Here’s another immensely fascinating installment of the Hardcore History podcast: Episode 31 – Suffer the Children. In this episode, host Dan Carlin examines the issue of whether basically all children throughout history should be considered “battered” children, given pre-modern parenting practices, and wonders what effect this has had on the course of human events. He also ponders whether a few centuries of more civilized parenting might give us some hope of escaping our endless cycles of violence, quoting Saint Augustine, who is supposed to have said, “Give me different mothers, and I’ll give you a different world.” The show also makes repeated reference to a group of scholars who refer to themselves as “psychohistorians,” though sadly not that kind of psychohistorian.
ETA: I interviewed Dan Carlin for Episode 15 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast.
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