Drafting the Past

Drafting the Past is a podcast devoted to the craft of writing history. Each episode features an interview with a historian about the joys and challenges of their work as a writer.

Drafting the Past is a arts podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 0 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts Drafting the Past, a arts show with 0 episodes published.

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  Episode #115

  115: Eric Jay Dolin Never Wants to Be Bored

  Sep 29, 202650 minS5

  Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. Thanks for supporting the show and independent bookstores by purchasing books through these links! About this episode For this episode, Kate is joined by Eric Jay Dolin, the New York Times-bestselling author of 17 books, to talk about his writing process and what it’s like to build a career as an author of popular histories. His books include Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America ; A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes ; Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates ; and Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution . His most recent book is The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail . His books have won awards and are frequently named best books of the year. Before writing history books, Eric worked in environmental policy and earned a PhD in environmental policy and planning from MIT. We talked about how his career has developed, the ups and downs of the book market, and he dished about advances, career trajectories, and why he thinks he’d rather have a huge book now than early in his career. Mentioned in this episode: Eric Jay Dolin, The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail Samuel Eliot Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History James Truslow Adams, The Founding of New England

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  Episode #114

  114: Catherine Grace Katz Can Just Feel It

  Sep 22, 202654 minS5

  Visit draftingthepast.com to sign up for the newsletter and get book reviews, podcast updates, and much more. Note: Bookshop.org links are affiliate links. About this episode: How many history books have kept you up late into the night, turning the page to find out what happens next? That’s exactly what the newest book from this episode’s guest did to Kate, but it was well worth the lost sleep. Catherine Grace Katz joins the Drafting the Past podcast to talk about her newest book, Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War . Catherine is a writer, historian, and lawyer, with degrees in history from Harvard and Cambridge along with a JD from Harvard. Her first book was Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War . She joined Kate to talk about what goes into writing such extraordinary true stories, from how she works without an outline to the writing tool she found in her mom’s basement, and the unlikely inspiration for the book in a classic holiday movie. Mentioned in this episode: Catherine’s website Catherine Grace Katz, Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War Catherine Grace Katz, Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary Norman MacLean, Young Men and Fire Gioia Diliberto, Firebrands: The Untold Story of Four Women Who Made and Unmade Prohibition Tana French Patrick Radden Keefe, London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth and Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland Phillippe Sands, The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive , and the podcast precursor, Intrigue: The Ratline Helena Merriman, Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berline Wall and its podcast precursor, Intrigue: Tunnel 29 The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O’Meara Pitch Club

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  Episode #113

  113: Tai Edwards and Charlee Huffman Let the Land Tell the Story

  Sep 15, 202652 minS5

  Visit draftingthepast.com to sign up for our newsletter and never miss an episode or book review. In this episode, Kate spoke with Tai S. Edwards and Charlee Huffman, writers and editors of a new book, Shokhi: A Kanza Relative, A Monument, and Rematriation . This book is a little different from others that have appeared on the show: it tells the story of how a group of people, include Kaw Nation citizens, historians, artists, activists, and others worked together to bring a grandfather rock, In‘zhúje‘waxóbe, back to the Kanza people with whom they had a centuries-long relationship. The boulder had been appropriated as a memorial to the founders of Lawrence, Kansas, and the land on which it stood bore witness to many intersecting narratives of people and place. The book, is part history, part artistic expression, and part handbook for this kind of restorative work. Tai and Charlee discussed their collaborative process, incorporating disability accommodation into the heart of their work, and how they let the land lead them in telling a history with many voices. Tai S. Edwards is professor of history and director of the Kansas Studies Institute at Johnson County Community College. She is the author of Osage Women and Empire: Gender and Power and co-editor of Lyda Conley and the Fight to Preserve Huron Indian Cemetery , also published by Kansas. c. huffman is a Kaw Nation Citizen with an MFA and an MDiv who sits at the intersection of privilege, dis/ability and Indigeneity; a place where poetry and theology dance. Her writing has appeared in The Ending Hasn’t Happened Yet , a poetry anthology edited by Hannah Soyer. Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. Mentioned in this Episode: Shokhi: A Kanza Relative, a Monument, and Rematriation Poet Marilyn Haeker Michael Grow, US Presidents and Latin American Interventions: Pursuing Regime Change in the Cold War Ursula K. Le Guin, Earthsea series Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed Doorkeeper of the Heart Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants Ilona Andrews, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me

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  Episode #112

  112: Jared Davidson Treats History as Passion and Practice

  Sep 8, 202652 minS5

  Visit draftingthepast.com to subscribe to the newsletter for book reviews, interviews, essays about history books, and more. Paid subscribers get access to ad-free episodes of the podcast. In this episode, Kate is joined by our first guest from New Zealand, archivist and independent historian Jared Davidson. Though he was not trained as a historian and originally comes from a graphic design background, Jared has written and published five books that focus on overlooked and radical histories of New Zealand, or Aotearoa, as you’ll hear him call it. During the day, he works at the Alexander Turnbull Library, where he is the Research Librarian Manuscripts. His books have won multiple awards in New Zealand and have covered subjects ranging from anarchists to censorship. His most recent book, Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand , uncovers the ways that incarcerated labor literally shaped the country’s environment and landscape. If you’re a historian who comes to the subject without formal training, you’ll especially love this episode, but there’s a lot here to learn for all of us, including how to weave compelling individual stories into a strong argument, which Jared does brilliantly in this book. Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. Mentioned in this episode: Jared Davidson’s website Jared Davidson, Blood & Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand Jared Davidson, The History of a Riot Jared Davidson, Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914-1920 Jared Davidson, Sewing Freedom: Philip Josephs, Transnationalism, and Early New Zealand Anarchism Jared Davidson, Remains to Be Seen: Tracing Joe Hill’s Ashes in New Zealand Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History Thomas G. Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa ; Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves ; To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 “James Kelman: I’ll die at the desk. So what. Where’s the coffee?” Marcus Rediker books Marcus Rediker, “The Poetics of History from Below”

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  Episode #111

  Episode 111: Lauren Working Communes With the Objects

  Sep 1, 202648 minS5

  Go to draftingthepast.com and subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss an episode! Paid subscribers get access to ad-free episodes and more perks. How does the history of English colonialism in the Renaissance change when you tell that history through objects? In this episode, Kate spoke with Dr. Lauren Working, a historian whose work focuses on England’s colonialism and interactions with Indigenous people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Lauren is a lecturer in Early Modern Studies at the University of York . Alongside her research, Lauren is committed to sharing historical knowledge with the public. In fact, as you’ll hear in the interview, she was approached by a literary agent thanks to her work with the BBC. As a result, she published her new book, A Golden World: How The Americas Transformed Tudor and Stuart England , with a trade press. In order to help her tell a story of the Atlantic world from both Indigenous American and colonial British perspectives, Lauren turned to objects. The result is a tactile and beautifully written history of a world of encounter and influence. We talked about the rewards and challenges of writing history through objects and how Lauren brought so many people’s experiences to the page, even when they were largely missing from the archive. Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. Mentioned in this episode: Lauren Working, A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Tudor and Stuart England Lauren Working, The Making of an Imperial Polity The internal illustrations for A Golden World were created by artist Rebecca Lee Kunz (Tree of Life Studio) , a citizen of the Cherokee Nation Lauren’s episodes on BBC Radio 3, “Ruffs in Jamestown” and “Boy With a Pearl Earring” Lauren’s guest appearances on BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking: “Trade and Traffic,” “The Mayflower and Native American History,” “Gifts and Gratitude,” and “The Botanical Past” Christine M. DeLucia, Memory Lands: King Philip’s War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast National Portrait Gallery learning resource: “Illuminating the global in Tudor and early Stuart portraits,” by Lauren Working Sara E. Johnson, Encyclopédie Noire: The Making of Moreau de Saint-Méry’s Intellectual World

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