History on Air

History Questions

I received this email recently and thought I would post on the site in hopes that the readers of the blog/site can help out Mike. Please leave you answers in the comments. Thank you!

Hi,

I have listened to and enjoyed many of your podcasts. Here are two historical issues I’m curious about.

Why, after WWII, didn’t the Allies occupy Italy as they did Japan and Germany? Fascism began in Italy, after all. Is this because Italy was conquered first, and many Italians then rebelled against Musollini? Was it because the Italians weren’t taken very seriously as a military force?

also, I live in Bogota, Colombia. This country is, obviously, named for Christopher Columbus. But this is a Spanish-speaking region, and in Spanish Columbus is Cristobal Colon. So, why in the world would they have used the English version of the man’s name instead of the Spanish one, which might have given us a nation named ‘Colonia.’ (That, of course, would have been strange, since it’s the word for colony.)

Best and thanks,

Mike C.

Update:  I posted the questions on the Historum forums in hopes of more answers and we got some…

Lucius writes:

Hi historypodcast,

Why is München Munich? Why is Venezia Venice? I guess we just don’t like furriners that much, so we change their names to suit us. Either that or we’re too dumb. Or both.

and HistoryBuff7 says:

Italy surrendered after the allies invaded and Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Mussolini because by 1943 the Italian people lost their faith in Mussolini and were tired of the war.

and Pedro has maybe the best answer about Colombia…

Cristóbal Colón was Italian and his Italian name was Cristoforo Colombo. Yes, just like the detective on TV. The ‘ia’ of course is a common suffix and rules of orthography dictate dropping the ‘o’ and adding ‘ia’.
Why they chose the Italian spelling over the Spanish I can only guess. Tradition? To honor? Sounds better than Colonium or any other Spanish option?

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Mike Wallace Interviews

Christian writes in via email to say…

Jason,

I heard about a website that you might want to post on historyonair.com. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/film/holdings/wallace/
It is a series of old interviews Mike Wallace that was just made
public. Very interesting.

I look at some of these last night and they actually are very cool. Thank you for sharing Christian!

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Updates to William Wallace episode

Well, even the best of us make mistakes.  And even though the script is right I can still mess it up when reading as Russell points out in this email:

Hi,

Apologies if someone has raised this with you before, but there is a discrepancy near the start of your William Wallace podcast between the script and the narration. The script states that Scotland’s struggle for independence was ultimately successful, whereas the narration claims it was unsuccessful. It is actually the script which is correct and Scotland was successful.

It may sometimes be assumed that because Scotland is currently part of the UK, that it was as a result of English conquest. However, unlike Wales, Scotland achieved independence in the middle ages and remained independent for several centuries. The later unification was less to do with English force and more to do with the weakness of Scottish politicians to resist the temptation of English bribes to vote in favour of the union.

I must also add that I enjoy your podcasts,

thanks

Russell,

Glasgow, Scotland

Thanks for the email Russell, and my apologies to those in Scotland!

It has been a while since I posted an episode, but don’t fret they are in development.

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Teaching History Goes High-Tech

I wish my high school history was more like this when I was in school…

Hey Jason,

My name is Jim K. and I am an AP World History high school teacher in Palm City, Florida. I am so glad I ran into your site (through general google searching for history podcasts-I also found professor Bob). I’m going to add your shows to my curriculum and create quizzes based on them. I currently use unitedstreaming.com which allows teachers to create multimedia type quizzes which include short videos, articles, images. etc. I think your podcasts will be a nice addition. I require my students to bring headphones to class (they all do anyway since they always carry around ipods and cell phones). I am a member of the World History Association and am an AP World History Grader for ETS and will spread the word about your great site and podcasts to the World History community.

Please keep the site and podcasts going, your effort is much appreciated and I want you to know that you are doing a great thing for history students! It will grow, I just know it.

Jim

Thanks for the email Jim, it always means a lot to get an email with kind words!  And I’m very happy to hear you will be spreading the word about the podcast!

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What Happened to the Peloponnesian War, Part II

Many listeners have asked in the past so I thought it would be a good idea to post this on the site, so you can all read about it…

Hey,

I enjoy your podcast. I find it very informative. As I was going through iTunes, I came across your show and I subscribed. This was several weeks ago and I just recently caught up. Ever sense I listened to episode number 15, Peloponnesian War: Part I, I’ve been waiting for Part II of the segment. I’m not complaining, just pointing that out. It was done by a guest host and I’m just curious about what happens in Part II. Well, that’s all and keep up the good work.

Brad

That particular episode was a guest podcast by Tom S. I thought he did a wonderful job, but he has never responded to my queries for the second part. For those who want to hear more about this topic I suggest Military History Podcast. George did a two part series on the topic.

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Mispronunciation

I’m no professional and have no one helping me out on pronunciations before the podcast is published. Now that I read Andy’s email I can see where he is coming from, proof readers would be welcome. I will continue to do my best on the episodes. Guest podcastes are always welcome!

Dear History Podcast

I have been downloading your podcasts for some months now and having just listened to the second cast on Elizabeth I I felt that I had to write on the subject of pronunciation. Obviously you do a lot of preparation for the casts but equally you do not spend any time researching pronunciation. As a result, your frequent and often embarrassing mispronunciations undermine the integrity of your efforts.

For example, the French city England had lost was Calais (pronounced Ca-lay); her suitor was the Earl of Leicester (pronounced Les-ter), and her courtier was Walsingham (Wal-sing-ham). Her rival to the throne was Mary, Queen of Scots (not Queen Mary of Scots).

Recent other sins have included pronouncing Greenwich as Green Witch not the correct Gren-itch.

Please try and get this right otherwise I will have to stop listening to the podcasts out of sheer irritation.

Yours faithfully
Andy D.

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Listeners all the way from Kuwait!

I was really shocked and elated to see this email come in all the way from Kuwait.  Many thanks to Naif for taking the time to email me and of course for listening to the podcast!

Hi there,

First I have to say that I really love your show, it’s one of two non-gaming podcast I subscribe to (the other being smodcast), anyway I wanted to ask about the history of the Assassins, the reason why I’m asking is because since the game Assassin’s creed is being released soon Ubisoft wanted to release a book series about the game which has been stopped due to Assassins fear of being shown in a bad way.

Anyway keep on the good work and I wish all the best for your podcast.

Yours From Kuwait

Naif

Well, you know what this means, pretty soon you will all be listening to a podcast about the history of Assassins. Keep those emails coming!

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UC Berkeley Podcasts

Oliver G. Writes…

Jason, I wanted to draw your attention to the history lessons that can be downloaded from the UC Berkeley website. I particularly enjoyed History 5 (Europe Civilization) and Infosys C103, History of Information (delivered by the iSchool, a very interesting school BTW). You can easily find those via iTunesU.

The “History of Information” series contains a small yet particulary intriguing bit about how the notion of and convention around TIME have changed over… time.

What about a podcast on the history of time (I know it sounds ironic but it is fascinating, e.g. Gregorian calendar, GMT, atomic clock)?

Best regards,

Olivier

Oliver, sounds great. Thanks for the links. And I will add your email to the blog so others can hear about these great podcasts. I’ll put your requests on the list.

Other history podcasts from Berkeley:
History 4A The Ancient Mediterranean World
History 167B The Rise and Fall of the Second Reich (three day delay)

A list of all Berkeley’s podcasts.

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Haverhill aka hay-vrill or Hay*v’rul

Jon wrote me in late January and Marilyn (resident of Haverhill and neighbor to Hannah’s Garrison house) also just sent in an email to let me know the correct pronunciation of Haverhill the town where Hannah Duston was born in HP75.  Thank you both for your email and I hope you continue to listen to the podcast and can forgive a mispronunciation here and there.

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