Turning Modern
by Chad D.
From the year 1500 to the fall of Napoleon, each episode of "Turning Modern" highlights a different event, person, or creative work in the early modern West. Join me as I look at the people, forces, and art that helped shape the world we live in, for better and for worse.
Episodes
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Halloween Special #1: The Serial Killer Countess
Elizabeth Bathory has become many things to many different people: a rare example of a female serial killer, an example of the demonization of strong women in history, or a macabre pop culture icon. But while a great deal has been written about her, is it possible to even know if she actually did...
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The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of God in Münster
As the Protestant Reformation continues to spread, the city of Münster unexpectedly plays a special role. Not only does it become a refuge for a religious minority despised by even other religious minorities, but it can boast being the capital of the new King of the World. Sources Arthur…
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The Secret Love of Copernicus
The scientific revolutionary Copernicus lived the simple life of a low-ranking priest and a bishop's personal physician in a northern Polish city. However, his correspondence does suggest he had one scandalous secret: he was likely living with his lover. Sources Freely, John. Celestial...
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The Abducted Children Sent To An Island
Hundreds of children were taken from their families and sent to a distant, previously uninhabited island. The reasons why this happened are a toxic mixture of deeply rooted intolerance and simple greed. Sources ha-Cohen, Joseph. The Vale of Tears (Emek Habacha), trans. Harry S. May (Martinus...
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How an Independence War Inspired a Ski Competition
A rebel leader and future king makes a dramatic escape across the Swedish countryside in the dead of December. This is the story of how this adventure inspired a famous competition centuries later. Sources Cited Gustafsson, Harald. “A State That Failed?: On the Union of Kalmar, Especially Its...
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The Forgotten Woman Who Helped Shape The Protestant Reformation
Someone sticks up for a university student accused of heresy. This starts the public career of one of the most assertive, formidable voices of the early Protestant Reformation, a voice that would probably be better remembered if not for the fact that they were a woman. Sources MacCulloch…
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The Peasant Revolt That Helped Change Eastern Europe
A soldier named György Dózsa helps turn an army of peasant crusaders into a full-on revolution. His war on the nobles who ruined his country's recent reforms is destined to have an impact, just not the one he wanted... Sources Albert-László. Barabási. Bursts: The Hidden Patters Behind…
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The Queen Who Became a Professional Writer
Marguerite de Navarre is the sister and wife of kings. While coping with being an agent of her brother and navigating the religious turmoil , she still found the time to become a bestselling author and perhaps the "first modern woman." Sources: Cholakian, Patricia F. and Rouben C. Marguerite de...
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The Actual First Bible Translated Into English (And The Man Who Died For It)
An Oxford grad and private tutor has a dream of making the first English Bible translated directly from Hebrew and Greek. Unfortunately, his ambition becomes a matter of life and death once his scholarly endeavors become just another front in the war to decide Europe's religious future. Sources...
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The Drop-Out Who Destroyed a Society
In 1519, Europeans made their first diplomatic contact with an urbanized empire in the Americas—and, within a few years, that empire will no longer exist, in no small part because of a failed law student from Spain.Sources: Cortés, Hernán. Letters from Mexico, trans. A.R. Pagden (Orion Books,...
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5/30 Update
Here is just a short update on the next episode and the state of the "Turning Modern" Patreon.
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Martin Luther on Trial
Martin Luther braves persecution by the Church to come to the city of Worms to have his case heard by Emperor Charles V. In this contest between a reviled monk who is the son of a mine owner and a monarch whose empire spans an ocean, the victor is perhaps not the person one would normally…
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The "Journalist" Who Covered the Ottoman Invasion of Egypt
Writing in the years of 1516 and 1517, an inhabitant of Cairo likely witnessed firsthand a new era as Egypt lost its independence and was forcibly annexed by the Ottoman Empire. However, he not only observed the collapse of the old regime, but also the toll it took on the people. Sources: Finkel,...
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The Erotic Publication That Scandalized Renaissance Europe
The apprentice of a legendary artist, the first publisher in history to be sued over copyright, and a famous satirist team up to create a provocative work of erotica that enraged the Pope himself. Sources: Romano, Giulio; Raimondi, Marcantonio; Aretino, Pietro; and Waldeck, Count...
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The German Peasant Who (Almost) Started a Revolution
A young German herdsman draws crowds while preaching about the evils of the nobility and the clergy and a new world where goods and land are shared. In hindsight, he is offering the elites of the Holy Roman Empire a warning about the near future, but will they listen? Sources: The German…
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The African King Who Had a Portuguese Name
The Kingdom of Kongo establishes a rare partnership with an up-and-coming European power, Portugal, to the point that the King of Kongo and his family embrace Christianity and take Portuguese royal names. However, this partnership will also be ground zero for one of the greatest atrocities in…
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The First Printed Book Banned By The Church
A genius prodigy sets out to change the world by resolving all philosophical and religious disputes with one book, his own 900 Theses, and a debate in Rome between Europe's brightest intellectual lights. And he will leave his mark on history, just not in the way he wants... Sources Cited:...
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The Age of Anxiety: Prelude
As the sixteenth century begins following plague, turmoil, traumatic defeats, and the discovery of new continents, people from all faiths feel that the end of history and salvation are at hand while others look to the past to find hope for the future. Reference: Cornell H. Fleischer, "A...
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Turning Modern: Introduction
What is Turning Modern, and why the "early modern West"?
About this show
From the year 1500 to the fall of Napoleon, each episode of "Turning Modern" highlights a different event, person, or creative work in the early modern West. Join me as I look at the people, forces, and art that helped shape the world we live in, for better and for worse.
Hosted by
Chad D.
Categories