Episodes
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The sultanate of Aceh enjoyed no fewer than four reigning queens in a row. They defended their country against rampant expansion by the Dutch and then the English. The last queen, Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah, was eventually deposed in 1699, through a combination of religious and personal factors, ending 59 years of a highly unusual political experiment in which women were seen as not just acceptable rulers, but preferable to men.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
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Yes! There have been Muslim queens who ruled their own countries! One of them was Arwa al-Sulayhi who ruled Yemen for 60 years in the 11th and 12th century. She outlasted her husband, her other husband, her son, and her other son, continuing to rule on her own authority through it all. Though the memory of her has faded, her mosque is still there, and so is her palace.Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.Support the show on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.Join Into History (intohistory.com/herhalfofhistory/) for a community of ad-free history podcasts plus bonus content.Visit Evergreen Podcasts to listen to more great shows.Follow me on Twitter (X) as @her_half. Or on Facebook or Instagram as Her Half of History.Feature Image by Mufaddalqn, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia CommonsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Missing episodes?
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The history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica is hard for historians because the best sources were all destroyed. Those that remain are of dubious historicity, but they do tell of the Queen Xiuhtlaltzin, who reigned somewhere in the 800s or 900s, shortly before the fall of the Toltec empire. Since the records are so sketchy, this episode is not exactly a biography, but it does cover:
what written records the people of Mesoamerica left
why the written records didn't survive (they got burned)
how the people reconstructed their oral histories in the 1600s
how those reconstructions tell a very little about Xiuhtlaltzin
what archaeology of Tollan/Tula can tell us
how Xiuhtlaltzin might have worshipped a frog goddess
how she might have cheered and/or played and/or sacrificed the losers of the famous Mesoamerican ball game
In the end, the jury's out on whether Xiuhtlaltzin even existed. Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments on the website or on social media.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/herhalfofh8).
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Feature image by AlejandroLinaresGarcia - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24460525
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The kingdom of Silla in ancient Korea had three queen regnants (a very good score, compared with most other countries of its time). Two reigned in Silla's golden age, but the last was Jinseong, who ruled at a time when decay had set in and the odds were not in her favor.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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Zenobia is one of the great enemies of Rome. From the oasis city of Palmyra (in modern-day Syria), she rose up in rebellion and conquered a great empire from Asia Minor through to Egypt. This episode covers:
the background of Palmyra as an important stop on the Silk Road
just how disastrous the 3rd century was for Rome
how Zenobia's husband Odaenathus saved the eastern empire
how he died
how Zenobia took control on behalf of her son
how she expanded her empire
how Rome fought back and eventually won
conflicting theories on how Zenobia died
what has happened to Palmyra throughout the intervening centuries, and especially recently under ISIS control
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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The feature image is by Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126112516
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Rome stole her country, publicly flogged her, and raped her daughters. The woman known variously as Boudica, Boudicca, Boadicea, Bonducca, and a dozen other variations fought back with everything she had. This episode includes:
How Rome came to the isle of Britain
How the Icenian king split his country between Rome and his daughters
How Rome wouldn't take half for an answer
How the Icenian queen gathered an army and burned three successive cities to the ground
How Rome won the last battle and the Iceni ceased to exist
How Boudica resurfaced as a symbol of British nationalism, female power, and female rage
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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Feature image by Paul Walter - Boudica statue, Westminster, CC BY 2.0
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Cleopatra inherited a joint throne, but pushed first one and then a second brother out of it to rule alone. In a world where rising Roman dominance was a fact of life, she managed to maintain control of her country by negotiating (in every possible way) with both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Though she lost in the end, she still managed to close out 3000 years of Egyptian history on her own terms.
This episode originally appeared in series 2 on Women Who Seized Power, but it fits equally well in series 12 on Last Queens.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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She had many names: Salome, Alexandra, Shelamzion, and Schlomtzion, but the last monarch of an independent kingdom of Judea was a Queen Regnant. She ruled from (roughly) 78 to 69 BCE. Her time was remembered for generations as the golden age before Rome.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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If you follow the royal news, you may be aware that we had a queen abdicate last month. Or possibly, you missed it because it wasn’t in the British royal family. It was Margrethe II of Denmark.
I am researching last queens for series 12, fully aware that the word “last” is a little ambiguous here, but I must confess, the connection with this current event, never crossed my historically minded brain. Until I read a blog post on exactly that connection, and a definition of “last” I had not considered. There are currently no queen regnants in Europe at all! Author Cheryl Ciucevich graciously agreed to allow me to publish her work here on the podcast.
Please check out Cheryl’s blog at hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com. You can also find Cheryl on social media as Palace Princess or Princess Palace Blog on Twitter, Threads, Instagram, and Facebook.
The feature image today is by Aalborg Stift / Casper Tybjerg - Flickr: Bispevielse, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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It's Black History Month, and we're looking at LaVern Baker, the pioneering R&B singer LaVern Baker. Today's episode is a guest episode from the fabulously named Dead Ladies Show, which celebrates women - both overlooked and iconic, through live history storytelling on stage in Berlin, and beyond.
Check out other episodes from The Dead Ladies Show on their website (https://deadladiesshow.com/podcast/) or wherever you get your podcasts.
Visit my website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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Kelly Chase of the History Detective Podcast interviewed me last year about how and why my podcast is produced. Here is our conversation about podcasting and history and why it is important.
Kelly is also the author of History, Her Story, Our Story, a fantastic resource for middle and high school students and teachers, as well as anyone who wishes their knowledge of history included a few more women.
Her Website: (https://historydetectivepodcast.com/)
X: https://twitter.com/HistoryDetect
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historydetective9/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSAftC8g3O1FfYmR0xGpFaw
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/historydetectivepodcast
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/History-HER-story-Our-Inspirational/dp/1990566715/ref=monarch_sidesheet
I am currently on research break because Series 11, the History of Girlhood is over, and Series 12, the Last Queen is still in the works, but stay tuned for more interim content!
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For most of human history, teenagers have been lumped in with children or with adults, depending on which way was most convenient at the time. People between the ages of 13 and 19 didn't become "teenagers" until the 20th century. In this episode, I talk about:
how the Classical writers defined the difference between childhood and youth/adolescence
how important it was for girls of that age to maintain virginity or marry, nothing in between
how in 1904 an American psychologist informed us that adolescence was a time of "storm and stress"
how the invention of the high school and the car allowed young people to develop a shared culture around dating, dancing, movies, slang, and personal appearance
how Margaret Mead informed the West that "storm and stress" was the result of Western culture and chastity requirements, not an inherent part of the adolescence
and how the post World War II culture in the West became increasingly dominated by teenagers (a word that only became common in this period).
This marks the end of Series 11, so there is also an announcement on the results of the poll for Series 12 topic.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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Girls have always been reaching puberty, but what that meant for her has varied. In this episode we look at the age of menarche (when girls start their period) and whether that was cause for shame or celebration:
In ancient Greece, girls at puberty "acted the she-bear."
In Rome they dedicated their dolls to Venus.
In many cultures girls entered a period of seclusion and fasting at menarche.
In 18th and 19th Western cultures, menarche meant the begining of concealment, discomfort, and danger.
But in several Native American tribes (Hupa and Mescalero Apache, for example), the whole community gathered to celebrate and welcome the girl into womanhood.
The poll for a Series 12 topic is open until January 9th. You can vote on Spotify, on Patreon (you don't have to be a subscriber), or on the Discord server if you are an Into History subscriber. The options are:
Women Take Flight (such as Sophie Blanchard, Amelia Earhart, and the Mercury 13 women)
Last Queen of Her Country (such as Boudicca of the Iceni, Lili’uokalani of Hawaii, and Shlomtzion of Judea)
Spiritual Leaders (such as Rabi’a the Muslim Sufi saint, Saint Clare of Assisi, and Anne Hutchinson)
Other (get in touch with your suggestion)
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction.
Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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The Industrial Revolution did not invent child labor, but it changed how people viewed it. A growing middle and upper class provided their kids with long childhoods filled with play, education, and preparation for a productive adulthood. The poorer classes sent their children to work in factories and fields where they worked long hours at dangerous jobs and learned very few skills. Girls in particular worked in textile mills, breathing in lint and climbing over whirling machinery. But girls also worked in fields to supply the factories.
Reformers argued for child labor laws almost as soon as the Industrial Revolution set in, but the new laws had very little effect until after World War One. Even today, child labor remains a problem, especially in Asia and Africa, but also even in the United States.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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Child labor has existed since the beginning of humanity. Poor girls, both slave and free, worked as cleaned, carried water, cared for other children, and worked in the fields, often with long hours under harsh treatment. Most of their stories went undocumented but this episode does have anecdotes from Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Jemison, and others about what it was like to be a working girl.
The Industrial Revolution was initially hailed as a great and wonderful thing because it made children "more useful." Girls signed up in droves to work in factories and canneries, and only afterwards did anyone wonder whether this was really what we want for our girls.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
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St Lucia’s Day is December 13th. It is celebrated in a number of countries, but today is specifically about the Swedish celebration. You may have seen a picture of a beautiful blond girl, dressed in a white dress with a red sash and a wreath on her head with burning candles? That is St Lucia, as celebrated in Sweden or countries influenced by Sweden.
But the origin of the story is in Italy. In 304 CE, the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered a persecution of Christians. That much is history. St Lucia is one of the martyrs, and her particular story is historically sketchy. But true or not, she became the patron saint of light and vision and she was celebrated on the winter solstice, which was December 13th at the time.
The Swedes were not yet Christian, but they had their own traditions surrounding the winter solstice. When Christianity did arrive, those traditions blended beautifully with the celebration of St Lucia.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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Feature image is by Claudia Gründer - Claudia Gründer, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3221537
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The underlying question behind educating girls is: Why? Why are you educating them? Throughout history, there have been varying answers to that question, and each answer has produced a wildly different strategies on how to do it. This episode covers the major strategies, from home tutoring to convent schools to governesses to listening in on your brother's lessons. All of these methods continued even as the 18th century saw the rise of boarding schools (of dubious value) and the 19th century saw the rise of public elementary schools that did not become compulsory until into the 20th century.
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The 1860s blew new life into children's literature, especially for girls. Alice in Wonderland (1865) has been called the first modern children's book, and one in which moral didacticism was replaced by a fantastic and total disregard for the laws of physics. Little Women (1868) pioneered the intimate home life story and is still one of the best examples. On the trashier side, dime novels were also first published in the 1860s (and they were read by girls as well as boys). Children's picture books became real works of art, and periodicals for girls exploded in popularity. By the early 20th century, libraries were welcoming children into their own special sections, and countries all over the world were producing their own native literature about girls. And by the early 21st century, children's lit was split into children's, middle grade, and young adult categories, with mixed results.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
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Is there anything better than books? Today I’m not talking about the compulsory part of books at school (that’s a later episode in this series), I’m talking about reading for the love it. Reading because as Meg Ryan's character said in You've Got Mail, “When you read a book as a child, it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.”
Most historical girls were illiterate, unfortunately, but even for those who could read, the growth of literature intended for them was slow. Early books tended to be (1) educational or (2) religious or (3) manuals on good manners ("laugh thou not too loud nor yawn thou not too wide").
In the 18th century, publisher John Newbery (later to have a children's book award named after him) began specializing in books for children, and he tried to make them fun. It was a revolutionary idea that would only gain speed in the early 19th century.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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Why pink?
And when did girls start dressing in pink, for that matter? (Hint: a lot more recently than you probably imagine.)
This episode also covers whether you actually need baby clothes (probably not, historically speaking) and how long a girls skirts should be, and we also touch on why the boys don't get lace, ruffles, and pink.
I also mention Kelly Chase and the History Detective Podcast which you can find here: https://historydetectivepodcast.com/. Her new book History, Her Story, Our Story is available through that website.
Visit my website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
I will also be at Intelligent Speech on November 4th. Get your tickets here: https://intelligentspeechonline.com/
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee.
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