Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong

Could it be that "Shakespeare" wasn't Shakespeare? -- that someone else, perhaps a highly-educated aristocrat, actually wrote the works attributed to the actor from Stratford? Am I a crackpot for even entertaining such a ridiculous idea? We consider the evidence. This is the last installment in my series about William Shakespeare. Become a patron to hear the whole discussion: https://www.patreon.com/posts/32922586

Unlocked after one year for patrons only, a discussion of our fixation with organizing political views into an axis "left" against "right": As new political parties -- left-populists, neo-fascists, and secessionists -- rapidly rise and fall across Europe and other Western countries, and spontaneous protests blur partisan boundaries in the streets of Paris, the old left-to-right scale of political ideology is just not working. What value does this one-dimensional model of politics have, and where did it come from? In fact, it has to do with where you sit at a formal dinner party. Please sign up as a patron to hear patron-only lectures -- including the next "Myth of the Month," on the historical, political, and psychological meanings of "Game of Thrones" -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/25597371 Suggested further reading: Yuval Levin, "The Great Debate"; Jonathan Haidt, "The Righteous Mind"

How could Shakespeare have possibly allowed his sonnets -- personal, sexual, and often scandalous -- to be published? I advance my own theory to account for the printing of the most shocking book of poetry in the history of literature, and discuss the possibilities as to the identities of the alluring Young Man and Dark Lady. Finally, we consider the light that the Sonnets shed upon Shakespeare's plays, particularly his obsession with gender ambiguity and androgyny. Become a patron to hear my upcoming discussion of the Shakespeare authorship controversy (the notion that somebody else wrote the works of Shakespeare) www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 CORRECTION: In thanking my patrons at the end of this episode, I mistakenly referred to "Christopher Grant" instead of "Christopher Grady." Apologies and thanks. Poems analyzed in this lecture: 17, 20, 135, 136, 138, 144 Full text of Shakespeare's sonnets, searchable: www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/Archive/allsonn.htm Suggested further reading: Katherine Duncan-Jones, ed., "Shakespeare's Sonnets"; Joseph Pequigney, "Such Is My Love"; Lynn Magnusson, "A Modern Perspective" in Folger Shakespeare Library's edition of Shakespeare's Poems; Don Paterson, "Shakespeare's Sonnets," (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/16/shakespeare-sonnets-don-paterson); Saul Frampton, "In Search of Shakespeare's Dark Lady" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/10/search-shakespeares-dark-lady-florio); Macd. P. Jackson, "The Authorship of 'A Lover's Complaint,'" The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Sep. 2008

What do Shakespeare's sonnets actually say? What can they tell us about the life or character of the man who penned them? Not only romantic and philosophical, the sonnets are erotic, desperate, and often angry, laced with shocking sexual imagery and emotional confession; as a group, they break all conventions of Elizabethan poetry, and trace the ghostly outline of two passionate affairs -- one a brief, tawdry fling with a mature voluptuous woman, and one a long, fraught relationship with an androgynous young man. This will be followed by a discussion of the publication of the sonnets, the possible identities of the "Dark Lady" and "Fair Youth," and their relation to the plays; and then by a discussion for patrons only of the "authorship controversy." Please support this podcast in order to keep the lectures coming and make them regular and dependable! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 Poems analyzed in this lecture: 1, 18, 20, 27, 33, 50, 52, 80, 86, 116, 127, 128, 129, 144 Full text of Shakespeare's sonnets, searchable: http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/Archive/allsonn.htm Suggested further reading: Katherine Duncan-Jones, ed., "Shakespeare's Sonnets"; Joseph Pequigney, "Such Is My Love"; Lynn Magnusson, "A Modern Perspective" in Folger Shakespeare Library's edition of Shakespeare's Poems.

Who was William Shakespeare? He is far more elusive, and his life more obscure, than his fans and biographers will admit. We consider the massive, bloated mythology that has built up around the great Bard over the centuries, and then examine the remarkably scant surviving documentary records from the writer's own lifetime, which tend to paint a both bizarre and unflattering picture. The first of three installments examining the reality of Shakespeare. Please support this podcast in order to keep the lectures coming and make them regular and dependable! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 Suggested further reading: S. Schoenbaum, "William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life"; James Shapiro, "Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?"; Diana Price, "Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography."

Struggles between chief executives and legislatures are dominating the news on both sides of the Atlantic, as Americans debate impeachment and the UK is engulfed by a Brexistential crisis. Most of the terms and precedents for these struggles go back to the 1600s and King Charles I's efforts to govern without the support of Parliament, which led to political backlash, civil war, and social upheaval from the halls of Westminster to the smallest peasant farmsteads. Please support this podcast in order to keep the lectures coming and make them regular and dependable! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 Suggested further reading: Hill, "The Elizabethan Puritan Movement"; Tyacke, "The Anti-Calvinists"; Walzer, "The Revolution of the Saints"; Mendle, ed., "The Putney Debates"

After one year, my lecture on the only authentic pre-Columbian European artifact ever found in the United States becomes public. Please support this podcast on Patreon to hear the patron-only lectures when they are posted -- including object #5 -- a set of glass beads left behnid by the Hernando de Soto expedition -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/22678911 --Created in Norway, 1069-1080 AD, during reign of King Olaf Kyrre --Made of silver alloy --Found at Goddard Site, Naskeag Point, Maine, dated 1100s-1200s AD The only authentic Norse artifact ever found in the United States, this small silver coin dated to the 11th century may be an elaborate hoax, or a crucial clue to trade and contact between Europe and America in the centuries between the fall of Vinland and the arrival of Columbus.

We consider the vast sweep of Central Asian history, from the first nomads to tame the horse and gain mastery of the steppes, to the splendrous cities of the first Silk Road, to the rise of Ghenghis Khan. Few Westerners learn the dizzyingly complex and tumultuous history of Central Asia, even though it forms the linchpin connecting all the major civilizations of the Old World, from Europe to Persia to China. Finally, we consider the unsettling paradox of the Mongol empire, which fostered a vibrant cosmopolitanism at the same time that it brutally repressed subject peoples. Please support this podcast, in order to hear all patron-only lectures, including, "The History of Central Asia -- pt. 2", on the rise of the Ottoman Turks and the Russian empire, the Soviet era, and the struggles over mineral resources, nuclear sites, and global trade in the post-Soviet age -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/29126231 Suggested further reading: Peter Golden, "Central Asia in World History"; Gavin Hambly, "Central Asia"; Rene Grousset, "The Empire of the Steppes"

Freemasonry: What is it? Where does it come from? What is one taught as a Freemason? What do they do in their closed-door rituals -- and why? Freemasonry in the 1700s is my own field of research, and as a thank-you for reaching 50 patrons, I give a deep illumination of this unusual Society's roots in the gatherings of stonemasons in the late Middle Ages, its mythical connections to Solomon's Temple and the Crusades, and its elaborate system of symbols and initiatory rituals, which cast the Masons as a quasi-priestly caste with a shamanic connection to the world of the dead. Please support this podcast and hear the next lecture! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 Suggested Further Reading: David Stevenson, "Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century"; Margaret Jacob, "Living the Enlightenment"; Jessica Harland-Jacobs, "Builders of Empire"; Ric Berman, "The Foundations of Modern Freemasonry"; Steven Bullock, "Revolutionary Brotherhood"; Jasper Ridley, "The Freemasons"

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.