Historically Thinking

Latest Episodes
Episode 386: College Sports
Many college professors like to remind each other that no other nation on earth has the system of collegiate sports that has developed in the United States, one in which the mishaps of a mediocre foot
Episode 385: Golden Years
When did old age in America first begin? That is, when did we first begin to conceive ideas about a stage of life in which older people no longer participated in the labor force, but nevertheless had
Episode 384: Intent to Destroy
Many were shocked in February 2022 by the Russian attempt to seize Kyiv and decapitate the Ukranian regime, thereby ending the war begun in 2014. But this was simply the latest in a long series of Rus
Episode 383: Quaker Founder
As todays guest writes in the introduction of her new book Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson, For more than two hundred years, John Dickinson has suffered from an image problem t
Episode 382: Women and the Reformations
A forensic reconstruction of Saint Rose of Lima - From the early 16th century, and for over two hundred years after that, a series of convulsions within the Christian church of Western Europe led to i
Episode 381: Philosophy to the People
His lectures at the College de France were so popular that people arrived at the lecture hall at least an hour in advance. When he finally spoke, it was standing room only, with men literally climbing
Episode 380: Madrid
For nearly five centuries Madrid has been the capital of Spain, and the focus of frequent contempt by foreign visitors, as well as the scorn and hatred of Spaniards. Prime Minister Manuel Azaa Daz,
Episode 379: Philadelphia
It is no longer the largest city in America, or the second largest, or even the fifth largest, but there are still those of us who love it. While modern American cities are all racially, ethnically, a
Episode 378: Old New World
For a few hundred years, the New World of the Americas was thought to be genuinely new. But in the course of the nineteenth century, Americans became increasingly uncertain about the ground beneath th
Episode 377: BIG HISTORY (From the Archives)
This podcast originally dropped on December 17, 2015. - If we had the reverb and the talent, we'd introduce this week'spodcast like one of those guys touting a monster truck event on "SUNDAY, SUNDAY