Versus History Podcast

“Empathy in history is a noble but ultimately unobtainable endeavour.” How far do you agree with this statement?

This is the very question answered by one of the joint winners of the inaugural Versus History Essay Prize (#VHEssayPrize). In this episode of the Versus History Podcast, we enjoy an audio-long read from joint prize winner Anoushka Sood of St Albans High School For Girls. This is followed by analysis from the VH Editorial Team, who were blown away by the research, reflection and epistemological insight shown by Anoushka in her essay.

The Versus History Editors - Conal, Elliott and Patrick - would like to acknowledge the quite sublime support given to Anoushka and other students by the History Department at St Albans High School For Girls led by the Head of History. We also celebrate the support that families, parents, carers and friends give to students of history, such as Anoushka.

Bravo to Anoushka and all the other entrants to the Versus History Essay Prize 2023! Look out for the 2024 iteration!

For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com

In this episode, we interview author Max Leonard about his new book.

A Cold Spell: A Human History of Ice by Max Leonard This book is the story of humanity through the lens of ice – our interactions with ice, our need for it, and what it means for us that it is rapidly disappearing from our planet. Max takes us from the beginning of our story to the modern day, tracing the ways ice has influenced our development, our economies, our social customs and our lives. Exposing the commonalities between an opulently frozen mummy, Winston Churchill’s plans for inventive aircraft carriers and mountaineering, it’s bound to change how you think about the world around you. ‘In a bracingly original book, Max Leonard makes something we all take for granted into an absorbing pathway into history, geography and science … A highly readable feast of insights and surprises- Michael Palin ‘A wonderful history of ingenuity, wanderlust, preservation and exploitation. Max Leonard has written an original chronicle of human nature, and you’ll skate through it with enduringinsight and pleasure.’ - Simon Garfield

For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com

'A History degree isn't worth the paper it is printed on.' To what extent is this statement valid?

This is the very question that provided the response for one of the joint winners of the inaugural Versus History Essay Prize (#VHEssayPrize). In this episode of the Versus History Podcast, we enjoy an audio-long read from joint prize winner Neave Rees of King Edward VI High School For Girls in Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK. This is followed by analysis from the VH Editorial Team, who were blown away by the research, reflection and epistemological insight shown by Neave in her essay.

The Versus History Editors - Conal, Elliott and Patrick - would like to acknowledge the quite sublime support given to Neave and other students by the History Department at King Edward VI High School For Girls, led by the Head of History, N. Haines. We also celebrate the support that families, parents, carers and friends give to students of history, such as Neave.

Bravo to Neave and all the other entrants to the Versus History Essay Prize 2023! Look out for the 2024 iteration!

For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com

This week on the @Versus History Podcast, we welcome back historian Charles Freeman to discuss his new book 'Children of Athena'. 

Charles Freeman presents a compelling and fascinating portrait of the continuing intellectual tradition of Greek writers and thinkers in the Age of Rome. In 146 BC, Greece yielded to the military might of the Roman Republic; sixty years later, when Athens and other Greek city-states rebelled against Rome, the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla destroyed the city of Socrates and Plato, laying waste to the famous Academy where Aristotle had studied. However, the traditions of Greek cultural life would continue to flourish during the centuries of Roman rule that followed, in the lives and work of a distinguished array of philosophers, doctors, scientists, geographers, travellers and theologians. Charles Freeman's accounts of such luminaries as the physician Galen, the geographer Ptolemy and the philosopher Plotinus are interwoven with contextual 'interludes' that showcase a sequence of unjustly neglected and richly influential lives. Like the author's The Awakening, The Children of Athena is a cultural history on an epic scale: the story of a rich and vibrant tradition of Greek intellectual inquiry across a period of more than five hundred years, from the second century BC to the start of the fifth century AD.

“Charles Freeman has done it again – amassed a vast body of knowledge on a major subject and infused it with historical understanding and humane wit” Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge “The Awakening is a remarkable work of scholarship by esteemed historian Charles Freeman... The book is a fine production, adorned with coloured images of frescos and ancient manuscripts.” Irish Times “Freeman is a good host, a superb narrator and tells his story with aplomb... His elegant prose is a treat for the mind and the accompanying illuminations a treat for the eye.” International Times “A work of serious scholarship by an author who has clearly been everywhere, seen everything and read voraciously. But it is also a work written with great elan and, given its scope, undertaken with considerable courage.” Christopher Lloyd, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, 1988–2005

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AD.60 and Brittania is in chaos. Boudica has had a taste of victory against the formidable veterans

in Camulodunum and she won’t stop now. How will Roman heroes Macro and Cato fare against

the notorious Queen of the Britons?

A quick response to the rapidly advancing rebel forces, Governor Suetonius takes command leading

his army to the besieged Londinium with prefect Cato and a mounted escort in tow.

The grim reality of Britannia slipping deeper into chaos and hysteria becomes unmistakable as tribal

warriors continue to swell the ranks of Boudica’s forces. Both Cato and Suetonius confront the

sobering truth that minimal preparations have been made to confront a full-scale insurrection.

Meanwhile, in Londinium, a heart-wrenching revelation unfolds. Centurion Macro is among those

missing following the Camulodunum massacre. Has Cato's loyal comrade, who has faced countless

battles, met his ultimate challenge? As disaster looms, Cato readies himself for the next strategic

move. Can he dare to hope that Macro, marked by battle and unflinching courage, has managed to

evade these bloodthirsty rebels?

In this pivotal military campaign, Cato knows that only one man he trusts stands beside him, and the

fate of the Empire in Britannia hangs in the balance.

About the author of 'Rebellion': Born in Nigeria and educated in the UK, Scarrow's multicultural background has enriched his storytelling, allowing him to bring historical eras to life with a unique perspective.

Simon Scarrow is a Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author who has spent his life travelling the world

and telling stories and he now lives in Mauritius with his wife. His books have sold over 5 million

copies and include his Eagles of the Empire novels featuring Roman soldiers Macro and Cato, most

recently DEATH TO THE EMPEROR, THE HONOUR OF ROME, THE EMPEROR'S EXILE and TRAITORS OF

ROME, as well as DEAD OF NIGHT and BLACKOUT, the first two novels in the Criminal Inspector

Schenke thriller series, and many more. 12 of his Eagles of the Empire novels have been Sunday

Times bestsellers and REBELLION marks no.22 of Simon’s Eagles of the Empire Novels.

For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com

In this episode of the Versus History Podcast, we interview Historian Kenneth W. Harl, author of the brand new book Empires of the Steppes: The Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization. This book is an epic and enthralling narrative history of how Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and the so-called 'barbarians of the steppes' shaped the modern world. The barbarian nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. These nomadic tribes have produced some of the world’s greatest conquerors: Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, among others. And, as Kenneth Harl illustrates in this glorious work of narrative history, their deeds still resonate today. Indeed, these nomads built long-lasting empires, facilitated the first global trade of the Silk Road and disseminated religions, technology, knowledge and goods of every description that enriched and changed the lives of so many across Europe, China and the Middle East. From a single region emerged a great many peoples – the Huns, the Mongols, the Magyars, the Turks, the Xiongnu, the Scythians, the Goths – all of whom went on to profoundly and irrevocably shape the modern world. Professor Kenneth Harl draws on a lifetime of scholarship to vividly recreate the lives and world of these often-forgotten peoples from their beginnings to the early modern age. Their brutal struggle to survive on the steppes bred a resilient, pragmatic people ever ready to learn from their more advanced neighbours. In warfare, they dominated the battlefield for over fifteen hundred years. Under charismatic rulers, they could topple empires and win their own.

For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.comFor the Guardian review, please click here.For the book, please click here.For Kenneth’s professional profile, please click here.

In this episode of the Versus History Podcast, we interview Dr. Ambrogio A. Caiani about his new book.

Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World is the untold story of the fascinating and complex history of the Roman Catholic Church in the modern age. In the first book of its kind, Dr. Ambrogio A. Caiani unravels the enthralling and horrifying history of one of the world’s most powerful, controversial, and defiantly archaic institutions. The ambitious and authoritative work sees Caiani masterfully narrate the Church's journey through an array of challenges posed by modernity in all its forms. From the emergence of representative democracy and the nation-state to the advancements of science, literature, and secular culture, the book offers a gripping account of the Church's struggle to adapt and endure. Covering a number of critical periods in the Church's history, Caiani begins with the aftermath of the French Revolution and the democratic rebellions of 1848 and follows the Church's unique evolution that sees three popes being forced out of Rome, the secular power of papacy being destroyed, a disastrous series of concordats with fascist states in the 1930s, and the Church’s retreat into a fortress of unreason. As Catholicism lost its temporal power it made huge spiritual strides expanding across the globe and gaining new converts in America, Africa and the Far East; losing a kingdom but gaining the world.

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To check out the book, please click here.

In this episode of the podcast, we interview historian and author Jacob Bloomfield. His new book Drag: A British History is a groundbreaking study of the sustained popularity and changing forms of male drag performance in modern Britain. With this book, Jacob Bloomfield provides fresh perspectives on drag and recovers previously neglected episodes in the history of the art form.

Despite its transgressive associations, drag has persisted as an intrinsic, and common, part of British popular culture—drag artists have consistently asserted themselves as some of the most renowned and significant entertainers of their day. As Bloomfield demonstrates, drag was also at the center of public discussions around gender and sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Victorian sex scandals to the "permissive society" of the 1960s. This compelling new history demythologizes drag, stressing its ordinariness while affirming its important place in British cultural heritage.

For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com

Our Co-Editor Elliott is currently walking Hadrain's Wall, from the west coast of England to the east! In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with him as he finds a spot with mobile signal to fill us in on his adventures thus far! #VersusHistory

The epic story of the imperial rivalry between two of the greatest empires of the ancient world – Parthian and Persian – and how they rose and eventually fell.

The Roman empire shaped the culture of the western world against which all other great powers are compared. Stretching from the north of Britain to the Sahara, and from the Atlantic coast to the Euphrates, it imposed peace and prosperity on an unprecedented scale.

However, the exception lay in the east, where the Parthian and then Persian empires ruled over great cities and the trade routes to mysterious lands beyond. This was the place Alexander the Great had swept through, creating a dream of glory and conquest which tantalised Greeks and Romans alike. Caesar, Mark Antony and a long succession of emperors longed to follow in Alexander's footsteps. All failed. Only here did the Roman empire slow down and eventually stop, unable to go any further.

Following seven centuries of conflict that, ultimately, neither Rome nor Persia would win, The Eagle and the Lion delves into the clash, context and journeys of these entities of great power and the people caught in their wider struggle.

Adrian Goldsworthy has a doctorate from Oxford University. His first book, THE ROMAN ARMY AT WAR was recognised by John Keegan as an exceptionally impressive work, original in treatment and impressive in style. He has gone on to write several other books, including THE FALL OF THE WEST, CAESAR, IN THE NAME OF ROME, CANNAE and ROMAN WARFARE, which have sold more than a quarter of a million copies and been translated into more than a dozen languages. A full-time author, he regularly contributes to TV documentaries on Roman themes.