Today I sit down with author DW Gibson and discuss his latest book: One Week to Change the World: An Oral History of the 1999 WTO Protests . One week in late 1999, more than 50,000 people converged on Seattle. Their goal: to shut down the World Trade Organization conference and send a message that working-class people would not quietly accept the runaway economic globalization that threatened their livelihoods. Though their mission succeeded, it was not without blowback. Violent confrontations b...
Jun 18, 2024•48 min
Catherine d'Medici and Charles IX take a grand tour of France while religious turmoils continue to simmer. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial Website
Jun 14, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 304
In this two-part episode, we follow Elizabeth as she deals with a major northern uprising and potential treason surrounding Mary Stuart. Then we pause and, about twelve years into her reign, look at Elizabeth as a queen in general. Website Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial
Jun 07, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 302
In this episode, we follow Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots, as they deal with similar issues. Elizabeth continues to grapple with demands that she marry which are more persistent and problematic due to her financial problems. Mary has a husband but Lord Darnley proves her undoing as Mary ends the episode as a permanent "guest" of the English monarch. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial Website...
May 31, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 302
Today I sit down with historian, Adam Smyth, and we discuss his latest book: The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives . Books tell all kinds of stories—romances, tragedies, comedies—but if we learn to read the signs correctly, they can tell us the story of their own making too. The Book-Makers offers a new way into the story of Western culture’s most important object, the book, through dynamic portraits of eighteen individuals who helped to define it. Books have transformed human...
May 28, 2024•53 min
Queen Elizabeth falls ill, bringing the nation up to the cusp of a complete succession disaster. Immediately afterwards Parliament pressures the Queen to wed immediately. Elizabeth, however, continues to resist. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial Website
May 24, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 301
Today I sit down with historian, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, and discuss his latest book: The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt . One of history’s most iconic figures, Cleopatra is rightly remembered as a clever and charismatic ruler. But few today realize that she was the last in a long line of Egyptian queens who bore that name. In The Cleopatras, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the dramatic story of these seven incomparable women, vividly recapturing the lost world of Hellenistic Egy...
May 21, 2024•57 min
In House of Lilies , historian Justine Firnhaber-Baker tells the epic story of the Capetian dynasty of medieval France, showing how their ideas about power, religion, and identity continue to shape European society and politics today. Reigning from 987 to 1328, the Capetians became the most powerful monarchy of the Middle Ages. Consolidating a fragmented realm that eventually stretched from the Rhône to the Pyrenees, they were the first royal house to adopt the fleur-de-lys, displaying this lily...
May 21, 2024•1 hr
Despite her best efforts to reach a compromise, the Massacre at Vassy finally pushed France over into its First War of Religion. Spoiler alert, it won't be the last. Website Patreon Support
May 17, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 300
Today I sit down for an interview with historian Mike Rapport to discuss his latest book: City of Light, City of Shadow: Paris in the Bellé Epoch . In City of Light, City of Shadows, Mike Rapport uncovers a Paris riven by social anxieties and plagued by overlapping epidemics of poverty, political extremism, and anti-Semitism. As the Sacré-Cœur and Eiffel Tower rose into the skies, redefining architecture and the Paris skyline, Paris’s slums were plagued by disease and gang violence. The era, now...
May 14, 2024•1 hr
Elizabeth deals with the continued fallout from the death of Amy Dudley while word from France arrives that Mary, Queen of Scots, believes she has a better claim to the English throne. Website Patreon Free Trial
May 10, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 299
This is a bonus sneak-peak of what I do over on the paid feed: Western Civ 2.0. (The actual paid feed does not have ads.) In this episode, I cover the First Punic War. Rome came consistently close to losing this war to Carthage and it is fascinating to think how different the outcome would have been had that happened. The First Punic War (264-241 BC) marked a pivotal moment in ancient Mediterranean history, pitting two formidable powers, Rome and Carthage, against each other in a struggle for su...
May 07, 2024•1 hr 50 min
The death of Henry II thrusts his fifteen-year-old son Francis into the throne. From the word go Francis II is uninterested in running his kingdom. Nor will his sickly frame allow him to. Francis' brief reign is dominated by his mother, Catherine d'Medici, and the powerful Guise family. More than anything else, his reign features the beginning of a difficult period for the French Kingdom, which quickly finds itself torn apart by religious strife. Website Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial...
May 03, 2024•35 min
In this episode, we break down the changes that Robert Dudley might become the next King of England. Spoiler alert, he doesn't. While Elizabeth I might have truly loved her favorite, the reality was she could not marry him. Marrying Robert would have isolated England even further as we will see. Then, when Robert's wife dies under mysterious circumstances, the door closes forever on the idea of Robert Dudley, King of England. Website Support the Show and Get Ad-Free Episodes...
Apr 26, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 297
Elizabeth is often known in history books as the "Virgin Queen". As we will see in this episode, to remain unwed was a conscious choice she cultivated from the very beginning of her reign. It gave her independence. And it allowed her to chart England's religious course, very much a compromise, without foreign interference. Website Patreon Support
Apr 19, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 296
Today we begin Queen Elizabeth I, one of the most important British monarchs in history. Elizabeth takes over for the deceased Mary with England in absolute turmoil. She appoints William Cecil her Secretary of State and together they begin the process of righting England's ship. Website Patreon Free Trial
Apr 12, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 295
The Dutch Rebellion is the longest domestic revolt in modern European history. Over 80 years the Dutch slowly but surely ground Philip II into bankruptcy. While Philip had what he thought was an inexhaustible pool of Mexican and Peruvian gold and silver to draw from, what he did not understand were the modern forces of inflation and interest. In the end, more even than the Dutch people, Philip found himself undone by modern economics. Website Patreon Support...
Apr 05, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 294
In today's episode, the reign of Queen Mary I of England comes to an end. Mary's efforts to burn England free of heresy fails and Princess Elizabeth assumes the throne. Website Patreon Support
Mar 29, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 293
Now we get to the Queen Mary I of England everyone knows. In the span of just over two years, Mary burned more heretics than Edward VI or Henry VIII combined. All of this was an effort to reunite England with the Papal See. Reginald Pole, the papal legate, remained confident in the project. But the enthusiasm in England for a return to the age before Henry's schism was waning and time was very much running out. Website Patreon Support...
Mar 22, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 292
Queen Mary I of England survives the first challenge to her power and emerges with the sense that she is God's ordained monarch. As a result, the pace of religious change quickened by the fall of 1554. Website Patreon Free Trial
Mar 15, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 290
With the death of Edward VI and the failure of Jane Grey to seize the throne, Queen Mary's ascent seemed likely to mean there would be a dramatic and immediate change in religious policy. The evangelical faction was now firmly out of power - many would flee to the continent in fact. But at least initially Mary and her court was a bit hesitant to push too hard too fast. For decades now the people of England had heard nothing but criticism of the Pope, it seemed unlikely they would forget all that...
Mar 08, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 288
The English Reformation really heats up between 1551 and 1553. Unfortunately, the boy king, Edward VI, dies young leaving the dream of a final evangelical nation unfulfilled. Edward attempts to cut his half-sisters out of the inheritance and leaves the throne to Lady Jane Grey. but England isn't having it. Website Patreon Support
Mar 01, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 287
In this episode, Dudley, the Earl of Warwick, now dominates the Privy Council. As a result, the pace of religious reform decidedly quickens. The Mass is condemned. Altars are torn down. The "Old Religion" more or less disappears. This then brings matters to a head with a certain member of the royal family who remains an ardent Catholic: the Princess Mary. Spoiler alert, THAT is going to be a major problem going forward. Website Patreon Free Trial...
Feb 23, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 286
Somerset survived his brother's poorly planned coup, but this time he won't be so lucky. The enclosure crisis continues to rock England and today that crisis erupts into the most dangerous domestic uprising in England since the 14th Century. Somerset will manage to survive Kett's Rebellion but his failure to effectively manage the crisis leads the English nobility to wonder openly whether he is the best person to lead England. Dudley, the Earl of Warwick, decides to attempt a coup of his own and...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 285
Today I sit down with historian David Reynolds and talk about his latest book: Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the Leaders Who Shaped Him . Winston Churchill remains one of the most revered figures of the twentieth century, his name a byword for courageous leadership. But the Churchill we know today is a mixture of history and myth, authored by the man himself. In Mirrors of Greatness, prizewinning historian David Reynolds reevaluates Churchill’s life by viewing it through the eyes of his al...
Feb 10, 2024•52 min
Today I sit down with Christopher Goscha to discuss his new book, Vietnam: A New History . In Vietnam , Christopher Goscha tells the full history of Vietnam, from antiquity to the present day. Generations of emperors, rebels, priests, and colonizers left complicated legacies in this remarkable country. Periods of Chinese, French, and Japanese rule reshaped and modernized Vietnam, but so too did the colonial enterprises of the Vietnamese themselves as they extended their influence southward from ...
Feb 09, 2024•57 min
In this episode, we return to England. Edward VI is still a teenager and not in control of his own realm. His uncle, the Lord Protector Somerset, is trying his best to maintain power. But his brother, Seymour, the Lord Admiral, is making life difficult for him. Today it all comes to a head. Website Patreon Free Trial
Feb 09, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 286
Henry takes command determined not to repeat his father's mistakes. Catherine, at his side, does her best to help him while continuing to battle Diane de Poitiers for her husband's attention. France faces external pressures in Italy and from the Holy Roman Empire, still led by Charles V, while religious unrest within the kingdom grows. Website Patreon Support Free Trial
Feb 02, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 285
Francois, the Dauphin and heir to the throne of France, abruptly dies. Suddenly, Henry becomes first in line to inherit the throne of France. Henry and Catherine suddenly find their lives under tremendous scrutiny, made all the worse because the two lack an heir. The two, with the help of a skilled physician, finally solve this problem. Catherine, in the end, would have many children. It was a good thing... Patreon Support/Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial Website...
Jan 26, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 284
Henry, Duke of Orleans, and Catherine de' Medici are destined to become the King and Queen of France. But you would not have thought so at the beginning of their respective lives. Today we start their story. Website P atreon Support/Western Civ 2.0
Jan 19, 2024•43 min•Season 1Ep. 283
