Episodes
Saturday Jan 15, 2022
Winnie-the-Pooh
Saturday Jan 15, 2022
Saturday Jan 15, 2022
(Christine) Winnie-the-Pooh has lived in the the hearts of people of all ages since the 1920s. Here, Christine traces the life of the famous bear (and his friends) from his origins in the family of author A.A. Milne and his acquisition by the Disney Company, all the way to his current place of residence.
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Saturday Dec 11, 2021
History for the Holidays
Saturday Dec 11, 2021
Saturday Dec 11, 2021
(Christine, Josh, Kristin) Join us as we say goodbye to 2021 with a series of historical anecdotes related to holidays, from Hanukkah to Christmas to New Year's.
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Saturday Nov 27, 2021
Uncle Remus, Joel Chandler Harris, and the South, Part II
Saturday Nov 27, 2021
Saturday Nov 27, 2021
(Elizabeth) How did Joel Chandler Harris's stories on Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Bear, and Br'er Fox go from beloved to problematic in the mid-twentieth century? In this episode, Elizabeth traces the story of how Joel Chandler Harris's work became Song of the South.
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Saturday Nov 13, 2021
Uncle Remus, Joel Chandler Harris, and the South, Part I
Saturday Nov 13, 2021
Saturday Nov 13, 2021
(Elizabeth) By the end of the nineteenth century, Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus folktales were famous not only in the South, but throughout the United States. For much of the last century, however, they have been sharply critiqued for their presentation of antebellum plantation life. But who was Joel Chandler Harris? In this episode, Elizabeth dives into his story and the people from whom he learned these tales.
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Saturday Oct 30, 2021
History for Halloween VIII
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Oh my gosh, we're back again! Our annual tradition continues as this year we bring you yet another round of creepy and fantastic history for the scariest holiday of the year.
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Saturday Oct 16, 2021
Ivanhoe and the Modern Middle Ages
Saturday Oct 16, 2021
Saturday Oct 16, 2021
(Lucy) How did Ivanhoe become a wildly popular school text? And what happened to the interpretation of the text when it did? Across the Anglophone world, Scott’s medieval England became reified as a time and place of chivalric adventure, despite the novel’s often ironic tone and often pointed social criticisms. This episode examines how Sir Walter Scott’s imagined past became something very different as it was reinterpreted in popular culture, in sometimes sinister ways.
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Friday Oct 01, 2021
Ivanhoe and the Invention of Merry England
Friday Oct 01, 2021
Friday Oct 01, 2021
(Lucy) There are some things that almost any Hollywood film set in the Middle Ages can count on. It will be set in England. There will be a lot of forests. The Norman nobility will oppress the Saxon peasantry. Other things are optional but frequent. There may be a tournament or a siege. There may be a reference to the Crusades. Robin Hood may turn up. There may be a trial for witchcraft. Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe contains all of these things, and since its publication in 1819, this runaway bestseller has helped to shape Anglophone ideas of the Middle Ages.
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Friday Sep 17, 2021
Sicilian Vespers, Part II: The Massacre and the War of the Vespers
Friday Sep 17, 2021
Friday Sep 17, 2021
(Josh) Manfred of House Hohenstaufen is dead; Charles of Anjou, in the name of the papacy, has claimed Sicily and awaits coronation. Across the Ionian and Aegean Seas, Michael Palaeologus looks to the Latin West and waits. In Germany, Conradin, son of the last "rightful" king of Sicily, desires to seize his own claim to the throne. And the House of Aragon begins to stir and look towards Sicily with its own ambitions. This week on Footnoting History, the thrilling conclusion to our saga of the Sicilian Vespers which sees 4000 Frenchmen dead.
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Friday Sep 03, 2021
Sicilian Vespers, Part I: The Uprising
Friday Sep 03, 2021
Friday Sep 03, 2021
In the middle of the 13th Century, a violent uprising began on the island of Sicily in an attempt to oust the French King, Charles I of Anjou, that left approximately 13,000 people dead over the course of six weeks. This violent uprising also sparked a wider pan-Mediterranean war between the Spanish crown of Aragon, the Angevin Kingdom of Naples, the Byzantine Empire, and the Kingdom of France. In part one of this two-part series, Josh explores the causes of the uprising and the immediate aftermath. (Josh)
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Friday Aug 20, 2021
The Ottoman Kafes or the Princely Cage
Friday Aug 20, 2021
Friday Aug 20, 2021
(Elizabeth) Starting in the early 1600s, the Ottoman sultans switched from practicing fraticide to confinement as a means to preserve their rule from their grasping brothers. In this episode, Elizabeth examines how this treatment led a number of eventual sultans to have less than stellar qualifications and less than stellar legacies.
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Friday Aug 06, 2021
Mohenjo Daro: Living City, Mound of the Dead
Friday Aug 06, 2021
Friday Aug 06, 2021
(Lucy) Mohenjo Daro was a vast metropolis, with elaborate urban infrastructure… and largely mysterious urban organization. It was a center of the Indus Valley civilization. Located in what is now Pakistan and northwestern India, the cities of this civilization covered territory roughly the size of western Europe. Because its language still hasn’t been deciphered by modern scholars, there’s still a lot we don’t know about it. But this hasn’t stopped modern scholars, writers, politicians, and artists from engaging with and fantasizing about it. This episode looks at what history can tell us about the art and culture — and water management — of this ancient civilization.
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Friday Jul 23, 2021
The History of Tikka Masala
Friday Jul 23, 2021
Friday Jul 23, 2021
(Kristin) One of the most iconic Indian curries has its origins in British colonial India. But was this dish created by South Asian cooks, working in Britain, or was it created in India and then eagerly adopted by the West? Explore the history of this delicious dish with Kristin this week on Footnoting History!
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Friday Jul 09, 2021
Moe Berg, Baseball's Scholar and Spy
Friday Jul 09, 2021
Friday Jul 09, 2021
(Christine) Morris "Moe" Berg played for multiple Major League Baseball teams in the late 1920s and 1930s. Then, during World War II, he worked as a spy. In this episode, Christine discusses Berg's unusual life and career trajectory.
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Saturday May 29, 2021
Christopher Columbus and the Book of Prophecies
Saturday May 29, 2021
Saturday May 29, 2021
(Josh) Christopher Columbus inaugurated unprecedented global changed when he sailed from Europe to the Caribbean in 1492. But he brought with him expectations that his “discovery” of this new found route to “India” would see the beginning of the end of the world. He wrote about these expectations in his Book of Prophecies. Come behold the apocalypse on today’s Footnoting History.
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Friday May 14, 2021
Stede Bonnet, the Gentlemen Pirate
Friday May 14, 2021
Friday May 14, 2021
(Kristin) What do you do when you’re bored with the genteel life of a plantation owner? You take to the seas and become friends with Blackbeard, of course. Follow the fascinating life – and peculiar choices – of Stede Bonnet, the Gentleman Pirate, this week on Footnoting History.
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Friday Apr 30, 2021
Empress, Strategist… Saint? Irene of Byzantium
Friday Apr 30, 2021
Friday Apr 30, 2021
(Lucy) Plucked from obscurity to become the wife of an emperor, Irene of Athens went on to become regent and empress in her own right. A ruthless strategist, an international diplomat, and an intelligent politician, she was also an influential participant in Byzantium’s early medieval controversy over icons, which some saw as threatening imperial power. This episode explores her life, reign, and historical reputation.
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Friday Apr 16, 2021
Florida: Frontier and Cracker History
Friday Apr 16, 2021
Friday Apr 16, 2021
(Elizabeth) Before the land boom and amusement parks, Florida was still seen as part of the US's frontier. In this episode, Elizabeth explores the state's history of white settlement and the term "Cracker".
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Friday Apr 02, 2021
Anne Neville and the Wars of the Roses
Friday Apr 02, 2021
Friday Apr 02, 2021
(Christine) In the 15th century, Anne Neville married twice, once to each side fighting in the Wars of the Roses. Her first husband was the Lancastrian heir and her second became a Yorkist king. In this episode, join Christine for a look at Anne’s life and the people in it, including her two husbands, and her sister Isabel.
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Friday Mar 19, 2021
Divorcing in Revolutionary France
Friday Mar 19, 2021
Friday Mar 19, 2021
(Christine) Revolutionary France Series: During France's long revolutionary period, a lot of things changed, including how you could end your marriage. In this episode, Christine takes a look at the introduction of divorce in France, including some of the ways you could (and couldn't) legally split from your spouse from the dawn of the French Revolution through the Napoleonic years and beyond.
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Friday Mar 05, 2021
The Martyrs of Thana
Friday Mar 05, 2021
Friday Mar 05, 2021
(Josh) In the early fourteenth century, four Franciscan friars set out for East Asia to preach the Gospel among the Mongols. In the city of Thana (modern Mumbai), however, they met their end after running afoul of the local administrators. We explore their story, a Latin Christian understanding of Asia, and more in this episode of Footnoting History.
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Friday Feb 19, 2021
The Forme of Cury
Friday Feb 19, 2021
Friday Feb 19, 2021
(Kristin) Ever wondered what would be on the menu in medieval England? Take a look with Kristin at one of the oldest English cookbooks, The Forme of Cury, and see what Richard II was having for dinner in this week’s episode of Footnoting History!
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Friday Feb 05, 2021
From Hwaet to the Ring Shout: Lorenzo Dow Turner
Friday Feb 05, 2021
Friday Feb 05, 2021
(Lucy) What does Beowulf have to do with the linguistics of African-American history? The same man studied them both… and his scholarship on medieval literature helped frame his search for linguistic communities. This podcast examines the career of Lorenzo Dow Turner, celebrated linguist known as the Father of Gullah Studies. Turner studied the language, ideas, and culture of Black island communities in the southeastern United States, and created recognition for that culture in so doing.
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Friday Jan 22, 2021
The Origins of American Eugenics
Friday Jan 22, 2021
Friday Jan 22, 2021
(Elizabeth) Starting in the late 1800s, forward thinking progressives embraced the idea that human evolution needed a little help in order to make sure that only the best (in their view) produced. Eventually, this idea became codified in legislation and even the Supreme Court of the United States supported it. Join Elizabeth as she examines the formulation of this idea and its impact.
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Friday Dec 11, 2020
Hurrem Sultan: the Woman Who Changed Ottoman Queenship
Friday Dec 11, 2020
Friday Dec 11, 2020
(Elizabeth) In the Ottoman Empire, royal women were to be neither seen nor heard - after giving birth to the Sultan's child, they were supposed to recede into the background, focused on raising that potential heir. And, yet, in the 1500s, a young concubine captured the heart of one of the greatest leaders of all history. By doing so, she ushered in a period known as the Sultanate of Women. And we don't even know her real name. In this episode, join Elizabeth as she examines the history of the "Joyful One."
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Friday Nov 27, 2020
Marie Louise, Napoleon's Second Empress
Friday Nov 27, 2020
Friday Nov 27, 2020
(Christine) Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria became Emperor Napoleon I of France's second wife in 1810, only a few years before he was overthrown. This episode covers the ups and downs of Marie Louise's life before, during, and after her time with Napoleon.
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Friday Nov 13, 2020
Milicent Patrick and the Creature
Friday Nov 13, 2020
Friday Nov 13, 2020
(Josh) While most of us imagine life in Hollywood’s golden age as glamorous and full of star-studded extravaganzas, for Milicent Patrick, it was anything but. Working behind the scenes and on the sides of the sound stage, Patrick designed perhaps the most famous monster in movie history: The Creature from the Black Lagoon. In this episode, we trace the incredible intersections Patrick’s life had in history as well as her should-be-celebrated film career.
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Friday Oct 30, 2020
History for Halloween VII
Friday Oct 30, 2020
Friday Oct 30, 2020
We're back at it again! Get in the Halloween spirit with this selection of short, eerie, historical anecdotes hand selected by our historians. With ghosts and ghouls around, you might want to keep the light on while listening...
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Friday Oct 16, 2020
Surviving the Plague in 1665
Friday Oct 16, 2020
Friday Oct 16, 2020
(Lesley) Plague has taken over settlements throughout history, causing sickness and death to spread among the inhabitants. In 1665, one English town decided to stand against the resurging Plague. For 14 months, the Derbyshire town of Eyam self-isolated. No one was allowed in, no one as allowed out. Neighboring villages supported the isolated town by leaving supplies in a field. This week, Lesley discusses the consequences of their strategy.
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Friday Oct 02, 2020
William Miller and the Great Disappointment
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
(Josh) In the Bible, Jesus tells his disciples the following about the end of the world: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angles in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matthew 24:36). Despite this, William Miller, a popular minister in New York, preached that he had calculated the precise day on which the world would come to an end. He was wrong. Twice. In this episode, Josh explores William Miller’s conversion to evangelical Christianity, his calculations about the end of the world, and the fallout from his incorrect predictions.
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Friday Sep 18, 2020
Beyond Sacrifice: Aztec Medicine and Healing
Friday Sep 18, 2020
Friday Sep 18, 2020
(Lucy) The Aztecs are famous as conquerors, as sometime cannibals, and as, eventually, the conquered of an expanding European empire. This episode goes beyond human sacrifice to look at how Aztec beliefs about the body, religion, and nature were reflected in their practices of medicine and healing. Dismissed as sorcerers by some Spanish observers, physicians were significant to Aztec culture, and active in providing healing, surgery, and preventative care.
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Friday Sep 04, 2020
Jane Manning James
Friday Sep 04, 2020
Friday Sep 04, 2020
*Christine and Elizabeth) Jane Manning James was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the moment she was baptized in the 1840s. Here, Christine and Elizabeth discuss her experiences as one of the earliest Black women in the majority-white religion - including her interactions with the church's founder, Joseph Smith, and her fight for full inclusion.
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Friday Aug 21, 2020
The Male Witch
Friday Aug 21, 2020
Friday Aug 21, 2020
(Kristin) Witchcraft in the late medieval and early modern European world was a highly gendered crime. The majority of victims were women but a significant percentage were men – and in some regions, men made up the majority of the accused. The male witch appeared wherever there were witchcraft accusations – he was known as a maleficius, a wicca, a sorcier, or hexenmeister … just don’t call him a warlock.
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Friday Aug 07, 2020
Maya, Spain, and the Historical Record
Friday Aug 07, 2020
Friday Aug 07, 2020
(Lesley) In 1562, Spaniard Diego de Landa destroyed 5000 documents recording 800 years of Mayan religion, culture, and history. The Spanish claimed to be fighting black magic and only 4 pages survived their destruction. In this episode, Lesley tells the story of the burning and the consequence of these actions.
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Friday Jul 24, 2020
Revolutionary Movies, Part II: Dr. Zhivago and The Last Emperor
Friday Jul 24, 2020
Friday Jul 24, 2020
(Christine and Elizabeth) In our last episode we discussed revolutions in the United States and France, and this time we turn our eyes toward China and Russia. Here, our Summer Special crossover concludes with Christine and Elizabeth chatting with Pod Academy’s Gil and Rutger about 1965’s Dr. Zhivago and 1987’s The Last Emperor.
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Friday Jul 10, 2020
Revolutionary Movies, Part I: The Patriot and Les Miserables
Friday Jul 10, 2020
Friday Jul 10, 2020
(Christine and Elizabeth) How do modern films portray revolutions? What are some of the things regularly included - and just as regularly left out? In the first of this special pair of episodes Elizabeth and Christine step away from their scripts and join Gil and Rutger of Pod Academy for a Summer Special conversation about 2000’s The Patriot and 2012’s Les Miserables. Christine and Elizabeth are joined by Gil and Rutger of Pod Academy
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Friday May 29, 2020
Slavery and the Colony of Georgia
Friday May 29, 2020
Friday May 29, 2020
(Elizabeth) Most likely, many of us have heard tales around how the colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe, a philanthropist, to be a haven for Britain's debtors but, as always, that isn't the whole story. In this episode, Elizabeth delves into how slavery of Africans was illegal early on in the colony and why that changed - including who drove the demand.
Friday May 15, 2020
The Parnell Affair
Friday May 15, 2020
Friday May 15, 2020
(Christine) In the late 1800s, Charles Stewart Parnell was a heavyweight in Irish politics - until his affair with a woman named Katharine O'Shea came to light. Join Christine for a look at the scandal that dominated headlines and rocked the career of the so-called "Uncrowned King of Ireland".
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Friday May 01, 2020
Passing Exams in Imperial China
Friday May 01, 2020
Friday May 01, 2020
(Lucy) The civil service examinations taken by the bureaucrats and administrators of imperial China were not merely academic. They also served as social rites of passage. Moreover, they were designed to test the moral aptitudes of test-takers for a lifetime of upholding Confucian ideals. Naturally, they were a source of individual stress, as well as a key part of imperial power and authority for centuries, outlasting several dynasties. This episode looks at the roles civil service examinations played in premodern China, and the mythos that grew around them.
Friday Apr 17, 2020
The Other Anne Boleyn
Friday Apr 17, 2020
Friday Apr 17, 2020
(Kristin) In 1536, there were two Anne Boleyns in the Tower of London. One was a queen who helped inspire the English Reformation and stood accused of treason; the other was the aunt whose testimony may have helped to convict her. Lady Anne Shelton, née Boleyn, was the sister of the queen’s father, Thomas Boleyn and the mother of one of Henry VIII’s alleged mistresses. She was to play a critical role during the reign and fall of Henry’s second queen – who was her namesake and who became her nemesis.
Thursday Apr 02, 2020
Prester John
Thursday Apr 02, 2020
Thursday Apr 02, 2020
Prester John, a legendary Christian king, endured in the imaginations of many medieval crusade theorists and geographers. Thought to be a savior who would assist the forces of Christendom to defeat Islam in a final crusade to take Jerusalem, Prester John occupied an important place in the minds of those who hoped for a successful crusade. In this episode, join newcomer Josh as he takes you on a whirlwind tour of Asia and Africa in search of this mythical figure.
Podcaster: Josh
Friday Mar 20, 2020
Footnoting Disney: Mulan
Friday Mar 20, 2020
Friday Mar 20, 2020
(Lucy) Mulan is a story without a single historical precedent. From a medieval ballad to early modern narratives to plays and operas, it’s been told over and over again. Mulan’s exploits are always presented as having happened “once upon a time,” anytime from the Han dynasty to the early Tang period. These stories about a fierce heroine and her loyalties tell us a lot about changing ideas of gender and cultural identity in China.
Friday Mar 06, 2020
Footnoting Disney: The Little Mermaid
Friday Mar 06, 2020
Friday Mar 06, 2020
(Lesley) The first of Disney’s Renaissance films was a project in progress since 1930. Based on the writings of Hans Christian Andersen, the film updated the original tragic story for a modern family audience. In this episode, Lesley places the original story within the religious, cultural, and imperial context of its creation...while revealing a personal pain the author wrote into the mermaid’s story.
Thursday Feb 20, 2020
Footnoting Disney: Pocahontas
Thursday Feb 20, 2020
Thursday Feb 20, 2020
(Christine) In 1995, Disney released Pocahontas, its first animated film based on a real person. Set in 1607, the film depicts the encounter between Pocahontas, an American Indian woman, and John Smith, an English settler, in what is now the state of Virginia. In this episode Christine uses the popular movie that gave us songs like "Colors of the Wind" as the starting point for separating fact from fiction and investigating the real life of Pocahontas.
Friday Feb 07, 2020
Footnoting Disney: Aladdin
Friday Feb 07, 2020
Friday Feb 07, 2020
(Elizabeth) The story of Aladdin is one of the most popular and most produced of the tales from the One Thousand and One Nights (also known in English as the Arabian Nights) and, yet, it isn't actually one of the original stories. In this episode, Elizabeth explains how the story of Aladdin entered the collection, including the young Syrian man who inspired a French author to write it.
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Footnoting Disney: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Friday Jan 24, 2020
(Kristin) When Victor Hugo wrote his novel, Notre-Dame of Paris in 1831, the cathedral of Notre Dame was over 600 years old and crumbling. The ensuing tale was one that inspired a massive renovation project and continues to stir imaginations today. In this week’s episode, Kristin talks about the story of Hugo’s Notre-Dame of Paris and its continuing resonance with modern audiences.
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
The Forbidden Holiday
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
(Nathan) The English Civil War of the mid-17th century ended in the beheading of King Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth under of Oliver Cromwell. It also marked a turning point in the celebration of Christmas in Britain and its American colonies. In this episode, we will examine the rise of Puritan groups to power in the English Parliament, their attitudes toward the moral and ritual reform of the English Church, and how these groups in Britain and the colonies sought to purge Catholic and "pagan" influences in their society by banning the celebration of Christmas.
Saturday Nov 30, 2019
Haitian Revolution, Part II: 1794-1804
Saturday Nov 30, 2019
Saturday Nov 30, 2019
(Elizabeth) Between 1794 and 1804, the newly emancipated people of the colony of Saint-Domingue created a government under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture and defeated Napoleonic forces to become their own independent country. In this episode, Elizabeth explains the role of Louverture but also the international ramifications of the creation of Haiti.
Saturday Nov 16, 2019
Haitian Revolution, Part I: 1791-1793
Saturday Nov 16, 2019
Saturday Nov 16, 2019
(Elizabeth) In 1791, the enslaved people of France's wealthiest colony, Saint-Domingue, rose up for freedom. In this episode, Elizabeth examines the many factors that led to the abolition of slavery in the region now known as Haiti. The French Revolution, Kongolese leadership, social stratification, religion, and many other aspects all pay a role in what will become the first successful slave revolt of the Atlantic world.
Saturday Nov 02, 2019
The Unquiet Afterlife of Elizabeth Siddal
Saturday Nov 02, 2019
Saturday Nov 02, 2019
(Christine) Following a tumultuous life entrenched in Britain's art world, Elizabeth Siddal was laid to rest in 1862, but her body's peace would be disturbed only a few years later when her coffin was reopened. Find out the story behind the disturbance of the late artist and model's earthly remains in this episode.
Saturday Oct 19, 2019
History for Halloween VI
Saturday Oct 19, 2019
Saturday Oct 19, 2019
(Christine, Elizabeth, Kristin, Lesley, and Lucy) Ghosts, vampires, and more lurk in this year's installment of History for Halloween. Join us for our traditional episode featuring bits of history perfect for the creepiest time of the year.