What to make of this wonderful year? I venture into a little punditry, and give a clip from my patron-only lecture on the enigmatic alchemical physician's chair that belonged to John Winthrop Junior, the "magus of Connecticut." please become a patron! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

How did the early church hammer out a shared set of practices and teachings out of the welter of confusion and bitter contestation among Montanists, Docetists, Donatists, Paulines, Gnostics, and Ebionites? Why did it take 300 years just for the church to settle on the "creed" that most of us now understand as the core of the faith? please become a patron! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 image: earliest known manuscript of the Didache suggested reading: E. Glenn Hinson, "The Early Church" for context: --on composition of the New Testament texts: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/who-wrote-the-bible-new-testament --on the historical Jesus: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/the-historical-jesus

How did a small movement of Jewish fanatics, devastated by the ignominious demise of their leader, rise to become the official state religion of the Roman empire, Armenia, Georgia, and Ethiopia? We trace the dramatic rise of the new faith through three centuries of preaching, prophesy, and persecution. image: fresco of a woman at the 3rd-century house-church of Dura-Europos please become a patron! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 suggested reading: E. Glenn Hinson, "The Early Church" for context: --on composition of the New Testament texts: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/who-wrote-the-bible-new-testament --on the historical Jesus: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/the-historical-jesus

Teaser sample of "Myth of the Month 14: Astrology." Become a Patron at any level to hear the complete Myths of the Month: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44717945 Description: Why do we divide history into epochs separated by "revolutions"? Astrology. How did Magellan chart his course around the globe? Astrology. How did Ronald Reagan schedule his acts of state? Astrology. We trace how the highest of the occult arts evolved from interpreting omens in ancient Babylonia, to containing medieval epidemics, to providing fodder for middle-brow magazines. Whether you are a believer or not, astrology is the secret rhythm of our lives. Suggested further reading: Benson Bobrick, "The Fated Sky"; Nicholas Campion, "The Great Year," Julie Beck, "The New Age of Astrology," The Atlantic magazine; Elijah Wolfson, "Your Zodiac Sign, Your Health," The Atlantic magazine; Sonia Saraiya, "Seeing Stars," Vanity Fair magazine. Image: Horoscope (birth chart) cast for Iskandar Sultan, grandson of Tamerlane, born 1384.

When we speak of "absolutism," most of us think immediately of Louis XIV, the Sun King, and his splendrous court at Versailles. But those glittering images cover over a centuries-long struggle by the Bourbon dynasty to consolidate power by forging quiet strategic alliances with the lower and middle classes against the nobility, building up a precarious potemkin village that would soon collapse under financial strain, throwing all of Europe into confusion. Please become a patron to hear the upcoming Myth of the Month: Astrology -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 Image: Louis XIV as Jupiter, vanquisher of the Fronde, Charles Poerson, 1650s.

How did a series of brutally conquered states and forced labor camps evolve over 200 years into a flourishing empire of trade, art, and culture? How did this new civilization manage land, money, and the status distinctions of ancestry and color? Why did Spanish America, one of the biggest imperial domains ever seen on earth, fail to benefit the mother country? And how did a cloistered nun in Mexico City come to be known as the first intellectual leading light of the Americas? Please become a patron to hear the upcoming Myth of the Month: Astrology -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 Image: Depiction of John the Evangelist in feather art, Mexico, 1500s, held by National Museum of Art, Mexico City Suggested further reading: D.A. Brading, "The First America"; John Elliott, "Empires of the Atlantic World"

--Made of cast iron, probably in the Netherlands, ca. 1650 --found at the Schuyler Flatts, Colonie, New York --held by the New York State Museum A mysterious fragment of an iron fireback found near the hearth of an old manor house in what was New Netherlands shows how we have misunderstood the Dutch -- a people who strove for stability, domesticity, and traditional social hierarchy to link their far-flung colonies with the homeland. Image courtesy of the state of New York. Please support this podcast and hear all lectures, including the previous "History of the United States in 100 Objects" -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

What happened to England in the power vacuum left in the wake of the execution of Charles I? Why were the Puritans, so pious in morals and strict in governance, unable to create a lasting Commonwealth? And why did the return of the monarchy unleash a wave of lewd hedonism that is shocking even more than three centuries later? The explosion of empire, the slave trade, religious toleration, the modern metropolis of London, the enshrinement of theater as the English national art form, the two-party system, and the consitutional balance of power still in place in both Britain and the United States -- all of these have their roots in the tumultuous years from 1650 to 1685; if there is any period of English history that you must know in order to understand the present, it is this one. My Patreon – please support to hear the next Myth of the Month! – www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Feudalism – it’s what they did in the Middle Ages! Nobles controlled the land and extracted labor from the serfs, and everyone from peasants to great lords was arranged in a big hierarchical pyramid leading up to the king. Or were they? We examine the ambiguities inherent in the idea of “feudalism,” and the reasons why it simply cannot hold up to examination against the historical record. Finally, we consider why the myth of feudalism developed and has persisted as a way of justifying the inequalities of our own era. Suggested further reading: Carl Stephenson, “Mediaeval Feudalism”; Susan Reynolds, “Fiefs and Vassals”; Elizabeth Brown, “Tyranny of a Construct.” Music: “A Gut Yor,” written by David Meyerowitz and performed by Joseph Feldman, 1915, courtesy of Yiddish Penny Songs, http://www.yiddishpennysongs.com/2017/09/a-gut-yor-git-yuhr-zu-alle-leite-gut.html My recent conversation on the queer Talmud podcast, “Xai, How Are You?” – https://soundcloud.com/xaihowareyou/32-why-god My Patreon – please support to hear the next Myth of the Month! – www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

How did the Restoration of the English monarchy and the dawn of empire set the stage for the peculiar set of practices and assumptions that we now call "science," and how did they begin to unlock powerful secrets of the earth, the heavens, fire, and steam? And why did John Locke kind of secretly hate Isaac Newton? Please support this podcast and hear all lectures, including the recent examination of the "historical" King Arthur -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 Image: "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump," by Joseph Wright, 1768