Ask a Historian

UW–Madison History Department

Every episode, we bring a question submitted by an audience member to a historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and ask them to share their response. What would you ask a historian? Send us your questions: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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    What did femininity look like in ancient Rome?

    How have ideas of femininity have changed over time? How did they work in ancient Rome? PhD candidate Sheena Finnigan helps break down nuances, misconceptions, and complications of the history of femininity in ancient Rome. We explore how factors such as status and geography affected what was expected of women. Though western traditional womanhood often dictated that women remain in the private sphere supposedly based on Roman ideals, such ideas actually ran counter to ancient Roman culture where women were often expected to lead multifaceted lives. To support the podcast by supporting the UW–Madison History Department, please visit https://secure.supportuw.org/give/?id=793c8dd0-b47f-4a33-beeb-4af450d60e8e Episode Links: Sheena Finnigan is a PhD candidate and instructor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. https://history.wisc.edu/people/finnigan-sheena/ Our music is “Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea CC BY 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Please send us your questions for a historian: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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    What is the history of anti-vaccination beliefs?

    What is the history of anti-vaccination beliefs in the United States, and how has vaccine skepticism affected the way we fight disease? Professor Sue Lederer and Professor Judy Houck trace the long history of vaccine hesitancy and resistance in the United States, demonstrating that as long as we’ve had vaccinations, we’ve had vaccination skeptics and refusers. They discuss how the vaccine hesitancy movement has always been diverse and heterogeneous, and how compulsory vaccinations have long raised issues concerning the state’s authority over individuals’ bodies. Episode Links: Sue Lederer is the Robert Turell Professor of Medical History and Bioethics in the Department of History and the Department of Medical History & Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. https://history.wisc.edu/people/lederer-susan-e/ Judy Houck is Professor of History of Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with joint appointments in the Department of History and the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies.  https://history.wisc.edu/people/houck-judith-a/ Our music is “Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea CC BY 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Please send us your questions for a historian: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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    Are nursing homes for seniors a relatively new concept?

    Are nursing homes for seniors a relatively new concept? How did nursing homes become a key institution for elder care in the United States? Professor Emeritus Tom Broman talks to Christina Matta (Ph.D. ’07) about the history of elder care in Europe and the United States. They discuss the origins of hospitals in medieval Europe, the 19th and 20th-century demographic and social changes that shifted responsibility for care of the poor and elderly to the public, and the federal policies that shaped the development of the the nursing home industry in the United States. Episode Links: Tom Broman is Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. https://history.wisc.edu/people/broman-thomas-h/ Tom is the co-director the Wisconsin 101, a collaborative public history project that explores Wisconsin’s diverse, interconnected history through objects. https://wi101.wisc.edu/ Christina Matta is the Career Advisor and Alumni Coordinator in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She received her Ph.D. in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from UW–Madison in 2007. https://history.wisc.edu/people/matta-christina/ Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (London: Picador, 2014). https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250076229 Karen Humes, “The Population 65 Years and Older: Aging in America,” in The Book of the States v. 37 (Council of State Governments, 2005), pp. 464-468. https://www.csg.org/knowledgecenter/docs/BOS2005-AgingInAmerica.pdf Frank B. Hobbs with Bonnie L. Damon, 65+ in the United States (Bureau of the Census, 1996). https://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p23-190/p23-190.pdf Our music is “Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea CC BY 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Please send us your questions for a historian: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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    Is the Game of Ur the oldest game in history?

    Is the Game of Ur the oldest game in history? How and why do historians study games, and what can games tell us about the people who played them? Professor Elizabeth Lapina talks to Professor Sarah Thal about the history of games. They discuss the games people played in the past, including those still familiar to us today (like Snakes & Ladders and chess) and those that are less well-remembered. As Elizabeth explains, games were a means of self-improvement, demonstrating one’s status, showing respect, and winning friendship and love. Elizabeth says that games were important to people in the past, so they should be important to historians, too. The full show transcript is available on our website. https://history.wisc.edu/ask-a-historian/ Episode Links:  Elizabeth Lapina is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. https://history.wisc.edu/people/lapina-elizabeth/ Sarah Thal is the David Kuenzi and Mary Wyman Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. https://history.wisc.edu/people/thal-sarah/ Elizabeth’s newest book, which she co-edited with Vanina Kopp, is Games and Visual Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Brepols, 2021). http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503588728-1 Our music is “Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea CC BY 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Please send us your questions for a historian: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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    How did missionaries in colonial India communicate with the people they were trying to convert?

    The full show transcript is available on our website. https://history.wisc.edu/ask-a-historian/ How did evangelical missionaries in India communicate with the people they were trying to convert? Professor Mitra Sharafi talks with Professor Mou Banerjee about the history of evangelical missionaries in colonial India, where the colonial and evangelical enterprises never fully overlapped as they did elsewhere in the world. Mou emphasizes that the history of Christian conversion in India has not been one of force. Rather, people converted for complex political, spiritual, and personal reasons. Mou and Mitra also talk about the longer history of Christianity in India. Contrary to narratives that cast Christianity and Christians as alien to the Indian nation, the history of Christianity in India is nearly as old as Christianity itself. Across centuries, there has been a long history of peaceful side-by-side coexistence and fascination with the ethical precepts of Christianity. Episode Links: Mou Banerjee is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. https://history.wisc.edu/people/banerjee-mou/ Mitra Sharafi is Professor of Law & Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she is also affiliated with the Department of History and the Center for South Asia. https://secure.law.wisc.edu/profiles/sharafi@wisc.edu Our music is “Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea CC BY 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Please send us your questions for a historian: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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    Why do many young people lack basic knowledge about the Holocaust and how do we fix this?

    The full show transcript is available on our website. https://history.wisc.edu/ask-a-historian/ Recent studies conducted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany have produced concerning statistics on deficits in Holocaust knowledge among American millennials and Gen Z-ers. Why do many young people lack basic knowledge about the Holocaust, and how do we fix this? Professor Dan Stolz interviews Professor Brandon Bloch about the historical development of Holocaust education, how recent literature reframes our understanding of the Holocaust as part of American history, and why it's necessary to rethink the goals of Holocaust education within a multicultural United States. For Brandon, Holocaust education today can be “a vehicle for thinking about the genocidal power of racism and racial thinking in ways that are not at all distant from our own national past and present in the United States.” He argues that doing a better job of teaching the Holocaust requires strengthening and deepening historical education more broadly. Episode Links: Brandon Bloch is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he teaches the history of modern Germany and Europe and the history of human rights. https://history.wisc.edu/people/bloch-brandon/ Dan Stolz is the Kemal H. Karpat Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he teaches Ottoman and modern Middle East history. https://history.wisc.edu/people/stolz-daniel/ “New study by Claims Conference finds significant lack of Holocaust knowledge in the United States,” Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (2018) http://www.claimscon.org/study/ “First-ever 50-state survey on Holocaust knowledge of American millennials and Gen Z reveals shocking results,” Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (2020) http://www.claimscon.org/millennial-study/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum https://www.ushmm.org/ USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute of Visual History and Education https://sfi.usc.edu/ Facing History and Ourselves https://www.facinghistory.org/ Our music is “Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea CC BY 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Please send us your questions for a historian: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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  7. ١٧‏/١٢‏/٢٠٢٠ · إضافة

    HISTORY LAB 3 How do historians determine what's true when working with primary sources?

    The full show transcript is available on our website: https://history.wisc.edu/ask-a-historian/ How do historians verify primary source documents? How do they account for bias and determine what’s true and what’s not?  Drawing on her experiences in the Soviet archives, Professor Francine Hirsch talks about how primary sources reveal both facts and perspectives, what fabricated evidence can tell us about the past, and why it’s important to incorporate primary sources from many actors when writing history. She also shares some key questions to ask about authorial intent, audience, and reception when evaluating a primary source. Episode Links: Francine Hirsch is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she teaches courses on Russian and Soviet history, the history of human rights, and modern Europe. https://history.wisc.edu/people/hirsch-francine/ Prof. Hirsch’s new book, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II, was published this year by Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/soviet-judgment-at-nuremberg-9780199377930?cc=us&lang=en& Frederick C. Corney’s Telling October: Memory and the Making of the Bolshevik Revolution: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801442193/telling-october/ National History Day in Wisconsin: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS15524 UW–Madison’s History Lab: https://history.wisc.edu/undergraduate-program/the-history-lab/ Our theme music is “Wholesome” by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome CC BY 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Do you have a question about how to do history? Record a voice memo we’ll answer your question in an upcoming episode. Our email address is outreach@history.wisc.edu

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    How did undocumented immigrants come to dominate the workforce on U.S. dairy farms?

    The full show transcript is available on our website: https://history.wisc.edu/ask-a-historian/ How did undocumented immigrants come to dominate the workforce on U.S. dairy farms? Professor David McDonald interviews PhD candidate Dustin Cohan about the history behind recent headlines that have highlighted Wisconsin dairy farmers’ reliance on undocumented immigrant laborers. As Dustin explains, the agricultural transformation in America’s Dairyland that began in the 1970s shifted the scale and labor model of dairy farms across the state, creating a new demand for hired labor. This, in turn, reshaped the lives and work of Wisconsin dairy farmers, undocumented laborers working in the dairy industry, and the migrants’ communities of origin in Veracruz, Mexico. Timestamps  03:13 Changes in the dairy industry from the 1970s-1990s 8:17 Why many migrant laborers on Wisconsin dairies are from Veracruz, Mexico 18:36 Why Americans aren’t doing this work in the dairy industry 21:15 What it’s like to work on a dairy farm 26:57 The relationship between Wisconsin farmers and migrant workers 31:33 How migrant labor in Wisconsin has transformed communities in Veracruz Episode Links: Dustin Cohan is a PhD candidate in U.S. history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he studies immigration and labor history in the 20th century. https://history.wisc.edu/people/cohan-dustin/ David McDonald is the Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Distinguished Chair in Russian History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he teaches courses on imperial Russia and the history of sport and popular culture. https://history.wisc.edu/people/mcdonald-david/ “Undocumented Workers Are The Backbone of Dairies. Will Trump Change That?” HuffPost, 6 October 2017. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wisconsin-dairy-industry-undocumented-workers_n_59c3cfb7e4b06f93538cfd3f “Wisconsin’s dairy industry would collapse without the work of Latino immigrants—many of them undocumented.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 February 2020. https://www.jsonline.com/in-depth/news/special-reports/dairy-crisis/2019/11/12/wisconsin-dairy-farms-rely-immigrant-workers-undocumented-laborers/2570288001/ Puentes is the organization based in western Wisconsin that seeks to build bridges between immigrant workers from Veracruz and Wisconsin’s rural farming community. https://www.puentesbridges.org/ Ana Minian’s Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration explains how the mid-1980s U.S. immigration crackdown ultimately forced many Mexican migrants to stay in the United States permanently. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737037 Our music is “Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod. Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea CC BY 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Please send us your questions for a historian: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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Every episode, we bring a question submitted by an audience member to a historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and ask them to share their response. What would you ask a historian? Send us your questions: outreach@history.wisc.edu

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