#204 Historical Narratives & Power
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2021
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When two people look at the same set of facts and reach an entirely different conclusion, it's often because of a difference in the way they understand their place in the world. In this episode (recorded when Bob began his graduate course in methodology in January 2019), Ben and Bob discuss the power of historical narratives, how they can change over time, and the ways that people in power seek to use history as a source of legitimacy.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out the others in our historical methodology series:
#121 Gender & History w/ Lisa Fine
This episode originally aired on The Road to Now's Patreon Feed on January 18, 2019. If you'd like to support our work and get access to exclusive content, please visit TheRoadToNow.com/Patreon. Thank you!
This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is in the Loop, the Legion of Osiris Podcasts. |
| 0:07.6 | What does that mean? |
| 0:08.8 | Osiris is a community of great music and culture podcasts. |
| 0:12.6 | If you like this one, go check out others at osirispod.com and get in the loop. |
| 0:18.2 | Osiris is partnered with Relics Magazine at relics.com. |
| 0:24.6 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now. Today's episode is a conversation about history, |
| 0:33.2 | narratives, and power. This episode is one that Bob and I recorded in 2019 in January, just as Bob |
| 0:41.6 | was gearing up to go to graduate school to start his methodology classes. Those of you guys who |
| 0:47.0 | listen regularly know that Bob somehow, despite everything, last year, he finished his MA in history |
| 0:53.4 | at Arizona State, which is, as I said, |
| 0:55.8 | it's remarkable. But this is a conversation we had when he was just starting, when he was about |
| 1:01.4 | to go into this methodology course that all graduate students have to take that covers the way |
| 1:06.3 | the historians look at the past, how narratives work. It ranges from, you know, general history across |
| 1:13.5 | the spectrum in terms of geographic focus, but it's aimed to teach you at different ways of |
| 1:19.6 | thinking about the past. And just these bizarre things where you see a figure in history who can |
| 1:25.4 | be used to evoke several different narratives and the way that that |
| 1:30.6 | relates to power. And I thought now would be a great time to air this episode because I've long thought |
| 1:35.4 | that we could provide a service for students who are coming in to graduate school. For anyone |
| 1:41.4 | listening right now who has had that experience experience you know that you enter kind of overwhelmed |
| 1:46.2 | things seem so complicated and and they are sometimes but but if you come in prepared and you come in |
| 1:54.1 | kind of aware of the way to think about things then that really helps so we're airing this now because |
| 1:58.7 | a lot of a lot of folks out there are getting ready to start graduate |
... |
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