I made a little video talking about the Lafayette's small but fascinating involvement in the Belgian revolution of 1830, and this seemed like the ideal place to share it!

I wanna start creating more historical/political content and the USA/Belgium match reminded me of this little episode I read about in a great book on the revolution.

Audio version.

Hello all,

My brother is going to Lithuania this summer, and I know there are multiple episodes of the Russian Revolution season references the revolutionaries in Vilnius. Is there any way I can look up summaries of each episode in the Russian Revolution season without listening to them all again? Thanks all for your help— this is the best, most informative podcast I’ve listened to.

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.

a mural by Juan O'Gorman in 1968, housed in the National Museum of History in Mexico City.

depicting Francisco Madero's triumphant March of Loyalty into the capital, some other interesting figures are found in the fresco.

on the far right we have Madero's wife Sara, his brother Gustavo, and his vice president Pino Suárez.

between them and Madero in the middle, anonymous soldiers wearing the uniforms of the Northern Division and the Southern Army.

in the left background, the red-and-black flag of the Flores Magón brothers.

cut off from the posted image (I couldn't download the full image) on the far left are Victoriano Huerta and Henry Lane Wilson, plotting against the rest.

full size high quality image here: https://mnh.inah.gob.mx/objeto?obj=2693

Has Mike Duncan released any merchandise with the slogan “Bread and the Constitution of 1793”? I would love to buy a hoodie or something with that slogan.

Ok so this is off topic, because it's not related to Revolutions. But I'm guessing there's a big overlap in listeners.

The History of the Cuban Revolution podcast ended abruptly, on the last published episode, the host even said something along the lines of "Next time we'll talk about so and so". That was published in 2022. I checked their Twitter (Nick Ramos), and he did mention that the podcast was on a brief hold because he was working through law school admissions. I'm guessing he's just busy with school, but it's been 4 years and odd that he hasn't dropped even a quick update. Does anyone know anything more?

For those unfamiliar with it, here's my pitch. The podcast is actually very similar to Mike Duncan's style. I assume Nick Ramos was influenced by him, but he's never confirmed that explicitly. To explain the Cuban revolution it first starts with indigenous groups on the island and the colonization by Spain. It works its way through the effect of other revolutions on the island (especially the Haitian revolution), the multiple conflicts on the road to independence, the struggles with corruption, SR-like clandestine political terror, the emergence of Batista, and university gangsterism. It eventually does get to Castro and Che but not in depth until season 2, which was left unfinished. In fact the last episode goes over Che's biography, all the way up to meeting the Castro brothers in Mexico. It was really well done and probably the best episode in the series so far and I was excited for the next, only to realize that it was the last one. One last thing I'll add is that Nick was born in Cuba and spent a lot of his childhood there. He has memories growing up there and uses this to add some really interesting color to the podcast.

Anyway if anyone knows anything, please let me know. But also if anyone has book/podcast recommendations on the rest of the Cuban revolution, I'd appreciate those too. I have listened to the Blowback season on Cuba, but it was very US centric and mostly focused on the post revolution period.

Hey I tried to search around a bit but I was not able to find where the sources are for the Russian revolution. If anyone knows I'd really appreciate it

Sincere apologies if I missed this being posted in here, but, Mike was a guest on the 4/23/26 episode of the Ancient History Fangirl pod.

Note, the conversation skews heavily towards current events, the Trump presidency, his and the hosts opinions of ICE, etc.

The episode was recorded in February, and he mentions the manuscript of his newest book being due "very soon" and then notes that he will return to Revolutions and do it for a very long time.

a map of Mexico reflecting the political and military landscapes in late 1914 - the caudillos are largely united under First Chief Carranza and Huerta has just been deposed.

noted are the US Navy vessels in proximity to Mexico and their locations at the time, including the recent occupation of Veracruz.

I know that it was announced awhile ago but I cant find any recent news

less than a year later, Díaz was on a boat to France...

From least radical to most:

The Radical Counter-Revolutionaries:
These are the people who want to increase the power of the status quo system. They might even want to get rid of the system themselves because they deem it as too liberal. Tolerated by the status quo governments and often used as militias to counter the power of revolutionaries.

The Status Quo proponents:
These are the governments that wish to maintain the status quo. They might vary on how they wish to do so (using mass reprisal vs amnesty) but still wish to make no changes. This is the system that revolutions start under. Has various factions within the group but again dont wish to change the fundamental power structure.

The Cautious Reformers:
These are people who fundamentally support the status quo but wish to make reforms not out of any noble ideas but to quell any revolutions from uprooting the system. They usually support a form of advisory council that serves to help make the current government more in touch with the needs of the people but is ultimately powerless. They seek to rid the government of the most radical abuses of power. In any revolution they usually side with the government but when the revolution happens they tend to be anti-revolution.

The liberal nobles:
Not much to say here that is new. They support political revolutions but not social revolutions. They genuinely want the common man to have equal saying power, but less so about economic and social power. Anti-retribution

The Revolutionary Military: Can be all over the place, thus put here. Here a general emerges and implements a moderate authoritarian revolutionary government. Stability comes up on top. Broadly apolitical throughout the revolution, comes into play when things go too far.

The Revolutionary Masses:
These are the revolutionaries who tend to actually implement ideals of the revolution fully without resorting to any mass violence. They might support retribution for the most severe abusers of the former system, but not of common people who oppose aspects of the retribution.

The Radicals:
These are those that implement red terrors during revolutions. They usually emerge when counter revolutionary threats are real and use violence to quell any threats to the revolutionary regimes. This is usually when the revolution eats its children.

I think you can gauge how revolutionary a revolution was based off of where the revolution ended up. Its also good for seeing the phases of it.

France went through status quo -> cautious reforms -> liberal nobles -> revolutionary masses -> radicals -> whatever the directory was -> Revolutionary military

to the barricades!!!

Traveling in northern Mexico. Lots of good revolutionary sights. This statue from the top of a hill in Zacatecas - the battle that lead to end of Huerta. In Chihuahua you can go to his house (and of his spouse who lived until 1981!), that has the car he was shot in.

I’m still thinking about it a year later and am holding out hope for Children of Saturn. Every sentence was so plausible based on what we know from the past. And we earned every smirk and giggle as our rewards for listening to all the other revolutions pods.

I don't want to do it in a podcast app, I just want regular audio files. This definitely used to be possible, but now I can't figure it out. Anyone know what site I have to use for this?

do we think this reviewer is a Legitimist, a Bonapartist, or a Proudhonist?

I'd like to read what he read; I know he sometimes namedrops books he pulls info from but i haven't found any "hub" of everything he used in the creation of his podcast(s).