Making Of A Historian

In this episode, we talk about the invisible, unequal, and unjust world of cotton.

Today we talk about how the three piece suit got made, how women's fashion was helped by bike-riding socialists, and whey in fashion everyone steals from everyone else.

In this episode I compare the rise of restaurants in the 18th and 19th centuries with the rise of domestic home cooked meals in the same period.

In this episode, we talk about the consumer revolution of the 18th century, a weird time when commemorative plates were like MAGA hats.

In this episode, I try to make a big narrative about how the Industrial Revolution happened.

In this episode, I run through three stances on what the Industrial Revolution actually was.

In this episode, I try to sum up two weeks' of reading about capitalism, finance, markets, and machines into one minute. And I fail. The episode is twenty minutes. College try, though!

We tackle one of life's only certainties: taxes, and how changes in warfare led to two very different tax systems in Britain. Book: Martin Daunton: Trusting Leviathan

In this episode, I argue for a periodization of European history based on particular era's drug of choice. First spices, then coffee, then gin and opium. Books: Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Tastes of Paradise Zheng Yangwen, The Social Life of Opium In China

In this episode, we look at another explanation for the spread of empire and capitalism. Technology Books today are David Headrick, The Tools of Empire David Headrick, the Tentacles of Progress Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts

Another view of British empire and capitalism: it's finance, stupid!

I this episode we explore how war and peace affected the creation of the modern financial system from around 1700-1800. In only twelve minutes. I left a lot of stuff out. Guess we'll need to come back to this later?

I tell you the secret THEY don't want you to know: WHO'S TAKING OUR JOBS! (It's machines.)

We're going to talk about the 19th century economy over the next few weeks. It was in the 19th century that you get something like a global economy. Why? Today we take a quick look at how factories, finance and the firm knit the world together, only to collapse with the start of the First World War. Books: The Cambridge History of Capitalism The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Revolution and Age of Capital and Age of Empire Richard Grossman, Unsettled Account Thomas McGraw, ed., Creating Modern Capitalism

I have a meeting with my advisor today, so I scrambled to make some kind of synthesis of all the readings I've done on the Victorian family and home. I find three big themes. Number three will shock you! (Probably not.) Reading list: Cambridge Economic History of Britain Cambridge Social History of Britain Deborah Cohen, Household Gods (2010) Hugh Cunningham, Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500 (2005) John Gillis, A World of Their Own Making (1997) Ruth Goodman, How To Be A Victorian (2014) Judith Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight (1992)

This is one of those podcasts you record and then say to yourself: I can't believe I forgot to talk about dildos.

Put another log on the fire, get your blankets, and clutch your cup of hot chocolate for dear life, on this episode we're going to see how the coziness of the Victorian home was based on the daily backbreaking work of women.

In this episode we look at the world of international trade by dipping into a few global commodities. You'll learn where IPA comes from! Also, why tapioca is one of the most important plants in the world.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was hard for everyone to get enough to eat. We talk a bit about hunger, and how it hit the poor, women, and the colonies hardest.

In this episode, I wonder what makes the Victorians seem so fussy.