Broad History

Isabelle Roughol

The history you think you know, with women in it this time

Episodes

  1. "I refuse to be a footnote" – the women who invented literary journalism

    1 DAY AGO

    "I refuse to be a footnote" – the women who invented literary journalism

    Julia Cooke, author of Starry and Restless, joins me to bring back three women who were household names in their day — Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Mickey Hahn — pioneering journalists who covered wars, crossed borders, and revolutionised literary nonfiction decades before the men usually credited with inventing it. We talk about why these women's fame didn't survive them, the challenges of resurrecting female legacy, and what it meant — then and now — to want both a roaming career and a life with people you love. Sign up for the newsletter. ★ Support this podcast ★ On this episode Isabelle Roughol - Host Julia Cooke - Guest What do you think? Read & comment at broadhistory.comEmail me: isa@broadhistory.comWatch & comment on Youtube Jump to: (00:00) - AUDIO 04 Julia Cooke (corrected) (00:08) - "Women have no history" (03:56) - On the value of understanding the whole arc of a woman's career (07:09) - They were exceptional but not an exception (09:43) - Meet Rebecca West (12:27) - Meet Martha Gellhorn (15:43) - Meet Emily Hahn (18:09) - Writing about war the way no man ever had (20:13) - Superstars in their lifetime, disappeared in journalism history (23:25) - Fame Without Legacy (24:06) - "Women have no history" (24:53) - Motherhood, domesticity and ambition (29:39) - Making a home abroad (31:26) - Virginia Cowles, Julia Morgan and women who leave no archives (39:45) - Why men should read women's historyw (42:36) - Closing Thoughts (43:13) - Outro Get the book🇬🇧 Shop in the UK bookshop 🇺🇸 Shop in the US bookstore(Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.)Click here to view the episode transcript.

    45 min
  2. "All work is sh*t" or the anti Girl Boss feminism of the 1970s

    24 MAR

    "All work is sh*t" or the anti Girl Boss feminism of the 1970s

    In the 1970s, Wages for Housework demanded pay for cooking and cleaning without any illusions about making it in the workplace. What if work was never our liberator?  On this episode Isabelle Roughol - Host Emily Callaci - Guest Listen early and without ads. Become a member at www.broadhistory.com. ★ Support this podcast ★   🇬🇧 Buy the book in the UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9780241502907🇺🇸 Buy the book in the US: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9781541603516(Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.) Click here to watch a video of this episode. Click here to view the episode transcript. Chapters:  (00:00) - 03 Wages for Housework (Emily Callaci) (01:31) - Addressing housework in the women's right struggle (02:50) - Two workers for the price of one (04:00) - "All work is shit" (07:51) - Not wages for housewives (10:43) - Biographies of 5 campaign leaders (11:20) - Selma James (13:48) - Mariarosa Dalla Costa (15:38) - Silvia Federici (17:49) - Wilmette Brown (19:58) - Margaret Prescott (22:21) - Welfare (26:53) - How far did the movement go? (29:32) - The care work of the climate crisis (32:39) - How housework got remarketed as care work (36:48) - How the campaign ended (38:45) - The long tail legacy of Wages for Housework

    44 min
  3. George Sand outsold Victor Hugo. Then we forgot about her. (with Fiona Sampson)

    5 MAR

    George Sand outsold Victor Hugo. Then we forgot about her. (with Fiona Sampson)

    "We raise them like saints, then hand them over like fillies," she said of 19th-century girls. Her best-selling novels were an indictment of arranged marriages and the female condition. At home in France, her contemporaries – Hugo, Flaubert, Balzac – considered her a giant of literature. In England, she outsold Hugo and inspired the Brontë sisters. Today, we don't read her. She's fallen out of the literary canon. If she's known at all, it's for her private life, a scandalous reputation that pop culture has overblown. A new biography of George Sand by British academic and poet Fiona Sampson reveals a thoroughly modern woman, who was centuries ahead in claiming nothing more and nothing less than the freedom to be a complete person.  Creators & Guests Isabelle Roughol - Host Fiona Sampson - Guest ★ Support this podcast ★  🇬🇧 Buy the book in the UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9781529924336 🇺🇸 Buy the book in the US: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9781324074915 (Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.) Click here to watch a video of this episode. Chapters: Click here to view the episode transcript.

    47 min
  4. The long history of women in work, with Victoria Bateman

    12 FEB

    The long history of women in work, with Victoria Bateman

    Forget the cliché that women suddenly joined the workforce in the middle of the 20th century. They've been active in the economy as long as there's been an economy and not anecdotally.  Guest: Victoria Bateman, economic historian and author of Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power. 🇬🇧 Buy the book in the UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9781035415779 🇺🇸 Buy the book in the US: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9781541606067 (Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores. Everyone wins.) ★ Support this podcast ★

    50 min

  5. 28 JAN

    Introducing Broad History

    Broad History

    2 min

Trailer

About

The history you think you know, with women in it this time

Information

  • Creator
    Isabelle Roughol
  • Years Active
    2k
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Isabelle Roughol
  • Show Website
    Broad History

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