General History

General History

episodes

Interviews with historians about their new books.

Paul Carter, "Richard Nixon: California's Native Son" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)

March 29, 2024

Richard Nixon

Paul Carter
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Born in Yorba Linda and raised in Whittier, California, Nixon succeeded early in life, excelling in academics while enjoying athletics through high sc…

Françoise N. Hamlin and Charles W. McKinney, "From Rights to Lives: The Evolution of the Black Freedom Struggle" (Vanderbilt UP, 2024)

March 29, 2024

From Rights to Lives

Françoise N. Hamlin and Charles W. McKinney
Hosted by Mickell Carter

Broadly speaking, the traditionally conceptualized mid-twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement and the newer #BlackLivesMatter Movement possess some s…

Jamie Goodall, "Daring Exploits of Pirate Black Sam Bellamy: From Cape Cod to the Caribbean" (History Press, 2023)

March 29, 2024

Daring Exploits of Pirate Black Sam Bellamy

Jamie Goodall
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1717, the Council of Trade and Plantations received "agreeable news" from New England. "Bellamy with his ship and Company" had perished on the shoa…

Thomas S. Mullaney, "The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age" (MIT Press, 2024)

March 29, 2024

The Chinese Computer

Thomas S. Mullaney
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

The fascinating, untold story of how the Chinese language overcame unparalleled challenges and revolutionized the world of computing. A standard QWERT…

Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill V. Mullen, "The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition" (Haymarket Books, 2024)

March 29, 2024

The Black Antifascist Tradition

Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill V. Mullen

The story of the fight against fascism across the African diaspora, revealing that Black antifascism has always been vital to global freedom struggles…

David Veevers, "The Great Defiance: How the World Took on the British Empire" (Ebury Press, 2023)

March 28, 2024

The Great Defiance

David Veevers
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

It’s very easy to study the history of the British Empire from the perspective of, well, the British–and to extend the early 20th century version of t…

Citizenship Across Time and Space with David Jacobson

March 28, 2024

Citizenship Across Time and Space with David Jacobson

David Jacobson

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey discusses the past and future of citizenship with David Jacobson, Professor of Soc…

Robin Waterfield, "Plato of Athens: A Life in Philosophy" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 28, 2024

Plato of Athens

Robin Waterfield

The first ever biography of the founder of Western philosophy Considered by many to be the most important philosopher ever, Plato was born into a well…

Michael Ortiz, "Anti-Colonialism and the Crises of Interwar Fascism" (Bloombury, 2023)

March 27, 2024

Anti-Colonialism and the Crises of Interwar Fascism

Michael Ortiz
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

What is fascism? Is it an anomaly in the history of modern Europe? Or its culmination? In Anti-Colonialism and the Crises of Interwar Fascism (Blooms…

Adam Lazarus, "The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams" (Citadel Press, 2023)

March 27, 2024

The Wingmen

Adam Lazarus
Hosted by Paul Knepper

It was 1953, the Korean War in full throttle, when two men—already experts in their fields—crossed the fabled 38th Parallel into Communist airspace ab…

Jeffrey Ahlman, "Ghana: A Political and Social History" (Zed Books, 2023)

March 27, 2024

Ghana

Jeffrey Ahlman

Over the last two decades, historians have steadily moved away from writing longue durée national histories. Especially in the wake of the global hist…

Kevin P. Reihle, "The Russian FSB: A Concise History of the Federal Security Service" (Georgetown UP, 2024)

March 26, 2024

The Russian FSB

Kevin P. Riehle

Since its founding in 1995, the FSB, Russia's Federal Security Service, has regained the majority of the domestic security functions of the Soviet-era…

Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "Across the Green Sea: Histories from the Western Indian Ocean, 1440-1640" (U Texas Press, 2024)

March 26, 2024

Across the Green Sea

Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Across the Green Sea: Histories from the Western Indian Ocean, 1440-1640 (University of Texas Press, 2024) by Dr. Sanjay Subrahmanyam presents a histo…

William Bain, "Political Theology of International Order" (Oxford UP, 2020)

March 26, 2024

Political Theology of International Order

William Bain

Is contemporary international order truly a secular arrangement? Theorists of international relations typically adhere to a narrative that portrays th…

Rachel S. Gross, "Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America" (Yale UP, 2024)

March 26, 2024

Shopping All the Way to the Woods

Rachel S. Gross
Hosted by Brian Hamilton

Rachel S. Gross's Shopping All the Ways to the Woods (Yale University Press, 2024) tells the fascinating history of the profitable paradox of the Amer…

Vladimir Solonari, "A Satellite Empire: Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944" (Cornell UP, 2019)

March 26, 2024

A Satellite Empire

Vladimir Solonari
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

A Satellite Empire: Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944 (Cornell UP, 2019) is an in-depth investigation of the political and social histo…

Aaron Clift, "Anticommunism in French Society and Politics, 1945-1953" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 25, 2024

Anticommunism in French Society and Politics, 1945-1953

Aaron Clift
Hosted by Michael Vann

Anticommunism in French Society and Politics, 1945-1953 (Oxford UP, 2023) evaluates the prevalence of anticommunism among the French population in 194…

Maggie Hennefeld, "Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema" (Columbia UP, 2024)

March 25, 2024

Death by Laughter

Maggie Hennefeld
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Can you really die from laughing too hard? Between 1870 and 1920, hundreds of women suffered such a fate—or so a slew of sensationalist obituaries wou…

Brent M. Rogers, "Buffalo Bill and the Mormons" (U Nebraska Press, 2024)

March 24, 2024

Buffalo Bill and the Mormons

Brent M. Rogers
Hosted by Joseph Stuart

In this never-before-told history of Buffalo Bill and the Mormons, Brent M. Rogers presents the intersections in the epic histories of William F. "Buf…

Maarten Couttenier, "Anthropology and Race in Belgium and the Congo (1839-1922)" (Routledge, 2023)

March 24, 2024

Anthropology and Race in Belgium and the Congo (1839-1922)

Maarten Couttenier
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Maarten Couttenier's Anthropology and Race in Belgium and the Congo (1839-1922) (Routledge, 2023) examines the history of Belgian physical anthropolog…