Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
History lectures by Samuel Biagetti, a historian (and antique dealer) with a Phd in early American history; my dissertation was on Freemasonry in the 1700s. I focus on the historical myths and distortions, from "the Middle Ages" to "Race," that people use to rationalize the world in which we live. More info at www.historiansplaining.com Please see my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632, if you want to keep the lectures coming, and to hear the patron-only materials.
Episodes
August 31, 2025 • 160 mins
Nations: What are they? Are they defined by language, by “culture,” by blood, or something else? How do you know if you are part of one? —and is everyone in the world a member of one nation or another?
We follow how the rise of medieval kingdoms and universities and the print revolution made it possible for people in the West to imagine themselves as part of extended kinship groups united by a common language and ancestry, ho...
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August 7, 2025 • 134 mins
We follow how deportation policy has evolved, expanding massively in the aftermaths of World War One and World War Two, while shifting its main targets -- from political radicals and dissidents, to organized criminals, to "undesirable" racial and ethnic groups including Asians and Mexicans. We examine the changing laws and judicial rulings that have carved out an exception for deportation, allowing the government nearly unlimited a...
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August 1, 2025 • 161 mins
Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: The most massive and momentous manuscript discovery of modern times, the Dead Sea Scrolls blew the lid off of the long-mysterious world of messianic and apocalyptic ferment before the destruction of the Second Temple—yet it took decades of conflict and struggle to bring them to public light. We trace why the scrolls became the object of a long international struggle, what they actually say, ...
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July 29, 2025 • 122 mins
We examine the roots of the American practice of "deportation" -- from colonial banishment of heretics, through the political upheaval over Alien & Sedition Acts, to the age of Chinese Exclusion -- which paved the way for the federal government to exercise virtually unlimited & absolute power over aliens, whom they placed outside the protection of the Constitution.
Suggested further reading: Kanstroom, "Deportation Nation: Outside...
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July 4, 2025 • 12 mins
For Patrons only for 1 year:
We follow the tribulations of the Papacy through the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, as the Pope's loyal soldiers in the Jesuit order are expelled from Catholic states and empires, the Church comes under attack in the French Reovlution, and Napoleon takes the Pope prisoner. We then follow the Papacy's gradual recovery of prestige -- through the reactionary rigorism of Pius IX and the 1st Vati...
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June 29, 2025 • 113 mins
We follow the paths by which the bishops of Rome – leaders of what had been a small church on the fringe of the Christian world – established themselves as the foremost spiritual leaders of Western Christendom and with time, as supreme heads of the global Catholic Church. We follow the dramatic turns in the Papacy’s fortunes, as Popes alternate between pinnacles of power and prestige, commanding lands and armies, launching Crusade...
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June 14, 2025 • 10 mins
Update for listeners, and happy Father's Day wishes; excerpt from latest patron-only lecture on Italy between unification and the entry into the First World War.
Please sign up on Patreon to hear the latest lecture and all patron-only materials! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/italy-nation-war-131082248
Podcast website: www.historiansplaining.com
Image: The Paderno D'Adda hydroelectric power plant, Lombardy, 1895-8
Music: "Nel ...
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May 27, 2025 • 118 mins
Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: We review the diplomatic landscape of Europe on the eve of war in the summer of 1914—and then trace the dizzying cascade of events that followed after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. We get a handle on the ensuing crisis that ricocheted through embassies, banquet halls, and barracks all across Europe, and plunged all the great powers of the con...
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May 17, 2025 • 106 mins
We follow the convulsions of Italian society -- foreign invasion, popular revolution, peasant revolt, liberal reform, Romantic pageantry, diplomatic dirty dealings, and patriotic war -- through which the residents of a fragmented, poor, and backwards section of Europe overthrew the puppet regimes of foreign rulers and challenged the internal power of the Church, to seize control of their own destiny and create a new nation-state th...
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April 29, 2025 • 109 mins
We follow Korea's thousand-year struggle to maintain its integrity and independence, fending off cataclysmic invasions by the Mongols, the Manchus, and the samurai of Japan, and repeatedly transforming itself -- from a confederation of Buddhist warrior-nobles, to a strictly Confucian surveillance state, to a fledgling modern industrial nation -- before finally falling to Meiji Japan.
Suggested reading: Han Woo-Keun, “The History o...
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April 11, 2025 • 8 mins
I give an update on the progress of the podcast, and an important caution on how to sign up as a patron while avoiding Apple's new fees. I give an excerpt from my latest episode for patrons, "History of the United States in 100 Objects -- 24: Beaver-Fur Stovepipe Hat, ca. 1590-1670" --
On this episode: A tall “stovepipe” hat, which was made in the 1600s out of felt from beaver fur and likely belonged to a powerful member of the ...
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March 13, 2025 • 92 mins
We examine the origins of the Korean people and state – from prehistoric migrations and technological advances, through the formation of warrior confederations, the rise and fall of the Chinese colony, the tumult and intrigue of the “Three Kingdoms” era, and the arrival of Buddhism, and finally to the unification of most of Korea under the Silla kingdom.
Suggested reading: Han Woo-Keun, “The History of Korea”; Michael J. Seth, “A ...
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We journey through the different eras and incarnations of Troy as archaeologists have reconstructed them from the excavations at Hissarlik. We then explore the surviving evidence -- including linguistic theories, newly discovered tablets from the ancient Hittite capital, and the long-lost and rediscovered "Priam's Treasure" that Schliemann unearthed-- to form a picture of who the Trojans were and what sort of city they created in t...
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February 27, 2025 • 123 mins
Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only -- We trace the evolution of Japanese society, including the tensions between its peaceable, Buddhist-inspired aspect and its martial aspect; its extraordinary transformation in the Meiji period, from an antiquated hermit kingdom to a dynamic modern power; and its crucial alliance with its European mirror image, Great Britain – which set the stage for its role in the First World War.
Dan Carr...
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February 20, 2025 • 113 mins
It is one of the foundational achievements of archaeology, and one of the most momentous discoveries ever made in any field --
We follow the long debate over whether and where the remains of the ancient legendary city of Troy could be found, and we see how the mystery was solved by the excavations overseen by the brilliant, ruthless, and indefatigable German businessman, explorer, and serial liar, Heinrich Schliemann.
Pt. 2 will ...
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January 27, 2025 • 9 mins
A sample from a lecture on Patreon for patrons only for one year:
We trace the strugles of Venice, through conquest, revolution, and depression, to fashion a place for itself in the modern world, to channel or keep at bay the new floods -- of rising seas, of diseased canals, and of tourist hordes -- and most of all, to somehow square the circle of preservation and modernity.
Sign up as a patron at any level to hear this lecture: ...
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January 16, 2025 • 188 mins
We use a recent controversial murder case as a way to reconsider recent world events--such as war in Europe and the return of Trump--from the perspective of the epistemological crisis and the decline of trust in Truth, Facts, and Reality.
CHAPTERS:
0:00:20 – Intro & Disclaimers
0:11:45 – The Great Witch Hunt: overview
0:28:25 – The Great Witch Hunt: midwives & caregivers
0:45:10 – The Lucy Letby Case: narrative
1:15:55 – The Lucy ...
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December 25, 2024 • 120 mins
We trace Venice's remarkable flowering between the 1300s and 1500s, in which it astonished Europe as a center of commercial and imperial power, learning, and art, as well as its repeated struggles -- with the bubonic plague, the Ottoman Turks, the rival Italian states, and the Catholic Church -- that forced Venice to give up its empire, and to transform into a pleasure-ground of music, theater, sex, and revelry -- arguably becoming...
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November 9, 2024 • 127 mins
We trace the tortuous path by which a scattering of villages in a marshy lagoon, founded by refugees from violence and political breakdown, forged their own stable and cohesive independent republic which would last for a thousand years, and with it a splendrous city where East and West mingled, a sprawling trade network linking Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and finally a waterborne empire that was the forerunner of the modern ...
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October 24, 2024 • 9 mins
A randomly-chosen sample from the deepest most thorough analysis that you can find anywhere of the profoundly ancient Epic of Gilgamesh, on patreon for patrons only for one year:
We examine the Epic of Gilgamesh as a piece of literature, for its strange dream-like style and form, its points of similarity to Biblical and ancient Greek and European mythology, and finally, its deep levels of psychological and political allegory, ultim...
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