemed to be buried with it. But celebrity was not his goal; philosophy was, and his celebrity often obscured his ideas.  With me to discuss the life, ideas, and world of Henri Bergson is Emily Herring. She received her PhD in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Leeds. The focus of our conversation today is her new book Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People, which is the first English-language biography of Bergson.  For Further Investigation An earlier philosopher who once lived in Clermont Ferrand Zeno's paradoxes An essay explaining some of the mysteries of French higher education An introductory essay by Emily Herring to Henri Bergson I was ready and waiting for a book on Henri Bergson because of my conversation with Michael Rapport about Paris in Episode 360