Relevant History

By: Dan Toler
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  • Summary

  • In Relevant History, solo podcaster Dan Toler examines the trends and ideas that shape our modern world. The first season is about the idea of nationalism, and how different societies understand their national identities. From France to Ethiopia, from the Delhi Sultanate to the Dutch Republic, we travel through time and space to explore the roots of cultures around the world, and how those national trends have shaped their history.
    Copyright 2020 by Dan Toler. All rights reserved.
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Episodes
  • Episode 64 – The Reich and the Risorgimento

    Episode 64 – The Reich and the Risorgimento
    Aug 21 2024

    At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the victorious allied powers restore Central Europe to its pre-war status: a bunch of small, semi-independent German and Italian states, dominated by more powerful neighbors. But the idea of nationalism, spread by Napoleon’s armies, is a genie you can’t put back in the bottle.

    In the German Confederation, 38 tiny countries try to establish their legitimacy, but are overshadowed by the Austrian Empire in the south and the Kingdom of Prussia in the north. Without a clear path to political nationalization, German intellectuals instead focus on building a unified German culture.

    In Italy, revolutionaries like Giuseppe Mazzini openly call for Risorgimento – a resurgence of Italian national identity. Drawing their inspiration from ancient Rome, these young revolutionaries will spend an entire generation battling to overthrow their Austrian overlords while avoiding French domination.

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    Relevant History Patreon: https://bit.ly/3vLeSpF

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    Relevant History on Twitter/X: https://bit.ly/3eRhdtk

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    Official website: https://bit.ly/3btvha4

    Episode transcript (90% accurate): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r7N2KkmrRtrPBJliHzEkkKlmEsGtk8c8NzWI03eRn7A/pub

    Music credit: Sergey Cheremisinov - Black Swan

    SOURCES:

    David Blackbourn, The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany 1780-1918 – https://www.scribd.com/document/261666797/Long-Nineteenth-Century-History-of-Germany-1780-1918-the-David-Blackbourn

    Tim Chapman, The Risorgimento: Italy 1815-71 – https://read.amazon.com/?asin=B003SNK19G&ref_=dbs_t_r_kcr

    Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945

    Friedrich Engels, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany – https://archive.org/details/germanyrevolutio00enge_0

    Erich Eyck, Bismarck and the German Empire

    Giuseppe Garibaldi, Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi – https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofg0003gari/page/4/mode/2up

    Giuseppe Mazzini, Address to Pope Pius IX, On His Encyclical Letter – https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=YURTAAAAcAAJ&pg=GBS.PP4&hl=en

    Jürgen Osterhammel, The Transformation of the World, A Global History of the Nineteenth Century – https://www.everand.com/read/261688401/The-Transformation-of-the-World-A-Global-History-of-the-Nineteenth-Century

    Alan Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph – https://archive.org/details/twilightofhabsbu0000palm

    Pope Pius IX, Non Semel (Italian) – https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-ix/it/documents/allocuzione-non-semel-29-aprile-1848.html

    Mike Rapport, 1848, Year of Revolution

    Denis Mack Smith, The Making of Italy, 1796-1870 – https://archive.org/details/makingofitaly1790000mack/page/n3/mode/2up

    Denis Mack Smith, Modern Italy, A Political History

    Nick Svendsen, The First Schleswig-Holstein War 1848-50 – https://www.everand.com/read/402302021/The-First-Schleswig-Holstein-War-1848-50

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    3 hrs and 36 mins
  • Episode 63 - The God-King of Pontus

    Episode 63 - The God-King of Pontus
    Jun 23 2024
    In the first century BC, the Roman Republic is expanding rapidly across the Mediterranean basin. As the legions venture eastward into Anatolia, the Romans are able to divide and conquer all of their enemies, except for one: Mithridates VI of Pontus, also known as the Poison King. Mithridates is more than a mere historical figure; he’s a mythic hero, born under the sign of a shooting star and nearly murdered by his own mother before spending much of his youth in the wilderness. These details may sound made up, but truth is often stranger than fiction, and the story of Mithridates is one of the strangest ever told. Map of Anatolia during Mithridates’ reign: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Asia_Minor_in_the_Greco-Roman_period_-_general_map_-_regions_and_main_settlements.jpg My Interview with Sean McFadden of Deep Noetics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eecCdz7cbug SUBSCRIBE TO RELEVANT HISTORY, AND NEVER MISS AN EPISODE! Relevant History Patreon: https://bit.ly/3vLeSpF Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/38bzOvo Subscribe on Apple Music (iTunes): https://apple.co/2SQnw4q Subscribe on Any Platform: https://bit.ly/RelHistSub Relevant History on Twitter/X: https://bit.ly/3eRhdtk Relevant History on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2Qk05mm Official website: https://bit.ly/3btvha4 Episode transcript (90% accurate): https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRmqvP5OKsISkJeh798lUhzBaublU3RwXtQJm78gx0jBSn5i5rM7PlmXIC7RXxs2G6bjymLQKKX8Kgn/pub Music credit: Sergey Cheremisinov - Black Swan SOURCES: Appian: https://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-the-mithridatic-wars/ Cassius Dio: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html Justin: https://www.attalus.org/translate/justin6.html#37.1 Livy: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/baker-the-history-of-rome-vol-6 (Livy’s work on Mithridates is lost. Only a summary remains.) Philip Matyszak, Mithridates the Great, Rome’s Indomitable Enemy: https://www.everand.com/read/444975669/Mithridates-the-Great-Rome-s-Indomitable-Enemy Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King, the Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy Valerius Maximus: http://attalus.org/info/valerius.html Brian McGing, The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus: https://archive.org/details/foreignpolicyofm0000mcgi/page/n13/mode/2up Brian McGing (Encyclopaedia Iranica article on Pontus): https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/pontus Plutarch’s Parallel Lives: -Sulla https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sulla*.html -Lucullus https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lucullus*.html -Pompey https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Pompey*.html -Sertorius https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sertorius*.html Rank-Raglan mythotype and scores: https://everything.explained.today/Rank%E2%80%93Raglan_mythotype/ Laurence M. V. Totelin (study on antidote): https://www.jstor.org/stable/4130095?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
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    4 hrs and 34 mins
  • Bonus Episode - Why Capitalists Make the Best Communists

    Bonus Episode - Why Capitalists Make the Best Communists
    May 15 2024

    Bonus Episode – Why Capitalists Make the Best Communists

    In this bonus episode, Dan delves into the nitty-gritty of far-left politics and the history of various ideologies dedicated to the establishment of communism.

    Then he asks the question: What if the best way to build an egalitarian utopia is via the power of capitalism?

    Apologies for the constant birdsong in the background. It was a gorgeous day and I decided to record with the window open. Never again!

    SUBSCRIBE TO RELEVANT HISTORY, AND NEVER MISS AN EPISODE!

    Relevant History Patreon: https://bit.ly/3vLeSpF

    Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/38bzOvo

    Subscribe on Apple Music (iTunes): https://apple.co/2SQnw4q

    Subscribe on Any Platform: https://bit.ly/RelHistSub

    Relevant History on Twitter/X: https://bit.ly/3eRhdtk

    Relevant History on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2Qk05mm

    Official website: https://bit.ly/3btvha4

    Episode transcript (90% accurate): https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQJPex4SmcO4a7c-p2sh7OEz0VaDlS1_oxinP_qlwWz5IhxwBgGnkyYw11LPKY6XxzmsdevibU40VYL/pub

    Music credit: Sergey Cheremisinov - Black Swan
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    1 hr and 12 mins

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