Making of a Historian

Another view of British empire and capitalism: it's finance, stupid!

I this episode we explore how war and peace affected the creation of the modern financial system from around 1700-1800. In only twelve minutes. I left a lot of stuff out. Guess we'll need to come back to this later?

I tell you the secret THEY don't want you to know: WHO'S TAKING OUR JOBS! (It's machines.)

We're going to talk about the 19th century economy over the next few weeks. It was in the 19th century that you get something like a global economy. Why? Today we take a quick look at how factories, finance and the firm knit the world together, only to collapse with the start of the First World War. Books: The Cambridge History of Capitalism The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Revolution and Age of Capital and Age of Empire Richard Grossman, Unsettled Account Thomas McGraw, ed., Creating Modern Capitalism

I have a meeting with my advisor today, so I scrambled to make some kind of synthesis of all the readings I've done on the Victorian family and home. I find three big themes. Number three will shock you! (Probably not.) Reading list: Cambridge Economic History of Britain Cambridge Social History of Britain Deborah Cohen, Household Gods (2010) Hugh Cunningham, Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500 (2005) John Gillis, A World of Their Own Making (1997) Ruth Goodman, How To Be A Victorian (2014) Judith Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight (1992)

This is one of those podcasts you record and then say to yourself: I can't believe I forgot to talk about dildos.

Put another log on the fire, get your blankets, and clutch your cup of hot chocolate for dear life, on this episode we're going to see how the coziness of the Victorian home was based on the daily backbreaking work of women.

In this episode we look at the world of international trade by dipping into a few global commodities. You'll learn where IPA comes from! Also, why tapioca is one of the most important plants in the world.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was hard for everyone to get enough to eat. We talk a bit about hunger, and how it hit the poor, women, and the colonies hardest.

In this episode, I wonder what makes the Victorians seem so fussy.

In this EXTRA SLEEPY EPISODE we talk 19th century childhood: Christmas, child labor, and the cult of the family.

In this episode, we figure out how Mount Everest got its name, and why it was very hard to do a census of India.

In this episode I talk a little bit about the rise of the counted world in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. We touch on the census, on the General Records Office, and the feud over whether Paris or London had more suicides. More information at historian.live.

Welcome to Making of a Historian, a podcast chronicling one graduate student's quest to study for his comprehensive exams. In this episode, I explain what the comprehensive exams are, and why they freak graduate students out.