Making of a Historian

Latest Episodes:

Episode 124: Indian Dams, the World Bank, and Environmentalism with Varsha Venkatasubramanian Feb 26, 2019

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In this episode, we talk with PhD Student Varsha Venkatasubramanian about the history of dams in the 20th century. Dams became symbols of development for both capitalist and communist regimes: they provided electricity, water, and big building projects. Then in the 1980s, spurred by a controversial dam project in India, the popular perception of dams started to shift. Maybe dams were dangerous! They displaced people, and destroyed natural habitats. Was the destruction worth the development? How as anyone to tell? Join us for a really interesting conversation that really GOES PLACES.

123: Queenship and Royal Babies with Dr. Michelle Beer Feb 19, 2019

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We were going to save this one for when the new royal baby came, but I loved the conversation so much I just couldn't wait. In this episode I talk with Dr. Michelle Beer about early modern queenship. Now I used to think that Queens were relatively powerless, but in this conversation Dr. Beer sets me straight. Queens had a lot of power, and used that power in rich and complicated ways. There was politics in what clothes the queen wore, and how the king acknowledged the new royal baby, and how the royal couple were married. For more of Beer's work, check out her new book! Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain, available from Boydell and Brewer press.

121: Canal Mania with Kyle Jackson Feb 12, 2019

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To celebrate the release of the latest expansion for Civilization 6, Gathering Storm, we're going to be talking about the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is World Wonder introduced in Civ 6: Gathering Storm that lets you build an exceedingly long canal. On this episode I talk to historian Kyle Jackson about how the Panama Canal got built. You'll learn about American canal envy, yellow fever, and how the Panama Canal was nearly the Nicaragua Canal.

121: Interview With Peter Zinoman Feb 05, 2019

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This marks the beginning of a new season for the show. We’ll be doing a series of interviews with historians at every stage of their career: early career grad students, folks on the job market, and honest-to-goodness tenured historians. In this episode, we are graciously joined by Professor of History and South and Southeast Asan Studies, Peter Zinoman. We talk about how the story of the Vietnam War has changed, and the importance of learning Vietnamese History. If you have a suggestion for a person you think should be on the show, send me an email!

120: Just What Is Digital Humanities? Jan 21, 2019

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One of the BIG THINGS these days are the ‘Digital Humanities’—a set of approaches that bring the power of computers to traditional humanistic questions. I was asked to present an introductory talk about Digital Humanities: here is a version of that talk. The problem is that people aren’t really sure just what the Digital Humanities are. The joke is that every conference, talk, meet-up or working group about DH begins with the question “Just what is Digital Humanities.” I think that’s because there are two different views of what DH should be. First is the ‘soft’ view—DH is just a ‘big tent’ designation for whatever it is that humanists do when they get access to computers. Second is the ‘hard’ view—DH is a fundamentally different way of doing scholarship, that might not even be particularly humanistic. A lot of detractors of Digital Humanities take the hard view. They say that DH is a con-game. Practitioners say that it’s just a collection of methods, but really it’s a sneaky trick of the neoliberal establishment to replace politically radical humanistic scholarship with merely useful computer tricks. I think that BOTH the hard view and the soft view are true. DH is confusing because it is a method-led scholarly project, rather than a theory-led project. The past generation really got the most wind in its sails from theories—new theoretical orientations that let them see their subject in new lights, and make new claims. And so they look at DH and wonder where the theory is. But DH is firstly a bunch of methods. What both camps kinda miss out on is that eventually the new methods WILL lead to new theoretical orientations, new projects, and new problems. It’s just that we don’t know EXACTLY what those are.

Anthropocene 108: The Scale of the Modern World Nov 22, 2018

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Anthropocene 108: The Scale of the Modern World by Making of a Historian

Anthropocene 107: Income Inequality and Climate Change Nov 05, 2018

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In this episode, we look at how the history of inequality affects the stories we tell about the Anthropocene. Reading list: Trevor Jackson on Inequality (https://jhiblog.org/2018/04/04/review-essay-after-piketty-sutch-scheidel-and-the-new-study-of-inequality/) Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty, 2015. “Carbon and Inequality from Kyoto to Paris.” Schiedl, Walter. 2017. The Great Leveler. Princeton University Press. Selections. Duncan, Mike, This is How Republics End McCarty, Poole and Rosenthal, Political Polarization and Income Inequality

Anthropocene 106: Infrastructure and Empire Oct 21, 2018

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In this episode we talk about how coal transformed transportation, shrinking the world and creating new kinds of unequal power relationships between countries. Then how in the 19th century, coal was joined by another new player--oil.

Anthropocene 105: Consuming Things, Bird Hats, Railroads, Restaurants Oct 07, 2018

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Anthropocene 105: Consuming Things, Bird Hats, Railroads, Restaurants by Making of a Historian

Anthropocene 104: Was It... Good? Oct 01, 2018

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In this episode, we ask whether the Industrial Revolution was good for workers.