The AskHistorians Podcast
The AskHistorians Mod Team
The AskHistorians Podcast showcases the knowledge and enthusiasm of the AskHistorians community, a forum of nearly 1.4 million history academics, professionals, amateurs, and curious onlookers. The aim is to be a resource accessible to a wide range of listeners for historical topics which so often go overlooked. Together, we have a broad array of people capable of speaking in-depth on topics that get half a page on Wikipedia, a paragraph in a high-school textbook, and not even a minute on the History channel. The podcast aims to give a voice (literally!) to those areas of history, while not neglecting the more commonly covered topics. Part of the drive behind the podcast is to be a counterpoint to other forms of popular media on history which only seem to cover the same couple of topics in the same couple of ways over and over again.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 4, 2017 • 1h 11min
AskHistorians Podcast 081 - Iphikrates and His Reforms
We explore the life and legacy of the Classical Greek general, Iphikrates with AskHistorians user Iphikrates. Famous for his use of light troops and for military reforms related to those troops, we trace the surviving evidence of Iphikrate's life and career to investigate the timing, scope, and even existence of those reforms. Along the way, the conversation touches upon the Athenian socio-political system of the time, the non-hoplite parts of Greek warfare, and a tantalizing connection between Iphikrates and Alexander the Great. (71min) Join the Conversation!
Feb 22, 2017 • 1h 15min
AskHistorians Podcast 080 - Death by erasure: Cultural Genocide against American Indians
Snapshot52 joins us to discuss the concept of cultural genocide in the context of the US government's American Indian policy. In particular, we look at the creation and evolution of obligatory boarding schools for American Indian children. (75 min). Join the discussion!
Feb 4, 2017 • 1h 25min
AskHistorians Podcast 079 - Cuban and US Relations Before Castro
Andres Pertierra joins us to discuss the interactions between Cuba and the United States starting in the Colonial Era and extending through the mid-20th Century with the Batista regime. Along the way we discuss Americans changing their names to fit in, the plantation economy, the problem of slavery, American shipping concerns, and the tensions between independence and annexation. (85min).
Jan 20, 2017 • 1h 4min
AskHistorians Podcast 078 - Society for the Reformation of Manners
AnnalsPornographie discusses morality and immorality in late 16th and 17th Century England, as urbanization, population increase, and a growing middle class combined to form new approaches to controlling the morality of society. We discuss the debauchery of the court of Charles II, the moral backlash of the Glorious Revolution, and finally delve deep into the workings of the Society for the Reformation of Manners before reflecting on more modern debates over obscenity. (63min)
Dec 17, 2016 • 1h
AskHistorians Podcast 077 - The End of World War One in the Middle East, Part 2
The conversation with CptBuck continues as we move south from Anatolia and the new state of Turkey into the regions of Mesopotamia, Syria, and the Levant. The politics and conflicts which led to the borders and formation of the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Israel/Palestine are all discussed, as well as a quick digression into Egypt. We end with a discussion on whether the borders of these nations predestined them for future conflicts. (60mins) Join the discussion!
Dec 3, 2016 • 59min
AskHistorians Podcast 076 - The End of World War One in the Middle East, Part 1
CptBuck gives us the first of two episodes looking at WW1 in the Middle East, discussing the political intrigue and wrangling between the Ottomans, British, French, and Russians, among others. This episode focuses primarily on the Turkish area of the Ottoman Empire, and the various plans hatched both before and after Armistice to divvy up the Ottoman state. Along the way we talk about the Sykes-Picot, the Young Turks, the Greco-Turkish War, and Lawrence of Arabia. (59min) Join the Discussion!
Nov 18, 2016 • 1h 9min
AskHistorians Podcast 075 - Indian Policy and Indian Sovereignty
Snapshot52 discusses Federal Indian Policy in the United States, with a particular focus on the Termination Era of the mid-20th Century. The evolution of how the Federal government approached sometimes disparate goals of exclusion and assimilation, as well as Tribal sovereignty, over the decades are covered from pre-Dawes Act to the current day. (69min) Join the discussion!
Nov 4, 2016 • 50min
AskHistorians Podcast 074 - Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East
KoineLingua discusses the practices and purposes of sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. The conversation covers the various forms of animal sacrifice, as well as the understanding of the divine being sacrificed to, before turning to the question of human sacrifice in the region and Biblically. (50min) Join the discussion!
Oct 21, 2016 • 1h 10min
AskHistorians Podcast 073 - Politics and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Part 2
The conversation on the Kansas-Nebraska Act continues with the political wrangling in Washington. The discussion moves from the passage of the Act on towards Bloody Kansas and the opposing sides (and constitutions) vying to be recognized at the legitimate government of the newly formed Kansas. We conclude with a brief historiographical commentary on the importance of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. (70min) Join the discussion!
Oct 7, 2016 • 1h 18min
AskHistorians Podcast 072 - Politics and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Freedmanspatrol discusses the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, which gave us "Bloody Kansas" and paved the way to the Civil War. The focus is on the political (and geographic) landscape as well as the Washington DC wrangling over the deal. Along the way we also discuss the transcontinental railroad, the Second Party System of the Whigs and Democrats, and the ambitions of Stephen Douglas and men of the F Street Mess. (77min) Read more from our guest at the blog Freedmen's Patrol: Exploring the Civil War Era. Join the discussion!
