Join Matt, Jamie, Adam, and Simon as we interview James Robinson for his dissertation topic "Strikes and Strikeouts: Building An Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Working Class Sports Culture From Below in the United States, 1918-1950." We talk about the genesis of the labor sports movement in the United States, from immigrant communities to radical groups engaging with sports to a large scale mass sports movement through the CIO, and how it connects with the Worker Sport movement of Europe. We look at how the Socialist Party and Communist Party engaged with sports in the interwar period. How do social justice militants work to claim the sphere of sports for working class people of all backgrounds? We chat about the periodization of the Socialists and Communists, and some of the people involved in the building of Labor Sports, like Olga Madar, Dot Tucker, John Gallo, and Lester Rodney. Join us for this fascinating look at the connections between labor history, radical history, and sports history!

Books mentioned in the podcast:

Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939

by Lizabeth Cohen

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/335626.Making_a_New_Deal

Sport in Capitalist Society: A Short History

by Tony Collins

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16193650-sport-in-capitalist-society

Labor's Time: Shorter Hours, the Uaw, and the Struggle for the American Unionism (Labor in Crisis)

by Jonathan Cutler

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/307090.Labor_s_Time

Media and Culture in the U.S. Jewish Labor Movement: Sweating for Democracy in the Interwar Era

by Brian Dolber

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30777744-media-and-culture-in-the-u-s-jewish-labor-movement

The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century

by Michael Denning

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/952955.The_Cultural_Front

The Story Of Worker Sport

by Arnd Krüger

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4172844-the-story-of-worker-sport

Playing as if the World Mattered: An Illustrated History of Activism in Sports

by Gabriel Kuhn

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23398404-playing-as-if-the-world-mattered

Silk Stockings and Socialism: Philadelphia's Radical Hosiery Workers from the Jazz Age to the New Deal

by Sharon McConnell-Sidorick

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32440151-silk-stockings-and-socialism

Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920

by Roy Rosenzweig

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/489509.Eight_Hours_for_What_We_Will

The Park and the People: A History of Central Park

by Roy Rosenzweig, Elizabeth Blackmar

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1153123.The_Park_and_the_People

Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game

by Rob Ruck

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9596279-raceball

Press Box Red: The Story of Lester Rodney, the Communist Who Helped Break the Color Line in American Sports

by Irwin Silber, Jules Tygiel (Forward)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1215952.Press_Box_Red

The Making of the English Working Class

by E.P. Thompson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/947848.The_Making_of_the_English_Working_Class

"A Road to Peace and Freedom": The International Workers Order and the Struggle for Economic Justice and Civil Rights, 1930-1954

by Robert M. Zecker

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35011931-a-road-to-peace-and-freedom

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

by Robert D. Putnam

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/478.Bowling_Alone

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser and Cassie Cloutier

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Matt Bowser, Jamie Parker, Adam Tomasi, Simon Purdue

twitter: @BreakingHistPod

Join Simon, James, Adam, Chuck, and Huseyin Kurt as we interview Matt Bowser about his dissertation, "Misdirected Rage: The Origins of Islamophobia in Burma, 1930-1948", that takes a deep historical dive into the roots of the current crisis in Myanmar. We take a look at the late colonial period in Burma in the 1930s. Matt's argument looks at the anti-colonial movement between the socialists and the ultra-nationalists who scape-goated the Muslim population in order to gain power, with the encouragement of the British authorities. Matt talks about his academic path looking at empires, and we riff on the tactics of ultra-nationalists, including the fascist U Saw, in their struggle for leadership of the anti-colonial struggle against the socialists. Matt connects the code-words of "Muslim" for blaming Indians without blaming the British.

He talks his about theory on co-colonialism, as wealthy Indians ruled Burma economically through the British, even as working class Indians came into the country for work. How did it play out on the ground? How is the 1938 anti-muslim riots connect to how genocide has happened in Myanmar, targeted at Muslims? How does this play out elsewhere? What happens afterwards, during WWII and the Cold War?

We also hear about Bowser's research journeys and methods in navigating in a charged political climate to dig up potentially sensitive history in Myanmar.

Books to read for more information!

Regarding the Rohingya:

Ibrahim, Azeem. The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide. New Delhi: Speaking Tiger Publishing, 2017.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26717021-the-rohingyas

Regarding Buddhism and colonial Burma:

Turner, Alicia. Saving Buddhism: The Impermanence of Religion in Colonial Burma. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2017.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22828775-saving-buddhism

Regarding Indian Ocean world:

Aiyar, Sana. Indians in Kenya: The Politics of Diaspora. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25401212-indians-in-kenya

Amrith, Sunil S. Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17804366-crossing-the-bay-of-bengal

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser, Cassie Cloutier, and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Simon Purdue, James Robinson , Chuck Clough, Adam Tomasi, Huseyin Kurt

twitter: @BreakingHistPod

Join Jamie Parker, Matt Bowser, and James Robinson as we discuss Jack Gronau's dissertation, "French Women, But Not Citizens: Colonial Emigration, Imperial Prostitution, and the Emancipatory Writings of French Feminists, 1897-1962" with Jack himself.

Jack tells us about how he came to focus on French North Africa and French Feminist imperialist history, from German history to Jewish history to WWII. His dissertation is framed as a series of episodes, and how French feminists engaged with the Empire and how they navigated the French imperial project. Jack details how he found voices invisible in history, by looking into French women's emigration societies' papers, the Feminist Press in Algeria, and how masculinity/femininity played out in colonial Algeria. French women would enforce racial norms and help normalize men in settler-colonies, Gronau argues. The "Civilizing Mission" was, in the end, a way for French women to claim their part in the Empire. Last, Gronau looks to the campaign against prostitution as a way to bolster their emancipatory claims.

Books mentions in the podcast:

"Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865-1915"

by Antoinette Burton

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/295901.Burdens_of_History

"French Women and the Empire: The Case of Indochina"

by Marie-Paule Ha

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18951025-french-women-and-the-empire

"Colonial Metropolis: The Urban Grounds of Anti-Imperialism and Feminism in Interwar Paris"

by Jennifer Anne Boittin

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8577409-colonial-metropolis

"Transnational France: The Modern History of a Universal Nation"

by Tyler Stovall

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22668823-transnational-france

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser, Cassie Cloutier, and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Matt Bowser, Jamie Parker, and James Robinson.

twitter: @BreakingHistPod

Please join Bridget, Debra, James, Jamie, and Matt to talk about the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in the US and Canada) movement. Debra leads us through the discussion on this long standing emergency situation in both the United States and Canada. We talk about the history of the movement and how its played out differently in Canada and the United States. How does this fit into the larger history of violence against Indigenous women and how the movement is fighting back. We talk about a few different cases and how the history of "Indian Affairs" agencies has played out. What's the weakness of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions?

Full disclosure: None of the speakers are indigenous people and we acknowledge that.

Further Reading on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in the US and Canada:

The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC)

https://www.nwac.ca/

Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women

https://www.csvanw.org/mmiw/

National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

http://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca

Walking With Our Sisters

http://walkingwithoursisters.ca

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report-Urban Indian Health Institute

http://www.uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Missing-and-Murdered-Indigenous-Women-

and-Girls-Report.pdf

Sovereign Bodies Institute-MMIW Database

https://www.sovereign-bodies.org

S. 1942 Savanna’s Act 115 th Congress

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1942/text

Kim Anderson, Maria Campbell, Christi Belcourt, eds. Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters

Sarah Deer, The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America Andrea Smith, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide

Jane M Smith, Richard M Thompson II, CRS Report for Congress. Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction over Non-Indians in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization and the SAVE Women Act. April 18, 2012.

Emmanuelle Walter, Stolen Sisters: The Story of Two Missing Girls, Their Families, and How Canada has Failed Indigenous Women

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser, Cassie Cloutier, and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Matt Bowser, Bridget Keown, Debra Lavelle, Jamie Parker, and James Robinson.

twitter: @BreakingHistPod

Please join Bridget, James, Matt, Simon, Thanasis, and Will as we discuss the global history of right-wing populism. What is populism? What is the history of nativist populism? How has it played out across the globe? Where we can trace direct intellectual traditions versus general impulses? Why has it been so effective an organizing force in modern history? How has gender played out in right-wing populism? Is it inherently masculine? Is right-wing populism inevitably if we look historically, to our present day? Where is the crossover between right-wing and left-wing populism? How do conspiracy theories play in populism? How do these ideas spread?

Books Mentioned in the Podcast:

Rural Radicals: Righteous Rage In The American Grain

by Catherine McNicol Stock

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1214303.Rural_Radicals

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

by Benedict Anderson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/399136.Imagined_Communities

The Populist Vision

by Charles Postel

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1599876.The_Populist_Vision

From Fascism to Populism in History

by Federico Finchelstein

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34408690-from-fascism-to-populism-in-history

The Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt Against Elite Democracy

by Richard Javad Heydarian

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35548361-the-rise-of-duterte

Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State, 1877-1917

by Elizabeth Sanders

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/335652.Roots_of_Reform

The Age of Reform

by Richard Hofstadter

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/770032.The_Age_of_Reform

Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists Between Authenticity and Performance

by Timothy S. Brown

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5138638-weimar-radicals

Sexuality and German Fascism

by Dagmar Herzog

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/349800.Sexuality_and_German_Fascism

Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy

by Elizabeth Gillespie McRae

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35013165-mothers-of-massive-resistance

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser, Cassie Cloutier, and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Matt Bowser, Bridget Keown, Thanasis Kinias, Simon Purdue, James Robinson, Will Whitworth

twitter: @BreakingHistPod

Please join Bridget, James, Matt, and Thanasis as we talk about settler-colonialism in world history! What is settler-colonialism? What are settler-colonies and how did they develop differently? Replacing indigenous populations or ruling over those populations? Who belongs and who is erased in the public perception of the nation? We discuss the "blank space" presented by settlers to push indigenous people out and the differing intentions of settler-colonies. We talk about how hyper-masculinity explicitly defines political systems of settler-colonialism. Did settler-colonialism produce whiteness or was it something different? How does settler-colonialism fit into the larger imperial project? What does it mean to live in a settler-colonial society today?

Books mentioned in the episode:

Islands of White: Settler Society and Culture in Kenya and Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1939

by Dane Kennedy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1129042.Islands_of_White

Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality

by Marilyn Lake, Henry Reynolds

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2551707.Drawing_the_Global_Colour_Line

Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview

by Lorenzo Veracini

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11318355-settler-colonialism

Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event

by Patrick Wolfe

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1238448.Settler_Colonialism_and_the_Transformation_of_Anthropology

Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race

by Patrick Wolfe

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23602714-traces-of-history

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser, Cassie Cloutier, and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Matt Bowser, Bridget Keown, Thanasis Kinias, Jamie Parker, James Robinson

Join Bridget, Dan, James, Jamie, Matt, and Thanasis as we discuss the legacies of World War One, as the centenary of the First World War's end of the war armistice is marked on the publishing day of this episode.

We discuss issues of public memories of masculinity, propaganda, world vs the European war, how the war is remembered differently in different places. We look to how the war was used by political movements to shift memories for their own purposes, such as the "stabbed in the back" myth by the Nazis, and how shame was used to frame the war. We discuss the possibilities after the war that quickly go awry, especially in how the Ottoman Empire is carved up and the limits of "making the world safe for democracy" when dealing with colonial empires. Who gets included in citizenship after the war and who doesn't? How do the empires of Europe begin to crumble in the ashes of war, as subject people take the opportunity to push back?

How should Armistice Day be remembered? We remember the veterans but what about the mutinies that end the war? We discuss how narrow the definition of veteran has been, and how gender lines are drawn. We do some comparisons of Armistice Day vs Veterans Day in the UK vs US. We talk about the poppy, and the consequences of war globally!

Picture: 369th Infantry (Colored): the "Harlem Hellfighters", who fought under French command because General Pershing refused to have them in the American forces.

Books mentioned that the listener may want to pick up in order to know all the good points we brought up:

The Wilsonian Moment: Self Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism

by Erez Manela

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1537700.The_Wilsonian_Moment

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall Of The Ottoman Empire And The Creation Of The Modern Middle East

by David Fromkin

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78107.A_Peace_to_End_All_Peace

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser, Cassie Cloutier, and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Matt Bowser, Bridget Keown, Thanasis Kinias, Jamie Parker, James Robinson, Dan Squizzero

Join us as we talk about the legacies of Cold War history on our present world. We chat about what is happening both between the Capitalist West and Communist Bloc, and the anti-colonial to postcolonial global struggles. We talk power, gender structures and identities, economics, ideas of left vs right, nationalism, the Non-Aligned Movement, shifting alliances, and the propagandistic triumph of neoliberal capitalism coupled bound by right-wing nationalism. We look to the rise of the hard-right in the wake of the Cold War.

Is there books to read to know more? That's a really good point, listener. Yes, they are!

The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945 1968

by Kevin G. Boyle

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/709532.The_UAW_and_the_Heyday_of_American_Liberalism_1945_1968

Marxism in the United States: Remapping the History of the American Left

by Paul M. Buhle

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1749496.Marxism_in_the_United_States

Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and "Nation Building" in the Kennedy Era

by Michael E. Latham

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1075782.Modernization_as_Ideology

The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times

by Odd Arne Westad

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156594.The_Global_Cold_War

The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government

by David K. Johnson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206541.The_Lavender_Scare

Tales of the Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation

by Karla Jay

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/534736.Tales_of_the_Lavender_Menace

Patterns of Empire: The British and American Empires, 1688 to the Present

by Julian Go

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12896981-patterns-of-empire

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser, Cassie Cloutier, and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Matt Bowser, Cassie Clouter, Bridget Keown, Jamie Parker, Simon Perdue, James Robinson, and Will Whitworth

Join as we talk to English PhD Candidate Liz Polcha, who specializes in 18th and 19th century American and Caribbean literature, about her dissertation, "Redacting Desire: The Sexual Politics of Colonial Science in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World". Liz talks about her research path, navigating the worlds of literary criticism and history, feminist and postcolonial digital scholarship, and her dissertation. Very creepy diaries and travel narratives of the slave world of the early Caribbean! She walks us through some of her subjects, who fancied themselves as scientists but often functioned more as rapists, sex tourists, and torture, not as outliers but as a regular part of colonial life. Liz also talks about her experience in organizing a grad worker union and building hope in the academia, teaching, community, landing fellowships, and what's next!

Don't miss this terrific interview with the one and only Liz Polcha!

Projects mentioned in the podcast:

Early Caribbean Digital Archive

https://ecda.northeastern.edu/

Women Writers Project

https://www.wwp.northeastern.edu/

Articles and Books mentioned in the episode:

"The Origin of Others"

by Toni Morrison

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34758228-the-origin-of-others

"Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book"

Hortense J. Spillers

https://people.ucsc.edu/~nmitchel/hortense_spillers_-_mamas_baby_papas_maybe.pdf

"Venus in Two Acts"

Saidiya Hartman

https://myelms.umd.edu/courses/1224150/files/46327971/download?download_frd=1

"Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive"

by Marisa J Fuentes

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28561909-dispossessed-lives

Other Shout-out:

"Colored Conventions: Bringing 19th Century Black Organizing To Digital Life"

http://coloredconventions.org/

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg

Today's hosts were: Thanasis Kinias, Molly Nebiolo, Jamie Parker, and James Robinson

Join us as we talk with PhD Candidate Olivier Schouteden as we talk about French imperialism's explorers in late 19th century Indochina. How did these private adventurers interact with local people, the French imperial state, and how much control did the central state have over these people? What is an "explorer"? What does it say about the weaknesses of French imperialism, and how the French state eventually tried to reel them in? Olivier walks us through his dissertation and how the image of the explorer animated the spatial French imperial project, state-backed and private scientific societies, no matter the cost and resistance of people of present day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. We even see one explorer, Charles-Marie David de Mayréna, set up his own rogue country in the middle of madness: Kingdom of Sedang (the basis of the novel Heart of Darkness, set in Central Africa, which became Apocalypse Now, returning to Indochina.)

Olivier talks about his research adventures in the archives in France, Cambodia, and Vietnam, looking at letters and papers of french explorers, his experience with teaching, and what's next.

Books mentioned in the episode:

"Out of Our Minds: Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa"

by Johannes Fabian

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/859138.Out_of_Our_Minds

"The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture"

by Michael F. Robinson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2091360.The_Coldest_Crucible

"Heroes of Empire: Five Charismatic Men and the Conquest of Africa"

by Edward Berenson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8717661-heroes-of-empire

"The Road to Botany Bay: An Exploration of Landscape and History"

by Paul Carter

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2854657-the-road-to-botany-bay

"The Paper Road: Archive and Experience in the Botanical Exploration of West China and Tibet"

by Erik Mueggler

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11694721-the-paper-road

"The Trouble with Empire: Challenges to Modern British Imperialism"

by Antoinette Burton

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26262770-the-trouble-with-empire

"Colonial Cambodia's 'Bad Frenchmen'"

by Gregor Mueller

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16780270-colonial-cambodia-s-bad-frenchmen

"Of Rats, Rice, and Race:

The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre, an Episode in French Colonial History"

Michael G. Vann

(future book)

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/42110

The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association.

Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser and Dan Squizzero

Theme Music: Kieran Legg