Polemical History Podcast

In this episode of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim & Anthony discuss a relatively new and controversial player in the field of historical research: genetics, which appears to have evolved into its own historicist subdiscipline, that of genetic history.   Our genetic markers have come to be regarded as portals to the past. Analysis of these markers is increasingly used to tell the story of human migration; to investigate and judge issues of social membership and kinship; to rewrite history and collective memory; and to right past wrongs and to arbitrate legal claims and human rights controversies.   But is it true that who we are and where we come from is written into the sequence of our genomes? Are genes better documents for determining our histories and identities than fossils or other historical sources? Does genetic history raise new issues or does it return to old questions of history that were believed obsolete? 

In 2017, well-known classicist at Cambridge University Mary Beard was abused on Twitter over her assertion that there was at least some ethnic diversity in Britain under Roman rule. The historian had been defending a BBC schools video that featured a high-ranking black Roman soldier as the father of a family. Similarly, Sarah Bond, Professor of History at the University of Iowa, came under fire over the subject of polychromy — the use of color — in ancient sculpture. In this episode of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim & Anthony discuss the origins and history of race as a concept, particularly in the context of these two debates. Why do we think of classical statuary in terms of gleaming white marble when they were actually painted? If we know these statues were polychromatic, why do they remain white in our popular imagination? What does it say today when museums display gleaming white statues? And why do some people start from the position that painted statues and Romans of color cannot be right?

In this episode of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim and Anthony talk about the events that led to the creation of the State of Israel and the dynamics of the origins of the Israel-Palestine Conflict. Join them as they discuss how it all began: from the Zionist movement and the Balfour Declaration to Mandatory Palestine, including the Arab Revolt, the Jewish insurgency and the first Arab-Israeli war, considered by Israelis as a War of Independence but to the Palestinians, the moment when they lost it all.

In 2018, boxing commentator and co-host of ESPN’s “First Take” Max Kellerman, commenting on the Cleveland Indians getting rid of the “Chief Wahoo” logo, caused a furore by condemning the University of Notre Dame for its “pernicious, negative stereotype” of the Irish. In this episode of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim, Anthony & Evelyn discuss the ethnic or racial ‘Fighting Irish’ stereotype exemplified by Notre Dame’s collegiate football slogan and leprechaun mascot; asking whether it perpetuates a negative stereotype of the Irish as violent and belligerent or celebrates the positive stereotype of the Irish as possessing an indomitable spirit? As well as whether the Fighting Irish symbolism – given the historical treatment of Irish people in America – is a form of cultural imperialism?

In the second of a short series of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim & Anthony discuss Plague: the single most infectious disease in human history, one whose name is synonymous with horror. Join them as they talk about the three plague pandemics considered to be among the most infamous — and most fatal — biological events in human history: the First Pandemic, which began with the Justinianic Plague of the sixth century CE and reoccurred in western Eurasia and North Africa; the Black Death, devastating late medieval and early modern Europe, southwestern Asia and North Africa; and the Third Pandemic which killed millions in South and East Asia at the turn of the twentieth century.

While COVID-19 has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues for going on a year, this is only one instance in a history — with many inflection points — of pandemics. In the first of a short series of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim & Anthony discuss three ancient pandemics that changed history and remade the world: the so-called Plague of Athens and the Antonine and Cyprian plagues.

Denazification was an integral part of the Allies’ program to transform Germany from a xenophobic, aggressive, authoritarian state into a peace-loving democratic nation that would once again cooperate in, and contribute to, international life. It was carried out by identifying and removing the leaders of the National Socialist regime from positions of power and influence and purging all elements of Nazism from public life. There is no reset button for a society, but the denazification policies of the occupying forces of postwar Germany was one of the first attempts to do exactly that: to reset Germany and to purge Nazi influence by legal and non-legal measures. In this episode of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim, Anthony & Vera discuss the various Allied practices, different levels of political incrimination, and the factors that eventually rendered it all obsolete. The questions asked back then are still valid today: How can a society confront and come to terms with its past, develop a peaceful coexistence for all involved and establish democracy? And can all this be forced upon them or even just initiated from the outside?

One week ago, the French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that a nationwide - 6pm to 6am - curfew - the EU’s longest - was due to come into force, the rules of which are broadly similar to the curfew that had already been in effect in other parts of the country. In this episode of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim & Anthony discuss the history of emergency curfews.

In 1995, Ken Keeler, a writer on “The Simpsons” coined this derisive epithet for the French when he had Groundskeeper Willie pronounce it to comic effect. It has subsequently entered the Oxford quotation dictionary, though Keeler has insisted that it was not meant as a political statement. In this episode of the “Polemical History Podcast”, Tim & Anthony discuss the historical justification for the Anglo-American stereotype of the French as cowards.