Tides of History

By Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Society & Culture History

What's Tides of History about?

Everywhere around us are echoes of the past. Those echoes define the boundaries of states and countries, how we pray and how we fight. They determine what money we spend and how we earn it at work, what language we speak and how we raise our children. From Wondery, host Patrick Wyman, PhD (“Fall Of Rome”) helps us understand our world and how it got to be the way it is.

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Was the Protestant Reformat...

11.14.2019

Was history destined to happen as it did? That's what counterfactuals - alternative scenarios of how things might have gone - are useful for answering. In this episode, we apply them to the Protestant Reformation, one of the key processes ...

Tides of History episodes:

11.14.2019 Was the Protestant Reformation Inevitable? Was history destined to happen as it did? That's what counterfactuals - alternative scenarios of how things might have gone - are useful for answering. In this episode, we apply them to the Protestant Reformation, one of the key processes ...
11.07.2019 Medieval Merchants The medieval economy underwent a profound transformation, becoming ever more commercialized and monetized. Merchants helped drive that change, moving goods from place to place and profiting on the returns. Today, we meet some of them: an Italian named Francesco Datini, ...
10.31.2019 Persecution, Toleration, and the Rise of Modernity: An Interview with Historian Mark Koyama Religious freedom is a core value of the modern West, but how did it emerge, and why does it matter? Economic historian Mark Koyama, of George Mason University, joins me to discuss his recent book (co-authored with Noel Johnson), Persecution ...
10.29.2019 Introducing The City: Reno The City, USA Today’s critically acclaimed investigative podcast, is back with Season 2. This time, it shines a spotlight on Reno as the city transforms into an offshoot of Silicon Valley. Who decides what kind of city Reno becomes? What ...
10.17.2019 The Commercial Revolution The roots of the modern economy, based on markets, money, and exchange, lie deep in the Middle Ages. The Commercial Revolution remade the European economy, paving the way for the explosive growth that followed centuries later. Support this show by ...
10.10.2019 The Venetian Empire Venice was a commercial hub, the hinge of the medieval economy, but it was also the center of a remarkable empire that spanned the sea lanes and trade routes of the Mediterranean. The Venetian Empire was an odd beast, beset ...
10.03.2019 The Crusades: An Interview with Dan Jones, Part 2 Here's the rest of our conversation with historian and bestselling author Dan Jones. In Part 1, which you should absolutely listen to if you haven't already, we covered the Crusades in general; this time out, we discuss some of Dan's ...
09.19.2019 Why Rome Never Rose Again: An Interview with Professor Walter Scheidel Alone among the world's regions, western Europe only had one major, long-lived imperial experience: that of Rome. When it fell, nothing like it ever returned again. According to Stanford's Professor Walter Scheidel, that fact had enormous consequences for the long-term ...
09.12.2019 We Join Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie's Guild (And You Should, Too!) When it comes to medieval and early modern economic history it is important to understand guilds, how they functioned, and their effects on society. Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie joins me to talk about guilds and her most recent book, The European ...
09.05.2019 The Crusades: An Interview with Dan Jones The Crusades defined the Middle Ages and left a long legacy behind them. We chat with Dan Jones, author of the upcoming book Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Land, about why this long series of ...
08.29.2019 The Rise of Printing and the Invention of News: An Interview with Professor Andrew Pettegree There’s an interesting history when it comes to books, printing, and the Reformation, all tied together through new technology and business. Professor Andrew Pettegree joins me to talk about all of this and more, as well as his new book, ...
08.15.2019 The Origins and Rise of Venice A swampy lagoon on the Adriatic coast of Italy was not a promising place for a city, but Venice grew from a collection of huts on spits of land to a glittering center of commerce and the heart of a ...
08.08.2019 Boxing, Race, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Professor Louis Moore Boxing has a long past, one deeply connected to race, labor, and broader developments in American history. Professor Louis Moore joins me to talk about those topics and about his outstanding book, I Fight For a Living: Boxing and the ...
08.01.2019 The Experience of the Italian Wars The Italian Wars changed the face of Europe, but what was it like living through them? Today, we follow the lives of two composite characters to see both how war changed and how it affected the people who participated in ...
07.25.2019 Book Club: Summer Reading Planning a summer vacation and looking for something fun to read? Patrick and Leah have you covered with a few suggestions.
07.18.2019 The Italian Wars, Part 2 In our second episode on the Italian Wars, we explore how Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's vast territories ratcheted up the conflict from a dynastic squabble to a continent-spanning contest of great powers.
07.11.2019 Walls throughout History: An Interview with Professor David Frye What creates civilization, in the most basic sense? According to Professor David Frye, who joins me this week, it's walls - Hadrian's Wall, the Great Wall of China, city walls, and thousands more over the millennia. Support this show by ...
07.04.2019 The Italian Wars, Part 1 The Italian Wars were the defining conflict of the sixteenth century, bridging the gap between the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Today, we explore their origins in medieval dynastic infighting and their opening stages, as King Charles VIII ...
06.27.2019 Minisode: Military Revolutions It's a concept! It's a feeling! It's... been a long time since we talked about it. We're throwing it back to 2017 and tracing the evolution of war in the 15th and 16th centuries.
06.20.2019 Why Bother with the Seventeenth Century? An Interview with Professor Keith Pluymers Friend of the show Keith Pluymers returned for a great chat about fuel, environmental history, and why the seventeenth century is worth studying. You can listen to the back catalog of Tides of History, completely ad-free, only on Stitcher Premium. ...
06.13.2019 Condottieri: War for Profit in Renaissance Italy In Renaissance Italy, war was simultaneously art, science, and big business, waged for profit and glory by hired contractors known as condottieri. Today, we follow one condottiere as he makes his way through the dangerous world of mercenary warfare in ...
06.06.2019 Machiavelli's Laboratory: The Politics of Renaissance Italy Renaissance Italy was a political minefield, where backstabbing dukes, ambitious republics, and disloyal mercenaries created a laboratory for political innovation. This environment produced professional armies, the roots of state finance, and modern diplomacy, a legacy Italy left for the rest ...
05.30.2019 Classic Tides: Life in Renaissance Florence We're revisiting an episode of Tides of History we originally released in January 2018. Pay close attention, we're going to be spending a LOT of time in Italy this summer. What was it like to have a front-row seat to ...
05.23.2019 Minisode: Banking We catch up a bit more on Jakob Fugger's personality - or lack thereof - along with some of the other important south German trading firms of the age, the development of the Antwerp financial market, and the connection between ...
05.16.2019 Jakob Fugger: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived? At the end of the fifteenth century, the center of European banking suddenly swung from its birthplace in Italy to south Germany. The key figure in that transition was Jakob Fugger of Augsburg, maybe the richest man who ever lived. ...
05.09.2019 The Rise and Fall of the Medici Bank The Medici name still carries echoes of power and labyrinthine politics. But the Medici got their start as bankers, and built a financial empire that spanned fifteenth-century Europe. Popes, kings, and merchants all did business with the Medici, and the ...
05.02.2019 The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Stanford's Professor Richard White The Civil War and its decades-long aftermath continue to define American life well into the twenty-first century. Today we chat with Stanford's Professor Richard White, author of The Republic For Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the ...
04.25.2019 Minisode: Messianic Rulers and Military Revolutions in Spain Let's chat about some of the other interesting things Patrick discovered in his research for this month's episodes: messianic rulership and military revolutions in the Spain of Isabella and Ferdinand.
04.18.2019 The Spanish Inquisition, the Expulsion of the Jews, and the Rise of Spain Queen Isabella of Castile was one of the great state-building monarchs of the later Middle Ages, but state-building had a dark side: the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews, and the beginnings of a decades-long war that would consume ...
04.11.2019 Queen Isabella of Spain and the End of the Reconquista Queen Isabella of Castile was the greatest of the state-building rulers of the late Middle Ages. During her rule, she sent Columbus to America, married Ferdinand of Aragon to launch modern Spain, and finished the centuries-long Reconquista, ending centuries of ...
04.04.2019 Historical Fiction and the Wars of the Roses: An Interview with Philippa Gregory We talked to bestselling novelist Philippa Gregory about her views of history and historical fiction, and her perspective on the Wars of the Roses, where she has spent many years. You can listen to the back catalog of Tides of ...
03.21.2019 1492: A Guided Tour of Europe on the Brink 1492 was a big year, and not just because a certain Genoese navigator set sail into the unknown. Europe was on the cusp of enormous changes. Follow along as we travel all across the continent and get a feel for ...
03.14.2019 Who Was Christopher Columbus? With Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto 1492 was a truly wild year, and there is no one better to talk about it with than one of Patrick's favorite historians, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of many excellent books on Columbus and exploration. You can listen to the back ...
03.07.2019 Civil Servants, State Finance, and the Rising State States didn't pull themselves up by their bootstraps, driven solely by the will of indomitable rulers; instead, they benefited from the services of a class of highly educated and dedicated civil servants. They administered finance and justice and executed the ...
02.21.2019 The Troubled Inheritance of Mary of Burgundy and Dynastic Consolidation When Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, met the business end of a Swiss halberd in 1477, his 19-year-old daughter Mary was set to inherit all of his vast possessions. But her position was precarious, surrounded by rapacious neighbors and ...
02.14.2019 The Rise and Fall of Burgundy The Valois dukes of Burgundy were kings in all but name. Originally a branch of the French royal family, they fought for control of the French crown, accumulated vast lands, and nearly carved out a kingdom for themselves in the ...
02.07.2019 Game of Thrones and Late Medieval Politics Surprise: Patrick loves Game of Thrones. Bigger surprise: GoT is actually a pretty accurate portrayal of late medieval politics - except for the dragons. Patrick's friend Albro Lundy, a very funny and smart TV writer, joins us to talk about ...
01.24.2019 Civil Wars and Political Breakdowns in Late Medieval Europe The Wars of the Roses are infamous, but practically every European kingdom, not just England, was wracked by serious bouts of infighting in the second half of the 15th century. In a time period known for the growth of state ...
01.17.2019 The Wars of the Roses, II By 1461, the Wars of the Roses had already claimed thousands of lives and shaken England's political system to its foundations. The bloodiest battle ever fought in England would soon follow, along with decades more of instability and periodic crisis. ...
01.10.2019 The Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses brought what had once been Europe’s most stable and well-governed kingdom to its knees. Weakness at the center, in the form of the useless King Henry VI, reverberated outwards throughout the political system. Could England ...
12.20.2018 The Reformation, Live from Boston Leah and I had the opportunity to give a public talk at the Sound Education Conference at Harvard. We talked about the Reformation, why it matters, and how historians think about it today. Support this show by supporting our sponsors! ...
12.13.2018 Archaeology Rules with Raksha Dave! YES we're talking to THAT Raksha Dave, the one from Time Team, Patrick and Leah's favorite show! She tells us about her future digs, all the cool stuff she's done since Time Team, how she became an archaeologist, and why ...
12.06.2018 Vlad the Impaler and the Legend of Dracula Medieval politics, full of assassinations and betrayal, was not for the faint of heart. But even within that landscape, one man stands out for his cruelty: Vlad the Impaler, prince of Wallachia, the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Count Dracula. This ...
11.29.2018 George Washington and the End of the Revolution: An Interview with Author Nathaniel Philbrick Nathaniel Philbrick - one of Patrick's favorite authors of popular history - stopped by to chat about his latest book, In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown. The bestselling author filled us in ...
11.15.2018 Beer, Brewsters, and Women's Work: An Interview with Judith Bennett Professor Judith Bennett joined Patrick to talk about the difference between ale and beer, and how work - and women's work in particular - changed over time. Check out Judith's Books! A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, c. 1295-1344 ...
11.08.2018 The Fall of Constantinople and the Tragic End of the Byzantines In 1453, after more than 60 years of trying, the Ottomans finally besieged and captured the city of Constantinople. This marked the end of one phase of Ottoman expansion and the beginning of another as the dominant power of the ...
11.01.2018 Holy War and the Rise of the Ottomans The Ottoman Empire rose from humble beginnings in Anatolia to dominate a vast swathe of territory. Holy war, gaza, was a powerful driving force behind that expansion. At the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, Ottoman holy war clashed directly with ...
10.18.2018 Archaeology and Why It Rules Archaeology shows up all the time on Tides of History, and it's one of Patrick's favorite topics. Leah joins to chat about what it can tell us, how it works, and why it's so dang cool.
10.11.2018 Heresy, Witch Hunts, and Inquisition The dark side of the late medieval Church was its emphasis on control and conformity. A concept of orthodoxy produced a conception of unacceptable difference, which manifested itself in hunts for heretics, witches, and the institution of the Inquisition. The ...
10.04.2018 The Trials and Tribulations of the Late Medieval Church The late Middle Ages were a time of upheaval for the universal Church, caught between the glories and overwhelming power of the High Middle Ages and the crisis of the Protestant Reformation. Support this show by supporting our sponsors! Don't ...

Older episodes

Tides of History

What's Tides of History about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Tides of History episodes:

Was the Protestant Reformation Inevitable?

Medieval Merchants

Persecution, Toleration, and the Rise of Modernity: An Interview with Historian Mark Koyama

Introducing The City: Reno

The Commercial Revolution

The Venetian Empire

The Crusades: An Interview with Dan Jones, Part 2

Why Rome Never Rose Again: An Interview with Professor Walter Scheidel

We Join Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie's Guild (And You Should, Too!)

The Crusades: An Interview with Dan Jones

The Rise of Printing and the Invention of News: An Interview with Professor Andrew Pettegree

The Origins and Rise of Venice

Boxing, Race, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Professor Louis Moore

The Experience of the Italian Wars

Book Club: Summer Reading

The Italian Wars, Part 2

Walls throughout History: An Interview with Professor David Frye

The Italian Wars, Part 1

Minisode: Military Revolutions

Why Bother with the Seventeenth Century? An Interview with Professor Keith Pluymers

Condottieri: War for Profit in Renaissance Italy

Machiavelli's Laboratory: The Politics of Renaissance Italy

Classic Tides: Life in Renaissance Florence

Minisode: Banking

Jakob Fugger: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived?

The Rise and Fall of the Medici Bank

The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Stanford's Professor Richard White

Minisode: Messianic Rulers and Military Revolutions in Spain

The Spanish Inquisition, the Expulsion of the Jews, and the Rise of Spain

Queen Isabella of Spain and the End of the Reconquista

Historical Fiction and the Wars of the Roses: An Interview with Philippa Gregory

1492: A Guided Tour of Europe on the Brink

Who Was Christopher Columbus? With Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Civil Servants, State Finance, and the Rising State

The Troubled Inheritance of Mary of Burgundy and Dynastic Consolidation

The Rise and Fall of Burgundy

Game of Thrones and Late Medieval Politics

Civil Wars and Political Breakdowns in Late Medieval Europe

The Wars of the Roses, II

The Wars of the Roses

The Reformation, Live from Boston

Archaeology Rules with Raksha Dave!

Vlad the Impaler and the Legend of Dracula

George Washington and the End of the Revolution: An Interview with Author Nathaniel Philbrick

Beer, Brewsters, and Women's Work: An Interview with Judith Bennett

The Fall of Constantinople and the Tragic End of the Byzantines

Holy War and the Rise of the Ottomans

Archaeology and Why It Rules

Heresy, Witch Hunts, and Inquisition

The Trials and Tribulations of the Late Medieval Church

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