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

We continue the epic history of Western architecture by tracing how medieval builders and their patrons revived the art of building in stone once more, and used it to craft monumental edifices into intimate, atmospheric spaces in the Romanesque age, before reaching for the heavens with soaring Gothic vaults and spires, and then returning once more to earth with the simple, balanced dignity of the Renaissance. See the first part of the series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwCuQLuajn8 Image of the unrealized plan of Beauvais Cathedral courtesy of Myles Zhang, https://www.myleszhang.org/2021/12/25/beauvais-cathedral/ Please support this podcast to help keep these lectures coming! – https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 See the video of this lecture here: https://youtube.com/live/qgzvVd6oNUM

The center of every sacred mystery, the Temple at Jerusalem is the most famous building on earth, even though it has not existed for almost 2000 years and no one knows precisely what it looked like. We join with Michael of “Xai, How Are You” to discuss Solomon’s Temple – both the real historical building as it can be reconstructed from ancient texts and archaeology, and the symbol that has been endlessly appropriated to represent humankind’s relationship to the cosmos, from Jewish mysticism, to Christian theology, to early Islam, to medieval magic, to Renaissance humanism, to the rituals of Freemasonry, to modern Jewish and evangelical fundamentalism. Suggested further reading: Hamblin & Seely, “Solomon’s Temple: Myth and History” Image: page of the "Perpignan Bible," France, 1299, depicting ritual objects in the Temple, including the Menorah My previous lectures on Freemasonry: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/the-freemasonry-its-origins-its-myths-and-its-rituals https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/freemasonry-its-growth-and-spread-before-1789 Correction: There is archaeological and textual evidence for two Israelite temples in Egypt -- one at Leontopolis in the Nile delta, and one at Elephantine in Upper Egypt. Please support this podcast! – https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Unlocked after one year for patrons only: One moonlit night in 1853, an Iraqi excavator named Hormuzd Rassam and his team snuck into the hills outside of Mosul and began to uncover the massive palace of the last ancient Assyrian emperor, Ashurbanipal. Inside the palace was the largest trove of surviving documents from the ancient world that has ever been found. The massive library of over 30,000 tablets illuminated what had been the most mysterious empire of the Iron Age, brought to light the ancient masterpiece of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and provided the first window into the lost Near Eastern mythology that influenced the Biblical book of Genesis. While the discovery provided the greatest triumph of British imperial antiquarianism, in recent times Saddam Hussein and other Arab nationalists have attempted to reclaim its legacy by building a modern Library of Ashurbanipal. Suggested further reading: Damrosch, "The Buried Book." Image: relief sculpture showing Ashurbanipal slaying a lion with a writing stylus tucked into his belt Please become a patron to support this podcast, and to hear all patron-only lectures as soon as they are posted, including the latest, "Myth of the Month 22: Culture" -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We consider the history and explosive politics of the often-forgotten Eastern European nation that set the events of the First World War in motion: Serbia. We examine the country’s emergence and brief flowering as an Eastern Orthodox kingdom in the high Middle Ages, its fall to the Ottoman advance, its many years of quiet resistance in religion and song, its re-emergence amidst the Napoleonic wars and the Ottoman breakdown, and finally, its long-frustrated quest to fulfill its purported destiny of reunifying the Southern Slavs, which led a militant and conspiratorial secret society to murder their own country’s king and to smuggle teenage assassins across the border to kill their rivals’ crown prince. Image: Golubac Fortress, eastern Serbia, seen from across the Danube River Intro & Outro music: Bach, Sonata no. 4 in E Minor, played on clavichord by Balint Karosi

What is "culture"? And how did a metaphor from gardening invade social-science discourse in 19th-century Germany and America and then take the world by storm? Am I doing "podcast culture" right now? However you define it, I make the case that it is the defining myth of our time, and that we should get rid of it. Image: "Old New York" diorama, Museum of Natural History, New York Suggested reading: Michael A. Elliott, "The Culture Concept: Writing and Difference in the Age of Realism" Please sign up as a patron to hear the whole discussion! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/82746773

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