Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchRosemary Wakeman, "The Worlds of Victor Sassoon: Bombay, London, Shanghai, 1918–1941" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
Episode 224
The 1920s and 1930s were a period of cosmopolitan globalization–and no one, perhaps, exemplified it more than Victor Sassoon, business tycoon, trader…
1 year, 4 months ago
Jean Strouse, "Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers" (FSG, 2024)
Episode 162
At the height of his career, Sargent painted twelve portraits of the Wertheimer family, commissioned by Asher Wertheimer, a German-Jewish London art …
1 year, 4 months ago
Whitney Dirks, "Monstrosity, Bodies, and Knowledge in Early Modern England" (Amsterdam UP, 2024)
Episode 91
Whitney Dirks joins Jana Byars to talk about her new book, Monstrosity, Bodies, and Knowledge in Early Modern England: Curiosity to See and Behold (A…
1 year, 4 months ago
Blessin Adams, "Thou Savage Woman: Female Killers in Early Modern Britain" (HarperCollins, 2025)
Episode 29
Early Modern Britain was awash with pamphlets, ballads, woodcuts broadcasting bloodthirsty tales of traitorous wives, greedy mistresses, cunning fema…
1 year, 4 months ago
Tolkien, Philosopher of War: A Conversation with Graham McAleer
Episode 135
In this episode, we explore the profound philosophical and theological dimensions of J.R.R. Tolkien's work, particularly his views on war. In his boo…
1 year, 4 months ago
A. G. Hopkins, "Capitalism in the Colonies: African Merchants in Lagos, 1851–1931" (Princeton UP, 2024)
Episode 121
In Capitalism in the Colonies: African Merchants in Lagos, 1851–1931 (Princeton UP, 2024), A. G. Hopkins provides the first substantial assessment of…
1 year, 4 months ago
Peter Brian Barry, "George Orwell: The Ethics of Equality" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Episode 236
George Orwell is sometimes read as disinterested in (if not outright hostile) to philosophy. Yet a fair reading of Orwell's work reveals an author wh…
1 year, 4 months ago
Christopher Burnham, "Sir Ronald Storrs: Personality and Policy in Mandate Palestine, 1917-1926" (Routledge, 2024)
Episode 287
This volume utilises the personal papers of Sir Ronald Storrs, as well as other archival materials, to make a microhistorical investigation of his pe…
1 year, 4 months ago
Benjamin Carter Hett, "The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War" (Henry Holt, 2020)
Episode 1536
Berlin, November 1937. Adolf Hitler meets with his military commanders to impress upon them the urgent necessity for a war of aggression in eastern E…
1 year, 4 months ago
Matthew McCormack, "Shoes and the Georgian Man" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Episode 151
Shoes are everyday objects but they are loaded with meaning. Shoes and the Georgian Man (Bloomsbury, 2025) by Dr. Matthew McCormack reveals how shoes…
1 year, 4 months ago