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

The riots, protests, and boycotts that broke out in North America in the wake of the Stamp Act were only one part of the mass crisis that beset Great Britain in the 1760s, as the discontented poor and middle classes rallied behind the ideals of liberty and freedom of speech, and around “radical Whig” politicians who challenged the power of the Crown and the London oligarchy – none more so than the infamous provocateur, satirist, and “rake,” John Wilkes, who ignited popular passions in London and the colonies and nearly burned down the ruling Whig establishment. We examine a key specimen of a tiny glass cufflink jewel inscribed with the incendiary slogan, “Wilkes and Liberty,” which was rececntly discovered in an abandoned town in North Carolina, and which has touched off a wave of similar discoveries, revealing the importance of small, almost unnoticeable objects in the spread of discontent and radical rhetoric across the Atlantic in the years before the American Revolution. Special thank you to: Charles Ewen, East Carolina University; Jim McKee, Brunswick Town / Fort Anderson State Historic Site; Addison Siemon Please sign on as a patron, including to hear the previous installment of "History of the United States in 100 Objects" -- https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632 My lecture on the Interregnum & Restoration, including the origins of the Whig party: https://www.patreon.com/posts/england-and-1650-42722389 My lecture on the Glorious Revolution and the beginning of the Whig ascendancy: https://www.patreon.com/posts/james-ii-and-88-73953596

We examine the origins of the first European colony in America north of Florida – New Mexico – from the rise of the Pueblo civilization, which mastered irrigation and “made the desert bloom,” building monumental complexes in arid plains and rocky canyons, through the repeated Spanish incursions in search of seven cities of gold and the construction of a tenuous European colony riven by struggles between church and state, and finally to the eruption of the largest and most coordinated Native uprising in colonial history, which expelled Europeans from New Mexico and ushered in a temporary restoration of the ancient Puebloan world. Image: Mission church of S. Esteban del Rey, 1629, at Acoma Pueblo Suggested further reading: Sanchez, Spude, & Gomez, “New Mexico: A History”; Gutierrez, “When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away”; Brooks, “Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands”; Rodriguez, “Review: Subaltern Historiography on the Rio Grande,” American Ethnologist vol. 21, No. 4 (Nov., 1994) My earlier lecture series on the history of Florida (first European colony north of the Rio Grande), “Fortresses on Sand: The History of Florida”: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/sets/fortresses-on-sand-the-history Please sign on as a patron at any level to hear the patron-only lectures, including my most recent on Central Africa: https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: We trace the struggles of Venice, through conquest, revolution, and depression, to fashion a place for itself in the modern world, to channe We trace the struggles of Venice, through conquest, revolution, and depression, to fashion a place for itself in the modern world, to channel or keep at bay the new floods -- of rising seas, of diseased canals, and of tourist hordes -- and most of all, to somehow square the circle of preservation and modernity. Image: The Palazzo dei Camerlenghi & Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal in the flood of Nov. 4, 1966 Intro music: Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata, overture Closing music: Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata, brindisi / drinking song

On Patreon for patrons only for 1 year: It is the only large town that has ever been discovered from the Stone Age, making it one of the most important archaeological finds of all time and a critical prize in the heated debates that have divided the field of archaeology. Its striking artworks have fired the imagination, and its extensive ruins, copious burials, and rich grave goods have filled in massive gaps in the story of the origins of civilization, illustrating how the invention of agriculture and the “Neolithic Revolution” made cities and urban life possible. Yet it also remains a stubborn mystery: why are the houses all so identical? Why are there no public buildings or gathering places, or even streets? And why did the town spring up in the middle of a muddy and malarial plain? Please sign up on Patreon to hear the whole lecture! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/doorways-in-time-148211879 Suggested Further Reading: Mellaart, “Catal Huyuk: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia”; Balter, “The Goddess and the Bull”; Newitz, “Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age”; Ian Hodder, “Becoming a Çatalhöyük Person: An Integration of the Evidence,” lecture, Image: The “Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük,” discovered in 1961 Music: Rameau, "Les Cyclopes", performed by Paul Barton for Feurich

Excerpt of a lecture for patrons only for 1 year: We explore the tumultuous history of Central Africa, embracing the enormous Congo rainforest, the great rift valleys, the Indian Ocean coast, and the gold fields of the Zambezi basin, as formidable kingdoms—Kongo, the Swahili cities, and the mysterious Great Zimbabwe—emerged in the tropical landscape, adapted to the traumatic incursion of the Portuguese, and eventually struck back against European power, through diplomatic schemes, military struggles, and religious awakenings. This same region of the world produced some of the most remarkable and towering figures in African or world history, such as King Afonso I and Queen Nzingha, as well as many of the first captives to be taken to the New World, including the “twenty-and-odd negroes” that were famously landed at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619. Please sign on as a patron of historiansplaining in order to heat the full lecture: https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632 Image: Bronze crucifix, Kongo, 1650-1750, High Museum of Art Suggested further reading: Van Reybrouck, “Congo: The Epic History of a People”; Edgerton, “The Troubled Heart of Africa: a History of the Congo”; Wills, “An Introduction to the History of Central Africa”; Heywood, “Njinga of Angola : Africa's Warrior Queen” Samuel, “The kingdom of Ndongo and the Portuguese,” ; Thornton, “The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684–1706”

We follow the rise of civilization and of powerful empires in West Africa before the slave tade, based upon iron-working and the traffic in gold and salt across the Sahara, followed by the spread of wealth and power southward, towards the gold fields and the tropical forests, and finally the reverberating impacts of the arrival of Portuguese traders on the coast, which paved the way for the rise of the Atlantic slave trade. Suggested further reading: Rodney, “History of the Upper Guinea Coast”; Ajayi, ed., “History of West Africa,” vol. 1 Image: Sculptural head from Ife, bronze & brass, ca. 1300s Please sign on as a patron to hear patron-only lectures, including upcoming installment on Central AFrica: https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

We read ghost-related poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lola Haskins, & Stanley Plumly, as a thank-you to patrons and a meditation on the field of history. Please sign on as a patron in order to hear patron-only lectures, and to vote in the current poll on the next archaeological discovery for the series, "Doorways in Time": https://www.patreon.com/posts/announcement-in-142272603 Most of my recent apperance on the Katie Halper show can be seen on youtube, beginning about here: https://youtu.be/aScGDE4CuHk?t=4398 Image: photograph from photobook, "Epitaph," by Brendon Burton

Audio track from the new video, "Red, White & Royal Blue: A Historian's Analysis -- pt. 4: The Political Ideology of RWRB"-- Intro: Why the Politics of RWRB? – 0:00:30 Sec. 1: Idealism vs. Realism – 0:16:21 Sec. 2: The Hidden Agenda – what is left out of RWRB – 0:52:29 Sec. 3: The Trade Wars – 1:28:25 Sec. 4: The Elusive Democratic Majority – 1:40:09 Conclusions: Power & Pride – 1:47:45 We examine Red, White & Royal Blue as a window into the ideology of the Democratic Party and the liberal middle class in the early 21st Century, including its attraction to free trade, the Sun Belt, and particularly Texas, as symbols of the so-called “Emerging Democratic Majority” that would supposedly rule the rest of the century. We question the film’s basic opposition between idealism and realism and all of the implicit value judgments that it carries, and finally consider how the film excludes or avoids discussion of class and material issues, through a comparison with the 2014 British film “Pride.” View this video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPEb9Zxx9eE Please become a patron of historiansplaining in order to hear patron-only lectures -- / u5530632 -- and the see this video in its entirety without ads! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/1420325...

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only -- We examine the Epic of Gilgamesh as a piece of literature, for its strange dream-like style and form, its points of similarity to Biblical and ancient Greek and European mythology, and finally, its deep levels of psychological and political allegory, ultimately revealing the love between Enkidu and Gilgamesh as a parable of the fraught relationship between civilization and the wild. Image: Gilgamesh grappling with Enkidu; illustration by Wael Tarabieh. Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: Historiansplaining – Unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal The SOAS's recordings of scholars reading Akkadian texts: https://www.soas.ac.uk/baplar/recordings Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem"; Rivkah Scharf Kluger, "The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh."

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: He is the earliest human being whose name and life story are known to history. We examine the origins and contents of the most ancient narrative ever found anywhere on Earth, and trace how it has been rediscovered, re-used, and re-translated in the modern world, becoming a living and evolving text in a time of anxiety over the fate of civilization. Please sign on as a patron in order to keep the podcast going and to hear patron-only lectures, including part 2 on the Epic of Gilgamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632 Image: Sumerian bas-relief sculpture of a man subduing a bull, possibly representing Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven, 2200s BC. Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem."

We follow how a remote landmass on the far western fringe of Europe became the home of a lasting Gaelic civilization and a major center of classical and Christian knowledge, before coming under attack by Viking raiders and Anglo-Norman invaders. We examine the English Crown’s shifting and increasingly desperate strategies to control Ireland, and the long battle over control of land and religion before Ireland was finally subjected to Protestant domination following the Glorious Revolution. Recommended further reading: Cronin, “A History of Ireland”; Foster, ed., “The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland”; Ranelagh, “A Short History of Ireland”; Roberson, “The Irish Ice Sheet,” Music: “Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix” / “Forets Paisibles,” from the opera-ballet “Les Indes Galantes,” by Jean-Philippe Rameau & Louis Fuzelier, 1735, performed by Les Arts Florissants, with vocalists Patricia Petibon & Nicolas Rivenq -- used with the kind authorization of Les Arts Florissants Image: Lavabo, Mellifont Abbey, Ireland Please sign up as a patron at any level to hear patron-only lectures, including the series on the Epic of Gilgamesh! -- www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

Nations: What are they? Are they defined by language, by “culture,” by blood, or something else? How do you know if you are part of one? —and is everyone in the world a member of one nation or another? We follow how the rise of medieval kingdoms and universities and the print revolution made it possible for people in the West to imagine themselves as part of extended kinship groups united by a common language and ancestry, how these abstract “nations” differed from all earlier social groupings, how nations have developed a standard template for national history and mythology, and how since the French Revolution, “nationalism” has inspired the loyalties and fired the passions of millions. Finally, we consider how scholars and critics have torn the concept of the nation to shreds, and then have tried to account for the profound transformations in consciousness and time made it possible for people to conceive of themselves as belonging to nations in the first place. Apologies for the osprey squawking in the background of the lecture! Suggested further reading: B. Anderson, "Imagined Communities"; Ernest Renan, "Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?"; Grosby, "Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction"; Potter, "The Historian's Use of Nationalism and Vice Versa" Music: “Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix” / “Forets Paisibles,” from the opera-ballet “Les Indes Galantes,” by Jean-Philippe Rameau & Louis Fuzelier, 1735, performed by Les Arts Florissants, with vocalists Patricia Petibon & Nicolas Rivenq -- used with the kind authorization of Les Arts Florissants Please sign up as a patron at any level to hear patron-only lectures, including the series on the Epic of Gilgamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

We follow how deportation policy has evolved, expanding massively in the aftermaths of World War One and World War Two, while shifting its main targets -- from political radicals and dissidents, to organized criminals, to "undesirable" racial and ethnic groups including Asians and Mexicans. We examine the changing laws and judicial rulings that have carved out an exception for deportation, allowing the government nearly unlimited and unchecked power, with no recourse to the protections of the Bill of Rights -- and finally, we consider how the Trump administration's recent failed attempts to deport supporters of the Palestinian cause might lead to a small crack in the wall sealing the deportation process off from the courts and the Constitution. Image: Cartoon of the Buford or "Red Ark" departing from New York, Evening Star, Dec. 22, 1919 Suggested further reading: Kanstroom, "Deportation Nation"; Drinnon, "Rebel in Paradise: A Biiography of Emma Goldman"; Muzaffar Chishti and Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, "Tapping Ancient Wartime and Security Laws," etc., Migration Policy Institute, Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures, including the most recent on the modern history of the Papacy! -- www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: The most massive and momentous manuscript discovery of modern times, the Dead Sea Scrolls blew the lid off of the long-mysterious world of messianic and apocalyptic ferment before the destruction of the Second Temple—yet it took decades of conflict and struggle to bring them to public light. We trace why the scrolls became the object of a long international struggle, what they actually say, and what they reveal about the roots of the Bible, Christianity, and modern Judaism. Suggested further reading: Lim, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction”; Collins, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography”; Shanks, ed., “Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the Biblical Archaeology Review”; Eisemman & Wise, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered”; Wise, Abegg, & Cook, eds., “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation.” Image: Portion of the Temple Scroll Please sign up as a patron, at any level, in order to hear patron-only lectures, including the series on the Epic of Gilgamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

We examine the roots of the American practice of "deportation" -- from colonial banishment of heretics, through the political upheaval over Alien & Sedition Acts, to the age of Chinese Exclusion -- which paved the way for the federal government to exercise virtually unlimited & absolute power over aliens, whom they placed outside the protection of the Constitution. Suggested further reading: Kanstroom, "Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History" Image: East Asian women & children in a holding cell, Angel Island immigration station, Calinfornia, ca. 1920 Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures, including the most recent on the modern history of the Papacy! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

For Patrons only for 1 year: We follow the tribulations of the Papacy through the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, as the Pope's loyal soldiers in the Jesuit order are expelled from Catholic states and empires, the Church comes under attack in the French Reovlution, and Napoleon takes the Pope prisoner. We then follow the Papacy's gradual recovery of prestige -- through the reactionary rigorism of Pius IX and the 1st Vatican Council; the creation of Catholic social teaching and the intervention of the Church in the class struggle between capital and labor under Leo XIII; and the dramatic reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. We consider the controversies and scandals of the modern church relating to fascism, the Nazi Holocaust, the Vatican Bank, and the suppression of Liberation Theology, and finally, examine the recent shakeup of the Vatican under Pope Francis, the momentous implications of the Synod on Synodality, and the clues presaging a new political assertiveness of the Church under the first American pope, Leo XIV. Please sign on as a patron to hear the whole lecture: https://www.patreon.com/posts/133266130 Image: American print showing Pope Pius IX presiding over the First Vatican Council in St. Peter's Basilica, 1869. Correction: Banker Roberto Calvi was found dead hanging from Blackfriars Bridge, London, not London Bridge.

We follow the paths by which the bishops of Rome – leaders of what had been a small church on the fringe of the Christian world – established themselves as the foremost spiritual leaders of Western Christendom and with time, as supreme heads of the global Catholic Church. We follow the dramatic turns in the Papacy’s fortunes, as Popes alternate between pinnacles of power and prestige, commanding lands and armies, launching Crusades and outwitting emperors, and extreme lows of feebleness and humiliation, overruled by councils and overthrown by foreign kings. We consider how the Papacy made use of the Renaissance and struggled to respond to the Protestant Reformation—before examining the history of the modern Papacy and the more recent Popes for Part 2. Suggested further reading: Norwich, “Absolute Monarchs : A History of the Papacy”; La Due, “The Chair of Saint Peter : A History of the Papacy” Please sign up, at any level, to support the podcast and hear patron-only lectures! -- www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632 Image: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, offering submission to Pope Alexander III, as part of Treaty of Venice, 1177, as depcited in a fresco in Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, by Spinello Aretino, ca. 1407

Update for listeners, and happy Father's Day wishes; excerpt from latest patron-only lecture on Italy between unification and the entry into the First World War. Please sign up on Patreon to hear the latest lecture and all patron-only materials! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/italy-nation-war-131082248 Podcast website: www.historiansplaining.com Image: The Paderno D'Adda hydroelectric power plant, Lombardy, 1895-8 Music: "Nel Blu, Dipinto di Blu" / "Volare," by Domenico Modugno

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: We review the diplomatic landscape of Europe on the eve of war in the summer of 1914—and then trace the dizzying cascade of events that followed after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. We get a handle on the ensuing crisis that ricocheted through embassies, banquet halls, and barracks all across Europe, and plunged all the great powers of the continent into a war that soon spread around the world. Suggested further reading: Christopher Clark, “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914”; Margaret MacMillan, “The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914”; Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August.” Image: Photograph of nine kings (George V of Britain seated, center; Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany standing, in red), at Windsor, for funeral of Edward VII of Britain, May, 1910. Please sign up to hear all patron-only lectures, including recent series on the Dead Sea Scrolls & the Epic of Gilgamesh: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

We follow the convulsions of Italian society -- foreign invasion, popular revolution, peasant revolt, liberal reform, Romantic pageantry, diplomatic dirty dealings, and patriotic war -- through which the residents of a fragmented, poor, and backwards section of Europe overthrew the puppet regimes of foreign rulers and challenged the internal power of the Church, to seize control of their own destiny and create a new nation-state that would take its place among the major powers of the world. Image: "The First Italian Flag Taken to Firenze," by F.S. Altamura, 1859. Suggested further reading: Lucy Riall, "Risorgimento"; John A. David, ed., "Italy in the Nineteenth Century." Musical passage: "Va, Pensiero" from Nabuco, Lyrics by Temistocle Solera, music by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures, including the recent series on the Dead Sea Scrolls and on the Epic of Gligamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632