Historically Speaking Podcast

Everyone has their favorite holiday, but do you know how your favorite holiday came into being? The answers may surprise you. For instance, in 12th century England, New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25th, but the ancient Celts celebrated their New Year (Sumhain) on November 1st. So why do we now celebrate the New Year on January 1st? And why do we now use the Gregorian Calendar as opposed to the Julian Calendar? Also, did the Druids really use human sacrifices during their celebrations? And why would shepherds be tending their flocks in the middle of December? Did slavery still exist after June 19, 1865? Here in our 30th episode we answer every single one of those questions and much more!

Episode Notes:

• King Numa Pompilius (c. 700 BC) is credited with adding January and February to the old 10-month Roman calendar, but March 1st remained New Year’s Day for Romans until the Julian calendar was developed around 45 BC.
• President Abraham Lincoln did not, in August of 1862, write to Horatio Seymour, former and future Governor of New York, about slavery and the Union, but rather to Horace Greeley, editor of The New York Tribune. 
•  As promised, here is Rebecca’s Spotify playlist, “October Songs”. 

Books:

• A Brief History of the Calendar by David Harper, PhD, FRAS
• New Year’s Day Wikipedia article
• The Civil War Day by Day by E.B. Long
• Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
• Halloween by Ruth Edna Kelley
• A Brief History of the Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis
• The Christmas Encyclopedia by William Crump
• Historical Dictionary of Catholicism by William J. Collinge

Film:

• The Wicker Man (1973) – with Edward Woodward, Diane Cilento

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a fascinating figure- resourceful, brave, insightful, reflective, but it’s his inordinate ambition that leads to his downfall. Can the same be said of Scotland’s real Macbeth? Here in Episode 29, we unpack the characters in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth alongside their historical (or mythical) counterparts including Banquo, Malcolm, McDuff, even the witches. We also let you in on a few theatre traditions involving “The Scottish Play” as well as why you can never say the word Macbeth in a theatre.

Episode Notes:

• The word Bard means poet and because William Shakespeare was from the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, he was known as the Bard of Avon. Even though the title was never officially bestowed, in 1769 the Shakespearean actor David Garrick is credited with organizing the Shakespeare Jubilee for which he wrote a song referring to Shakespeare as the Warwickshire Bard which seems to have eventually morphed into The Bard of Avon. Here is a link to Garrick's original song, https://www.bartleby.com/333/77.html
• Sir Laurence Olivier played the title role in Macbeth at the Old Vic Theatre in London in 1937.

Books:

• Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland by Raphael Holinshed
• Scotland: The Story of a Nation by Magnus Magnusson
• The Reign of Elizabeth 1556-1603 by J.B. Black
• The History of Scotland by Sir Walter Scott

Film:

• Macbeth (1948) Directed by and starring Orson Welles
• The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971) Directed by Roman Polanski, starring John Finch
• The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) Directed by Joel Cohen, starring Denzel Washington 

Almost six centuries have come and gone and we’re still talking about an illiterate peasant girl who only lived to be nineteen years old. Why? Not only did she inspire her nation by leading thousands of men into battle, but she also ushered in the end of the Hundred’s Year War thus saving her nation of France from English rule. Was she divinely inspired or was she a schizophrenic who heard the voices of martyred saints in her head? We may never know the answer to that question, but here in Episode 28 we unpack a lot about Joan of Arc.

Episode Edit:

In the interest of accuracy and fairness, in 1450, almost twenty years after Joan's death, King Charles VII did himself have a retrial of Joan which vindicated her. This was before Pope Calixtus III (1455-1458) also had a retrial. To Charles' credit, he couldn't have the retrial until he did because it wasn't until late 1449 that he and French forces were able to take Rouen where Joan's trial and burning occurred and where all the papers and documents related to the trial were located.

Books:

•  The Hundred Years War by Edouard Perroy (translated from the French)
•  Joan: The Mysterious Life of The Heretic Who Became a Saint by Donald Spoto 
•  The Life of Joan of Arc by Anatole France (translated from the French)
• The Fifteenth Century 1399-1485 by E.F. Jacob
•  Joan of Arc: A Military Leader by Kelly DeVries 

Film:

• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) silent film with Renée Falconetti 
•  Joan of Arc (1948) with Ingrid Bergman

In October of 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the Caribbean Sea and christened it “Juana” in honor of Prince Don Juan, son of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. From there, Cuba would remain under Spanish rule for over 400 years. Eventually, the United States would help the Cuban people overthrow their colonial rulers just as America had done a century before. Thus began a long and contentious relationship between America and Cuba. Ironically, it was America who also assisted a young Cuban revolutionary named Fidel Castro to overthrow a corrupt government and set up his own government. That was 1959 and Castro would remain in power for over 50 years while surviving more than 600 assassination attempts and outlasting 11 American presidents. With his death in 2016 and the resignation of his brother, Raul, in April of 2021, there have been new rumblings in Cuba. Will the Cuban people finally demand freedom, or will they continue under Communist rule? Will America once again involve herself in Cuban affairs? It seems there is more Cuban history yet to be written.

BOOKS

• Cuba: A History by Hugh Thomas
• The History of Cuba by Clifford Staten
• Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Robert Kennedy
• Modern Times by Paul Johnson
• America: A Narrative History by George Tindall and David Shi

 FILM

• Cuban Missile Crisis: Three Men Go to War (2012) Documentary
• JFK: A President Betrayed (2013) Documentary with Morgan Freeman narrating
• Fidel (1971) Documentary
• The Fidel Castro Tapes (2014) Documentary

Spy: (noun) “A person employed by one nation to secretly convey classified information of strategic importance to another nation.” When someone says the word spy, the image that pops into most people’s minds is James Bond (for us here at Historically Speaking that would be Sean Connery, the original,) but the father of modern-day espionage can be traced all the way back to the court of Queen Elizabeth I. But no matter what century you are playing your deadly game, spying often times isn’t as glamorous as it seems. Yes, you may be hobnobbing with the elites of society, but in order to not reveal your cover you have to be tough enough to survive some extraordinarily perilous circumstances, while at the same time being clever enough to convince your adversaries that you’re truly on their side. John le Carré, Ian Fleming and Frederick Forsyth had to base their novels on someone, could it possibly be one of these three gentlemen that we discuss here in Episode 26? We’ll let you decide.

BOOKS

Sir Francis Walsingham:

• The Reign of Elizabeth: 1558-1603 by J. B. Black
• Queen Elizabeth I by J.E. Neale
• Elizabeth’s Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England by Robert Hutchinson

 Wilhelm Canaris:

• Canaris: The Life and Death of Hitler’s Spymaster by Michael Mueller
• The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers and Guerrillas, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings 

 Richard Sorge:

• An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent by Owen Matthews
• Stalin’s Spy: Richard Sorge and the Tokyo Espionage Ring by Robert Whymant
• The Oxford Companion to World War II

FILM

• Richard Sorge: Master Spy (2019) – Russian miniseries 12 episodes

Imagine being the most renowned woman in the world only to face a French firing squad for simply repeating the latest gossip, or having every one of your toenails ripped out one by one at the hands of a demonic Nazi interrogator, or filing down your own teeth in order to change your appearance so you could operate as a harmless old woman and pass Allied secrets right under the Nazis’ noses. Hard to imagine, right? Well, the trio of women featured in Episode 25 did exactly that and more. Three fearless, extraordinary women who operated in a world of war, espionage, and men. Were they effective? Did they change the course of history? Tune in and find out. 

 Books:

• Mata Hari: Eye of the Day by Charles Rammelkamp
• Femme Fatale: Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari by Pat Shipman
• Hall of Mirrors: Virginia Hall: America’s Greatest Spy of WWII by Craig Gralley
• A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII by Sonia Purnell
• Odette: World War Two’s Darling Spy by Penny Starns
• Code Name: Lise by Larry Loftis

 Film/Documentary:

• Mata Hari The Naked Spy (2019) – Documentary
• A Call to Spy (2020) – with Sarah Megan Thomas as Virginia Hall 

You may have heard the phrase, “Marxism in theory has a lot of merit,” or “True Marxism has never really been tried.” Well, here in Episode 24, we break it all down as we explore the 6 principals of Marxism laid out by Karl Marx himself. We also delve into the life of Karl Marx along with his friend and co-author of the Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels, and take a closer look at the rise of the Frankfurt School and Critical Theory. Get ready, we packed a lot into this 36-minute episode.

Episode Edits:

1. When referring to Felix Weil, who funded the Institute of Social Research, we incorrectly called him Max Weil.  

Books:

• The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
• Das Kapital (3 vol.) by Karl Marx
• The Condition of The Working Class in England by Friedrich Engels
• The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism by Bertrand Russell
• The Critique of Pure Tolerance by Herbert Marcuse, Robert Wolff, Barrington Moore
• The Penguin Dictionary of Modern History, 1789-1945 by A.W. Palmer

“Keep Cool with Coolidge” was one of the presidential campaign slogans for the 1924 election. What was so cool about Coolidge? Here in Episode 23, we give you our reasons why Calvin Coolidge gets our vote for the most underrated president in American history. Here’s a few teasers – he was the first president to appoint a woman to the Federal Judiciary, he extended American citizenship to Native Americans, he proposed the first federal anti-lynching laws, he was the last president to pay down the national debt, and so much more. A man of very few words (a.k.a. Silent Cal,) who experienced heartbreaking personal tragedy while in office, Coolidge is the only president to be sworn into office by his own father and the only one to be sworn in at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Books: 

• The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge by Calvin Coolidge
• Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President by Charles C. Johnson
• A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge by William Allen White
• Coolidge: An American Enigma by Robert Sobel
• A History of the American People by Paul Johnson

The Korean War is the fifth most deadly war in American history, and it ranks among the top ten of any war in human history for the most casualties. So why is it called the Forgotten War? Technically, it wasn’t a war at all, but rather a U.N. “police action” which involved 1.8 million American soldiers and lasted from 1950-1953. Officially, the Korean War never ended, but rather an armistice was signed in 1953 ensuring a complete cessation of hostilities. Today, the only thing standing between Communist North Korea and Democratic South Korea is a thin, red dividing line located around the 38th Parallel and the hope that Kim Jong-un doesn’t repeat the same mistakes his grandfather did.

 Books

• American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 by William Manchester
• Encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 B.C. to The Present by Richard Ernest Dupuy & Trevor N. Dupuy
• Modern Times by Paul Johnson
• A History of the Twentieth Century by Martin Gilbert

 Film

• MacArthur (1977) with Gregory Peck
• Unforgettable: The Korean War - Documentary 

In 1932, a newly minted phrase was on the lips of most Americans… “The New Deal.” It was first uttered by Franklin D. Roosevelt to an audience in Chicago during his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President. It would soon become an American phenomenon and the largest governmental spending plan to date. Its intention – to put Americans back to work and revive the economy following a depression unleashed by the stock market crash of 1929. It was hailed as a huge success and won FDR the Presidency in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. But, was it really as successful as everyone lauded it to be? Did it really pull America out of the Great Depression? History is somewhat divided on this topic, after all, hindsight is 2020. So, why is history repeating itself in 2021 with Covid Relief which is now the largest government spending/American bailout plan to date? We discuss it here in Episode 21 so you can decide for yourself.

 Books

• The Age of Roosevelt (3 Vols.) by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr
• Franklin D. Roosevelt and The New Deal by William E. Leuchtenburg
• FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression by Jim Powell
• A History of the American People by Paul Johnson

 Documentary

• The Roosevelts (2014) by Ken Burns