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

We examine the prophetic warnings from scholars and bureaucrats that a great-power war in the twentieth century would lead to bloody stalemate, mass destruction, and a wave of revolutions; and we trace how war strategists and generals reacted to the prophets of doom, formulating new war plans, from Russia’s blundering steamroll, to Germany’s precarious and ill-fated Schlieffen plan, to Britain's devious and mercurial scheme of economic warfare. Suggested further reading: Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August”; Nicholas Lambert, “Planning Armageddon” Nicholas Lambert’s discussion of Britain’s hope of economic warfare, “The Short War Assumption” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7jJ-POo90&pp=ygUQbmljaG9sYXMgbGFtYmVydA%3D%3D Margaret MacMillan’s lecture on war planning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RUFHkal6Jk&pp=ygUbbWFyZ2FyZXQgbWFjbWlsbGFuIHBsYW5uaW5n Image: Cartoon of the dispute over Alsace-Lorraine as a medieval romance, Puck Magazine, 1898 Please sign up as a patron to support this podcast, and hear recent posts on Germany and Japan in the lead-up to World War I -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

The scale and horror of the First World War were possible only after the Nineteenth Century's double revolution in the nature of war. Warfare -- including weaponry, strategy, and command -- had remained mostly unchanged for three centuries, from the early integration of firearms in the 1400s until the French Revolution; the campaigns of Napoleon unleashed a new era of mass mobilization and nationalistic fury, while a series of haphazard improvements massively multiplied the killing power and reach of firearms, tearing open a battlefield "killing zone" unlike anything that prior generations of soldiers could have imagined. We follow both the breakdown in the old distinctions between war and civil society and the breakneck advance in land and sea warfare that set the stage for the nightmare of World War I. Image: Japanese riflemen defending a breastwork embankment, Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5. Margaret MacMillan on war & 19th-century society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJVe0KLONJU Nicholas Murray on the emergence of trench warfare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cbq7iu8FrI Suggested further reading: Nicholas Murray, "The Rocky Road to the Great War"; Margaret MacMillan, "The War That Ended Peace"; Hew Strachan, "A Clausewitz for Every Season," https://www.the-american-interest.com/2007/07/01/a-clausewitz-for-every-season/ Please sign on at any level to support this podcast and to hear the recent lectures on Germany, Bosnia, and Japan -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

In 2022, I was asked to contribute to a symposium at Yale Law School on the question, "How can the humanities inform tech policy and design to promote 'healthier' discourse and democracy online?" The ultimate result was this article, published in the 2023 symposium issue of the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities. A scanned pdf of the article can be found as an attachment here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/100047377 I also gave a short presentation at the symposium in 2022; since visual evidence is important to the argument of this article, I hope to expand upon the slides that I used in that presentation in order to produce a video with a full-length visual track to accompany the article. Film of Sumi Jo performing second half of Olympia's aria, "Les Oiseaux dans la Charmille," in Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann," at Opera de Lille, 1997: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW2iiZ8MyGI Thank you to the editors and staff of the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities and the Justice Collaboratory.

A sample from, "Origins of the First World, pt. 10 -- Japan" To hear the entire lecture, sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/origins-of-first-99483180 We trace the evolution of Japanese society -- including the tensions between its peaceable, Buddhist-inspired aspect and its martial aspect; its extraordinary transformation in the Meiji period, from an antiquated hermit kingdom to a dynamic modern power; and its crucial alliance with its European mirror image, Great Britain – which set the stage for its role in the First World War. Dan Carrick & Japanese singers’ performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1885 adaptation of the Meiji anthem, “Miya Sama” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOh5MIVP1bU A Japanese rendition of “Miya Sama” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DpgzFtHuBg Image: the grand receiving room of Nijojo, Kyoto Suggested further reading: Perez, “The History of Japan”; Mason & Caiger, “A History of Japan,” 2nd ed.

Audio track from my recent video -- "Red, White & Royal Blue: A Historian's Analysis -- Introduction: 'I Know I Owe You an Explanation'" -- We consider the political, literary, and artistic dimensions of the recent movie, "Red, White and Royal Blue" -- a gay romance on the international theme -- beginning with an overview of its origins as an escapist novel in the Trump and pandemic period, its unusual status as a same-sex "romantic comedy," and its political symbolism as a response to the crisis of confidence in American institutions and of American standing in the world. We then examine two examples of subtext and multiple meanings encoded in the film, as a preview of future analysis. To skip the preliminaries and go straight to the analysis, go to 46:40 To view this video on youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6hLiraFY0k To view the video without ads on Patreon -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/98784602 Ethan Clark's youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ethanclarkreacts Marco Cera's youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@marcocera993

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: In the second half of the nineteenth century, many of the most brilliant and ambitious minds in both Europe and America were bent upon solving the problem of capturing sound waves from the air and playing them back. Most of their efforts, including the earliest "phonautograms" from more than a decade before Edison's invention of the phonograph, were either forgotten or lost to decay and degradation. In the past fifteen years, however, scientists and engineers, including the First Sounds collective, have located the surviving remnants of early sound recordings and devised ways to optically scan them and reproduce the sounds that they captured, revealing much of the auditory world of the nineteenth century and the pathways by which the now-ubiquitous technology of audio recording came into being. Special thanks to the First Sounds collective, for recovering long-lost audio recordings and sharing their files freely with the global public, at www.firstsounds.org. All audio files used in this lecture are courtesy of First Sounds, except for the Edison/Wangemann cylinder recording from 1889, which is courtesy of the National Park Service and the Cylinder Archive. Image: engraving print of a Scott phonautograph. Please support this podcast at any level in order to hear all patron-only lectures when released, including recent lectures on Germany and Bosnia in the lead-up to World War One: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We consider the efforts of the British state, in the Victorian era and in the early 20th century, to maintain its position as the premier naval and imperial power on Earth, and to contain the political and military challenges from the borderlands of the empire, the German challenge from Europe, and the series of internal threats to the British social system -- including the radicalized labour and women's suffrage movements and the bitter fight over Irish Home Rule, which brought the United Kingdom to the brink of civil war mere weeks before the assassination in Sarajevo. Image: Liberal Party propaganda poster promoting the People's Budget, ca. 1910. Suggested further reading: George Dangerfield, "The Strange Death of Liberal England." Please sign up as a patron to hear patron-only lectures on Germany and Bosnia! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

In keeping with a Historiansplaining holiday tradition, we try to make sense of the various struggles and conflicts of this yearby uncovering their deeper historical contexts, including: --the roots of the Israel/Palestine conflict in the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire; --the precedents for the bitter House Speakership struggle; --the gradual realignment in the international balance of power, instantiated in the expansion of BRICS; --the geopolitical stakes of the fight over Nagorno-Karabakh; and --the histories of labor militancy that lie behind the strikes in Hollywood and Detroit See my appearance on the Katie Halper show to discuss the travails of Zionism and Palestine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL_EzoyY17A Corrections: I wrote my article for Yale Journal of Law and Humanities (“In the American Tempest”) in 2022, not 2021; The Screen Writers Guild, the precursor of the WGA, was founded in 1920, not the 1930s. Image: Palestinians harvesting wheat, Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, 2020, by Rizek Abdeljawad / Xinhua Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures and to help keep this podcast coming: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

In the age of absolutism, France had towered over European life and politics -- the only nation that was a major land power on the Continent and a colonial metropole with an overseas empire at the same time. Yet by 1900, tossed about by repeated revolutions and coups and torn asunder by often petty internal culture wars, France was falling behind its rivals to become almost a second-rate power. Once the Radical Party rode the Dreyfus Affair into government, they had to rush to reposition France to try to take advantage of the tensions and instability in the Balkans, and prepare the nation to possibly face off once more against their archrival across the Rhine -- Germany. Image: illustration of the "degradation" ceremony of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, in Le Petit Journal, 1895. Christopher Clark's lecture on "France and the Origins of the Great War": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx_V4NAUuW8 Suggested further reading: Romier, "A History of France," Norwich, "A History of France," Maurois, "A History of France." Please sign on as a patron to hear patron-only lectures, including the earlier lecture on Germany -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Exploring the controversial topic of UFOs from a historical perspective, separate from debunking. Examining UFOs as a modern myth and the difficulties in understanding them. World War II encounters with UFOs and the Foo Fighters. Historical UFO sightings in Germany and the context of the gunpowder revolution. Analyzing Diana Walsh Passalca's book on UFOs and the contradictory nature of beliefs. Investigative projects and government cover-ups in UFO sightings. Limitations of UFO evidence and the importance of documents and eyewitness testimony. Government use of UFOs as a distraction and the power struggle involved. The influence of social factors on perceived truth. Parallels between microbes and unresolved UFO mystery.