General History

General History

episodes

Interviews with historians about their new books.

Dan Stone, "The Holocaust: An Unfinished History" (Mariner Books, 2023)

March 18, 2024

The Holocaust

Dan Stone
Hosted by Kelly McFall

The Holocaust is much-discussed, much-memorialized and much-portrayed. But there are major aspects of its history that have been overlooked. Spanning …

Xaq Frohlich on the History of Food Labeling

March 18, 2024

Xaq Frohlich on the History of Food Labeling

Xaq Frohlich
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks with Xaq Frolich, Associate Professor of History at Auburn University, about his new book, From Label to Table:…

Ashok Gopal, "A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B.R. Ambedkar" (Navayana Press, 2023)

March 18, 2024

A Part Apart

Ashok Gopal
Hosted by Jessica Zu

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) is perhaps the most iconised historical figure in India. Born into a caste deemed ‘unfit for human association’, he…

The Pioneering Life of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

March 18, 2024

The Pioneering Life of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Manu Bhagavan

Manu Bhagavan and Ellen Chesler discuss Bhagavan’s latest book on Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (Penguin, 2023), admired sister of India’s founding Prime Mini…

Rachel Gordan, "Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 18, 2024

Postwar Stories

Rachel Gordan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The period immediately following World War II was an era of dramatic transformation for Jews in America. At the start of the 1940s, President Roosevel…

Erica L. Fraser, "Military Masculinity and Postwar Recovery in the Soviet Union" (U Toronto Press, 2019)

March 17, 2024

Military Masculinity and Postwar Recovery in the Soviet Union

Erica L. Fraser
Hosted by Polina Popova

Catastrophic wartime casualties and postwar discomfort with the successes of women who had served in combat roles combined to shatter prewar ideals …

Stephanie Chasin, "British Jews and Imperial Service: Nationalism, Pan-Islamism and Zionism in Mandate Palestine and Colonial India" (I. B. Tauris, 2023)

March 17, 2024

British Jews and Imperial Service

Stephanie Chasin
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the wake of the devastating WWI, three Jews headed the most valuable territory in the British Empire in addition to a strategically important new a…

Caitlin Davies, "Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths" (The History Press, 2023)

March 17, 2024

Private Inquiries

Caitlin Davies
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Dismissed as ‘Mrs Sherlock Holmes’ or amateurish Miss Marples, mocked as private dicks or honey trappers, they have been investigating crime since the…

Thomas D. Conlan, "Kings in All But Name: The Lost History of Ouchi Rule in Japan, 1350-1569" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 17, 2024

Kings in All But Name

Thomas D. Conlan
Hosted by Jingyi Li

In the sixteenth century, members of the Ouchi family were kings in all but name in much of Japan. Immensely wealthy, they controlled sea lanes stretc…

Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa, "The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust" (Simon & Schuster, 2024)

March 17, 2024

The Counterfeit Countess

Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa
Hosted by Piotr Kosicki

World War II and the Holocaust have been the subject of many remarkable stories of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Wom…

Ellen E. Jones, "Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World" (Faber and Faber, 2024)

March 16, 2024

Screen Deep

Ellen E. Jones
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

Why does race matter in film and TV? In Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World (Faber and Faber, 2024), Ellen E. Jones, a jo…

Ada Maria Kuskowski, "Vernacular Law; Writing and the Reinvention of Customary Law in Medieval France" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

March 16, 2024

Vernacular Law

Ada Maria Kuskowski
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Custom was fundamental to mediaeval legal practice. Whether in a property dispute or a trial for murder, the aggrieved and accused would go to lay cou…

Ruth A. Morgan, "Climate Change and International History: Climate Diplomacy in the Global North and South Since 1950" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

March 16, 2024

Climate Change and International History

Ruth A. Morgan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Exploring how climate change has configured the international arena since the 1950s, Climate Change and International History: Negotiating Science, Gl…

SherAli Tareen, "Perilous Intimacies: Debating Hindu-Muslim Friendship After Empire" (Columbia UP, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Perilous Intimacies

SherAli Tareen

Friendship—particularly interreligious friendship—offers both promise and peril. After the end of Muslim political sovereignty in South Asia, how did …

Whitney Nell Stewart, "This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations" (UNC Press, 2023)

March 15, 2024

This Is Our Home

Whitney Nell Stewart
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

The cultural memory of plantations in the Old South has long been clouded by myth. A recent reckoning with the centrality of slavery to the US nationa…

Amy Lidster and Sonia Massai, "Shakespeare at War: A Material History" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Shakespeare at War

Amy Lidster and Sonia Massai

Presenting engaging, thought-provoking stories across centuries of military activity, Shakespeare at War: A Material History (Cambridge UP, 2023) demo…

Jonathan W. White, "Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Shipwrecked

Jonathan W. White

In Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), historian Jonathan…

Victoria Perry, "A Bittersweet Heritage: Slavery, Architecture and the British Landscape" (Hurst, 2022)

March 14, 2024

A Bittersweet Heritage

Victoria Perry
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

The 2020 toppling of slave-trader Edward Colston's statue by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol was a dramatic reminder of Britain's role in tra…

Julie Kalman, "The Kings of Algiers: How Two Jewish Families Shaped the Mediterranean World During the Napoleonic Wars and Beyond" (Princeton UP, 2023)

March 14, 2024

The Kings of Algiers

Julie Kalman
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

On July 27th, 1827, the dey of Algiers struck the French consul over his country’s refusal to pay back its debts–specifically, to two Jewish merchant …

Micajah Henley, "The Clash's Sandinista!" (Bloombury, 2024)

March 14, 2024

The Clash's Sandinista!

Micajah Henley
Hosted by Bradley Morgan

Following the success of their instantly iconic double LP, London Calling, The Clash set out to do something "triply outrageous." Named after the Nica…