Antonio Curet, archaeologist and curator at the Museum of the American Indian, in Washington, DC, talks with us about the Taíno civilization of the Greater Antilles. (99min)

Please leave us your thoughts and questions in the discussion thread in the subreddit, which can be found here.

Dan Howlett discusses the Salem Witch Trials and his approach to them using social network analysis. While the focus of the episode is on a digital humanities approach to historical research, the episode also covers the underlying social and political tensions, as well as the general atmosphere of paranoia, in the Salem area at the time. (36min)

In part two of a two-part series on the European Armoring Industry, WARitter joins us to discuss just exactly how the knights in shining armor got their shining armor. Wrapping up from a discussion of how exactly metal ore was transformed into armor, WARitter takes us onwards through a whirlwind tour of the history of the guilds, peoples and places that made up the armoring industry, and how armoring eventually declined and fell. (58m)

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© 2019 Brian M. Watson

In part one of a two-part series on the European Armoring Industry, WARitter joins us to discuss just exactly how the knights in shining armor got their shining armor. The first half of this two part series explores the techniques and the strategies from turning raw ore into beautiful armor, and how some of these techniques shifted over time. Next episode will bring an hour-plus long discussion on the entire arc of the armoring industry history—and the families, cities, and people that built it. (35m)

For further discussion, come visit us at AskHistorians here.

© 2019 Brian M. Watson

We explore the life and legacy of the Classical Greek general, Iphikrates with AskHistorians user Iphikrates. Famous for his use of light troops and for military reforms related to those troops, we trace the surviving evidence of Iphikrate's life and career to investigate the timing, scope, and even existence of those reforms. Along the way, the conversation touches upon the Athenian socio-political system of the time, the non-hoplite parts of Greek warfare, and a tantalizing connection between Iphikrates and Alexander the Great. (71min)

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Snapshot52 joins us to discuss the concept of cultural genocide in the context of the US government’s American Indian policy. In particular, we look at the creation and evolution of obligatory boarding schools for American Indian children. (75 min).

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Andres Pertierra joins us to discuss the interactions between Cuba and the United States starting in the Colonial Era and extending through the mid-20th Century with the Batista regime. Along the way we discuss Americans changing their names to fit in, the plantation economy, the problem of slavery, American shipping concerns, and the tensions between independence and annexation. (85min).

AnnalsPornographie discusses morality and immorality in late 16th and 17th Century England, as urbanization, population increase, and a growing middle class combined to form new approaches to controlling the morality of society. We discuss the debauchery of the court of Charles II, the moral backlash of the Glorious Revolution, and finally delve deep into the workings of the Society for the Reformation of Manners before reflecting on more modern debates over obscenity. (63min)

The conversation with CptBuck continues as we move south from Anatolia and the new state of Turkey into the regions of Mesopotamia, Syria, and the Levant. The politics and conflicts which led to the borders and formation of the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Israel/Palestine are all discussed, as well as a quick digression into Egypt. We end with a discussion on whether the borders of these nations predestined them for future conflicts. (60mins)

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CptBuck gives us the first of two episodes looking at WW1 in the Middle East, discussing the political intrigue and wrangling between the Ottomans, British, French, and Russians, among others. This episode focuses primarily on the Turkish area of the Ottoman Empire, and the various plans hatched both before and after Armistice to divvy up the Ottoman state. Along the way we talk about the Sykes-Picot, the Young Turks, the Greco-Turkish War, and Lawrence of Arabia. (59min)

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