History Talk

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (a.k.a.AMLO) rode to the presidency in 2018 by promising Mexico "juntos haremos historia" ("together we will make history"). Pundits have fallen over themselves trying to categorize AMLO, refering to him variously as Mexico's Jeremy Corbyn and Mexico's Donald Trump. AMLO's keen sense of his country's history has found expression in his promise to inaugurate the country's "fourth transformation." In doing so, he has positioned himself squarely in the pantheon of Mexican reformers. The phrase is a reference to the march of Mexican politics towards social democracy (after independence in 1810, the liberal reforms of the 1850s, and the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s).  This month, hosts Lauren Henry and Eric Michael Rhodes speak with two experts on 20th century Mexican history—Drs. Elena Jackson Albarrán and Reyna Esquivel-King—to consider what exactly such a transformation might look like. From AM

In April 2019, four months of sustained protests throughout Sudan culminated in the ousting of President Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled the country since taking office in a 1989 military coup. Originally a response to the spiraling cost of living, demonstrators soon widened their criticisms to encompass the full impact of Bashir’s three decades in power: brutal political repression, economic stagnation, and civil war in the country’s west and south. In the end, the huge crowds who took to the streets of Khartoum and other cities (including a significant proportion of women) crystallized their demands in a simple chant, directed at Bashir: “Just fall — that’s all.” International observers have suggested that the uprising in Sudan represents a second “Arab Spring.” Yet perhaps more important is the long history of popular protest within Sudan, which have twice in the past toppled autocratic governments. As protestors continue to defy the military government and dem

After more than four years of war, Yemen teeters on the brink of what the European Union has described as “the world's largest humanitarian crisis.” Conservative estimates count at least 10,000 civilian deaths in the ongoing conflict, with millions more threatened by disease and famine. Yet for many in the West, Yemen remains a forgotten war, despite the fact that the Saudi-backed forces fighting the northern Houthi rebels continue to deploy weapons produced in the United States and in Europe with devastating effect. This month, History Talk explores the current conflict in Yemen and its historical antecedents with two experts on the region: Dr. Asher Orkaby and Dr. Austin Knuppe. We examine the conflict in its multiple facets – a civil war between regional parties, an anti-terrorism campaign, and a proxy war between regional foes: it’s all three – to better understand why peace remains so elusive. To learn more about the War in Yemen, read this month's feature article,

On June 23rd, 2016, 52% of voters in the United Kingdom stunned the British political and media establishment—and the entire world—by voting to leave the European Union. Nearly three years, later, however, the final outcome of Brexit remains uncertain. And issues that affect the lives of millions hang in the balance, from the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and Britons living in the EU, to the status of the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In this month’s History Talk , we speak with Professors Laura Beers and Ian Sheldon to better understand the roots and consequences of Brexit. How has the relationship between Britain and the European continent changed? What were the political and economic forces that compelled the UK to join the EU in the first place? What made so many Britons eager to leave? We'll explore these questions, and more, during our conversation about this fast-changing situation. For more on the United Kingdom and the European Union

Over the last two decades, the Catholic Church has been buffeted by a series of sexual abuse scandals. High-profile investigative reports have uncovered cases of sexual abuse of minors, both boys and girls, as well as nuns and adult women, by Catholic priests, bishops, and members of religious orders. But while clerical abuse has only recently become a news item, it has a much longer history. This month, your History Talk podcast hosts Lauren Henry and Eric Michael Rhodes speak with two experts on the Church — Professors Wietse de Boer and Alexander Stille.  What makes the Catholic Church such a rife environment for sexual abuse? How do these scandals reflect the history of the Church? How has the Church responded to this problem, and how might the scandal shape its future? In this episode, we’ll seek to answer these questions and more in an exploration of the historical context and contemporary ramifications of the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church.   To le

In November 2018, a report commissioned by French President Emannuel Macron called for artifacts taken to France during the heyday of European imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to be returned to Africa, sending shockwaves throughout the museum world. “I cannot accept,” said Macron, “that a large part of the cultural heritage of several African countries is in France.” The expropriation of material culture has proven controversial in a variety of contexts, from the acquisition of Native American remains by American museums to the complicated provenance of Greek and Roman antiquities held by such major art institutions as the Getty Villa in Los Angeles and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In fact, debates about the rightful ownership of conquered cultural artifacts are almost as old as imperial conquest itself, as evidenced by Cicero’s 70 BCE denunciation of the Roman plundering of Greek temples in conquered Sicily. This month, your History Talk podc

In the West, many think of HIV/AIDS  as a phenomenon that began in the 1980s, when news first broke of a mysterious and highly deadly disease. In reality, however, the history of HIV/AIDS stretches back more than a hundred years, and has been shaped by some of the most important trends of the 20th century: from European colonialism in Africa, to the proxy conflicts fought between allies of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, to the globalization and economic neoliberalism that transformed the global economy in the late twentieth century. On this episode of History Talk, hosts Eric Michael Rhodes and Lauren Henry speak with three experts — Thomas F. McDow, Kathy Lancaster, and Jesse Kwiek— about the origins, spread, and future of HIV/AIDS in both the United States and around the world. For more Origins coverage of HIV/AIDS and other related topics, check out Thomas F. McDow's feature Origins article A Century of HIV, as well as A New Congo Crisis?, Searching for Wakand

In October 2018, Brazil elected far-right ideologue Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency. Bolsonaro, a retired military officer often called the "Trump of the Tropics," campaigned on a platform that mixed anti-corruption with open nostalgia for the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. On this month's History Talk podcast, your new hosts Eric Michael Rhodes and Lauren Henry speak with two experts — Jennifer Eaglin and Pedro Cantisano — about the rise of Bolsonaro, his place in the longer history of Brazilian politics, and what his success means for the future of the world's fourth-largest democracy. For more Origins coverage of Brazil, check out A Postcard from Brazil: The Old Struggle for a Better Future, Top Ten Origins: Brazil's Presidential Elections, and South America’s ‘Sleeping Giant’ Wakes: Brazil’s 2010 Election - Posted November 2018

Existential fears of “losing” what is seen as “Western Civilization” have animated many within what is considered the alt-right. However, the valorization of “western civilization” is often rooted in romanticized notions of ancient Greece and Rome, which alt-right groups have appropriated and promoted in recent propaganda. Why and how do nationalists in Europe and the U.S. draw contemporary connections to ancient Greece and Rome? What are the consequences of this for our understandings of the ancient era? And what should scholars in the Classics and History do about it? On this episode of History Talk, hosts Jessica Viñas-Nelson and Brenna Miller speak with three classists to discuss the alt-right’s appropriation of classical history: Denise Eileen McCoskey, Donna Zuckerberg, and Curtis Dozier. For more on this topic, see:  Denise Eileen McCoskey - "Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts: How Neo-Nazis and Ancient Greeks Met in Charlottesville" Curtis Dozier

The September 11th attacks put terrorism in the forefront of American consciousness. Since then, the U.S. has waged a nearly ubiquitous global war on terror, that now reaches 76 countries and seems far from over. Although American thought on terrorism persistently goes back to 9/11 and 2001, U.S. interest and rhetoric on terrorism dates back well into the Cold War. How did terrorism become a focal point of U.S. foreign policy? How did earlier precedents shape how the U.S. fights terrorism and its response to 9/11? And what does this deeper history tell us about what terrorism is, how our common assumptions about it might be wrong, and how we should rethink it? On this episode of History Talk, hosts Brenna Miller and Jessica Viñas-Nelson speak with Drs. Philip Travis and Adrian Hänni to discuss the historical context for today’s war on terror and the Cold War precedents that help explain where we're at today.    - Posted July 2018 &nbs

In the last year, tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, a false nuclear missile alert in Hawaii, and debates over the Iran nuclear deal have renewed public attention to the development of nuclear weapons and armament and the potential for war. But from the Cold War, to the Cuban Missile Crisis, to Chinese nuclear tests in the 1960s, the U.S. and the world have frequently faced these fears, and attempted to place particular countries’ access to nuclear weapons technology under international control. So how concerned should we be about nuclear weapons and who has them? How did the U.S. become so central in efforts to control them? And how can past attempts to limit nuclear proliferation inform how we address these questions today? On this episode of History Talk, hosts Brenna Miller and Jessica Viñas-Nelson speak with experts Christopher Gelpi, Dakota Rudesill, and Matt Ambrose to discuss the history of nuclear armament and control. For more on this topic, see: Johnathan Hunt - "Learning to Lov

  This year, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice—the nation’s first memorial to the over 4,000 African American victims of lynching—opened in Montgomery, Alabama. The opening of the memorial, however, coincides with a recent intensification in debates over Confederate monuments. How do these two trends in commemorating our nation’s past relate to one anther? What messages do these differing monuments send? And what’s at stake in the battle over them? On this episode of History Talk, hosts Jessica Viñas-Nelson and Brenna Miller speak with Professors Hasan Jeffries, Sarah E. Gardner, and Steven Conn to discuss the controversies surrounding monuments and memory in America and how we reconcile the history behind them.   - Posted May 2018  

The Trump administration has taken a hardline on immigration. News from the U.S. border that asylum seekers are being turned away, that parents are being separated from their children, and the termination of Temporary Protected Status for 57,000 Hondurans currently living in the U.S. has drawn widespread public attention. But why are people fleeing? What is life like in their home countries? And what role does the U.S. play in creating the conditions that spur migration? On this episode of History Talk, we zero in on Honduras, as hosts Brenna Miller and Jessica Viñas-Nelson speak with two experts, Professors Dana Frank and Katherine Borland, to learn why so many Hondurans are seeking refuge in the U.S., the political, economic, and social challenges faced by people living in Honduras, and the dynamics of migration and U.S. foreign policy at the heart of today's debates. - Posted April 2018

Recent mass shootings have turned American attention to the nation’s mental health system, its perceived failings, and it's potential to stem the tide of mass violence. However, Americans have a long history of pointing to mental illness as a panacea for solving social problems and an equally lengthy history of criticizing the treatment of those considered mentally ill. On this episode of History Talk, hosts Jessica Viñas-Nelson and Brenna Miller speak with two experts, Dr. Susan Lawrence and Zeb Larson, to discuss the history of mental health in the U.S. and the realities of providing meaningful care. - Posted March 2018

From Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood tapes to the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, sexual harassment and sexual violence seem to have suddenly burst into the news cycle. Nearly every day, new allegations against powerful men emerge as more women come forward. But, while many are heralding the rise of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements as an opportunity for change, many of those who are raising awareness about these issues today have protested them in the past. So what’s different now? And how does contemporary activism fit into the longer history of awareness? On this episode of History Talk, hosts Jessica Viñas-Nelson and Brenna Miller invite three experts—Professors Treva Lindsey, Kimberly Hamlin, and Martha Chamallas—to discuss the social and legal histories of sexual assault and harassment in the US, past movements to fight it, and how the conversations going on today fit into the broader story of gender and sexual equality.            

This month marks the 100-year anniversary of U.S. entry into World War I. But, as the world commemorates the centennial of the war, U.S. events have been few and far between. Why is the war remembered so differently in Europe versus the United States, and what legacies might we be forgetting? In this episode of History Talk, we speak to three experts—Jennifer Siegel, Aaron Retish, and Julie Powell—about the war that shaped the course of the 20th century. Join us to learn why World War I is remembered so differently in combatant countries, what the war's most important geopolitical and human impacts were, and how its legacies continue to affect us today.                  - Posted December 2017

In 2016, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem to raise awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. When President Donald Trump weighed in by condemning such actions, the focus dramatically expanded to questions of free speech, patriotism, and respecting the flag. While many lament the entrance of politics into their Sunday football, we speak with three historians and sports fans—Hasan Jeffries, Robert Bennett, and Marc Horger—to discuss the long history of sports protests, why they are so controversial, and the historical issues at the heart of today's conversation. Listen in, as we learn how sports have never been immune from politics or protest.   - Posted Novemeber 2017  

As the effects of climate change, toxic pollution, and over-exploitation of resources increasingly dominate the news, there may be an even larger threat on the horizon. By the end of this century, scientists are warning that nearly 25-50% of all species on earth could be lost, in what they are calling a "sixth extinction." Are humans on the cusp of a global extinction event of our own making? And if so, what will this mean for humanity and what can we do about it? Listen in as hosts Jessica Viñas-Nelson and Brenna Miller take a long view of environmental history with two esteemed guests, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert and historian Sam White. Learn more about how human actions have reshaped ecosystems in the past, their consequences for animal and plant diversity, and what this may mean for the future of life on earth.

In recent years, Russia has gained prominence on the world stage. From hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, to regional interventions, to allegations of interference in foreign elections, the country's international activities suggest that its leadership is on a mission to shape world affairs. But what exactly does Russia want? And how does this compare to its ambitions in the past? In this episode of History Talk, hosts Jessica Blissit and Brenna Miller talk to two experts—Stephen Norris and Gerry Hudson—about the Russian perspective on world affairs and the role that power, prestige, and influence play in shaping the country's foreign objectives.    - Posted June 2017

In March 2017 Nevada became the first state in 40 years to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment—a provision written to address discrimination on the basis of sex. Now, in an atmosphere of renewed national attention on issues affecting women, this proposed amendment could be just two states short of addition to the United States Constitution. Explore the long history of the ERA with hosts Jessica Blissit and Brenna Miller as they speak with three historians: Kimberly Hamlin, Susan Hartmann, and Katherine Marino. Find out why it stalled and how for nearly a century the ERA has garnered both passionate supporters and ardent opponents.                  - Posted April 2017