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Latest Episodes:

Conquerors - how Portugal built its empire in India Jun 14, 2021

Show notes

Roger Crowley tells the story of how Portugal built its empire in the Indian ocean from 1498. The Portuguese were there to trade but also as zealots and crusaders. The story is one of discovery, courage, violence and often unspeakable cruelty. It is astonishing to learn how one of Europe's smallest and poorest countries could undertake such a project.
Roger's book Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire was hugely popular with critics and with lovers of deeply researched but highly readable narrative history.

Mike Dash on Batavia's Graveyard Jun 05, 2021

Show notes

Mike Dash wrote the definitive book about the Batavia and its wreck near the coast of Australia in 1629. We talked about the events leading up to the wreck and the bloody reign of terror and murders that followed.
Mike's blog A Blast from the Past is also an absolute goldmine for people interested in history.
I'd also highly recommend Gareth Harney's Twitter thread about the events and one of the treasures from the ancient world that the Batavia was carrying. Absolutely fascinating and some beautiful images (one of which I used for this episode's artwork).

Abulafia and Devereaux - the ancient Mediterranean May 08, 2021

Show notes

An absolute joy to spend an hour and a half with history professors David Abulafia and Bret Devereaux. We started with the founding of Alexandria and travelled back and forth in time and all around the Mediterranean. The starting point for the discussion was David's magnificent book the Great Sea but Bret had plenty to add. (Check out his blog here).

Peter Pomerantsev has stories to tell (and they are all true) Apr 21, 2021

Show notes

Peter Pomerantsev is the author of two outstanding books. The first is Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible. It has some wonderful stories which he made into programmes while working in Russian TV from 2006. Fascinating and sometimes heartbreaking. The next is This is Not Propaganda (adventures in the war against reality). This is about online propaganda, troll farms and influence operations and again is crammed with fascinating tales of Peter's investigations.

Bean on battleships (and much else besides) Apr 11, 2021

Show notes

Bean blogs on naval warfare here. He writes on modern naval warfare (well, from the mid 19th century). His first love is battleships but it goes much wider than this. We talked about battleships (the Yamato in particular), the fate of the French fleet in WWII, whether carriers are obsolete and the Falklands War. If you like this kind of thing then, well, this is the kind of thing you may very well like.
Bean is also a big hit over at Astral Codex Ten where his posts in the comments section generate a lot of interest.

David Goodhart on Head, Hand and Heart and the Road to Somewhere Apr 03, 2021

Show notes

David Goodhart is one of the most acute and level headed observers of British society writing today. His influential The Road to Somewhere unpicked the divisions leading to the Brexit vote and he has followed that with Head Hand and Heart arguing for a rebalancing of esteem and resources away from the cognitive jobs and towards manual workers and caregivers. We discussed both books and he is an absolutely delightful and persuasive guide through British society, its problems and its opportunities.

The Siege of Gondor - Bret Devereaux rates the Witch King - A Bad Man, a Good General Mar 22, 2021

Show notes

Professor of ancient history Bret Devereaux concludes his two part evaluation of military strategy in the Lord of the Rings. The Witch King gets two thumbs up. I'm rag tag and bobtail.
Check out the blog for more on the Siege of Gondor, Lord of the Rings and much, much more.

The Knights of St John against the Turks (and the sheer bloody horror of Lepanto) Mar 15, 2021

Show notes

Roger Crowley takes us through the struggles between the Ottoman Turks and the Knights of St John in the Mediterranean in the mid 1500's. Astonishing stories. My favourite line 'Once the Venetians learned Bragadin had been skinned alive they were determined to have the battle, on their own if need be'. Roger's book Empires of the Sea is top rank narrative history - highly recommended.

Bret Devereaux cancels Saruman. (Helms Deep as ancient military history) Mar 02, 2021

Show notes

Bret Devereaux is a teaching assistant professor of history at North Carolina State University and is the author of this magnificent blog that covers ancient history generally with military history as the main focus. One of the genius ideas in the blog is to illuminate the subject by analysing fantasy literature. In this episode we talked about the battle of Helm's Deep (with forays into World War II and the world of the Carolingians and much else beside). Saruman's reputation as a general is not enhanced. Bret also spoke about Tolkien's place in the canon of World War I literature. I hope you enjoy it.

Tom Holland scores 300 Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

Tom Holland and Agnes Callard are both on top form reviewing the films 300 and Hero and discussing the history behind them. They unpick the politics too. Macabee Callard and I chip in.
If you enjoy the podcast you will definitely enjoy Tom's book, Persian Fire. Highly recommended.

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