Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Mancall about the early years of North America. They discuss what is America, importance of Maize and landscape of pre-Columbian America, Native Peoples in the middle of the 15th century, Norse discoveries, Columbus, French in Canada, Cortes in Mexico, British involvement, religion, slavery, and the legacy of early North American history.
Peter C. Mancall is Distinguished Professor; the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities; Professor of History, Anthropology, and Economics; and the Linda and Harlan Martens Director of the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute. He is an elected fellow of the Society of American Historians and the Royal Historical Society and an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. He was the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University in the 2019-2020 academic year. He is the author of many books, including the recent book, Contested Continent: The struggle for North America, c. 1000-1680.



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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Adrian Goldsworthy about the history of Athens and Sparta. They provide an overview of Athens and Sparta, Aegean history, and city-states in Ancient Greece. They talk about why tyranny did not work in these early city-states, Persian War with Greece, Peloponnesian War, Alexander the Great, legacies of Athens and Sparta, and many more topics.
Adrian Goldsworthy is a historian and author. He has his DPhil from Oxford University and has conducted research at Cardiff University and taught at King’s College London and University of Notre Dame. He is the author of numerous books on Roman history.


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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with H.W. Brands about the life of George Washington. They discuss Washington as an enigma, his social and political statue, his upbringing and temperament, and his relationship with his wife and his relationship with slavery. They also talk about Washington as a general, as president, and the legacy of Washington.
H. W. Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written more than a dozen biographies and histories, including The General vs. the President, a New York Times bestseller. Two of his biographies, The First American and Traitor to His Class, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of the latest book, American Patriarch: The life of George Washington.


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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ayşe Baltacıoğlu-Brammer about belonging among various ethnic and religious groups in the early and middle Ottoman period. They discuss the landscape of religious and sectarian divides in the early Ottoman Empire, Turkic origins of the Safavids and Sufis, the Qizilbash, and various sociocultural variables. They talk about immigration between the Safavids and the Ottomans, the Safavid’s turn from Sufi to Shia, Qizilbash documents and Ottoman surveillance, remnants today, and many more topics.
Ayşe Baltacıoğlu-Brammer is Assistant Professor of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies & Steering Committee Chair of the Ottoman Studies Initiative (OTS-NYU) at New York University. She has her PhD from The Ohio State University. She specializes in Middle Eastern history, with a focus on early modern Ottoman and Safavid Empires. She is the author of the book, Boundaries of Belonging: Sectarianism and Statecraft in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire.


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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Roderick Beaton about the history of Europe. They discuss how Europe is defined, origins of Europe from ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Turkey, European history as Christian history, Europe during WWI and WWII, the European Union, and the future of Europe.
Roderick Beaton is a professor emeritus at King’s College London. He has written several books on Greek and European history, including The Greeks and Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, which was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. He is the four-time winner of the prestigious Runciman Award, and in 2024 was knighted by King Charles III “for services to History.” He is the author of the latest book, Europe: A New History.


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