For over a century, scholars, politicians, and pundits have debated the supposed causes of the First World War, from German naval provocations to the rising global tide of nationalism. All of these explanations tend to ignore the simple fact that the war began in eastern Europe, triggered by regional feuding and violence in what had previously been the Ottoman provinces. We begin our exploration of the roots of World War I by following the struggles of the declining Ottoman Empire to hold its ground and contain ethnic and religious strife as Western powers circle like vultures around the so-called "sick man of Europe." Image: View over Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, to the Bosporus Suggested further reading: Alan Palmer, "Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire." music: "Fandango," by Scarlatti or Soler, midi file version by El Gran Mago Paco Quito. Please become a patron to support the podcast and hear patron-only lectures, including upcoming Myth of the Month: Culture -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We follow the dramatic evolution of Indian civilization after the fall of the Gupta empire, tracing from the specctacular rise of trade, art, and new religious movements in the southern kingdoms, through the tumult and fragmentation of the northern statelets and the cataclysmic invasions of raiders from Central Asia, and finally to the creation of Islamic states in the subcontinent just in time for the arrival of the first European ships in Indian ports. Suggested Further Reading: Thapar, "A History of India, vol. 1" My previous two lectures on India: https://www.patreon.com/posts/india-pt-1-in-56820942 https://www.patreon.com/posts/india-pt-2-of-57460725 Image: Brihadisvara Temple, Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, 1003-1010 AD. Please become a patron to hear all patron-only lectures, including the next Myth of the Month! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

In our first video lecture, we analyzee the methods that builders, from Egypt to Rome to medieval Europe, have used to create grand structures and to enclose beautiful spaces, whether by reaching outward across the landscape or upwards toward the sky, in order to enthrall the senses and to inspire emotions from terror to tranquility. The video lecture on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9DGcPa_hdQ Please sign on as a patron in order to help keep these lectures coming and in order to hear the patron-only lectures! ---- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We consider the complex history and symbolism of an elaborately decorated sidearm weapon, originally made in Bristol, England, possibly intended as a dueling pistol, which came across the ocean to America with General Edward Braddock, witnessed the catastrophic events in the Ohio valley that sparked the Seven Years’ War, and which then became a prized possession of George Washington, symbolizing his relationship with the ill-starred general as well as America’s fraught relationship with Britain. Special thanks to the Bristol Archives and to Eric Gabbitas, a direct descendant of the gunsmith William Gabbitas. Image Courtesy of the Division of Political and Military History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian record on the pistol: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_746133 Please become a patron to hear all patron-only lectures! --https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

They rained terror and destruction on Christian lands across Europe as far as Spain and Constantinople, before turning their attention away from raiding towards permanent settlement and the founding of new societies, from Ukraine to Normandy to Greenland. There has never been an explosion of exploration and aggression quite like the Viking expansion of the early Middle Ages -- we discuss the motives behind the expansion, which are rooted in the religious mismatch between Scandinavia and mainland Europe, the technologies that made it possible, the prizes and targets at which they aimed, the victories and setbacks that they encountered, the imprints that they left behind, and the winds of change that ultimately brought an end to the Viking adventure. Music: "In the Hall of the Mountain King," from the Peer Gynt suite, by Grieg, performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, published by Musopen Image: The "Lindisfarne Stone," a gravestone from Lindisfarne Monastery, Holy Island, 9th Century Please sign on as a patron so that you can vote on our first video project: https://www.patreon.com/posts/first-video-78384769

I update listeners on the podcast's new partnership with a producer, and provide a short clip of the latest patron-only lecture on the rediscovery of the lost early history of sound recording, ranging from French space lasers to a long-lost recording of a German leader singing an American folk song and the "Marseillaise." 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. Please sign up to hear the full lecture! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

--Made of brass, most likely in France, ca. 1720-1750 --1 inch long, with depictions of St. Ignatius Loyola & Saint Mary with Latin inscriptions --Found in ruins of Fort Michilimackinac; in collection of Mackinac State Historic Parks, Michigan A small brass religious medallion found in the house of a French fur trader inside a fortress on the remote Straits of Mackinac shows the immense power of small numbers of merchants and missionaries to control sprawling networks of diplomacy and trade, stretching from Europe all the way into the deep interior of North America, and to sway the course of wars and imperial power struggles. Special thanks to Mackinac State Historic Parks and Dr. Lynn Evans for their help in producing this lecture.

We have all seen images of axe-wielding Vikings raining destruction upon the shores of medieval Europe -- but who were these berserking Norsemen and where did they come from? What society produced them? How did the Scandinavians of the Viking age understand the world and their place in it? We examine the Norsemen's complex and mysterious cosmos described in the poems and prophesies of the Eddas, and compare it to the realities of survival, trade, kingship, politics, warfare, art, gender, and the family in Scandinavia from the eight to eleventh centuries, as reconstructed from surviving documents and the latest archaeology. Image: top section of the Hunninge picture stone, island of Gotland, Sweden, 8th century. Music: "In the Hall of the Mountain King," from Peer Gynt suite, composed by Edvard Grieg, performed by Czech National Symphony Orchestra, published by Musopen. Suggested further readings: Neil Price, "Children of Ash and Elm"; Else Roesdahl, "The Vikings" Please sign up as a patron to hear all patron-only materials, including "Myth of the Month 20: Conspiracy Theories" -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We consider some of the major events of this year in light of their historical roots, from the abortion ruling to the Ukraine war; in particular, we consider the Twitter controversy in light of the history of media monopolies beginning with the telegraph, and the crisis over railroad labor in light of the railways strike of 1922, exactly one century ago. First video segment of my appearance on the Katie Halper Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh8ZKcL8SHE&t=3s&ab_channel=KatieHalper Relevant articles: On the history of abortion as invoked in the Dobbs debate: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/arts/roe-v-wade-abortion-history.html On the roots and history of the anti-abortion movement: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12340403/ https://www.oah.org/tah/issues/2016/november/abolishing-abortion-the-history-of-the-pro-life-movement-in-america/ On Western Union and its choke-hold on the telegraph system: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/05/how-the-robber-barons-hijacked-the-victorian-internet/ Book sources on railway labor history: Rebecca Edwards, "New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age"; Joseph McCartin, "Labor's Great War" and "Labor in America" Please support historiansplaining to hear all patron-only materials -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

“Cowboys and Indians.” For most Americans, the words evoke a sinister game, representing a timeless enmity between the forces of civilization and savagery. In actual historical fact, cowboys and Indians were symbiotic trading partners, and many cowboys were Indians themselves; but the image of the cowboy as a conqueror and as the bearer of civilization into the “Wild West” has become central to the American national myth. We trace how the romantic self-image of the 19th-century buckaroos as modern-day knights gradually evolved into the iconography of gunslingers battling on the untamed frontier, from early dime novels to grand “horse operas” to Hollywood Westerns and science fiction, and finally to the new fable of the gay cowboy. Image: Frederic Remington, "Shotgun Hospitality," 1908 Suggested reading: Russell Martin, "Cowboy: The Enduring Myth of the Wild West"; Richard Slotkin, "The Fatal Environment" & "Gunfighter Nation." Please sign up to support and hear patron-only lectures, including Myth o the Month 20: Conspiracy Theories -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632