Two months ago, I traveled around Peru with twelve teenagers. We visited churches and underground crypts filled with artistic displays of human bones. We got altitude sickness and chewed a lot of coca leaves.
Early in the morning on September 16, 1810, a priest was warned that he would soon be arrested by Spanish officials. His brother and a band of followers took immediate action. They went to the local jail and freed dozens of prisoners,
As my husband continues to remind me, we are only a few days away from the start of a new football season. And usually I’m wholly uninterested in what goes on on the field. And I still am. But I am now highly interested in what goes on off the field.
Y’all. I just got home from seeing Black Klansman and it’s necessary viewing. Set in the 70s, this movie is not a period piece – it’s not meant to depict a different time. It’s clear that Spike Lee sees parallels between the black experience in the pas...
In 1223, Genghis Khan’s army invaded the territory of the Kievan Rus. They established the Khanate of the Golden Horde and most of eastern Europe fell under Mongol control. It was under this oppressive regime that one principality rose to unite the peo...
Friends, we’ve done it. We’ve reached the final episode of Season 1: The Big Picture of World History. Let me tell you, my original plan was to make six episodes. Six. One for each era in world history. But it turns out that a lot of things have happen...
Think about the Middle East. They’ve been controlled by Persia, Alexander the Great, the Romans, the Caliphates, the Ottoman Empire, and now the European mandate system. The last 60 years have been the first opportunity various ethnic and religious gro...
Today we’re going back to the 20th century and Decolonization, or as I like to call it, “Don’t Let the Door Hit You On The Way Out”.So remember about how WWII discredited the idea of empire? The Allies spent the war fighting against the Nazi empire in ...
Today, let’s look back through that same time period in Latin America. This is a region where the Cold War heavily influenced their politics and attempts at true independence. Latin America was a collection of Spanish colonies that gained independence ...
Today, we’ll look at the new global system that gets set up in the wake up European empires. The U.S. gets obsessed with containing things, we go to space (allegedly), China gets Mao-ed, and *spoiler alert* the U.S. wins the Cold War!
Today, we’ll talk about the war that was directly caused by the War to End All Wars. Talk about irony. The world gets depressed, Hitler rises, and everything falls apart. Act 1: The Depression Act 2: The Rise of Hitler Act 3: The War Act 4: The Holocau...
Today we’re going to look at World War I, or “The War To Cause All Wars!” There will be acronyms, accidental hijinks that get an archduke killed, trench foot, and a really pissed off Germany. That can’t be good.
Last time we explored the Age of Imperialism in Africa, India and the Pacific. The West was able to successfully conquer most of the world through its advanced technology and ruthless superiority complex. But now they’re going to attempt to crack open ...
Today we’re going back to the Age of Imperialism, or as I like to call it, “Allow me to ruin the Jungle Book for you.”. To be clear, this is going on at the same time as the political and industrial revolutions from last episode.
Today we’re going back to the Modern Era in the West, or as I like to call it, “You Say You Want A Revolution…”. We’ll look at political revolutions and talk about why George Washington was the best. We’ll also see the dominance of Britain as the leade...
Today we’re going back to the Early Modern Era in the East, or as I like to call it, “They Didn’t Get the Memo”. We’ll look at China’s early attempts at exploration, the Islamic empires that both did and didn’t get the usefulness guns,
Today we’re going back to the Early Modern Era in the West, or as I like to call it, “We Missed Two Whole Continents?!”. We’ll look at all the things in European history you heard about that time you went to that museum,
Today we’re going back to the Postclassical Era in the East, or as I like to call it, “Yes We Khan!”. We’ll look at the rise of Islam, four great Chinese inventions, and figure out why no one ever learns about African history.
Today we’re going back to the Medieval or Postclassical Era in the West, or as I like to call it “That Time Europe Lost Its Mind.” We’ll look at how people reacted to the barbarian invasions, who reunified western Europe,
Join us as we explore the Classical Era in the East (600 BCE – 600 CE). We’ll look at India now that we can read their writing, see how China used political philosophy to set itself up for the next two millennia and figure out why all of these massive ...
Forgot everything about the classical era from high school history class? Of course you did! Let’s review Persia, the Greco-Persian Wars, Athens and Sparta, Alexander the Great, and the Roman Republic and Empire!
Today we’re going back to the Ancient Era, or as I like to call it, “Ain’t No River Valley Wide Enough”. We’ll look at the Neolithic Revolution, what it takes to be civilized, and some high points of the major river valley civilizations.
