Podcast Episodes

Condottieri: War for Profit in Renaissance Italy

Season 3 Episode 12

In Renaissance Italy, war was simultaneously art, science, and big business, waged for profit and glory by hired contractors known as condottieri. Today, we follow one condottiere as he makes his way…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

Machiavelli's Laboratory: The Politics of Renaissance Italy

Season 3 Episode 11

Renaissance Italy was a political minefield, where backstabbing dukes, ambitious republics, and disloyal mercenaries created a laboratory for political innovation. This environment produced professio…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

Classic Tides: Life in Renaissance Florence

Season 3 Episode 10

We're revisiting an episode of Tides of History we originally released in January 2018. Pay close attention, we're going to be spending a LOT of time in Italy this summer.

What was it like to have a f…

Published on 6 years, 7 months ago

Minisode: Banking

Season 3 Episode 9

We catch up a bit more on Jakob Fugger's personality - or lack thereof - along with some of the other important south German trading firms of the age, the development of the Antwerp financial market,…

Published on 6 years, 7 months ago

Jakob Fugger: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived?

Season 3 Episode 8

At the end of the fifteenth century, the center of European banking suddenly swung from its birthplace in Italy to south Germany. The key figure in that transition was Jakob Fugger of Augsburg, maybe…

Published on 6 years, 7 months ago

The Rise and Fall of the Medici Bank

Season 3 Episode 7

The Medici name still carries echoes of power and labyrinthine politics. But the Medici got their start as bankers, and built a financial empire that spanned fifteenth-century Europe. Popes, kings, a…

Published on 6 years, 7 months ago

The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Stanford's Professor Richard White

Season 3 Episode 6

The Civil War and its decades-long aftermath continue to define American life well into the twenty-first century. Today we chat with Stanford's Professor Richard White, author of The Republic For Whi…

Published on 6 years, 7 months ago

Minisode: Messianic Rulers and Military Revolutions in Spain

Season 3 Episode 5

Let's chat about some of the other interesting things Patrick discovered in his research for this month's episodes: messianic rulership and military revolutions in the Spain of Isabella and Ferdinand…

Published on 6 years, 8 months ago

The Spanish Inquisition, the Expulsion of the Jews, and the Rise of Spain

Season 3 Episode 4

Queen Isabella of Castile was one of the great state-building monarchs of the later Middle Ages, but state-building had a dark side: the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews, and the beginn…

Published on 6 years, 8 months ago

Queen Isabella of Spain and the End of the Reconquista

Season 3 Episode 3

Queen Isabella of Castile was the greatest of the state-building rulers of the late Middle Ages. During her rule, she sent Columbus to America, married Ferdinand of Aragon to launch modern Spain, and…

Published on 6 years, 8 months ago