Thanks for checking out Hour of History: Cities Podcast. This week is the final episode in the Cities that Supplied the World and the last Cities Podcast episode for a little while. Hour of History will continue regularly on Saturdays. If you are looking for more cities, why don't you check out previous Cities Episodes?

Our next city is in Peru. What started as the consumption of an Andean shrub that made its consumers feel better, turned into Cocaine, widely consumed in the Western world. Huanaco has a long history, it goes back to the 16th century and the conquistadors. Yet, it never grew into a city like Manaus because of the way coca was traded. Find out more on HoH Cities.

City 6: Huanaco - Coca

The Andes, home to the coca leaf and our episode.

https://youtu.be/s5eZLQYzs9s

Beverages like coca-cola and Mariani wine mixed coca and beverages. Look! Even the Pope liked it!

Making the past something in which we can participate in is a result of the work and career of Dr. Lillian Guerra, our guest on Hour of History this week. Guerra is currently a history professor at the University of Florida and author of the recently released Heroes, Martyrs, and Political Messiahs in Revolutionary Cuba, 1946-1958. If you are curious about teaching history, learning history, Cuba, or a good story check out this episode. And, as always, recommendations made in this episode are here.

Some Highlights: 

Discussion of Guerra's work on Cuba

Cuban History

Puerto Rico and the Caribbean

How a war in Afghanistan changed life in Kansas

Growing up Cuban in the United States

Journalists not asking the right questions

Why simple history doesn't work

Making history successful and appealing in the classroom

Weekly Suggestions:

Lillian - David Blight - Race and Reunion

Steven - London School of Economics Public Lectures

https://youtu.be/wNPhQHBXRjo

 

We are back to Brazil, Manaus to be precise, and we are burning up some rubber. The tears of trees becomes the perfect example of a commodity and a city that rose and fell with the great waves of capitalism. From Rubber Barons to tortuous working conditions, rubber was at the bottom of it. Check out our new episode on HoH Cities.

City 5: Manaus - Rubber

The brutal enslavement of the indigenous population, was common for commodities that cities were built on. Over 30,000 people died cultivating rubber in the Amazon.

Meanwhile, Rubber Barons lived in extravagant wealth in the cities built on rubber

https://youtu.be/XYVic624HyE

 

This episode comes to you from Hour of History's hometown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I talk to Andrea Siotto about the ups and downs of being an historian. If you are interested in history, research, or pursuing a PhD this episode is for you!

Some Highlights:

The Imperial War Museum

London

Havana

Money

How to research

Amateur historians

Professional historians

Why we love our jobs

How we stay sane

Weekly Suggestions:

Steven - The Internet Archive

Andrea - In This Corner of the World

Imperial War Museum

https://youtu.be/yt1R10S7pcE

Our next city is a city of birds. They are the Chincha Islands, 13 miles southwest of Peru. And although they are full of Guano, they are no dump. Rather, it was the fertilizer created on these islands that supplied the world with food. From North America to Europe, the Chincha Islands provided.

City 4: Chincha Island - Guano

https://youtu.be/YqKNCFRy8oI

 

This episode comes to you from HoH studios with Menika Dirkson to talk about dictators in the Americas. Most of our discussion centers on the island of Hispanola and the two nations Haiti and Dominican Republic. We also talk about how such an important piece of history is often missed in schools, despite the fact that it was a genocide that cost thousands of people their lives.

Some Highlights:

Haitian history

Slavery

Empire

Vodun

Genocide

Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier

Dictatorship in Haiti

Rafael Trujillo and the Dominican Republic

How Dictators solidify power

Presidente Beer

Donald Trump

Violence

Weekly Suggestions:

Menika: Papa Doc Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers - James Ferguson

In the time of the Butterflies

Steven: La Piloto  ** In the episode La Piloto is incorrectly referred to as a Mexican series. It is actually an American series produced by Univision set in Mexico. 

 

https://youtu.be/WV9UxOOICmI

Our next city comes from the state of Bahia in northeast Brazil. It is Ilheus, and it grew around the global coco or cacao trade. This week we talk about cacao and how people in Europe went wild for Chocolate once a Swiss scientist mixed the stuff with chocolate. Go crazy for coco in this HoH Cities episode.

City 3: Ilheus - Cacao

https://youtu.be/fFaopAyi8Vo

 

This week Chris Fite joins us. Chris is a Ph.D.  student in History and Sociology of Science. He is pursuing Graduate Certificate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. His current research explores the history of botany and gardening in the early modern world. Chris previously worked in museums and archives, including positions at McKissick Museum and the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library.

In this episode we talk about:

Plants

The Production of Knowledge

Medieval Societies of Education

Folk History

The importance of paying attention to knowledge outside of the academy

Madrakes

Faces on Roots

Harry Potter

Weekly Suggestions:

Steven - Birds and Beans Coffee - Drink delicious coffee grown in a way to help birds maintain their natural environment

Mathias - Arts and Letters Daily - A weekly newsletter from across the humanities. Stay informed with the best of all of the humanities

Chris - a bunch of great books! Check out:

 

Source: MS LJS 46, fol. 15r. Kislak Center, University of Pennsylvania

Source: MS LJS 419, Kislak Center, University of Pennsylvania

https://youtu.be/q0oWb4iFTFY

Further Reading from Chris Fite:

Mukharji, Projit Bihari. “Vishalyakarani as Eupatorium Ayapana: Retro-Botanizing, Embedded Traditions, and Multiple Historicities of Plants in Colonial Bengal, 1890-1940.” Journal of Asian Studies 73, no. 1 (February 2014): 65–87.

Osseo-Asare, Abena Dove. Bitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.

Shapin, Steven, and Simon Schaffer. Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Wall, Wendy. Recipes for Thought: Knowledge and Taste in the Early Modern English Kitchen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.

UPENN's excellent Herb Tumblr

Our next city could be any one from the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Perhaps it is San Jose, Cartago or Heredia. This week we talk about coffee, and all of these cities were central to geographic production.

City 2: San Jose - Coffee

Agronomist Carlos Mario Rodriguez visits with neighborhood farmers to talk about donated seeds and the future of sustainable coffee near Hacienda Alsacia, Starbuck's coffee farm in Costa Rica on February 27, 2018.

People tour the Starbucks Coffee Farm, Hacienda Alsacia, located in Costa Rica.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://youtu.be/Gpb6FI5XM_I

This week Travis Roy and Mathias join me to talk about nature, animal rights, and the United States westward expansion. Travis is a PhD Candidate at Temple University who studies United States Environmental History, prairie dogs, and all kinds of other interesting things.

If you are interested in animal rights, American history, hunting, environmental history, or just a good chat join us on this episode of Hour of History.

In this episode we talk about:

Lewis and Clark

Thomas Jefferson

Theodore Roosevelt

Prairie Dogs

Disney Movies

Explorers

Birds and Manatees

Our weekly recommendations:

Travis - J.R. McNeil's Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean 1620-1914

Mathias - George Vernadsky's A History of Russia and the Mission Impossible films

Steven - The Sinica Podcast

https://youtu.be/hygOb2HoKD0