Literary Hangover

Matthew Lech

Literary Hangover is a podcast, released twice on Saturdays each month, in which Matt Lech and his friends chat about fiction and the historical, social, and political forces behind the creation of it and represented by it.

  1. 01/09/2022

    41 - Areopagitica by John Milton (1644)

    Grace (@GraceJackson) and Alex (@Alecks_Guns) join Matt once again to discuss John Milton as a polemicist over John Milton as a poet. Milton's family background. Charles Deodati. Anti-Popery; the Gunpowder Plot, The Fatal Vespers. Virginity. The Trip to Italy. The English civil war and censorship/openness. Epic Poet tradition. Divorce Tracts. Areopagitica. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (ie Yes, We Should Actually Execute the King). Eikonoklastes (ie No, God Is Not Mad We Killed the King). The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a New Commonwealth (ie I Can't Believe We Are Going To Do Monarchy Again). References: Full Text of Areopagitica. OpenYale Milton Lectures Areopagitica episode. Bernstein, Eduard. 2000. Cromwell and Communism: Socialism and Democracy in the Great English revolution. Nottingham: Spokesman. Hill, Christopher. 1978. Milton and the English Revolution. New York: Viking Press. Milton, John, and David Loewenstein. 2013. John Milton Prose: Major Writings on Liberty, Politics, Religion, and Education. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. McDowell, Nicholas. 2020. Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton. Princeton University Press.

    2h 13m

  2. 11/08/2021

    40 - The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon by John Filson (1784)

    Alex, Grace, and Matt discuss The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon by John Filson, the seminal text in the creation of the Daniel Boone myth of the American hunter. Who underwrote Boone's expeditions? This bas relief of Boone and why the US state would memorialize him as an "indian killer." Also this is Lord Dunmore. Intro song: Daniel Boone by Pixies Morgan, Robert. 2008. Boone: a biography Faragher, John Mack. 1992. Daniel Boone: the life and legend of an American pioneer. Slotkin, Richard. 2006. Regeneration through violence: the mythology of the American frontier, 1600-1860. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

    2h 43m

  3. 10/23/2021

    39 - The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover (1712)

    Matt goes solo to finish off the first Byrd diary with the year 1712. Also, Michael Shermer's disgusting views on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. Buzzfeed article on Michael Shermer (see Jefferson comments here) Brown, Kathleen M. 2012. Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press Hill, Christopher. 2021. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. Penguin Books. Pettigrew, William A. 2016. Freedom's debt: the Royal African Company and the politics of the Atlantic slave trade, 1672-1752.

    50 min

  4. 08/07/2021

    38 - The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover (1711) - Tuscarora War/Rebellion, Colonel Parke's Estate

    Get episodes a couple weeks early @ patreon.com/literaryhangover Hey everyone! Before we get to Boone, Matt is going to finish William Byrd II's first diary, this time the year 1711. The Tuscarora War, to be viewed as both an indian war *and* a slave rebellion, looms large as does the assassination of Byrd's father-in-law/Governor in Antigua, Colonel Daniel Parke. Sources NC BOOKWATCH: David LaVere: The Tuscarora War https://www.pbs.org/video/david-lavere-the-tuscarora-war-oifrkt/ The Michael Eure Show - Tri-Racial Identity of Tuscarora & Other Native Americans (12/17/20) https://youtu.be/fTge5-us_BU The Michael Eure Show - Tri-Racial Identity of Tuscarora & Other Native Americans - Part 2 (1/14/21) https://youtu.be/_0KOxlu-6Xk Linebaugh, Peter. 2003. The London hanged: crime and civil society in the eighteenth century. London: Verso. Apologies for the crispy audio, tried my best to cancel out vacuum noise from the neighbors.

    1h 39m

  5. 03/27/2021

    37 - The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover (1710)

    Alex, Grace, and Matt return with year 1710 in the diary of tobacco plantation master William Byrd II, a year marked by spooky mystical dreams, increasing attempts at escape from slaves, and Whig vs Tory political battle. Sources The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712, ed. Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling (Richmond: The Dietz Press, 1941) Linebaugh, Peter. 2006. The London hanged: crime and civil society in the eighteenth century. London: Verso.

    1h 41m

  6. 01/25/2021

    36 - The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover (1709)

    Hello all! In this episode, we begin with Matt telling Grace and Alex about two books, Colonel Parke of Virginia: "The Greatest Hector in the Town" by Helen Hill Miller on Byrd's incredible father-in-law, Daniel Parke, and Perry of London: A Family and a Firm on the Seaborne Frontier, 1615–1753 on the Perry tobacco merchant family. Then, a discussion on the January 6 Capitol riots in the context of Bacon's Rebellion. Then we discuss the first year of William Byrd's Secret Diary, from 1709, with special attention to his behavior toward his slaves, servants, and other subordinates. Sources The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712, ed. Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling (Richmond: The Dietz Press, 1941 Price, Jacob M. Perry of London: a Family and a Firm on the Seaborne Frontier, 1615-1753. Harvard University Press, 1992. Miller, Helen Hill. 1989. Colonel Parke of Virginia: the greatest hector in the town : a biography. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Rice, James D. 2012. Tales from a revolution: Bacon's Rebellion and the transformation of early America. New York City: Oxford University Press. Washburn, Wilcomb E. 1957. The Governor and the rebel: a history of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia. Chapel Hill: Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg by the University of North Carolina Press.

    1h 41m

  7. 12/31/2020

    Welcome to Season 2! William Byrd II Introduction, Historical Fiction, and Future Subjects

    Hey everyone, Alex, Grace, and Matt have a catch up chat to kick off the new season. We discuss William Byrd II's secret diaries and example as a Virginia colonial gentleman, historical fiction, and preview what titles we'll be covering this year.

    1h 2m

  8. 07/04/2020

    *UNLOCKED* Orwell|er - 5 - 'England Your England' - The Lion & The Unicorn Part 1 (1941)

    Originally released for patrons March 14. Part two will be unlocked soon and part three is available now for members at patreon.com/literaryhangover Hey patrons! Social distancing has upended our scheduled plans for Aphra Behn's "Widow Ranter" with Grace, so Alex and I decided to return to Orwell|er with the first installment of Orwell's "The Lion and The Unicorn," titled "England Your England." This is an essay written at the height of the WWII blitz bombing of Britain by Orwell from London. The first line, "As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me," begins an immediately controversial argument in response to nationalism prevailing across the world and attempts to reframe patriotism as compatible, and in fact a component of, a socialist revolution. This episode is particulalry relevent in our capitalism-discrediting pandemic. Is there really such a thing as "national character." Is bourgouis democracy the same as totalitarianism? The difficulty of working class international consciousness. The increasingly evident and decadent stupidity of the ruling class. Are they dumb or traitors? American billionaires as ruthless. The place of the intelligentsia in the empire. Orwell predicts the rise, but not fall, of suburbia. Sources: Main source: Alex Hyde-White's narration of "Essays" by Orwell, 2019 via Audible. Bounds, Philip. 2009. Orwell and Marxism: the political and cultural thinking of George Orwell. London: I.B. Tauris. Claeys, Gregory. 1985; "The Lion and the Unicorn", Patriotism, and Orwell's Politics. The Review of Politics, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Apr., 1985), pp. 186-211

    2h 28m
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4.9
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264 Ratings

About

Literary Hangover is a podcast, released twice on Saturdays each month, in which Matt Lech and his friends chat about fiction and the historical, social, and political forces behind the creation of it and represented by it.

Information

  • Creator
    Matthew Lech
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2022
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Literary Hangover