About Albert Zambone

Al Zambone is the host of the excellent podcast "Historically Thinking."

NBN Episodes hosted by Albert:

Megan Kate Nelson, "Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America" (Scribner, 2022)

June 13, 2022

Saving Yellowstone

Megan Kate Nelson
Hosted by Albert Zambone

In 1871 an expedition entered the territory now encompassed by Yellowstone National Park. Led by doctor and self-taught geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer …

Thomas J. Misa, "Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022)

June 6, 2022

Leonardo to the Internet

Thomas J. Misa
Hosted by Albert Zambone

“My underlying goal,” writes my guest Tom Misa, “has been to display the variety of technologies, to describe how they changed across time, and to und…

Katherine Pangonis, "Queens of Jerusalem: The Women Who Dared to Rule" (Pegasus Books, 2022)

May 30, 2022

Queens of Jerusalem

Katherine Pangonis
Hosted by Albert Zambone

For nearly a century after the First Crusade captured Jerusalem, that ancient city became the nucleus of a several kingdoms and principalities establi…

Scott Reynolds Nelson, "Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World" (Basic Books, 2022)

May 23, 2022

Oceans of Grain

Scott Reynolds Nelson
Hosted by Albert Zambone

Grain traders wandering across the steppe; the Russian conquest of Ukraine (in the 18th century, that is); boulevard barons and wheat futures; railroa…

Simon Heffer, "High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain" (Pegasus Books, 2022)

May 16, 2022

High Minds

Simon Heffer
Hosted by Albert Zambone

Britain in the 1840s should have been, observes Simon Heffer, a time of great social improvement. Instead it was a country that was beset by poverty, …

Bruce Clark, "Athens: City of Wisdom" (Pegasus Books, 2022)

May 9, 2022

Athens

Bruce Clark
Hosted by Albert Zambone

In 510 BC, an obscure Greek city located literally on a backwater revolted against its tyrant. This was not extraordinary; such things happened regula…

Roderick Beaton, "The Greeks: A Global History" (Basic Books, 2021)

May 2, 2022

The Greeks

Roderick Beaton
Hosted by Albert Zambone

For nearly 3,000 years, the question of what it means to be Greek has been one of perennial interest—and, incredibly enough, not only to the Greeks. H…

Joan L. Richards, "Generations of Reason: A Family's Search for Meaning in Post-Newtonian England" (Yale UP, 2021)

February 1, 2022

Generations of Reason

Joan L. Richards
Hosted by Albert Zambone

In February, 1853, Augustus De Morgan, Professor of Mathematics at University College London, drew the last of a series of diagrams illustrating logic…

Lian Xi, "Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao's China" (Basic Books, 2018)

November 21, 2019

Blood Letters

Lian Xi
Hosted by Albert Zambone

In 1960, a poet and journalist named Lin Zhao was arrested by the Communist Party of China and sent to prison for re-education. Years before, she had …

Jonathan Rees, "Before the Refrigerator: How We Used to Get Ice" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2018)

November 14, 2019

Before the Refrigerator

Jonathan Rees
Hosted by Albert Zambone

Frederic Tudor was the “Ice King” of early nineteenth-century America. It was Tudor who realized that ice, harvested from New England ponds and rivers…

John Shelton Reed, "Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s" (Louisiana State UP, 2012)

November 7, 2019

Dixie Bohemia

John Shelton Reed
Hosted by Albert Zambone

John Shelton Reed, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of sociology (emeritus) at the University of North Carolina, has been observing the South for deca…

Timothy Lehman, "Up the Trail: How Texas Cowboys Herded Longhorns and Became an American Icon" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2018)

October 31, 2019

Up the Trail

Timothy Lehman
Hosted by Albert Zambone

In 1866, a sixteen year old cowboy—the name was literal in his case—named J.M. Daugherty bought 1,000 cattle, hired five cowboys, and headed north for…

Rachel Laudan, "Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History" (U California Press, 2015)

October 24, 2019

Cuisine and Empire

Rachel Laudan
Hosted by Albert Zambone

With Al Zambone this week is Rachel Laudan, author of the fascinating Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History (University of California Press, 20…

Jon K. Lauck, "The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History" (U Iowa Press, 2013)

October 17, 2019

The Lost Region

Jon K. Lauck
Hosted by Albert Zambone

The guest this week on Historically Thinking is Jon Lauck. He’s the author of The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History (University of I…

Nicole C. Kirk, "Wanamaker’s Temple: The Business of Religion in an Iconic Department Store" (NYU Press, 2018)

October 10, 2019

Wanamaker’s Temple

Nicole C. Kirk
Hosted by Albert Zambone

"On Christmas Eve, 1911, John Wanamaker stood in the middle of his elaborately decorated department store building in Philadelphia as shoppers milled …

Vicki Howard, "From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

July 24, 2019

From Main Street to Mall

Vicki Howard
Hosted by Albert Zambone

This week we take a break from fun and games to talk about business and consumerism–which, to be sure, is for some people also fun and games. As Vi…

Brian Haara, "Bourbon Justice: How Whiskey Law Shaped America" (Potomac Books, 2015)

July 17, 2019

Bourbon Justice

Brian Haara
Hosted by Albert Zambone

Bourbon whiskey has been around since nearly the beginning of the United States. Given that longevity, it has been part of the corporate law of the Un…

Sarah Anne Carter, "Object Lessons: How Nineteenth-Century Americans Learned to Make Sense of the Material World" (Oxford UP, 2018)

July 10, 2019

Object Lessons

Sarah Anne Carter
Hosted by Albert Zambone

The metaphor “object lesson” is a familiar one, still in everyday use. But what exactly does the metaphor refer to? In her book Object Lessons: How…

William Caferro, "Petrarch's War: Florence and the Black Death in Context" (Cambridge UP, 2018)

July 3, 2019

Petrarch's War

William Caferro
Hosted by Albert Zambone

In 1349 the City-Republic of Florence had just endured a horrific epidemic of bubonic plague, that contagion that became known as the Black Death. Nev…

Kimberly Alexander, "Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2018)

June 26, 2019

Treasures Afoot

Kimberly Alexander
Hosted by Albert Zambone

“Fashion is universal,” writes my guest Kimberly Alexander in her book Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era (Johns Hopkins University P…

David Green, "The Hundred Years War: A People’s History" (Yale UP, 2014)

June 19, 2019

The Hundred Years War

David Green
Hosted by Albert Zambone

The year 1453 marked the end of an intermittent yet seemingly endless series of wars between the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of England that, so…

Danell Jones, "An African in Imperial London: The Indomitable Life of A.B.C. Merriman-Labor" (Hurst, 2018)

June 12, 2019

An African in Imperial London

Danell Jones
Hosted by Albert Zambone

In 1919 a man named Ohlohr Maigi died of tuberculosis in London, in deep poverty. He had arrived over a decade before in the imperial capital bearing …

Daniel Hershenzon, "The Captive Sea: Slavery, Communication, and Commerce in Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2018)

June 5, 2019

The Captive Sea

Daniel Hershenzon
Hosted by Albert Zambone

For hundreds of years, people living on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea enslaved one another. Moslems from North Africa captured Italians, French,…

Christopher Childers, "The Webster-Hayne Debate: Defining Nationhood in the Early American Republic" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2018)

May 31, 2019

The Webster-Hayne Debate

Christopher Childers
Hosted by Albert Zambone

No, not the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Perhaps even more important than that Illinois contest of 1858 was the Webster-Hayne debate of 1830. Confused?…