History Talk

On the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment the Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences hosted a conversation with a panel of experts. They discussed the legacy of enfranchisement, especially for women of color; the ongoing gender disparity in elected officials; and how history informs the 2020 election. Panelists included: Susan Hartmann, professor emerita, Department of History; Treva Lindsey, associate professor, Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Sarah Paxton, JD; PhD candidate, Department of History; Producer, Prologued podcast; and Leticia Wiggins, PhD, Department of History; Multimedia Producer, WOSU Public Media.

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Posted August 2020.

From Mao Zedong to Martin Luther King Jr., China has a long and complex history of interaction with African American movements for equal rights. Please join Ohio State University’s Melvin Barnes Jr. and Princeton University’s James Watson-Krips as they discuss Barnes’ research on the history of Chinese-African American interactions from the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter.

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Posted July 2020.

In early June 2019, residents of Hong Kong took to the streets to protest proposed legislation by the Hong Kong government that would enable extradition from the city to mainland China. Over the ensuing months, heavy-handed tactics by the police only swelled the movement, which has grown to involve over a million residents of Hong Kong. The demonstrators' demands have also expanded to encompass an investigation into police brutality, the resignation of Chief Executive Carrie Lam and the establishment of free democratic elections in the city.

Although the extradition bill itself has been withdrawn, protests seem certain to continue. For many Hong Kongers, the proposed legislation was merely the latest attempt by Beijing to undermine the unique "one country, two systems" status under which the city enjoys a large decree of economic and legal autonomy. What’s at stake in this standoff between protesters, Hong Kong’s government, and Beijing? How did Hong Kong’s autonomy come about in the first place, and how might it be at risk? On this month's episode of History Talk, host Lauren Henry discusses this pivotal moment in Hong Kong's history with two experts on modern China: Dr. Denise Y. Ho and Melvin Barnes Jr.

To learn more about the history of Hong Kong and China, read our feature article, Hong Kong in Protest, by Melvin Barnes Jr. Be sure to check our other coverage of the region: Remembering Tiananmen: The View from Hong Kong, The United States, China, and the Money Question, China Dreams and the “Road to Revival”, and Modern China and Its Institutions.Professor Ho has also published her own analysis of the protests in Hong Kong: Summer of protest: Are we witnessing a turning point in Hong Kong politics?

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Posted September 2019

[A transcript of this podcast is available here.]

Voting is perhaps the most fundamental act of democratic citizenship. In a democracy, our political leaders receive their mandate, and the system itself derives its legitimacy, from the people who elect them. In the United States, however, the right to vote has never been extended universally. Although the franchise has expanded to include many more citizens since 1776, these gains have come haltingly and unevenly. Even as women gained suffrage, African Americans were kept from the polls in many parts of the country for decades. And elected officials have long meddled with district boundaries to choose their constituents, rather than the other way around.

This month, hosts Lauren Henry and Eric Michael Rhodes speak with two experts on voter disenfranchisement in the United States—Professors Daniel P. Tokaji and Pippa Holloway—to consider the past and present of voting rights. How does historical voter suppression continue to affect electoral outcomes today? Listen in to find out.

To learn more about the history of voting, check out these Origins features: A History of Stolen Citizenship; Re-mapping American Politics: The Redistricting Revolution Fifty Years Later

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-Posted July 2019

[A transcript of this podcast is available here.]

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (a.k.a.AMLO) rode to the presidency in 2018 by promising Mexico "juntos haremos historia" ("together we will make history"). Pundits have fallen over themselves trying to categorize AMLO, refering to him variously as Mexico's Jeremy Corbyn and Mexico's Donald Trump. AMLO's keen sense of his country's history has found expression in his promise to inaugurate the country's "fourth transformation." In doing so, he has positioned himself squarely in the pantheon of Mexican reformers. The phrase is a reference to the march of Mexican politics towards social democracy (after independence in 1810, the liberal reforms of the 1850s, and the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s).

This month, hosts Lauren Henry and Eric Michael Rhodes speak with two experts on 20th century Mexican history—Drs. Elena Jackson Albarrán and Reyna Esquivel-King—to consider what exactly such a transformation might look like. From AMLO's strategic deployment of history to corruption and the politics of Mexico's "Other Border," we explore in this episode the historical context and contemporary ramifications of Mexico's 2018 election.

To learn more about modern Mexican history, check out these Origins features: Shifting Borders: The Many Sides of U.S.-Mexican Relations; Mexico and the Memory of 1968;A Postcard From Oaxaca, Mexico; A Postcard from Mexico City.

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Posted July 2019

[A transcript of this podcast is available here.]

After more than four years of war, Yemen teeters on the brink of what the European Union has described as “the world's largest humanitarian crisis.” Conservative estimates count at least 10,000 civilian deaths in the ongoing conflict, with millions more threatened by disease and famine. Yet for many in the West, Yemen remains a forgotten war, despite the fact that the Saudi-backed forces fighting the northern Houthi rebels continue to deploy weapons produced in the United States and in Europe with devastating effect.

This month, History Talk explores the current conflict in Yemen and its historical antecedents with two experts on the region: Dr. Asher Orkaby and Dr. Austin Knuppe. We examine the conflict in its multiple facets – a civil war between regional parties, an anti-terrorism campaign, and a proxy war between regional foes: it’s all three – to better understand why peace remains so elusive.

To learn more about the War in Yemen, read this month's feature article, Yemen: A Civil War Centuries in the Making, by Dr Asher Orkaby. For more coverage of the Middle East, be sure to check out The Secular Roots of a Religious Divide in Contemporary Iraq, Alawites and the Fate of Syria, and Syria's Islamic Movement and the 2011-12 Uprising.

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Posted April 2019

[A transcript of this podcast is available here.]

On June 23rd, 2016, 52% of voters in the United Kingdom stunned the British political and media establishment—and the entire world—by voting to leave the European Union. Nearly three years, later, however, the final outcome of Brexit remains uncertain. And issues that affect the lives of millions hang in the balance, from the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and Britons living in the EU, to the status of the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

In this month’s History Talk, we speak with Professors Laura Beers and Ian Sheldon to better understand the roots and consequences of Brexit. How has the relationship between Britain and the European continent changed? What were the political and economic forces that compelled the UK to join the EU in the first place? What made so many Britons eager to leave? We'll explore these questions, and more, during our conversation about this fast-changing situation.

For more on the United Kingdom and the European Union, check out European Disunion: The Rise and Fall of a Post-War Dream?, Treating the Symptoms: Northern Ireland’s Incomplete Peace, and The EU: Past, Present, and Future.

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Posted March 2019

[A transcript of this podcast is available here.]

Over the last two decades, the Catholic Church has been buffeted by a series of sexual abuse scandals. High-profile investigative reports have uncovered cases of sexual abuse of minors, both boys and girls, as well as nuns and adult women, by Catholic priests, bishops, and members of religious orders. But while clerical abuse has only recently become a news item, it has a much longer history.

This month, your History Talk podcast hosts Lauren Henry and Eric Michael Rhodes speak with two experts on the Church — Professors Wietse de Boer and Alexander Stille.  What makes the Catholic Church such a rife environment for sexual abuse? How do these scandals reflect the history of the Church? How has the Church responded to this problem, and how might the scandal shape its future? In this episode, we’ll seek to answer these questions and more in an exploration of the historical context and contemporary ramifications of the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church.

To learn more about the history of the Catholic Church and clerical abuse, read this month's feature, The Catholic Church and Sexual Abuse, Then and Now by Dr. Wietse de Boer. Interested in more coverage of the Church? Be sure to check out The People's Pope and the Changing Face of Catholicism and Two Popes and a Primate: The Changing Face of Global Christianity.

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Posted February 2019

[A transcript of this podcast is available here.]

In November 2018, a report commissioned by French President Emannuel Macron called for artifacts taken to France during the heyday of European imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to be returned to Africa, sending shockwaves throughout the museum world. “I cannot accept,” said Macron, “that a large part of the cultural heritage of several African countries is in France.” The expropriation of material culture has proven controversial in a variety of contexts, from the acquisition of Native American remains by American museums to the complicated provenance of Greek and Roman antiquities held by such major art institutions as the Getty Villa in Los Angeles and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In fact, debates about the rightful ownership of conquered cultural artifacts are almost as old as imperial conquest itself, as evidenced by Cicero’s 70 BCE denunciation of the Roman plundering of Greek temples in conquered Sicily.

This month, your History Talk podcast hosts Lauren Henry and Eric Michael Rhodes speak with two experts in material culture and museum studies — Professor Sarah Van Beurden and Origins editor Steven Conn — about how cultural heritage repatriation debates have played out differently around the world, as well as what these debates reveal about the very nature of cultural heritage itself.

To learn more about museums and cultural heritage, check out Putting Race on Display: The National Civil Rights Museum, A Postcard from Warsaw, Poland: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and China Dreams and the “Road to Revival” For more information about the history of Congo and Central Africa, check out Dr. Van Beurden's Origins article, A New Congo Crisis?.

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Posted January 2019

[A transcript of this podcast is available here.]

In the West, many think of HIV/AIDS  as a phenomenon that began in the 1980s, when news first broke of a mysterious and highly deadly disease. In reality, however, the history of HIV/AIDS stretches back more than a hundred years, and has been shaped by some of the most important trends of the 20th century: from European colonialism in Africa, to the proxy conflicts fought between allies of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, to the globalization and economic neoliberalism that transformed the global economy in the late twentieth century. On this episode of History Talk, hosts Eric Michael Rhodes and Lauren Henry speak with three experts — Thomas F. McDow, Kathy Lancaster, and Jesse Kwiek— about the origins, spread, and future of HIV/AIDS in both the United States and around the world.

For more Origins coverage of HIV/AIDS and other related topics, check out Thomas F. McDow's feature Origins article A Century of HIV, as well as A New Congo Crisis?, Searching for Wakanda: The African Roots of the Black Panther Story and The Soccer World Goes to South Africa: Sport and the Making of Modern Africa.

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Posted December 2018