The History of Violence

So, this is a bit of a change of pace, but I've decided to mix it up a bit and do some super short episodes focused on theories related to violence. This will cover some of the main historical, sociological and international relations theories. I'll still be doing longer episodes and interviews, these are just a bonus! I'm hoping they could be useful to students, but also interesting for everyone else. Today I'm going to run-through Realism, probably the most influential international relations theory, which has a heavy focus on war. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Swords fell out of common use over 100 years ago, but have maintained a central place in the poplar imagination around war and conflict. Even SciFi heroes use futuristic swords! From status symbols to religious icons, how did swords become so culturally significant? And why have they remained so today?

We have a bit of a change of format today. In honour of the upcoming devolved and local election in the UK we have a really interesting interview with Dr Patrick Kuhn (@patmkuhn) from the Causes and Consequences of Electoral Violence: Evidence from England and Wales, 1832–1914 project (@VictorianEV_UK).  There's a great discussion of the project and how we can use history to learn about modern forms of violence. There are also some pretty great stories about the more whimsical side of Victorian elections! Check out the project for loads of great blog posts and updates, with some longer publications coming from them later in the year.

This is a trailer for our upcoming interview with Dr Patrick Kuhn from the Victorian Election Violence Project. The Full episode is out on the 30th of April!

Apparently there are some issues with the Spotify version of this upload! The full episode is live on Podbean, iTunes and Stitcher, and I am working on updating Spotify. Cheers! We are back (after a small technical snafu) with an episode about the history, and the present of drone warfare. We will also be back next month with an extra special interview episode! 

This week we are back after a long hiatus. This episode discusses the recent Black Lives Matter Protests, the police response, violent escalation and the long-term politicization of law enforcement in the USA.  It's more of a brief overview than a deep dive, but I hope you enjoy it.

The fall of the Ottoman Empire allowed the Western imperial powers to start reshaping the Middle East. Through a series of ill-conceived and half-realized schemes they created today's borders and many of today's problems. In this episode, the first of a series charting the historical roots of contemporary Middle Eastern conflicts, we discuss how political jockeying around the post-Ottoman political settlement continues the affect regional and international conflicts. This involves a whistlestop tour of the Ottoman Empire's approach to ethno-religious diversity, the Sykes - Picot agreement, the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence and the Balfour declaration. Apologies as always for my pronunciation!

Sarah Winchester's Mystery House was built on the fortune produced by "The Gun that Won the West." But is there any truth to the legend of the guilt-ridden widow and the house full of ghosts? We talk about the role of the Winchester rifle in the Westward expansion of the United States, the competing explanations for the Winchester Mystery House and what this says about how we remember colonialism. 

With the recent death of ISIS leader Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi, attention has been focused on what this means for the future of the group he led. But what does the current evidence suggest about the effects of killing militant leaders?     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGvep_E1Owk  Jordan, Jenna. "When heads roll: Assessing the effectiveness of leadership decapitation." Security Studies 18, no. 4 (2009): 719-755.   Jordan, Jenna. Leadership decapitation of terrorist organizations. Stanford University Press, 2019.     Price, Bryan C. "Targeting top terrorists: How leadership decapitation contributes to counterterrorism." International Security 36, no. 4 (2012): 9-46.   Johnston, Patrick B. "Does decapitation work? Assessing the effectiveness of leadership targeting in counterinsurgency campaigns." International Security 36, no. 4 (2012): 47-79.   Phillips, Brian J. "How does leadership decapitation affect violence? The case of drug trafficking organizations in Mexico." The Journal of Politics 77, no. 2 (2015): 324-336.

Today we talk about Stanley Cohen, the roots of moral panic and the anti-gamer conspiracy.    Gamers rise up!!!

International sanctions are a key foreign policy tool, and are often presented as a humanitarian alternative to war. But is this really the case, or are they simply a way of engaging in Western imperialism without the bad press and body bags?

Benjamin Franklin, remarking on the coming end of the American Revolutionary War, said that “there was never a good War, or a bad Peace.” But is this really the case? In this short episode, I discuss a couple of examples of post-conflict violence, Northern Ireland and Guatemala, looking at how peace deals often serve to redistribute violence.  Please subscribe and review if you are interested. And apologies for the cold ravaged voice!

Who are the Antifa supersoldiers?  Well, they are sometimes antisocial but always antifascist but to understand their roots we have to go back to the 1936 Battle of Cable Street. So today I will talk about what happened to Mosley and his boys when they tried to march through the East End, and what this can tell us about the modern philosophy of Antifa.  ¡No Pasaran! 

Cry Havoc . . . and Unleash the HOGS OF WAR! In this episode Claire Elliott joins me to talk about some of the weirdest uses of war animals. Not horses and elephants, more like WarCats and hogs. Enjoy! Also, a rating and review on iTunes or Stitcher would be amazingly helpful if you have time! 

Despite the fall of most of the world's totalitarian regimes, their tactics of violence and control did not disappear. Hannah Arendt warned of the continuing use of "totalitarian instruments" by governments around the world. In this podcast I discuss totalitarianism and totalitarian violence, and how we can see aspects of this in the contemporary response to migration and refugees.    Please get in contact if you have any comments or suggests. You can find me on Twitter @ViolencePod or email me at thehistoryofviolence@gmail.com. Please leave a rating and review as well, it really helps! 

Fantasy, mythology and historical fiction is full of scenes of champion combat, with heroes and villains battling to settle the fate of nations. But did this really happen, or is it just an invention of classical poets?    Please get in contact if you have any comments or suggests. You can find me on Twitter @ViolencePod or email me at thehistoryofviolence@gmail.com. Please leave a rating and review as well, it really helps! 

Welcome to The History of Violence podcast! This episode discusses different types of violence, and how we can understand violence across different eras.    Please get in contact if you have any comments or suggests. You can find me on Twitter @ViolencePod or email me at ViolencePod. Please leave a rating and review as well, it really helps!