A Historian Learns About

Here For History

A podcast series where a historian talks about the things he found interesting while researching a topic for his blog, hereforhistory.com Here For History presents quick digestible history for those new or experienced in the topics.

  1. 1月30日

    A Historian Learns About: The Medici Bank

    At its height in the 15th century, the Medici Bank could claim to be one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world. It was the bank of Pope! However, by the end of the century, it no longer existed. So what happened? How did the bank rise and how did it fall? Join Ryan as he talks about what he learned about this once great bank that belonged to a legendary Italian family. Follow along as he covers what he learned. Sources: Tim Parks, Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence (London: Profile, 2013), 39-40. Raymond De Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397-1494. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963), 10-11. Richard A. Goldthwaite, “The Medici Bank and the World of Florentine Capitalism,” Past & Present, no. 114 (1987): 5, http://www.jstor.org/stable/650959. Paul Strathern, The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance (New York, NY: Pegasus Books, 2016), 20. Christopher Hibbert, “The Rise and Fall of the Medici Bank,” History Today, 1974 Aug 01, 1974, 526, https://www.proquest.com/magazines/rise-fall-medici-bank/docview/1299027156/se-2?accountid=12085. Mary Hollingsworth, The Family Medici: The Hidden History of the Medici Dynasty (New York: Pegasus Books Ltd., 2018), 134. R. A. Goldthwaite, “Local Banking in Renaissance Florence,” Journal of European Economic History 14, no. 1 (1985 1985): 43, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/local-banking-renaissance-florence/docview/1292866160/se-2?accountid=12085. Juraj Kittler, “Too Big to Fail: The 1499-1500 Banking Crisis in Renaissance Venice,” Journal of cultural economy 5, no. 2 (2012): 165, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2012.660783. Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici, Its Rise and Fall (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2003), 33. Frederick E. Gaupp, “Cosimo De’ Medici’s Banishment — a Farce?,” The Mississippi Quarterly 14, no. 1 (1960): 14-19, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26473223. Gene A. Brucker, Renaissance Florence, vol. Book, Whole (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 121-27. Mark Jurdjevic, “Civic Humanism and the Rise of the Medici,” Renaissance Quarterly 52, no. 4 (1999): 999, https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2901833. C. W. Previte Orton, “The Medici,” History 32, no. 116 (1947): 81, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24402429. F. W. Kent, Lorenzo De’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 84. Eva Helfenstein, “Lorenzo De’ Medici’s Magnificent Cups: Precious Vessels as Status Symbols in Fifteenth-Century Europe,” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 16, no. 1/2 (2013): 415, https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/674434. Fabrizio Antonio Ansani, “A ‘Magnificent’ Military Entrepreneur? The Involvement of the Medici Bank in the Arms Trade (1482-1494),” Business history (20, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2021.1944112. John F. Padgett, and Christopher K. Ansell, “Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434,” American Journal of Sociology 98, no. 6 (1993): 1302, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2781822. A. Sapori, “The Medici Bank,” PSL quarterly review 2, no. 11 (2014): 205, https://dx.doi.org/10.13133/2037-3643/12855.

    21 分鐘
  2. 1月9日

    A Historian Learns About: The Battle of Iron Works Hill

    George Washington had a daring plan in the winter of 1776. His idea was to strike back against the British and give his army a much-needed morale boost, since they were still reeling from major defeats. However, to succeed, he needed to keep the enemy forces to a manageable number. He turned to Colonel Samuel Griffith and his militia men to help save his plan. These men fought bravely in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Join Ryan as he talks about what he learned about this relatively unknown battle. He covers what happened, why it mattered, and why it's difficult to learn much about this battle. Sources: Daniel Bancroft to the Committee of Congress, January 10, 1777, “Supreme Executive Council Clemency File (Roll 723)”, Clemency File, 1775-1790, undated, 1775, 218-224 https://oa-psa.libnova.com/view/668823/clemency-file-1775-surnames-a-z-to-1780-surnames-a-l-roll-723?q=must,any,contains,Clemency&offset=1&limit=10 Carl Leopold Baurmeister, Revolution in America: Confidential Letters and Journals 1776-1784 of Adjutant General Major Baurmeister of the Hessian Forces, ed. Bernhard A. Ulendorf (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1957), 75. https://archive.org/details/revolutioninamer00baur/page/n3/mode/2up. https://founders.archives.gov/ Joseph Reed, “General Joseph Reed’s Narrative of the Movements of the American Army in the Neighborhood of Trenton in the Winter of 1776-77,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 8, no. 4 (1884): 392, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20084674. Johann von Ewald, Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 35-42. George Ewing, William Cox Ewing, and Thomas Ewing, George Ewing, Gentleman, a Soldier of Valley Forge, ed. Thomas Ewing (Yonkers, NY: Thomas Ewing, 1928), 13-15. https://archive.org/details/georgeewinggentl00ewin/page/n7/mode/2up. John Hunt, John Hunt Journal, 1776 12mo. 24 – 1787 12mo. 22, John Hunt Papers, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College https://ds-pages.swarthmore.edu/friendly-networks/journals/sc203241 “Revolutionary Journal of Margaret Morris of Burlington, New Jersey, Ii,” Bulletin of Friends’ Historical Society of Philadelphia 9, no. 2 (1919): 65-72, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41945472. Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey ed. William S Stryker, vol. 1. 1776-1777 (Trenton, NJ: The John L. Murphy Publishing Co., Printers, 1901), 242-43. https://archive.org/details/ser2newjerseyrev01newjuoft/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater. Robert Morris to John Hancock, December 26, 1776, in Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, ed Paul H. Smith (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1976-2000) Dennis C. Rizzo, and Alicia McShulkis, “The Widow Who Saved a Revolution,” Garden State Legacy (2012), https://gardenstatelegacy.com/files/The_Widow_Who_Saved_a_Revolution_Rizzo_McShulkis_GSL18.pdf. The Writings of George Washington (New York: G.P. Putnam’ Sons, 1889). https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/ford-the-writings-of-george-washington-vol-v-1776-1777 George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence: Continental Army Court Martial, April 8, Proceedings at Mount Holly, New Jersey. April 8, 1778. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mgw450243/. Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey ed. Francis B. Lee, vol. II, 1778 (Trenton, NJ: The John L. Murphy Publishing Co., Printers, 1903), 217. https://archive.org/details/ser2newjerseyrev02newjuoft/page/216/mode/2up. The Kemble Papers, vol. 1, 1773-1789 (New York, New York: New-York Historical Society, 1883), 596-97. Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey ed. Austin Scott, vol. V, October, 1780-July, 1782 (Trenton, NJ: The John L. Murphy Publishing Co., Printers, 1917), 38. https://archive.org/details/ser2newjerseyrev05newjuoft/page/38/mode/2up?view=theater.

    22 分鐘
  3. 19/12/2025

    A Historian Learns About: The Pinkerton Detective Agency

    They guarded trains, hunted outlaws and robbers, and acted as strikebreakers. The Pinkertons are possibly the most famous private detective company in history. So who were they? Why did they get so famous? And was it right for Red Dead Redemption to make them the villains? Ryan talks about what he learned while researching the Pinkertons, from their successful career in train protection to their disastrous attempts to hunt Jesse James and everything in between. Tune in to see what he learned. Sources: S. Paul O’Hara, Inventing the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs: Being a Story of the Nation’s Most Famous (and Infamous) Detective Agency (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), 15-18. Jay Bonansinga, Pinkerton’s War: The Civil War’s Greatest Spy and the Birth of the U.S. Secret Service (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2011), 65-67. “Secret Departure of the President Elect from Harrisburgh,” New York Times (1857-1922) (New York, N.Y.), February 25, 1861,  https://www.nytimes.com/1861/02/25/archives/highly-important-news-secret-departure-of-the-president-elect-from.html. Haygood, Wil, “A Story of Myth, Fame, Jesse James,” The Seattle Times (Seattle, W.A.), September 17, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20081229061215/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003885037_jessejames17.html Charles Siringo, A Cowboy Detective: A True Story of Twenty-Two Years with a World Famous Detective Agency (Arcadia Press, 1912), 138-39. Charles Siringo, Two Evil Isms, Pinkertonism and Anarchism: By a Cowboy Detective Who Knows, as He Spent Twenty-Two Years in the Inner Circle of Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency (1915).

    18 分鐘

關於

A podcast series where a historian talks about the things he found interesting while researching a topic for his blog, hereforhistory.com Here For History presents quick digestible history for those new or experienced in the topics.