Victor McFarland is an assistant professor in the Missouri University Department of History. His research interests center on energy, the environment, and U.S. relations with the Middle East, with a special focus on Saudi Arabia. His book Oil Powers: A History of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance is available now from Columbia University Press. Originally from North Idaho, Dr. McFarland received his B.A. from Stanford University and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University. Before coming to the University of Missouri, he was a Miller Center fellow at the University of Virginia in 2012-13 and a Dickey Center fellow at Dartmouth College in 2013-14. In 2018-19 he served as a Warren Center faculty fellow at Harvard University. You can follow him on twitter, here. From the Publisher: Since the mid-twentieth century, the United States and Saudi Arabia have built a close but often troubled alliance. In this critical history, Victor McFarland reveals the deep ties binding the leaders of the two nations. Connecting foreign relations and domestic politics, McFarland challenges the view that the U.S.-Saudi alliance is the inevitable consequence of American energy demand and Saudi Arabia’s huge oil reserves. Oil Powers traces the growth of the alliance through a dense web of political, economic, and social connections that bolstered royal and executive power and the national-security state. McFarland shows how U.S. and Saudi elites collaborated to advance their shared interests against rivals at home and abroad. During the 1970s, as higher oil prices enriched the Saudi government, destabilized the American economy, and changed the balance of power in the Middle East, leaders of both countries responded by consolidating their alliance. Facing objections from their own people, Washington and Riyadh chose to shield their partnership from public oversight and accountability. While American support empowered the Saudi royal family and helped the kingdom expand its influence across the Middle East, Saudi elites also encouraged a rightward shift in U.S. foreign and economic policy—with profound long-term effects. Oil Powers reveals the role of the U.S.-Saudi alliance in laying the groundwork for American military involvement in the Middle East and the entrenchment of a global order fueled by oil. Some Highlights: Why Victor studies US - Saudi policy Arabic language Source base for the book Availability of Saudi sources What is an oil power? Is the US-Saudi relationship an "Alliance?" From King Abdulaziz to Prince MBS The importance of the 1970s Communism and the Cold War Israel The two-country approach to history Suggestions: Victor - Wadjda, (2013) film by Haifaa al-Mansour Steven - Cities of Salt, (1989) book by Abdelrahman Munif Cover image: King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, President Nixon and Mrs Nixon (May, 1971). https://youtu.be/DK6kYku6o7Y
Dr. Danielle Giffort is a medical sociologist who studies the politics of health and social movements. She recently published the book, Acid Revival: The Psychedelic Renaissance and the Quest for Medical Legitimacy (University of Minnesota, 2020). She is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Liberal Arts at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Her research has appeared in Gender & Society, Sociology Compass, PsychCritiques, and MedED Portal. You can read more at her website, here. From the Publisher: Psychedelic drugs are making a comeback. In the mid-twentieth century, scientists actively studied the potential of drugs like LSD and psilocybin for treating mental health problems. After a decades-long hiatus, researchers are once again testing how effective these drugs are in relieving symptoms for a wide variety of psychiatric conditions, from depression and obsessive–compulsive disorder to posttraumatic stress disorder and substance addiction. In Acid Revival, Danielle Giffort examines how this new generation of researchers and their allies are working to rehabilitate psychedelic drugs and to usher in a new era of psychedelic medicine. As this team of researchers and mental health professionals revive the field of psychedelic science, they are haunted by the past and by one person in particular: psychedelic evangelist Timothy Leary. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with people working on scientific psychedelia, Giffort shows how today’s researchers tell stories about Leary as an “impure” scientist and perform his antithesis to address a series of lingering dilemmas that threaten to rupture their budding legitimacy. Acid Revival presents new information about the so-called psychedelic renaissance and highlights the cultural work involved with the reassembly of dormant areas of medical science.This colorful and accessible history of the rise, fall, and reemergence of psychedelic medicine is infused with intriguing narratives and personalities—a story for popular science aficionados as well as for scholars of the history of science and medicine. Some Highlights: Knowledge Production Timothy Leary and LSD research Albert Hoffman and the discovery of LSD Indigenous cultures and use of psychedelics Eastern philosophy and mysticism Caution with psychedelic research Drug - Set - Setting methodology Objective truth in scientific research Conversion therapy Alcoholism remedy Self-Experimentation Researchers today - bringing in neuroscience Roland Griffiths and Johns Hopkins Suggestions: Danielle - Right now w/ John Globlikon on YT Steven - Jekyll and Hyde https://youtu.be/65pxO8cjvR4
Roger Moorhouse studied history at the University of London and is a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Warsaw. He is the author of several books on World War II history, including Berlin at War (shortlisted for the Hessell-Tiltman Prize) and The Devils’ Alliance. He lives in the United Kingdom. His new book, Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II (Basic 2020), looks at the beginning of World War II in Poland. From the Publisher: A gripping history of the September Campaign and the onset of World War II For Americans, World War II began in December of 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor; but for Poland, the war began on September 1, 1939, when Hitler's soldiers invaded, followed later that month by Stalin's Red Army. The conflict that followed saw the debut of many of the features that would come to define the later war-blitzkrieg, the targeting of civilians, ethnic cleansing, and indiscriminate aerial bombing-yet it is routinely overlooked by historians. In Poland 1939, Roger Moorhouse reexamines the least understood campaign of World War II, using original archival sources to provide a harrowing and very human account of the events that set the bloody tone for the conflict to come. Podcast Highlights: The beginning of World War II in Europe How history is often "Written by the victors" Nazi propaganda Dispelling the Calvary vs. Tanks trope Race war against Poland The Soviet Union - victims, victors, or perpetrators? Polish resistance and the fight against invasion French and British response to the war Writing for a broad audience Elevating Polish accounts of the war https://youtu.be/w27y5b53s1g Suggestions: Roger: Katyn - Andrzej Wajda Steven: 19 Polish Songs - Frederic Chopin Cover image: German troops breaking the border barrier in the Polish town of Sopot on the morning of 1 September 1939. The Soviet invasion would follow on 17 September.
James Carter is a writer and historian of modern China. He earned his PhD from Yale University under the direction of Jonathan Spence, and has taught since 1999 at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. His new book is Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai, coming in June from W.W. Norton. In it, Carter describes the many worlds of Shanghai on the eve of World War II, centered on the city’s celebrated race track just weeks before Pearl Harbor. Dr. Carter is the author of two previous books: Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a 20th-century Monk (Oxford, 2010) and Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932 (Cornell, 2002). He has also written about China’s modern history and its relations with the West for the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, ChinaFile, the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel, and numerous scholarly publications. More information about Dr Carter’s speaking and publications can be found at his website. You can follow him on Twitter here. Pre-order your copy of Champions Day here. From the Publisher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWarwF2wIos How a single day revealed the history and foreshadowed the future of Shanghai. It is November 12, 1941, and the world is at war. In Shanghai, just weeks before Pearl Harbor, thousands celebrate the birthday of China’s founding father, Sun Yat-sen, in a new city center built to challenge European imperialism. Across town, crowds of Shanghai residents from all walks of life attend the funeral of China’s wealthiest woman, the Chinese-French widow of a Baghdadi Jewish businessman whose death was symbolic of the passing of a generation that had seen Shanghai’s rise to global prominence. But it is the racetrack that attracts the largest crowd of all. At the center of the International Settlement, the heart of Western colonization—but also of Chinese progressivism, art, commerce, cosmopolitanism, and celebrity—Champions Day unfolds, drawing tens of thousands of Chinese spectators and Europeans alike to bet on the horses.In a sharp and lively snapshot of the day’s events, James Carter recaptures the complex history of Old Shanghai. Champions Day is a kaleidoscopic portrait of city poised for revolution. Podcast Highlights: Learning languages and living in Harbin The Shanghai International Settlement Cosmopolitanism among Shanghailanders Fasination with Chinese culture Nostalgia for the past in China Shanghai War Japanese invasion of China Lonely island period Dong Daiyo and the modern Shanghai Liza Hardoon The first Americans to die in World War II The Use of digital Sources in research Suggestions: James: Historical Photographs of China, Train to Busan Steven: Shanghai Ghetto, Snowpiercer https://youtu.be/T3X07T7kGIM Cover Image: From: Twentieth century impressions of Hong-kong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China. Their history, people, commerce, industries, and resources
Harry Blutstein has worked as a freelance journalist since 1972 and his articles have appeared in major Australian newspapers. He is an adjunct professor at RMIT University and a fellow at the University of Melbourne. More recently he has published several books: An Insider's Guide to Australia (Kummerly & Frey, 1995), Ascent of Globalisation (Manchester University Press, 2016) and his latest, Cold War Games (Echo Publishing, 2017) and has been reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald, He is currently working on a book on the 1968 Olympic Games, the working title of which is Games of Discontent: Protests and Political Battles at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, which should be available mid-2021. His twitter handle is @harryblutstein. About Cold War Games: Cold War Games: Spies, Subterfuge and Secret Operations The 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games have become known as the ‘friendly games’, but East-West rivalry ensured that they were anything but friendly. From the bloody semi-final water polo match between the USSR and Hungary, to the large number of athletes who defected to the West, sport and politics collided during the Cold War. Cold War Games shows vividly how the USSR and US exploited the Melbourne Olympic Games for propaganda, turning athletic fields, swimming pools and other sporting venues into battlefields in which each fought for supremacy. There were glimmers of peace and solidarity. Cold War Games also tells the love story between Czechoslovak discus thrower Olga Fikotová, and American hammer thrower Hal Connolly, and their struggle to overcome Cold War politics to marry. Cold War Games is a lively, landmark book, with fresh information from ASIO files and newly discovered documents from archives in the USSR, US and Hungary, revealing secret operations in Melbourne and showing just how pivotal the 1956 Olympic Games were for the great powers of the Cold War. Some Highlights: Harry's background interest in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics 1956 Hungarian Revolution Privilege of athletes behind the iron curtain "The Friendly Games" and the power of olympic sport Bloody water polo "Blood in the Water" Spies and Aussie Rules Football The decision of defection for an athlete Vladimir Kutz and running through the pain The Power of Protest in Sports 1968 Olympic games and Harry's upcoming work Stalin vs. Tito and Soviet Soccer Suggestions: Harry: Read fun books, such as the work of Carl Hiaasen Steven: Sign-up with your local library and read books for free (especially now!) https://youtu.be/3ZNqpfItMfU
Dr. Thomas DiBlasi is an associate professor at St. Joseph's College in New York, where he teaches and writes about the history of psychology. Tom completed his PhD at Hofstra where he received general and specialized training in treating anxiety, depression, anger, and crisis counseling. At St. Joseph's College, he I teaches undergraduate students and research anger, aggression, and revenge. I am lucky enough to have nearly ten publications and over 25 presentations on such topics. I consider myself fortunate to have a clinical and a teaching job, where people trust me to be vulnerable and allow me to help them carve their path. You can read more, here. You can reach Tom on Psychology Today and My OCD Care You can follow Tom on Twitter @DiBlasiPhD. Some Highlights: Psychology- is it really a science? Objectivity and history John Watson and Behaviorism Predict, Control, Describe, and Explain Associationalism, neobehaviorism, and sociobehaviorism Teaching undergraduates online during the spread of COVID-19 Substance abuse, anger management, and the compassion of psychology Use of technology for the development of social skills and emotion Fire Emblem, Super Smash Bros., and the benefits of the Nintendo Switch Tools for online teaching: Watercooler dialogue, discussion posts and replies, and standard meeting times Creating To-Do lists and schedules to get through shelter-in-place days Suggestions: Tom: Use behaviorism to change your behavior and live the life that you want to live. Make to-do lists the night before and set out to accomplish them the next day. Use positive reinforcement to help develop behaviors. Read some of the classics: Steven: Play Football Manager 20 for free (Until April 1, 2020 on steam!) https://youtu.be/6eCY-eSbE8w
Dr. Anna Clayfield is an expert in history and languages and the current Programme Leader for BA Modern Languages & Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of Chester. Her latest book is The Guerrilla Legacy of the Cuban Revolution (University Press of Florida, 2019). You can follow Anna on twitter @AnnaClayfield Buy the Book: About the Book: Analyzing official discourse, including newspapers, history textbooks, army training manuals, the writings of Che Guevara, and the speeches of Fidel Castro, Clayfield examines how the Cuban government has promoted guerrilla motifs. After 1959, the revolutionary leadership relied on this discourse to shape a new political culture. During the implementation of Soviet-style management in the late 1960s and 1970s, Cuba underwent profound structural changes, but the beliefs and values that underpinned the Revolution—and that were linked to the guerrilla ethos—were still upheld. Clayfield traces the shifting ideologies that circulated in Cuba during the 1980s to show how this rhetorical strategy helped prevent the proliferation of a siege mentality. The guerrilla code became a recourse Cuban leadership used to steel the population through the 1990s Special Period following the collapse of the Soviet Union. And while the outside world perceived the changes that took place during Raúl Castro’s tenure to be signs the Revolution’s socialist model was fading, Clayfield proves guerrillerismo remained an important anchor for the new regime. By weaving the guerrilla ethos into the fabric of Cuban identity, the government has garnered legitimacy for the political authority of former guerrilleros, even decades after the end of armed conflicts. The Guerrilla Legacy of the Cuban Revolution chronicles how guerrilla rhetoric has allowed the Revolution to adapt and transform over time while appearing to remain true to its founding principles. It also raises the question of just how long this discourse can sustain the Revolution when its leaders are no longer veterans of the sierra, those guerrillas who participated in the armed struggle that brought them to power so many years ago. Some Highlights: The Guerrilla Ethos The benefits of studying languages Santiago de Cuba and Havana - two sides of the same island? Fidel's arrival in Cuba, Campesinos, and the beginning of the Revolution Guerilla Warfare at odds with the Soviet Union? Using Speeches and public documents to uncover the history of Guerrillerismo The special period and changing views of the Revolution The next generation of leadership in Cuba Forgetting history or being faithful to history? #SomosContinuidad Hasta la Victoria Siempre https://youtu.be/AfIr2kVOcJw Suggestions: Anna: Visit Cuba, study abroad, and read widely (perhaps you can start with the works of Antoni Kapcia Steven: Listen to Silvio Rodriguez, particularly "Te doy una cancion"
Dr. Ricky W. Law is a historian of interwar Germany, Japan, and transnational movements. His new book, Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German-Japanese Relations, 1919–1936, explores the cultural context of Tokyo and Berlin’s political rapprochement in 1936. Law shares his fascinating story on this episode of the Hour of History podcast explaining how he mastered German, taught in Japan and learned Japanese and combined the two skills to write history. He has shared his knowledge with students in courses that he created, with themes on genocide and weapons of mass destruction, nation-states in film, and democracy. He plans to develop other courses on German, Japanese, and Roman histories. He is currently working on a book manuscript on interwar and wartime Japanese foreign relations through the lens of foreign language acquisition. You can follow him on twitter here: @rickywlaw Read his book: From the Publisher: In 1936, Nazi Germany and militarist Japan built a partnership which culminated in the Tokyo-Berlin Axis. This study of interwar German-Japanese relations is the first to employ sources in both languages. Transnational Nazism was an ideological and cultural outlook that attracted non-Germans to become adherents of Hitler and National Socialism, and convinced German Nazis to identify with certain non-Aryans. Because of the distance between Germany and Japan, mass media was instrumental in shaping mutual perceptions and spreading transnational Nazism. This work surveys the two national media to examine the impact of transnational Nazism. When Hitler and the Nazi movement gained prominence, Japanese newspapers, lectures and pamphlets, nonfiction, and language textbooks transformed to promote the man and his party. Meanwhile, the ascendancy of Hitler and his regime created a niche for Japan in the Nazi worldview and Nazified newspapers, films, nonfiction, and voluntary associations. Podcast Highlights: Current relevance of studying Nazification of Japan What appealed to the Japanese in Nazism? How Hitler was viewed by the Japanese Language skills in history How did people travel between Japan and Germany Ideological outlooks in pre-War Germany and Japan Air travel in the 1920s Nonfiction and the spread of ideology Radio crossing continents The "strange alliance" Suggestions: Listen to find out! https://youtu.be/KHTu3rIDfuM Cover image: A scene from a musical revue entitled "Heil Hitler" by the Nichigeki dancing team, staged at Tokyo's Nichigeki Music Hall, Yūrakuchō to welcome the Hitlerjugend that visited Japan in September 1938. From left to right: Keiko Suda, Sanae Shibata, Akemi Shirogane, Chizuko Osabe, Midori Ono. According to the caption in Japanese, the uniform style matches more the United States Army or the Royal Thai Army.
Dr. Ferenc Laczó is an expert on European history and the editor of the recent volume The Legacy of Division: East and West after 1989 (CEU Press 2019). He is currently assistant professor in history at the University of Maastricht where he teaches in the European Studies BA, MA and Minor programs as well as at University College Maastricht. He also acts as the academic secretary of the research group Politics and Culture in Europe and is a member of the Faculty Council. His main research interests lie in political and intellectual history, modern and contemporary European history with a special focus on Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century, Jewish history and the history of the Holocaust, and questions of history and memory. He is the author of Hungarian Jews in the Age of Genocide. An Intellectual History, 1929-1948 (Leiden: Brill, 2016) and two Hungarian-language books Német múltfeldolgozás. Beszélgetések történészekkel a huszadik század kulcskérdéseiről [The German Process of Dealing with the Past. Conversations with Historians on Key Questions of the Twentieth Century] (Budapest: Kijárat, 2016) and Felvilágosult vallás és modern katasztrófa közt. Magyar zsidó gondolkodás a Horthy-korban [Between Enlightened Religion and Modern Catastrophe. Hungarian Jewish Thought in the Horthy Era](Budapest: Osiris, 2014). Laczó is the editor or co-editor of several volumes and thematic journal issues, including (with Joachim von Puttkamer) Catastrophe and Utopia. Jewish Intellectuals in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017), Confronting Devastation. Memoirs of Holocaust Survivors from Hungary (Toronto: Azrieli, 2019), and (with Luka Lisjak Gabrijelcic) The Legacy of Division. East and West after 1989 (CEU 2019). His work has appeared on BBC World Service, in China Daily, Veja and Index.hu. His writings have also appeared in Czech, Danish, German, Hebrew, Polish, Slovene and Turkish translation. His books have been reviewed in more than twenty journals. Many of Laczó's publications are accessible via academia.edu and so is his complete list of publications. Read the Book: Overview: This volume examines the legacy of the East–West divide since the implosion of the communist regimes in eastern Europe in 1989. In a series of original essays, authors from the fields of European and global history, politics and cultureaddress questions fundamental to our understanding of Europe today: How have perceptions and misperceptions between the two halves of the continent changed over the last three decades? Can one speak of a new East-West divide? If so, what characterizes it and why has it re-emerged? Conversely, how have the hopes expressed in ’89 of reunifying Europe been fulfilled? Some Highlights: Living through the fall of the Iron Curtain Walls dividing people, keeping some in and keeping some out Nationalism in Eastern Europe The "Myth of the West" Russia's place in Europe after 1989 The shifting of the border between "east" and "west" China's role in European change Rejection of the east v. west dichotomy Gender after 1989 Immigration and the United Kingdom What do Poland and Italy have in common? How are they different? Project of convergence in Europe The UEFA Champions League and what Football (Soccer) and Tennis tell us about the world Highlights from a number of contributions to the new volume! Suggestions: Ferenc: Don't spend too much time online! Go into different neighborhoods, talk to people, and make observations as an intelligent tourist. Steven: Go to sporting events when you are an traveling. Observe the sports as anthropologists, political scientists, and historians might. https://youtu.be/J3f0cbrF3fc
Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator. His latest book is The Russian Job: How America Saved the Soviet Union From Ruin ( Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019). Smith is the author of six books on Russia. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He studied German and Russian at the University of Vermont, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and has a doctorate in history from UCLA.Over the past thirty years Douglas has made many trips to Russia. In the 1980s, he was a Russian-speaking guide on the U.S. State Department’s exhibition “Information USA” that traveled throughout the USSR. He has worked as a Soviet affairs analyst at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich and once served as an interpreter for late President Reagan.Douglas has taught and lectured widely in the United States, Britain, and Europe and has appeared in documentaries for National Geographic, the BBC, and Netflix. He is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including a Guggenheim fellowship, Fulbright scholarship, and a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study Center.His book Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy was a bestseller in the UK. It won the inaugural Pushkin House Russian Book Prize in 2013, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and was chosen Book of the Year by Andrew Solomon in Salon. His 2016 biography Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs was a finalist for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.Douglas is currently completing a book on the recently discovered photography archive of Major Martin J. Manhoff and a new translation of Konstantin Paustovsky’s epic memoir, The Story of a Life.Born and raised in Minnesota, Douglas has lived in Vienna, London, and Moscow, and is now based in Seattle with his wife and children. Read the Book: The Russian Job: How America Saved the Soviet Union From Ruin ( Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019) Overview: In 1921, facing one of the worst famines in history, the new Soviet government under Vladimir Lenin invited the American Relief Administration, the brainchild of Herbert Hoover, to save communist Russia from ruin. For two years, a small, daring band of Americans fed more than ten million men, women, and children across a million square miles of territory. It was the largest humanitarian operation in history—preventing the loss of countless lives, social unrest on a massive scale, and, quite possibly, the collapse of the communist state. Now, almost a hundred years later, few in either America or Russia have heard of the ARA. The Soviet government quickly began to erase the memory of American charity. In America, fanatical anti-communism would eclipse this historic cooperation with the Soviet Union. Douglas Smith resurrects the American relief mission from obscurity, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey from the heights of human altruism to the depths of human depravity. The story of the ARA is filled with political intrigue, espionage, the clash of ideologies, violence, adventure, and romance, and features some of the great historical figures of the twentieth century. In a time of cynicism and despair about the world’s ability to confront international crises, The Russian Job is a riveting account of a cooperative effort unmatched before or since. Some Highlights: President Herbert Hoover The American Relief Administration Congressional backing to provide aid abroad Writing for a general audience Douglas Smith's academic background American men and famine in the Soviet Union Lenin's appeal for help World War I veterans "famine shock" Writing back home about service in the Soviet Union The Holodomor and why the famine of 1921-23 isn't as well known Religious diversity in the Soviet Union Apolitical aid out of moral obligation Suggestions: Douglas: Steven: https://youtu.be/bZbnEr1XOsk
Dr. Douglas R. Egerton is an expert on American history and a professor of history at Le Moyne College. A prolific historian, his latest book is called, Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America (Basic 2019). His books include Thunder At the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America (2016), The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America's Most Progressive Era (2014), Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War (2010) and Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America (2009). His first book, Charles Fenton Mercer and the Trial of National Conservatism (1989), examined the career of the founder of the American Colonization Society, a group of conservative white antislavery politicians who wished to send freed slaves to Liberia. His other books, Gabriel's Rebellion (1993), He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey (1999), and Rebels, Reformers and Revolutionaries (2002) explore slave rebelliousness.Egerton has also written numerous essays and reviews regarding race in early America; some of the latter have appeared in the Sunday Boston Globe and The Nation. He has appeared on the PBS series "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross" (2013), "Africans in America" (1998) and "This Far by Faith" (2002). During the 2011-12 academic year, he held the Mary Ball Washington Chair (Fulbright) at the University College Dublin. In spring 2015, he was the Merrill Family Visiting Professor of History at Cornell University. In 2017, he won the Gilder-Lehrman Lincoln Prize for Thunder at the Gates (2016). Read the Book: From the Publisher: An enthralling chronicle of the American nineteenth century told through the unraveling of the nation’s first political dynasty John and Abigail Adams founded a famous political family, but they would not witness its calamitous fall from grace. When John Quincy Adams died in 1848, so began the slow decline of the family’s political legacy. In Heirs of an Honored Name, award-winning historian Douglas R. Egerton depicts a family grown famous, wealthy — and aimless. After the Civil War, Republicans looked to the Adamses to steer their party back to its radical 1850s roots. Instead, Charles Francis Sr. and his children — Charles Francis Jr., John Quincy II, Henry and Clover Adams, and Louisa Adams Kuhn — largely quit the political arena and found refuge in an imagined past of aristocratic preeminence. An absorbing story of brilliant siblings and family strain, Heirs of an Honored Name shows how the burden of impossible expectations shaped the Adamses and, through them, American history. Some highlights: Biographical approach to history Reading the letters of an "unsolved family" Modern Political Dynasties American history as seen through one important family Charles Francis Adams Thunder at the Gates Family Values of the Adams The importance of going abroad Class tensions and interaction from the top "Clover" Adams and her photography Reception of the book release Modern parallels to the Adams Suggestions: Douglas: The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality Steven: Talk to your family, what is your history? Cover image: From A Cycle of Adams Letters (Charles Francis and Henry Adams Pictured)
Dr. Hope Harrison is an expert on the Berlin Wall, East and West Germany, united Germany, international history of the Cold War and the author of the new book, After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present (Cambridge 2019). She is currently Associate Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. Dr. Harrison is the recipient of fellowships from Fulbright, the Wilson Center, and the American Academy in Berlin, she is the author of Driving the Soviet up the Wall (2003), which was awarded the 2004 Marshall Shulman Book Prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, and was also published to wide acclaim in German translation. She has served on the National Security Council staff, currently serves on the board of three institutions in Berlin connected to the Cold War and the Berlin Wall, and has appeared on CNN, the History Channel, the BBC, and Deutschlandradio. You can follow her on Twitter here. Read the Book: After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present Description from Cambridge University Press: "The history and meaning of the Berlin Wall remain controversial, even three decades after its fall. Drawing on an extensive range of archival sources and interviews, this book profiles key memory activists who have fought to commemorate the history of the Berlin Wall and examines their role in the creation of a new German national narrative. With victims, perpetrators and heroes, the Berlin Wall has joined the Holocaust as an essential part of German collective memory. Key Wall anniversaries have become signposts marking German views of the past, its relevance to the present, and the complicated project of defining German national identity. Considering multiple German approaches to remembering the Wall via memorials, trials, public ceremonies, films, and music, this revelatory work also traces how global memory of the Wall has impacted German memory policy. It depicts the power and fragility of state-backed memory projects, and the potential of such projects to reconcile or divide." Some Highlights: Approaches to the fall of the Berlin Wall Fight over memory at Bernauer Strasse Who tells the story? Doing more than 100 interviews on the Berlin Wall Buying segments of the Berlin Wall Checkpoint Charlie Master plan from the Berlin Senate Harald Jaeger - the man who opened the Wall Peaceful response in 1989 Polish and Hungarian contributions to the fall of the Wall Pastor Manfred Fischer - "Pastor of the Berlin Wall" Beethoven and the Concerts of Berlin The death of Michael Schmidt Additional Content: German national Berlin Wall Memorial website The key part of the live international press conference in East Berlin on November 9, 1989, where Guenter Schabowski mistakenly announced the Berlin Wall was open. Dr. Harrison on Voice of America discussing the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall Dr. Harrison discussing the Wall on the Wilson Center's Youtube channel The Wilson Quarterly - excellent photos combined with Dr. Harrison's work "Who got to decide what history gets told here?" "Berlin needed to heal from its terrible past" Remembering Michael Schmidt Suggestions: Hope: Go to Berlin - see the beautiful city and the lakes in and around the city Steven: Check out some of the great archival footage of the Berlin Wall on YouTube. You can start with the Berlin Celebration Concert (Beethoven's 9th Symphony conducted by Bernstein, mentioned in the Podcast). https://youtu.be/p1O25sDmpiI
Dr. L. Benjamin Rolsky is an expert on American Religion and the author of the new book, The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left (Columbia 2019). Dr. Rolsky received his PhD in American Religious Studies from Drew University. He is currently an adjunct instructor at Monmouth University in History and Anthropology and a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University- New Brunswick in Religion. You can read more at his website here. You can follow him on twitter here. Read Benji's Book: Some Highlights: TV Producer Norman Lear People for the American Way Mister Rogers History trying to be relevant All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons Op-eds and the abuse of writing Defining Christian Right and Christian Left The Moral Majority South Park, The Office, and modern television Adjuncting and contingent labor (NB: Check out HoH Ep 72 w/ Herb Childress) Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete, and the 2020 Presidential Election Works mentioned in the episode: Suggestions: Benji: Watch more TV! Steven: A Very Broad History of Werewolves and Other Things - A Podcast by Travis Roy https://youtu.be/AdltjllCCM4
Dr. Mimasha Pandit is the author of the new book, Performing Nationhood: The Emotional Roots of Swadeshi Nationhood in Bengal, 1905-12 (Oxford, 2019). She was awarded PhD degree from the University of Calcutta and is currently an Assistant Professor in the History Department of Mankar College, Mankar, Burdwan. Dr. Pandit has written widely on the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. You can read previously published articles about Swadeshi Circus (The Inclusive), Placards and Handbills in the Swadeshi Age (Indian History Congress), Performing History (Social Scientist). Read the Book: Performing Nationhood: The Emotional Roots of Swadeshi Nationhood in Bengal, 1905-12 (Oxford, 2019) Some Highlights: Background to the idea of nation-building The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903-1908, by Sumit Sarkar Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities How performative spaces led to the growth of nationalism in Bengal From 1857 to 1905 - important moments in the history of India The British Raj Sources for reconstructing songs, theatre, and jatra in Bengal Rural and Urban nationalist growth Swadeshi Jatra Performances The "Glass Wall" in performance Building a national "Self" Siraj ud-Daulah in theater Priyanath Bose and the Great Bengal Circus Dramatic Performances Act and British Censorship The Storehouse of Collective Memory Communities of Emotion Nil Darpan and the Indigo Mirror Anandamath and Bande Mataram The importance of the Mother as an archetype Examples of performance still exist throughout Bengal Hours of hard work go into preparation and performance of stories that are accessible and recognizable to wide audiences. Suggestions: Mimasha - Look at yourself in the mirror, take away the make-up or mask and use it as a corridor to yourself. Steven - Go watch a LIVE performance. Take a break from the screens and connect with real performers. https://youtu.be/97IT8qOU8GY Additional Reading Suggestions from Mimasha Pandit: Cover image: Jatra as portrayed in a 1912 American Baptist missionary photo book of life in Bengal. **This episode first appeared here. I am re-releasing it because of an error that puts the wrong audio on certain podcast platforms (Spotify/iTunes/GooglePlay).
This week on the Hour of History Podcast, I visit the home of Joseph Stalin, the infamous leader of the Soviet Union (1922-1953). Some Highlights: Gori, Georgia Visiting the home of a dictator Public History in a post-Soviet state Who runs the Stalin museum? Who visits the Stalin museum? Dark Tourism Honoring a dictator or learning history? The construction of a memorial museum Some Further Reading: SRB Podcast - great podcast that specializes on Russia The Death of Stalin Young Stalin Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator Suggestions: Visit a local museum - Engage in public history and study history! Special Thanks: Gabrielle Hauth for hosting this episode of the Hour of History Podcast Photos from the museum: https://youtu.be/bIHjDU_yjHs
Anna Aleksanyan is an expert on the Armenian Genocide, which she currently writes about as a Ph.D. candidate at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. Her dissertation explores gendered aspects of the Armenian Genocide in the experiences of its victimized females. Before starting her Ph.D., Anna worked at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, in Yerevan, Armenia, as a scientific researcher for seven years. Some Highlights: Origins of the Armenian Genocide Young Turk Revolution 1909 Massacres Armenian women, orphans, and prisoners Sources for genocide research Women after World War I The Ottoman Empire Forced Marriages April 24, 1915 "The luckiest ones were killed" "Men were mostly killed, women were abducted." Resistance and remembrance of the genocide Suggestion: Anna: Visit Armenia! Learn about the genocide. Steven: Armenian String Cheese Armenian Genocide Memorial, Yerevan https://youtu.be/S9zVqxdjQtI
This week, I look back on the Hour of History Podcast at 100. Some Highlights: Map of the Hour of History Podcast listeners A word of thanks to our listeners, readers, and subscribers. A look at the fascinating guests who have contributed. The Podcast Producer How I create the podcast every week The next 100 episodes! Suggestion: Find out what Hour of History Podcast you missed and listen to some of our great episodes in their entirety! Some of the faces of the Hour of History Podcast: https://youtu.be/arU_W8an2tw
David Brydan is a lecturer in the modern history of international relations at King’s College London. He previously worked as a lecturer and researcher at Birkbeck, University of London, and received his PhD from Birkbeck in 2016. Between 2013 and 2017 he was a member of the Wellcome Trust-funded Reluctant Internationalists project at Birkbeck, and is currently a member of the Centre for the Study of Internationalism. In 2014 he was a visiting researcher at the European University Institute in Florence. He is currently a Reviews Editor for Contemporary European History. David’s book, Franco’s Internationalists, is available as an Open Access ebook from Oxford University Press. His twitter handle is @DavidBrydan. Read his work (OPEN ACCESS!): Some highlights: The Reluctant Internationalists Center for the Study of Internationalism Background to the Spanish Civil War Francisco Franco's dictatorship Why does Spain matter? Who were Franco's internationalists? Working with the Nazis and Italian Fascists Measuring motivations - what evidence does one use? Colonial Health and international imperial cooperation Turn towards the "west" Catholicism and Spain Hispanidad Exiled Republicans Social Catholicism and religious revival World Expos, Brussels 1958 History of transnational anticommunism Refugees Publishing Open Access Wellcome Trust Franco's exhumation Internationalism of Nationalists Re-emergence of the transnational Far Right Suggestions: David: Ronald Fraser - The Blood of Spain Steven: El Sistema: Orchestrating Venezuela's Youth https://youtu.be/IjY8G0ut93g
Photography by Thai NguyenDr. Richard Bell is a scholar, writer, and teacher at the University of Maryland, where he is an associate professor. His research focuses on the history and culture of the United States between 1750 and 1877. His new book, Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home, was published by Simon & Schuster on October 15, 2019. Stolen is the true story of five boys who were kidnapped in the North and smuggled into slavery in the Deep South—and their daring attempt to escape and bring their captors to justice. In Philadelphia in 1825, these five young, free black boys fell into the clutches of the most fearsome gang of kidnappers and slavers in the United States. Lured onto a small ship with the promise of food and pay, they were instead met with blindfolds, ropes, and knives. Over four long months, their kidnappers drove them overland into the Cotton Kingdom to be sold as slaves. Determined to resist, the boys formed a tight brotherhood as they struggled to free themselves and find their way home. Their ordeal—an odyssey that took them from the Philadelphia waterfront to the marshes of Mississippi and then onward still—shines a glaring spotlight on the Reverse Underground Railroad, a black-market network of human traffickers and slave traders who stole away thousands of legally free African Americans from their families in order to fuel slavery’s rapid expansion in the decades before the Civil War. You can read more on his website or reach out to him here. Read Richard's books: Some Highlights: Rick's background, from Britain but captivated by America Previous books and how a mysterious suicide led to research to "Stolen" Switching from Academic audience to popular audience 1825 - Philadelphia Freedom and kidnappings in Philadelphia Domestic internal slave trade - 1 million people between 1770-1860 "Boy Lost" Where do you go once you escape? The Reverse Underground Railroad Cornelius Sinclair, his parents, and the loss of a child Professional Kidnappers and Legal slave traders Capillaries of a domestic Middle Passage Coffles - caravans across the United States of enslaved people The strengths of the microhistorical approach Thomas Foster - Rethinking Rufus: Sexual Violations of Enslaved Men (Gender and Slavery Ser.) Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World Twelve Years a Slave Walter Johnson - River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom Ed Baptist - The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism Suggestions: Rick: Check out the following micro-history: Adam Rothman - Beyond Freedom’s Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight of Slavery Paul Johnson - The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America Donna Merrick - Death of a Notary: Conquest and Change in Colonial New York Steven: Visit public history sites to think critically about slavery such as the Slave Mart in Charleston, South Carolina or the Whitney Plantation in New Orleans, Louisiana https://youtu.be/lte1I7KReRo
Ken Strange is a native New Yorker and former FBI agent who has written travel articles for local US and international newspapers and magazines. His recent book It’s Your Camino: One Couple’s 500-mile Pilgrimage Across Spain recounts his journey across northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago. A Spanish speaker, Ken has traveled extensively around the world to more than 65 countries, walking the paths of his characters and assimilating geographical venues; he has lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador. You can read more on his website here. Read Ken's Book: It's Your Camino: One Couple's 500-mile Pilgrimage Across Spain Some Highlights: Walking the Camino after age 50 The history of the Way of St. James - The Camino de Santiago Ken's global experience in Spain, the Middle East, and the United States The people who you meet on the Camino (from all over the world) Martin Sheen's iconic Camino Movie - "The Way" Preparing for the Camino - Equipment, practice, athleticism Walking 500 miles Getting lost on the way to Santiago "Authenticity" on the Camino What "you Camino means" Local Pilgrims on the Camino organizations such as American Pilgrims on the Camino Suggestions: Ken: James Michener - Iberia Steven: Walter Starkie - The Road to Santiago (Read more Camino book suggestions HERE) https://youtu.be/VvSI_KIaA60 Thanks for listening - as always subscribe and comment below! Thanks!