THE POUNDS, SHILLINGS, AND SIXPENCE OF THE PAST, DRAGGED KICKING AND SCREAMING INTO THE PRESENT.

Welcome to a Bar Stool Historian time travel road trip, as we visit the bucolic fictional village of Crittling Stubbs-On-Skirdenback about 600 years ago. What transpired was a full-fledged live game show where contestants guess the price of everyday medieval objects in modern-day dollars: Pretium Iustum Est! (Google-translate that title here!)

How we got here is really due to Ed having a little too much time on his hands: a couple months ago, Ed discovered a list of medieval prices compiled by a then-grad student (now professor) named Kenneth Hodges had pieced together by consulting medieval literature. These prices ranged from the cost of a ceramic cooking pot to the Transept of Gloucester Abbey in 1370, and everything else in-between.  Ed then decided to take these wildly varying prices and dates and plug them into website that compares the value of English money from the past to present day using both the Consumer Price Index and the Value of Labor. He then converted that to 2013 dollars. The result is a pretty nifty spreadsheet that you can download here.

Finally, the answer to whether or not you can afford to hire a Welsh infantryman for the day!

SCORING BLAME-WORTHINESS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Wild accusations and historical libel get hurled around in this installment of Bar Stool Historian!  With the help of the Blame-O-Meter, an advanced piece of technology sent from the future, we assign blame through history.  In doing so we discover:

• How “history’s greatest monster” ruined sweaters
• Why no one can write a proper letter.
• Perfectionists are terrible.
• The dark secret of Ed’s ancestry!

...and much, much more!

STUFF TO GAPE AT

Click for more info and a better look at some of the historical characters covered in this episode.

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STUFF TO READ

• The Guardian (UK): "Robespierre was 'riddled with maladies' at time of his execution"
• Smithsonian Channel: "King Tut's Final Mystery"
• The Telegraph (UK): "Scientists recreate (less ugly) face of Dante"

STUFF TO DRINK

Ravaged by Vikings

Arrogant Bastard Ale

PUTTING 17TH CENTURY PICK-UP LINES TO THE TEST

Inspired by a post in one of our favorite sites, Ask the Past, we tapped into the treasure trove that is John Gough's 1684 book, The Academy of Complements (see below for its full, glorious title), and tried out some his suggestions for complimenting ladies on our unsuspecting spouses.

With the censor's bleep button at the ready, we recorded their actual unfiltered responses for your amusement.  We hope you appreciate this special Valentine's Day mini-episode, with the knowledge that we've been forced to sleep on the couch all week for your sake.

STUFF TO READ

Ask the Past - askthepast.blogspot.com

Advice from Old Books. (Warning: please use your best judgement in following these recommendations. Rubbing the oil from a boiled green lizard into your hair may not actually make it long and black.)

The Academy of Complements, Wherin Ladies, Gentlewomen, Schollers, and Strangers, May Accommodate Their Courtly Practice with Gentile Ceremonies, Complemental, Amorous, High Expressions, and Forms of Speaking, Or Writing of Letters Most in Fashion (1684) by John Gough

Leopold I and Margarita Teresa. Holy Roman Emperor & Empress. Husband and Wife. First Cousins. Uncle and Niece! (Ewww...) Genetic time bomb.

Kids love their rancid butter!

Themes, schmemes! In this “news n’ reviews” episode, we’re delivering an hour-long grab bag of historical curios, grotesqueries, and dubious culinary delights....

• Thrill to the sound of 90 year-old Confederate veterans sounding the old rebel yell.

• Get a case of positional vertigo from tracing the zig-zagging family tree of those ever-handsome Royal Habsburgs!

• Let your mouth water at the idea of eating medieval butter dug up from bogs.

• Cry into your beer glass to the haunting melody of an ancient Greek lament.

• Nod in silent approval of the early reviews of Bleak House by Charles Dickens (aka, Ed’s mortal enemy).

All this, plus commentary from Tim on how fears of rising China might just be a 1990s throwback, in Episode 3: In-Bred and Bog-Buttered.

THIS EPISODE'S RECOMMENDATIONS

Support the show! Follow the links to buy on Amazon!

STUFF TO WATCH

STUFF TO READ

Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe

By Simon Winder

Buy on Amazon

The Spectator Magazine Archives

5 Things from History You Can Try Right Now (cracked.com)

Albrecht Durer's illustration of a syphilitic man in a 1496 broadsheet.

Diseases that changed the course of history.

After weeks of Ebola dominating the headlines, we thought it appropriate to look at some of history's most civilization-altering diseases. John spins a yarn about how wild fornication in the streets of Naples just might have foiled a French king's plans to launch a crusade to the Holy Land in 1495. Tim tells the nightmarish tale of when the "Grandaddy of all Diseases" arrived in Europe, and explains the medicinal value of chickens. Finally, Ed recounts how Napoleon's 500,000 troops couldn't manage to conquer Russia (hint: it wasn't just the cold!), and gives a new meaning to "bad hair day."

THIS EPISODE'S RECOMMENDATIONS

Support the podcast! Follow the links to buy on Amazon.

STUFF TO READ

In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made

By Norman F. Cantor

Buy on Amazon

STUFF TO DRINK

The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army

By Stephan Talty

Buy on Amazon

Brooklyn Brewery's East India Pale Ale

Midas Touch from Dogfish Head's Ancient Ales Collection

Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch Whisky

Marking World War I's centennial with a classic book.

John, Tim, and Ed travel back in time to the fateful days of 1914, with the help of Barbara Tuchman's masterful The Guns of August.  How well does this book fare a half-century after its publication? Does it retain the power to surprise (or even shock) the modern reader? What lessons can we apply to our own times? And why does the very mention of Erich Ludendorff make Tim burst out in song? For the answers to these and other burning questions, pour yourself a glass of Bell's Mars, Bringer of War and listen in!

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A wee bit angry north of the wall, huh?

Great Scot, there's more! We also discuss the historical context of the recent Scottish Independence Referendum. Is the "Yes" movement Occupy Wall Street crossed with Braveheart? 

Plus, we share some of the books, films, and miscellaneous history-themed media that's caught our attention recently.

THIS EPISODE'S RECOMMENDATIONS

Support the podcast! Follow the links to buy on Amazon.

Stuff to Read

The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I

By Barbara W. Tuchman

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

By Laura Hillenbrand

The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England

By Dan Jones

All Quiet on the Western Front

By Erich Maria Remarque

Stuff to Watch

Fall of Eagles

Starring Michael Hordern, Charles Kay, Barry Foster, Gayle Hunnicutt, Laurence Naismith

 

Stuff to Drink

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Part of Bell's seven beer tribute to Gustav Holst's seven-movement orchestral suite. Double IPA. 10.1% (oof!)

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