Podcasts about microhistories

Our librarians are back and this time Gregg Winsor brought a couple friends along—librarians Caitlin Perkins and Wendy Gish—to talk in-depth about their favorite weird and wild science books! "Microhistories" are a genre of nonfiction books dedicated to a deep-dive on one particular topic, like snails, psychedelics, or communication amongst trees.    Our recommendations: Charles' Choice: American Serengeti by Dan Flores Dave's Double feature: streaming video from Kanopy. Super Size Me: The Fast-Food Industry in America. and NOVA Universe Revealed: Milky Way. Weird and Wild Science Recommendations

This week on The Book Drop we share what's making us happy right now, revisit the OPL Reading Challenge with our recommendations for microhistories and talk about our favorite useless facts for query of the week. Check out the OPL events calendar for these upcoming events:The Book Drop Live: 100th Episode | September 15, 2022, 2 – 3:30 PM Omaha Reads Book Discussion | Sep 8th, 6pm - 7:30pm at Wilson & WashburnTimothy Schaffert Author Visit | Sep 11th,  3pm - 5pm at Kimpton Cottonwood Hotel Omaha Reads Virtual Book Discussion | Sep 20th, 12pm - 1pm Omaha Reads Book Discussion | Sep 24th, 10am - 11am at Millard BranchOmaha's Underground Queer Culture: An Omaha Reads Panel Discussion | October 1, 6-7pm at The MaxAll the books, movies, TV shows and resources we talk about in this episode can be found here.

After an elderly woman was discovered brutally murdered in her upscale Glasgow apartment, police charged a 38 year-old Jewish-German immigrant with her murder. The arrest sparked a century-long battle for justice and was championed by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle.Sources:"The Case of Oscar Slater." National Records of Scotland. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/features/the-case-of-oscar-slater"Correspondence of Oscar Slater, the Jewish Prisoner Championed by Arthur Conan Doyle." Carpe Librum Books. https://www.carpelibrumbooks.com/correspondence-of-oscar-slater-the-jewish-prisoner-championed-by-arthur-conan-doyleDoyle, Arthur Conan.The True Crime Files of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Berkley Prime Crime: New York, 2001.) https://archive.org/details/truecrimefilesof0000doylThe Case of Oscar Slater (Hodder & Stoughton: New York, 1912.)Fox, Margalit. Conan Doyle for the Defense: How Sherlock Holmes' Creator Turned Real-Life Detective to Free a Man Wrongly Imprisoned for Murder (Random House: New York, 2018.)"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Case of the Wrongfully Imprisoned Man." Medium. 21 June, 2018. https://medium.com/s/story/sir-arthur-conan-doyle-and-the-case-of-the-wrongfully-imprisoned-man-dc5eb26b0331Hunt, Peter. Oscar Slater: The Great Suspect (Carroll & Nicholson: London, 1951.)Kilday, Anne-Marie. "‘Circumstances of Unexplained Savagery': The Gilchrist MurderCase and Its Legacy, 1908–1927." Fair and Unfair Trials in the British Isles, 1800–1940:Microhistories of Justice and Injustice. Ed. David Nash and Anne-Marie Kilday. London:Bloomsbury academic, 2020. 137–175. Bloomsbury Collections. 21 Jan. 2022. .McPherson, Hamish. "The Oscar Slater Frame-Up: How a Murder Trial Changed Scots Law." The National. 10 October, 2017. https://www.thenational.scot/news/15585823.the-oscar-slater-frame-up-how-a-murder-trial-changed-scots-law/Roughead, William. The Trial of Oscar Slater (William Hodge & Company: Glasgow, 1915.)Toughill, Thomas. Oscar Slater: The Mystery Solved (Canongate Books Ltd., 1994). Whittington-Egan, Richard. The Oscar Slater Murder Story: New Light on a Classic Miscarriage of Justice (Neil Wilson Publishing, 2011.)Music: Dellasera by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.comFor more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

Brea and Mallory talk about how we're all using the word microhistory incorrectly and how that's just fine. And they celebrate the release of Mallory's new book GIRLY DRINKS and give some advice on sharing a book with your significant other. Email us at readingglassespodcast at gmail dot com!Reading Glasses MerchRecommendations StoreSponsors -Better Help Links -Reading Glasses Facebook GroupReading Glasses Goodreads GroupAmazon Wish ListNewsletterLibro.fmGirly Drinks by Mallory!The Study in Oklahoma CityReading Glasses Readthon!11/149-5 PTBooks Mentioned - Why We Swim by Bonnie TsuiThe Peculiar Incident on Shady StreetWhy Fish Don't Exist by Lulu MillerFour Lost Cities by Annalee NewitzRude Talk in Athens by Mark Haskell Smith 

In this episode Tami, Taryn, and Rob read 3 different ‘micro-histories’ and geeked out on the idea of what ‘Micro-histories’ are and how much they love them. This is a terrific episode for everyone who likes to take a deep dive every now and then! What is the definition of a Micro-history? Mono-histories Seattle Public Library Article on Mono histories  Deep Dives A History on any single person, place, event, or object. Looking at the world through that one 'thing' and how it influences the world.  Wikipedia Definition: Microhistory is a genre of history that focuses on small units of research, such as an event, community, individual or a settlement. In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar as microhistory aspires to "[ask] large questions in small places", according to the definition given by Charles Joyner.[1] It is closely associated with social and cultural history. Books We Read For This Episode Cheddar: A Journey to the Heart of America's Most Iconic Cheese by Gordon Edgar Stiff by Mary Roach The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything by Ruth Goodman    Books Mentioned The Cheese and The Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller by Carlo Ginzburg Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell American Cheese by Joe Berkowitz  Milk by Mark Kurlansky Grunt by Mary Roach  Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation by Mark Kurlansky Time for Things: Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption by Dr. Stephen D. Rosenberg   Sites Mentioned Tillamook Creamery Olympia Brewing Company - Olympia beer was discontinued in Jan 2021 Cabot Cheese Jasper Hill Farm Cheese  Quickes Cheddar, Exeter England Westminster Dog Show    Media Mentioned Raiders of the Lost Ark    What Micro-History Would You Like To Write Rob - The Domestication of Pets and Looking specifically at Dogs Taryn - Harvey House Restaurants (along the Santa Fe Railroad) Tami - History of State Fair Food (Food)

This is the EIGTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is CARROTS - nothing quite says Christmas like carrots (we like ours with olive oil/butter, cumin seeds and honey). Yum! We are so used to Christmas of over-indulgence, extravagance and all the trimmings (maybe not this year!), but it was not always thus! During the World Wars with rationing imposed and the supply lines of the British Empire greatly reduced, such luxury Christmas treats were a pipe dream, and more humble ingredients had to be used. The carrot in particular, was much lauded as a versatile and plentiful foodstuff, so much so that during the Second World War a recipe booklet was produced with instructions for thrifty carrot-based dishes, including carrot soups, carrot savoury, carried croquettes, and what was known as a ‘War-and-Peace pudding’. An alternative to Christmas pudding this was made with carrots instead of mincemeat. First made in Canada during the Great War, it consisted of flour, breadcrumbs, suet, grated raw potato and carrot to bulk out the mixed dried fruit and spice – and note the lack of fortified spirits. So popular was this that many never went back to eating the richer, more exotic, variety. Who knew! Carrots are also all about medicine in the ancient and medieval world - you will never think of the humble carrot quite the same again - and they're also all about colour, Afghanistan, Albrecht Dürer and Pliny. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the EIGTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is CARROTS - nothing quite says Christmas like carrots (we like ours with olive oil/butter, cumin seeds and honey). Yum! We are so used to Christmas of over-indulgence, extravagance and all the trimmings (maybe not this year!), but it was not always thus! During the World Wars with rationing imposed and the supply lines of the British Empire greatly reduced, such luxury Christmas treats were a pipe dream, and more humble ingredients had to be used. The carrot in particular, was much lauded as a versatile and plentiful foodstuff, so much so that during the Second World War a recipe booklet was produced with instructions for thrifty carrot-based dishes, including carrot soups, carrot savoury, carried croquettes, and what was known as a ‘War-and-Peace pudding’. An alternative to Christmas pudding this was made with carrots instead of mincemeat. First made in Canada during the Great War, it consisted of flour, breadcrumbs, suet, grated raw potato and carrot to bulk out the mixed dried fruit and spice – and note the lack of fortified spirits. So popular was this that many never went back to eating the richer, more exotic, variety. Who knew! Carrots are also all about medicine in the ancient and medieval world - you will never think of the humble carrot quite the same again - and they're also all about colour, Afghanistan, Albrecht Dürer and Pliny. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the SEVENTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is OBSCENITY - nothing quite says Christmas like obscenity! Christmas was a time for subversion during the High Middle Ages and Renaissance when snowmen were regularly built as winter effigies. During the cold winter of 1510-11 the citizens of Brussels built around 110 individual snowmen around the city, depicting in snow folklore figures such unicorns and mermaids, religious and political themes, as well extreme sexual and even scatalogical imagery. One of the more sexualised sculptures could be found in Rozendal, the red light district of the city, which depicted a prostitute completely naked, with breasts and genitalia sculpted to attract attention, and a ‘dog...ensconced between her legs’. Of the more scatalogical, was a snow-cow that delivered ‘turds, farts and stinking’; a defecating centaur; a ‘manneken pis’ fountain depicting a small boy urinating into the mouth of a drinker; and finally a drunk drowning in his own excrement. These are a far cry from the ‘jolly happy soul’ that we know from the Frosty the Snowman song of 1950. Who knew! Obscenity is also all about name-calling on the streets in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Devon (especially in Bradninch!) and of course it's also all about puritanical attitudes in nineteenth-century America! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the SEVENTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is OBSCENITY - nothing quite says Christmas like obscenity! Christmas was a time for subversion during the High Middle Ages and Renaissance when snowmen were regularly built as winter effigies. During the cold winter of 1510-11 the citizens of Brussels built around 110 individual snowmen around the city, depicting in snow folklore figures such unicorns and mermaids, religious and political themes, as well extreme sexual and even scatalogical imagery. One of the more sexualised sculptures could be found in Rozendal, the red light district of the city, which depicted a prostitute completely naked, with breasts and genitalia sculpted to attract attention, and a ‘dog...ensconced between her legs’. Of the more scatalogical, was a snow-cow that delivered ‘turds, farts and stinking’; a defecating centaur; a ‘manneken pis’ fountain depicting a small boy urinating into the mouth of a drinker; and finally a drunk drowning in his own excrement. These are a far cry from the ‘jolly happy soul’ that we know from the Frosty the Snowman song of 1950. Who knew! Obscenity is also all about name-calling on the streets in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Devon (especially in Bradninch!) and of course it's also all about puritanical attitudes in nineteenth-century America! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the SIXTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is RIOTS - nothing quite says Christmas like riots! Riots are also of course all about!Christmas has often been about violence and rioting as much as it has sharing and caring. It is well known that Oliver Cromwell and puritans sought to abolish Christmas, which they viewed as a ‘Popish superstition’. One ordinance was passed by Parliament in June 1647 which threatened with punishment anyone who celebrated this festival. This ban did not go down well in all quarters, and in December 1647 many of the citizens of Canterbury defied it, taking to the streets to riot. The pamphlet Canterbury’s Christmas: Or A True Relation of the Insurrection in Canterbury on Christmas Last describes how shops that stayed open on this holy day were ransacked, the mayor, aldermen and constables attacked, and the sheriff knocked down, his head ‘fearfully broke, it was gods mercy his brains were not beat out’. In another example, this one in America in 1776 at the start of the American Revolutionary War, the rebel militia guarding the maritime route to Canada Fort Ticonderoga was a simmering pot of class and cultural rivalry exacerbated by cold and boredom. The extra alcohol of Christmas day saw it erupt into shocking violence as the soldiers turned on each other like hungry dogs. A recently-discovered personal account noted how Pennsylvania soldiers ‘armed with guns, bayonets and swords, [who] by force entered the tents and huts of [Massachusetts] officers and soldiers, dragging many out of doors naked and wounding them, robbing and plundering.’ Riots are also all about Mrs Thatcher (milk snatcher) and the infamous Poll Tax Riots of 1990, and of course they're also all about British rule in India, resentment, methods of protest and resistance, loyalty and servitude. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the SIXTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is RIOTS - nothing quite says Christmas like riots! Riots are also of course all about!Christmas has often been about violence and rioting as much as it has sharing and caring. It is well known that Oliver Cromwell and puritans sought to abolish Christmas, which they viewed as a ‘Popish superstition’. One ordinance was passed by Parliament in June 1647 which threatened with punishment anyone who celebrated this festival. This ban did not go down well in all quarters, and in December 1647 many of the citizens of Canterbury defied it, taking to the streets to riot. The pamphlet Canterbury’s Christmas: Or A True Relation of the Insurrection in Canterbury on Christmas Last describes how shops that stayed open on this holy day were ransacked, the mayor, aldermen and constables attacked, and the sheriff knocked down, his head ‘fearfully broke, it was gods mercy his brains were not beat out’. In another example, this one in America in 1776 at the start of the American Revolutionary War, the rebel militia guarding the maritime route to Canada Fort Ticonderoga was a simmering pot of class and cultural rivalry exacerbated by cold and boredom. The extra alcohol of Christmas day saw it erupt into shocking violence as the soldiers turned on each other like hungry dogs. A recently-discovered personal account noted how Pennsylvania soldiers ‘armed with guns, bayonets and swords, [who] by force entered the tents and huts of [Massachusetts] officers and soldiers, dragging many out of doors naked and wounding them, robbing and plundering.’ Riots are also all about Mrs Thatcher (milk snatcher) and the infamous Poll Tax Riots of 1990, and of course they're also all about British rule in India, resentment, methods of protest and resistance, loyalty and servitude. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the FIFTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is SPITE - nothing quite says Christmas like spite! Now you’re probably all thinking about sending Christmas cards or are in the middle of doing so. If you are you may just want to take note of the following. The custom of exchanging greetings cards during the festive season was a Victorian invention, with the first commercial card produced in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. From the 1870s onwards, the introduction of the halfpenny stamp made postage much more affordable, which boosted the popularity of sending cards for ordinary people. Many examples of nineteenth-century Christmas cards survive in collections of Victorian scrapbooks held in libraries around the country. Among the cheerful Yuletide messages many of which were distinctly secular, a number took on a more sinister spiteful note. Examples include an image of a dead robin, a child boiled in a teapot, a clown sneaking up on a policeman to assault him, grizzly looking snowmen and nothing quite says Merry Christmas as does a depiction of frog murder! Who knew! Spite is of course also all about poisoned pens letters throughout the ages, as well as Jack the Ripper, Victorian London and his female victims, Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the FIFTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is SPITE - nothing quite says Christmas like spite! Now you’re probably all thinking about sending Christmas cards or are in the middle of doing so. If you are you may just want to take note of the following. The custom of exchanging greetings cards during the festive season was a Victorian invention, with the first commercial card produced in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. From the 1870s onwards, the introduction of the halfpenny stamp made postage much more affordable, which boosted the popularity of sending cards for ordinary people. Many examples of nineteenth-century Christmas cards survive in collections of Victorian scrapbooks held in libraries around the country. Among the cheerful Yuletide messages many of which were distinctly secular, a number took on a more sinister spiteful note. Examples include an image of a dead robin, a child boiled in a teapot, a clown sneaking up on a policeman to assault him, grizzly looking snowmen and nothing quite says Merry Christmas as does a depiction of frog murder! Who knew! Spite is of course also all about poisoned pens letters throughout the ages, as well as Jack the Ripper, Victorian London and his female victims, Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the FOURTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is LUCKY FINDS - nothing quite says Christmas like serendipity! You may all be becoming slightly chimney obsessed as we are nearing the festive season - decorating fireplaces, hanging stockings - and we have talked in our microhistory episodes on Evil and shoes - about how chimneys are a way into the houses for evil beings but they are also remarkable historical archives: they often contain artefacts and documents that have been bricked in or lodged up the flu. Serendipity in this way has left us with one of the most interesting types of letters to be discovered in chimneys: children’s letters to Father Christmas. For historians, they are a joy. ‘I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee’ wrote the breathless Alfred or Hannah Howard in October 1911 before placing their letter in the fire. It started to burn before being picked up by a draft and whisked to safety on a tiny shelf inside the chimney of their house in Dublin. 81 years later it as discovered by a couple renovating their house. Such letters are magical because, not only do they record a list of material objects, but a child’s hopes and, sometimes, their fears. The lesson of all of this is never to take your chimney for granted: take a look inside – you just never know what you might find Who knew! Lucky finds are also of course all about the discovered of a long-lost John Donne poetry manuscript, and coins found while weeding in the garden dating from the age of HenryVIII carrying the initials of three of his wives, as well as rare finds of the Bible! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the FOURTH of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is LUCKY FINDS - nothing quite says Christmas like serendipity! You may all be becoming slightly chimney obsessed as we are nearing the festive season - decorating fireplaces, hanging stockings - and we have talked in our microhistory episodes on Evil and shoes - about how chimneys are a way into the houses for evil beings but they are also remarkable historical archives: they often contain artefacts and documents that have been bricked in or lodged up the flu. Serendipity in this way has left us with one of the most interesting types of letters to be discovered in chimneys: children’s letters to Father Christmas. For historians, they are a joy. ‘I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee’ wrote the breathless Alfred or Hannah Howard in October 1911 before placing their letter in the fire. It started to burn before being picked up by a draft and whisked to safety on a tiny shelf inside the chimney of their house in Dublin. 81 years later it as discovered by a couple renovating their house. Such letters are magical because, not only do they record a list of material objects, but a child’s hopes and, sometimes, their fears. The lesson of all of this is never to take your chimney for granted: take a look inside – you just never know what you might find Who knew! Lucky finds are also of course all about the discovered of a long-lost John Donne poetry manuscript, and coins found while weeding in the garden dating from the age of HenryVIII carrying the initials of three of his wives, as well as rare finds of the Bible! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the THIRD of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is SHOES - nothing quite says Christmas like shoes! - Shoes were not simply a noxious deterrent for evil sprites at Christmas time, but a precursor to the now customary stockings as receptacles for yuletide gifts. Earlier depictions of St Nicholas associate him with dropping gold coins down the chimney, which in sixteenth-century Holland similarly led to the tradition of children placing their shoes on the hearth on the eve of the Feast of St Nicholas, awaking in the morning to find them filled with present and sweets. In Italian folklore an old woman named Befana (sometimes referred to as the ‘Christmas Witch’) delivered gifts to children on the eve of Epiphany (6 January) slipping them into shoes left by the fireplace. These earlier chimney-related European traditions no doubt passed into usage in the US through patterns of migration: the spread of Christmas traditions is of course intimately linked with the spread of people around the globe.! Who knew! Shoes are of course all about the politics of sneakers, via the brilliant Public Enemy's 'politics of the sneaker pimps' track on their album He Got Game, and of course it's all about the French Revolution and the banishment of high heels! Who knew! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the SECOND of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is EVIL - nothing quite says Christmas, as evil! - which is all about chimneys, European Folklore, Kallikantzaroi or Christmas Goblins, as well as witch bottles and the reign of Alexander III of Russia! Who knew! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the FIRST of our special Christmas-themed micro-histories in which we will embrace the task of demonstrating how an unexpected subject not only has a history but is massively important and interesting - in just 15 minutes! We will start with a shared example and then have just five minutes each to make a case for an interesting history on that very unexpected subject. Contributions will be rigorously timed and you - dear listeners - will get to vote on SM on what YOU think was the most interesting fact you heard today.Today’s topic is BAD LUCK - nothing quite says Christmas, as bad luck! - which is all about robins on Christmas cards, unlucky holly, passing a light between houses, childhood superstitions and the gold rush in America during the nineteenth century! Who knew! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Three librarians from the Glenview Public Library discuss books on a theme.

A microhistory investigates one small thing – an object, event or person – and explores its significance in a broader historical context. This week, staff at Maple Ridge Public Library share a few of their favourite microhistory books. These fascinating titles cover topics as diverse as cadavers, curry, redheads and home life.

Elif recounts how she has been adapting to her new life by balancing her inward and outward looking self. She and Paul speak about the importance of authors and intellectuals narrating micro histories in literature. Shafak was born in Strasbourg, France, and raised in Turkey. Elif takes her responsibility as an author to write about the pandemic and share stories that might help us all have a better cognitive understanding of the present moment.   “Books should have a constant presence in our lives”  - Elif shares her views on the importance of reading across disciplines, across territories, fiction, non - fiction, in order to help us make more informed and thoughtful decisions about the world. Elif has written 17 books, 11 of which are novels, including the Booker-nominated 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World. Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and an advocate for women's rights, LGBT rights and freedom of speech.  www.elifshafak.com 

On today's episode, Jill and Adam dish out some recommendations for the first of the Professional Book Nerds 2020 Reading Challenge... Microhistories! Books mentioned in this episode: Timekeepers by Simon Garfield The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck Tree by David Suzuki & Wayne Grady Bourbon Empire by Reid Mitenbuler Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson Drink by Iain Gately Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker The Way We Never Were by Stephanie Coontz Semicolon by Cecelia Watson Milk! by Mark Kurlansky   Donate to our Leukemia & Lymphoma Society pages and help us find a cure for blood cancer! Jill – https://pages.lls.org/mwoy/noh/cle20/jgrunenwal Adam – https://pages.lls.org/mwoy/noh/cle20/adamico

Microhistories are an important method of investigating an historical moment with a fine-grain focus that can puncture holes in the generalizations that historians sometimes make. In her new book, Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriet Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louis Rebecca McCord (University of South Carolina Press, 2019), Candace L. Bailey uses a close reading of the music owned and performed by three prominent women in antebellum Charleston to demonstrate the varied experiences and perspectives of figures who also had much in common. All three women were sophisticated, well-traveled, and moved in the highest social circles of the planter class in Charleston. Yet, each woman had unique educational backgrounds, upbringings, and musical choices. They all experienced the Civil War and its aftermath quite differently. Rather than confining herself simply to an analysis of the musical repertoire each woman owned, Bailey examines the scores with the attention often reserved for Medieval manuscripts to discern the implications of the publishers, source of the scores, and the handwritten markings left by her subjects as they learned the music. She thoroughly contextualizes the collections within the time period, the milieu of upper-class Southern women, the history of Charleston, and, most importantly, the lives of the three women as evidenced by other documents they and those in their circle left behind. In doing so, Bailey reminds us that we must balance studying sweeping historical trends with the lived experiences of individuals. Candace Bailey is a Professor of Music at North Carolina Central University. She began her career studying seventeenth-century British keyboard music, but in the last decade has devoted much of her research time to the role of music among middle- and upper-class women in the Southern United States during the nineteenth century. Charleston Belles Abroad is her third book, and she has published articles in many journals including the Journal for the Society for American Music, Music & Letters, and the Journal for Musicological Research. In 2015, she received a National Endowment for the Humanities Award for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She will be a Fellow of the National Humanities Center for the 2019–2020 academic year. Kristen M. Turner, Ph.D. is a lecturer at North Carolina State University in the music department. Her work centers on American musical culture at the turn of the twentieth century and has been published in several journals and essay collections.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microhistories are an important method of investigating an historical moment with a fine-grain focus that can puncture holes in the generalizations that historians sometimes make. In her new book, Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriet Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louis Rebecca McCord (University of South Carolina Press, 2019), Candace L. Bailey uses a close reading of the music owned and performed by three prominent women in antebellum Charleston to demonstrate the varied experiences and perspectives of figures who also had much in common. All three women were sophisticated, well-traveled, and moved in the highest social circles of the planter class in Charleston. Yet, each woman had unique educational backgrounds, upbringings, and musical choices. They all experienced the Civil War and its aftermath quite differently. Rather than confining herself simply to an analysis of the musical repertoire each woman owned, Bailey examines the scores with the attention often reserved for Medieval manuscripts to discern the implications of the publishers, source of the scores, and the handwritten markings left by her subjects as they learned the music. She thoroughly contextualizes the collections within the time period, the milieu of upper-class Southern women, the history of Charleston, and, most importantly, the lives of the three women as evidenced by other documents they and those in their circle left behind. In doing so, Bailey reminds us that we must balance studying sweeping historical trends with the lived experiences of individuals. Candace Bailey is a Professor of Music at North Carolina Central University. She began her career studying seventeenth-century British keyboard music, but in the last decade has devoted much of her research time to the role of music among middle- and upper-class women in the Southern United States during the nineteenth century. Charleston Belles Abroad is her third book, and she has published articles in many journals including the Journal for the Society for American Music, Music & Letters, and the Journal for Musicological Research. In 2015, she received a National Endowment for the Humanities Award for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She will be a Fellow of the National Humanities Center for the 2019–2020 academic year. Kristen M. Turner, Ph.D. is a lecturer at North Carolina State University in the music department. Her work centers on American musical culture at the turn of the twentieth century and has been published in several journals and essay collections.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microhistories are an important method of investigating an historical moment with a fine-grain focus that can puncture holes in the generalizations that historians sometimes make. In her new book, Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriet Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louis Rebecca McCord (University of South Carolina Press, 2019), Candace L. Bailey uses a close reading of the music owned and performed by three prominent women in antebellum Charleston to demonstrate the varied experiences and perspectives of figures who also had much in common. All three women were sophisticated, well-traveled, and moved in the highest social circles of the planter class in Charleston. Yet, each woman had unique educational backgrounds, upbringings, and musical choices. They all experienced the Civil War and its aftermath quite differently. Rather than confining herself simply to an analysis of the musical repertoire each woman owned, Bailey examines the scores with the attention often reserved for Medieval manuscripts to discern the implications of the publishers, source of the scores, and the handwritten markings left by her subjects as they learned the music. She thoroughly contextualizes the collections within the time period, the milieu of upper-class Southern women, the history of Charleston, and, most importantly, the lives of the three women as evidenced by other documents they and those in their circle left behind. In doing so, Bailey reminds us that we must balance studying sweeping historical trends with the lived experiences of individuals. Candace Bailey is a Professor of Music at North Carolina Central University. She began her career studying seventeenth-century British keyboard music, but in the last decade has devoted much of her research time to the role of music among middle- and upper-class women in the Southern United States during the nineteenth century. Charleston Belles Abroad is her third book, and she has published articles in many journals including the Journal for the Society for American Music, Music & Letters, and the Journal for Musicological Research. In 2015, she received a National Endowment for the Humanities Award for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She will be a Fellow of the National Humanities Center for the 2019–2020 academic year. Kristen M. Turner, Ph.D. is a lecturer at North Carolina State University in the music department. Her work centers on American musical culture at the turn of the twentieth century and has been published in several journals and essay collections.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microhistories are an important method of investigating an historical moment with a fine-grain focus that can puncture holes in the generalizations that historians sometimes make. In her new book, Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriet Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louis Rebecca McCord (University of South Carolina Press, 2019), Candace L. Bailey uses a close reading of the music owned and performed by three prominent women in antebellum Charleston to demonstrate the varied experiences and perspectives of figures who also had much in common. All three women were sophisticated, well-traveled, and moved in the highest social circles of the planter class in Charleston. Yet, each woman had unique educational backgrounds, upbringings, and musical choices. They all experienced the Civil War and its aftermath quite differently. Rather than confining herself simply to an analysis of the musical repertoire each woman owned, Bailey examines the scores with the attention often reserved for Medieval manuscripts to discern the implications of the publishers, source of the scores, and the handwritten markings left by her subjects as they learned the music. She thoroughly contextualizes the collections within the time period, the milieu of upper-class Southern women, the history of Charleston, and, most importantly, the lives of the three women as evidenced by other documents they and those in their circle left behind. In doing so, Bailey reminds us that we must balance studying sweeping historical trends with the lived experiences of individuals. Candace Bailey is a Professor of Music at North Carolina Central University. She began her career studying seventeenth-century British keyboard music, but in the last decade has devoted much of her research time to the role of music among middle- and upper-class women in the Southern United States during the nineteenth century. Charleston Belles Abroad is her third book, and she has published articles in many journals including the Journal for the Society for American Music, Music & Letters, and the Journal for Musicological Research. In 2015, she received a National Endowment for the Humanities Award for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She will be a Fellow of the National Humanities Center for the 2019–2020 academic year. Kristen M. Turner, Ph.D. is a lecturer at North Carolina State University in the music department. Her work centers on American musical culture at the turn of the twentieth century and has been published in several journals and essay collections.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microhistories are an important method of investigating an historical moment with a fine-grain focus that can puncture holes in the generalizations that historians sometimes make. In her new book, Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriet Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louis Rebecca McCord (University of South Carolina Press, 2019), Candace L. Bailey uses a close reading of the music owned and performed by three prominent women in antebellum Charleston to demonstrate the varied experiences and perspectives of figures who also had much in common. All three women were sophisticated, well-traveled, and moved in the highest social circles of the planter class in Charleston. Yet, each woman had unique educational backgrounds, upbringings, and musical choices. They all experienced the Civil War and its aftermath quite differently. Rather than confining herself simply to an analysis of the musical repertoire each woman owned, Bailey examines the scores with the attention often reserved for Medieval manuscripts to discern the implications of the publishers, source of the scores, and the handwritten markings left by her subjects as they learned the music. She thoroughly contextualizes the collections within the time period, the milieu of upper-class Southern women, the history of Charleston, and, most importantly, the lives of the three women as evidenced by other documents they and those in their circle left behind. In doing so, Bailey reminds us that we must balance studying sweeping historical trends with the lived experiences of individuals. Candace Bailey is a Professor of Music at North Carolina Central University. She began her career studying seventeenth-century British keyboard music, but in the last decade has devoted much of her research time to the role of music among middle- and upper-class women in the Southern United States during the nineteenth century. Charleston Belles Abroad is her third book, and she has published articles in many journals including the Journal for the Society for American Music, Music & Letters, and the Journal for Musicological Research. In 2015, she received a National Endowment for the Humanities Award for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She will be a Fellow of the National Humanities Center for the 2019–2020 academic year. Kristen M. Turner, Ph.D. is a lecturer at North Carolina State University in the music department. Her work centers on American musical culture at the turn of the twentieth century and has been published in several journals and essay collections.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microhistories are an important method of investigating an historical moment with a fine-grain focus that can puncture holes in the generalizations that historians sometimes make. In her new book, Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriet Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louis Rebecca McCord (University of South Carolina Press, 2019), Candace L. Bailey uses a close reading of the music owned and performed by three prominent women in antebellum Charleston to demonstrate the varied experiences and perspectives of figures who also had much in common. All three women were sophisticated, well-traveled, and moved in the highest social circles of the planter class in Charleston. Yet, each woman had unique educational backgrounds, upbringings, and musical choices. They all experienced the Civil War and its aftermath quite differently. Rather than confining herself simply to an analysis of the musical repertoire each woman owned, Bailey examines the scores with the attention often reserved for Medieval manuscripts to discern the implications of the publishers, source of the scores, and the handwritten markings left by her subjects as they learned the music. She thoroughly contextualizes the collections within the time period, the milieu of upper-class Southern women, the history of Charleston, and, most importantly, the lives of the three women as evidenced by other documents they and those in their circle left behind. In doing so, Bailey reminds us that we must balance studying sweeping historical trends with the lived experiences of individuals. Candace Bailey is a Professor of Music at North Carolina Central University. She began her career studying seventeenth-century British keyboard music, but in the last decade has devoted much of her research time to the role of music among middle- and upper-class women in the Southern United States during the nineteenth century. Charleston Belles Abroad is her third book, and she has published articles in many journals including the Journal for the Society for American Music, Music & Letters, and the Journal for Musicological Research. In 2015, she received a National Endowment for the Humanities Award for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She will be a Fellow of the National Humanities Center for the 2019–2020 academic year. Kristen M. Turner, Ph.D. is a lecturer at North Carolina State University in the music department. Her work centers on American musical culture at the turn of the twentieth century and has been published in several journals and essay collections.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billy Bishop is one of the most recognizable names in the military history of Canada. He was Canada’s top ace during the First World War, credited with over seventy victories during his career as a pilot with Royal Flying Corps. But there were many other pilots whose names have been forgotten because of Bishop’s looming shadow. Graham Broad, associate professor of history at King’s College at Western University, has uncovered the story of another ace, Eddie McKay, from London, Ontario. In this episode, Broad talks about not only the story of McKay, but also the process of researching and writing the story of McKay. References Graham Broad, One in a Thousand: The Life and Death of Captain Eddie McKay, Royal Flying Corps. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.