415 episodes
Western Civ Adam Walsh
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- Society & Culture
A fast-moving history of the western world from the ancient world to the present day. Examine how the emergence of the western world as a global dominant power was not something that should ever have been taken for granted. This podcast traces the development of western civilization starting in the ancient Near East, through Greece and Rome, past the collapse of the Western Roman Empire into the Dark Ages, and then follows European and, ultimately, American history as the western world moved into a dominant world position.
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Episode 304: The Grand Tour
Catherine d'Medici and Charles IX take a grand tour of France while religious turmoils continue to simmer.
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Episode 303: Gloriana
In this two-part episode, we follow Elizabeth as she deals with a major northern uprising and potential treason surrounding Mary Stuart. Then we pause and, about twelve years into her reign, look at Elizabeth as a queen in general.
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Episode 302: Queens North and South
In this episode, we follow Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots, as they deal with similar issues. Elizabeth continues to grapple with demands that she marry which are more persistent and problematic due to her financial problems. Mary has a husband but Lord Darnley proves her undoing as Mary ends the episode as a permanent "guest" of the English monarch.
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The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives
Today I sit down with historian, Adam Smyth, and we discuss his latest book: The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives.
Books tell all kinds of stories—romances, tragedies, comedies—but if we learn to read the signs correctly, they can tell us the story of their own making too. The Book-Makers offers a new way into the story of Western culture’s most important object, the book, through dynamic portraits of eighteen individuals who helped to define it.
Books have transformed humankind by enabling authors to create, document, and entertain. Yet we know little about the individuals who brought these fascinating objects into existence and of those who first experimented in the art of printing, design, and binding. Who were the renegade book-makers who changed the course of history?
From Wynkyn de Worde’s printing of fifteenth-century bestsellers to Nancy Cunard’s avant-garde pamphlets produced on her small press in Normandy, this is a celebration of the book with the people put back in.
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Episode 301: Without an Heir
Queen Elizabeth falls ill, bringing the nation up to the cusp of a complete succession disaster. Immediately afterwards Parliament pressures the Queen to wed immediately. Elizabeth, however, continues to resist.
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House of Lilies: The Dynasty That Made Medieval France
In House of Lilies, historian Justine Firnhaber-Baker tells the epic story of the Capetian dynasty of medieval France, showing how their ideas about power, religion, and identity continue to shape European society and politics today.
Reigning from 987 to 1328, the Capetians became the most powerful monarchy of the Middle Ages. Consolidating a fragmented realm that eventually stretched from the Rhône to the Pyrenees, they were the first royal house to adopt the fleur-de-lys, displaying this lily emblem to signify their divine favor and legitimate their rule. The Capetians were at the center of some of the most dramatic and far-reaching episodes in European history, including the Crusades, bloody waves of religious persecution, and a series of wars with England. The Capetian age saw the emergence of Gothic architecture, the romantic ideals of chivalry and courtly love, and the Church’s role at the center of daily life.
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