In 1968, the striking sanitation workers of Memphis carried signs declaring I AM A MAN. This statement answered a question asked by abolitionists and supporters of Civil Rights since the late 18th century.

Podcaster: Elizabeth

                __________________________________

Further Reading

For more on the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968, check out the links from the Civil Rights Digital Library here: http://crdl.usg.edu/events/memphis_sanitation_strike/?Welcome

Soujourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” December 1851

Reverend Henry McNeal Turner, “I Claim the Rights of a Man,” September 1868

Anti-Slavery Medallion by Josiah Wedgwood

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Or does it? Americans have grown apples in plentitude since colonization, but we used to drink them much more often than we ate them. From the early settlers, to Johnny Appleseed, to the temperance movement and the global market place learn about how societal changes in the United States have impacted apple growing and consumption.

Podcaster: Samantha

                         _______________________________________

Further Reading

Erika Janik. Apple: A Global History, Reaktion Books (2001).

Sharon Kegerreis. Michigan Apples: History and Tradition, American Palate (2015).

Robert Price. Johnny Appleseed: Man and Myth, Indiana University Press (1954).

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com) ​

​Last year we brought you History for Halloween, a trio of short true tales perfect for the spookiest of holidays. This year we're doing it again, so join us for a selection of stories spanning places from Oxford to Philadelphia that are sure to make you glad they didn't happen to you.

Podcasters: Christine, Elizabeth, Lesley, Lucy, and Nathan

​Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

From the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign in the 1830s, to her
death in 1901, the social landscape of Britain was profoundly changed.
The evolution of hospitals’ form and function was not the least of
these. Under the influence of social reformers, innovative architects,
and, not least, medical practitioners themselves, the theory and
practice of hospital care were adapted to changing ideas about
physical and moral hygiene. This podcast focuses on the development of
one such institution: the General Infirmary in the industrial
powerhouse of Leeds, which expanded along with the city’s population.
Its buildings, designed by George Gilbert Scott, represented the most
up-to-date medical theory--and most grand architectural invention--of
late Victorian Britain, and served as a monument to how this
prosperous society desired to see itself.

Podcaster: Lucy

                        _______________________________________

Further Reading

Jacqueline Banerjee, “Leeds General Infirmary.” http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/scott/18.html

Steven Cherry, Medical Services and the Hospitals in Britain, 1860-1939. Cambridge University Press (1996)

Richard Cork, “Victorian Values,” in: The Healing Presence of Art: A History of Western Art in Hospitals Yale University Press (2012), 309-334.

Lindsay Granshaw, “ ‘Fame and Fortune by Means of Bricks and Mortar:’ The Medical Profession and Specialist Hospitals in Britain, 1800-1948,” in: The Hospital in History, eds. Lindsay Granshaw and Porter. Routledge (1989), 199-220.

Ellen S. More, Restoring the Balance: Women Physicians and the Profession of Medicine, 1850-1995. Harvard University Press (1999)

Florence Nightingale, Notes on Hospitals. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green (1863) https://archive.org/details/notesonhospital01nighgoog 

Keith Waddington, “Paying for the Sick Poor: Financing Medicine under the Victorian Poor Law—The Case of the Whitechapel Union, 1850-1900,” in: Financing Medicine: The British Experience since 1750, eds. Martin Gorsky and Sally Sheard. Routledge (2006), 95-111.

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

What was the main papal headquarters in Rome before the Vatican, and where do Popes go on vacation? Find out on this week's exploration of papal palaces in Rome.

Podcaster: Nicole

                         _______________________________________

Further Reading

Richard Krautheimer, Rome: Profile of a City, Princeton University Press (2000).

Raymond Davis (editor and translator), The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of the First Ninety Bishops to AD 715, Liverpool University Press (2001).

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

King Louis XIV of France may be known as the "Sun King" but not everything about his life was bright and splendid. In this episode we discuss the crippling dental difficulties that plagued Louis and possibly  increase your appreciation of modern anesthesia.

Podcaster: Christine                      

                         _______________________________________

Further Reading

Antoine d'Aquinas, Guy Crescent Fagon, Antoine Vallot, Journal de la santé du roi Louis XIV à de l'année 1647 l'année 1711, Auguste Durand (1862).

Colin Jones, The Smile Revolution in Eighteenth Century Paris, Oxford University Press (2014).

David L. Smith, Louis XIV, Cambridge University Press (1992).

John B. Wolf, Louis XIV, W.W. Norton and Co. Inc. (1968).

“The Teeth of Louis Quatorze”, British Medical Journal,1: 1375 (7 May 1887) pp. 1001-1002.

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

The lives of Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England may be seen as a contrast in social expectations during early modern Europe worthy of scholarship, and television dramas. Perhaps lesser known is the story of Mary's trial and the legacy of her execution. Go behind the romanticism of Mary's life and learn about her death and the legacy of Elizabeth's final action to end of the life of her "Sister Queen."

Podcaster: Lesley

                           _______________________________________

Further Reading

John Guy, Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart, Houghton Mifflin (2004).

Melissa Koeppen, "The True Executor of the Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots" Constructing the Past, 6:1 (2005) pp. 4-10.

Carole Levin, Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power, University of Pennsylvania Press (1994).

Jenny Wormald, Mary, Queen of Scots: A Study in Failure, Hamlyn (1988).

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

Diversity is the key to any well-rounded diet, but variety can be hard to come by if food has to be rapidly consumed to avoid spoilage. Millenia-old methods of salting, pickling, and curing only worked with certain foods and were greatly limited in terms of their applications. It wasn't until the French Revolution that modern methods of food preservation were discovered by a French chef, Nicolas Appert. In this episode we explore the military needs that spurred Appert's innovation and the ways in which his "canning" approach was improved over the course of the next century.

Podcaster: Nathan

                           _______________________________________

Further Reading

Sue Shephard. Pickled, Potted, and Canned: The Story of Food Preserving. London: Headline, 2000.

A.M. Bitting.  Appertizing or The Art of Canning: Its History and Development.  San Francisco: Trade Pressroom, 1937.

Nicholas Appert.  The Art of Preserving for Several Years All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances.  1810.  

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

What do the universe, galaxy, Sun, Earth, and state formation have in common? In this episode John discusses Big History and how it can help better define state formation.

Podcaster: John

                       _______________________________________

Further Reading

Fred Speir, Big History and the Future of Humanity, Wiley-Blackwell (2011).

David Christian and William H. McNeill, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, University of California Press (2011).

Daniel Lord Smail, On Deep History and the Brain, University of California Press (2008).

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

Elizabeth interviews Mariah Adin about her book The Brooklyn Thrill-Kill Gang and the Great Comic Book Scare of the 1950s to get at why juvenile delinquency kept so many parents up at night in the USA in the 1950s. Were comic books leading kids to lives of crime?

Podcaster: Elizabeth

                       _______________________________________

Further Reading

Mariah Adin. The Brooklyn Thrill-Kill Gang and the Great Comic Book Scare of the 1950s. (Praeger 2014)

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)