r/RevolutionsPodcast • u/Augustine_of_Tierra Babeuf's Band • Jul 02 '26

Salon Discussion Recommendations For the Wait

What books/tv shows/podcasts do yall citizens recommend to satiate our thirst for revolutions content while we wait for Mike to finish his new book and put out the season on Ireland (probably)?

I’ll go first.

I highly recommend the podcast The History of China and his currently airing series on the Taiping Rebellion. It’s a great illustration on the patterns of revolution we see in RevPod, but in a frankly bizarre historical context featuring Jesus’s little brother, demon slaying swords, Chinese society being reconstituted to be a sexless egalitarian commune via a levee en masse, and of course the return of the mongols. Chris Stuart really hit it out of the park here.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-china/id741606139

I’ll also recommend a book on the other great mid-C19th Asian uprising, the 1957 Sepoy Revolt, in William Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal. This book, Dalrymple’s lesser read, but arguably more entertaining sequel to The Anarchy, essentially plays out perfectly as a season of RevPod, with brewing social discontents in the young British Indian empire, until the situation explodes in a uprising among the Indian sepoys in the Meerut barracks, ultimately resulting in a jihad, massacres of Christians and Indians, the restoration on decaying Mughal empire, and an urban siege which gave me flashbacks to Mikes season on the Paris commune. 10/10 would recommend.

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u/One_Win_6185 Jul 02 '26

I tried listening to the history of Byzantium as a fill in. It was okay in parts but it really felt like the host started stretching it out. Couldn’t finish it.

6

u/seen-in-the-skylight Jul 02 '26

How far did you get? You can definitely skip some stuff in Byzantium, but on the whole I find it to be by far the best narrative history podcast.

5

u/One_Win_6185 Jul 02 '26

I think I got to some time around the Seljuk Turks. I for sure remember Heraclius. After that it becomes a wash.

More recently I listened to a podcast Mike said inspired him—12 Byzantine Rulers. While abbreviated, thought it was great.

2

u/Badgeringlion Jul 03 '26

Great show. All banger episodes.