General History

General History

episodes

Interviews with historians about their new books.

Andre Schmid, "North Korea's Mundane Revolution: Socialist Living and the Rise of Kim Il Sung, 1953-1965" (U California Press, 2024)

April 30, 2024

North Korea's Mundane Revolution

Andre Schmid

Histories of North Korea typically focus on one man — Kim Il Sung — and one narrative — his grand rise to absolute power. Andre Schmid’s new book, Nor…

Victoria Sparey, "Shakespeare's Adolescents: Age, Gender and the Body in Shakespearean Performance and Early Modern Culture" (Manchester UP, 2024)

April 30, 2024

Shakespeare's Adolescents

Victoria Sparey
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Shakespeare's Adolescents: Age, Gender and the Body in Shakespearean Performance and Early Modern Culture (Manchester UP, 2024) by Dr. Victoria Sparey…

Jaume Aurell, "What Is a Classic in History?: The Making of a Historical Canon" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

April 30, 2024

What Is a Classic in History?

Jaume Aurell
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

What is a classic in historical writing? How do we explain the continued interest in certain historical texts, even when their accounts and interpreta…

Sheilagh Ogilvie, "The European Guilds: An Economic Analysis" (Princeton UP, 2019)

April 29, 2024

The European Guilds

Sheilagh Ogilvie
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Guilds were prominent in medieval and early modern Europe, but their economic role has seldom been studied. In The European Guilds: An Economic Analys…

Christopher Cameron, "Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism" (Northwestern UP, 2019)

April 29, 2024

Black Freethinkers

Christopher Cameron

Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism (Northwestern University Press, 2019) by Christopher Cameron, an Associate Professor of h…

Robert Gerwarth, "November 1918: The German Revolution" (Oxford UP, 2020)

April 29, 2024

November 1918

Robert Gerwarth
Hosted by Ryan Stackhouse

Was Weimar doomed from the outset? In November 1918: The German Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2020), Robert Gerwarth argues that this is the w…

George R. Boyer, "The Winding Road to the Welfare State: Economic Insecurity and Social Welfare Policy in Britain" (Princeton UP, 2019)

April 29, 2024

The Winding Road to the Welfare State

George R. Boyer
Hosted by Mark Klobas

The creation of the postwar welfare state in Great Britain did not represent the logical progression of governmental policy over a period of generatio…

John O'Brien, "States of Intoxication: The Place of Alcohol in Civilisation" (Routledge, 2018)

April 29, 2024

States of Intoxication

John O'Brien
Hosted by Lucas Richert

Is alcohol a universal feature of human society? Why is it problematic in some countries and not others? How did alcohol help build the modern state? …

Sarah A. Bendall, "Shaping Femininity: Foundation Garments, the Body and Women in Early Modern England" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

April 28, 2024

Shaping Femininity

Sarah A. Bendall
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In sixteenth and seventeenth-century England, the female silhouette underwent a dramatic change. This very structured form, created using garments cal…

Michael De Groot, "Disruption: The Global Economic Shocks of the 1970s and the End of the Cold War" (Cornell UP, 2024)

April 28, 2024

Disruption

Michael De Groot
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Disruption: The Global Economic Shocks of the 1970s and the End of the Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2024), Dr. Michael De Groot argues that…

Ariella Aisha Azoulay, "Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism" (Verso, 2019)

April 28, 2024

Potential History

Ariella Aisha Azoulay

Ariella Aisha Azoulay argues that the institutions that make our world, from archives and museums to ideas of sovereignty and human rights to history …

John H. Cable, "Southern Enclosure: Settler Colonialism and the Postwar Transformation of Mississippi" (UP of Kansas, 2023)

April 28, 2024

Southern Enclosure

John H. Cable
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Historians of the American South have come to consider the mechanization and consolidation of cotton farming—the “Southern enclosure movement”—to be a…

David Pozen, "The Constitution of the War on Drugs" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 28, 2024

The Constitution of the War on Drugs

David Pozen
Hosted by Emily Dufton

David Pozen is the Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and the author of the new book, The Constitution of the War on Drugs…

John L. Sullivan, "Podcasting in a Platform Age: From an Amateur to a Professional Medium" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

April 27, 2024

Podcasting in a Platform Age

John L. Sullivan
Hosted by Shu Wan

Podcasting in a Platform Age: From an Amateur to a Professional Medium (Bloomsbury, 2024) explores the transition underway in podcasting by considerin…

Ross Perlin, "Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues" (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024)

April 27, 2024

Language City

Ross Perlin
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Half of all 7,000-plus human languages may disappear over the next century and—because many have never been recorded—when they’re gone, it will be for…

Andrés Reséndez, "Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery" (Mariner Books, 2022)

April 27, 2024

Conquering the Pacific

Andrés Reséndez
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

The Pacific Ocean is twice the size of the Atlantic, and while humans have been traversing its current-driven maritime highways for thousands of years…

Kristin M. Franseen, "Imagining Musical Pasts: The Queer Literary Musicology of Vernon Lee, Rosa Newmarch, and Edward Prime-Stevenson" (Clemson UP, 2023)

April 27, 2024

Imagining Musical Pasts

Kristin M. Franseen
Hosted by Kristen Turner

Imagining Musical Pasts: the Queer Literary Musicology of Vernon Lee, Rosa Newmarch, and Edward Prime-Stevenson (Clemson University Press, 2023) by Kr…

Adam J. Criblez, "Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City" (Three Hills, 2024)

April 26, 2024

Kings of the Garden

Adam J. Criblez
Hosted by Paul Knepper

In Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City (Three Hills, 2024), Adam J. Criblez traces the fall and rise of the New York Knicks betwee…

Tabea Alexa Linhard, "Unexpected Routes: Refugee Writers in Mexico" (Stanford UP, 2023)

April 26, 2024

Unexpected Routes

Tabea Alexa Linhard
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Unexpected Routes: Refugee Writers in Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2023) by Dr. Tabea Alexa Linhard chronicles the refugee journeys of six write…

Nicholas Popper, "The Specter of the Archive: Political Practice and the Information State in Early Modern Britain" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

April 26, 2024

The Specter of the Archive

Nicholas Popper
Hosted by Jen Hoyer

We are used to thinking of ourselves as living in a time when more information is more available than ever before. In The Specter of the Archive: Poli…