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What do Protestant choirmasters, Renaissance pacifiers, mass retailers, and a 700 lb chocolate sculpture of Neil Armstrong have in common? They're all connected to the history of our favorite Christmas treat.  Join Emily, Meredith, and Frank as we explore the economics of the candy cane -- and what it teaches us about consumer behavior. Show Notes:"The Sweet and Sticky Story of Candy Canes" via National Geographic The Plate"The History of Candy Canes" via CBSNews"The Economics of Christmas""It's Crunch Time for 93-Year-Old Candy Maker" - Article about Hammond's candy company (here)Hammond's Candy Companyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OMx7xhxu70The post The Hidden History of Candy Canes (02×03) appeared first on The Hidden History of Business Podcast.

Meet James Reavis, the greatest con man you've never heard of.  Called the Baron of Arizona, Reavis defrauded thousands of people -- scamming them out of more than $150 million in today’s dollars. Using his forgery skills and a love of Spanish romance novels, he literally stole most of Arizona from legal landowners.  And the most famous newspapermen, railroad giants, government officials, and Spanish aristocrats of the 1800s fell for it -- hook, line, and sinker. Join us as Emily breaks down largest and most diabolical scam in American History. Timeline of James ReavisTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo· 2/2/1848· Ended the Mexican-American war· Gave US lots of land: Rio Grande, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada Utah, Wyoming, ColoradoGadsen purchase· Signed 12/30/1853, final approval 6/8/1854· James Gadsen was American ambassador to Mexico· Lands south of Gila River and west of Rio Grande, finish Arizona, New Mexico· acquired to construct transcontinental railroad along deep southern route, Southern Pacific Railroad completed in 1883· Reconcile outstanding border issues following Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoUnder terms of treaties above, US had to recognize and honor existing land grants made by Spanish or Mexican governmentsEarly life· Born 5/10/1843 in Missouri· Father immigrated from Wales, mother of Spanish descent and proud of that heritage, read Spanish Romantic literature to him as a child· Enlisted in Confederate Army at 18 full of romanticized ideals of military life and realized it wasn’t quite so grand· Realized he could forge not only his commanding officer’s signature, but the entire handwritten furlough form, began creating passes so he could leave and visit family or scape the drudgery for a while· Fellow soldiers noticed, so he started selling them fake passes· Forged provision orders and resold goods a cut-rate deals· When superiors got suspicious, he took leave to “get married” and then surrendered to Union forces instead. Served in the Union Army briefly.· Returned to Missouri after war, odd jobs – streetcar conductor, traveling salesman, retail clerk, finally landed in real estate where discovered that those forging skills he learned on army passes were easily transferred to property titles and other real estate paperwork.Dr. Willing· Physician turned prospector who supplemented income selling patent medicine· Purchase rights to large Spanish land grant from Miguel Peralta for $20,000 in gold dust, prospectin equipment and saddle mules – deed scratched on scrap paper, no notary just witnesses· Had some legal paperwork, letters that supported claim – had William W. Gitt, expert in Spanish land titles, join them & verify· Reavis saw opportunity, they agreed to meet in Arizona territory, traveling separately so they could meet up when they got there, increasing their credibility and decreasing the likelihood anyone would know they were partners Snag· Willing arrived in Prescott in March 1874, filed his claim at the county courthouse and was found dead the next morning.· When Reavis arrived in San Francisco, received two letters: from Willing announcing his safe arrival, from country sheriff announcing his death.· Reavis needed the papers Willing had in order to pull off his plans, but ran out of money so stayed in CA working as a teacher and journalist· Spent time observing the Public Land Commission, how it worked, claimed approved, bribery· Met Collis P. Huntington, railroad magnate, who was angry at his paper San Francisco Examiner for its attack on him and was using his influence to scare away advertisers and subscribers. Reavis met with him, told him about the Peralta grant which would allow him to grant right-of-way privileges to Huntington’s railroad line.

Everything you know about Black Friday is wrong (except the mob-driven violence and greed. You're definitely right about that).  It has nothing to do with slave markets or retailers' profits moving into the black. It's not the biggest shopping day of the year, and it definitely doesn't have the best prices of the year, either. Frank, Meredith, and Emily separate fact from fiction while exploring the cultural and business evolution of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday shopping. Don't miss the outtakes at the end of the episode! (Show notes are coming, y'all. Promise. It's just been one of those weeks).The post 02X01 Mythbusting Black Friday appeared first on The Hidden History of Business Podcast.

Shouldn't you always strain your mash before distilling it? What is "on the grain" distilling? Meredith breaks down answers to listener questions in this quick minicast.Our last episode (Ep 48: Whiskey, Women, and Walgreens) sparked messages from listeners telling us we'd made a mistake when we talked about putting mash into a still to make whiskey. Mash, they insisted, should always be strained so you only put liquid -- also called "the wash" -- into a still and never the solids.And they're partially right. To makes *some* kinds of whiskey and whisky, you absolutely SHOULD distill only the wash after lautering (separating) it from the mash solids.But that's not true for all. Putting the mash liquids AND solids in the still is a method called "distilling on the grain," and -- when done properly -- it produces richer flavored, higher proof bourbon and rye whiskeys.  This method has been used all of the world for millennia, and Americans have been perfecting it for the last 300 years.Distilling on the grain requires more skill and is certainly more risky than distilling the wash. If you don't have a still that lets you carefully control the heat, the solids will burn quickly -- and that will render the whiskey bitter, charred, and undrinkable. That's why on the grain distillers use special, steam-based stills called column, continuous, or chamber stills.What's more, many non-grain based spirits depend on distilling solids. Examples include mezcal, tequila's cousin made by distilling chunks of the agave plant, and many kinds of rum.Use the links below to learn more about on the grain distilling and the stills used to do it.How Column Distillation Works: Bourbon EditionThe Chamber Still is RebornHow Booze is Make: The Basics of Column DistillationThe post MINICAST: Distilling Whiskey – Mer Answers Your Questions appeared first on The Hidden History of Business Podcast.

Forget everything you know about whiskey, Prohibition, and the modern liquor industry. The real story is wild ride full of little known tales, plot twists, and unexpected connections that shaped the drink we call aqua vitae - the water of life.We're not kidding about the "crammed" part. We explore the connections between: Mesopotamian perfume makers & Alexandrian alchemists The Jewish female alchemist who invented the still Baptism by fire in Gnostic traditions Monastic infirmaries and the origin of gin Walla Walla onions and champagne The real story behind anti-Catholic stereotypes of drunken priests The anti-union, anti-immigrant, and anti-black agenda of the Temperance Movement Myths about alcohol consumption in the 1800s Why Prohibition caused a spike in rabbinical school enrollments and church attendance Why the average bootlegger was a woman -- not a mobster - who exploited cultural norms to outsell her male competitors 5 to 1! How Walgreens became the largest drug store chain in the United States (SPOILER: Despite their official story, it has nothing to do with milkshakes) That time the US government knowingly poisoned thousands of people How the myth that women don't drink whiskey originated after World War II How a Scottish woman became the Mother of Japanese Whisky and much more!Really. This may be the most information-dense show we've ever done.And Mer geeks out a lot (but that was kind of a given, right?)Additional Links & Resources:Janet Patton interviewed author Fred Minnick about his book Whiskey Women: The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch, and Irish Whiskey. Read the article "Women and Whiskey Go Together, Always Have" for some fascinating insights into the her-story of whiskey. Here's a taste:"I truly believe that women are more important than men when it comes to the history of whiskey," Minnick told an August gathering of Bourbon Women at the Kentucky Governor's Mansion in Frankfort. "Sumerian women invented beer. Mesopotamian women invented distillation for perfume. An Egyptian woman created the alembic still and you can still find prototypes of this in Kentucky and Tennessee for moonshining."Some images are less than appealing, such as the madams operating riverboat brothels or the Temperance crusaders who hatcheted saloons and fought for Prohibition.But, Minnick writes, it is thanks largely to women that American whiskey survived the era. And then check out Fred Minnick's book: For more information on women and whiskey, read "Women Making Whiskey: An 800-year History" from The Atlantic by Lyndsey Gilpin. Here's an excerpt: Women are credited with the invention of beer around 4,000 B.C., when they fermented barley to make the beverage. Egyptian women, Peruvian women, Dutch women—they were all brewmasters with their own particular, popular recipes. Maria Hebraea, an alchemist who was first written about in the fourth century, has been credited with building an early distilling apparatus. That device, the alembic still, is still used in some parts of Europe for making brandy or whiskey, and is a model for stills used today in the foothills of Appalachia, where people continue to make moonshine.By the medieval era, women were distilling spirits in Western Europe, but soon they were stripped of basic rights, barred from reading and studying math or science. In some cultures, they weren’t allowed to be near alcohol. Women do not appear in most texts from this era, and there was little to no mention of these operations for many years, until they started popping back up again in the 1200s, Minnick says. Women were running apothecaries as the demand for distilled medicines increased. They made “aqua vitae”—distilled beer, wine, or spirits—for medicinal use. Until the 1500s,

Frank breaks down the history, controversies, and basics of the Gold Standard in just 7 minutes.Additional Links and Resources: Wikipedia is actually a great source to get the basics on the gold standard. No, REALLY. I know, I know. Your college professors promised to fail you if you even thought of using it as a source, and that has biased you against it. It's ok. No one is grading you here. We won't tell. The gold standard has come up in this presidential election from some Republican candidates. This New York Times article addresses those proposals through the lens of several historians. History.com has a brief overview of how and why FDR took the USA off the gold standard in 1933. Matthew O'Brien lays out the arguments against returning to the gold standard in his Atlantic article "Why the Gold Standard Is the World's Worst Economic Idea, in 2 Charts." The gold standard limited central banks from printing money when economies needed central banks to print money, and limited governments from running deficits when economies needed governments to run deficits. It was a devilish device for turning recessions into depressions. The answer is that some people aren't worried about depressions. Some people are worried about inflation. Even when none exists. To them, these fetters are the feature, not a bug.It's a simple idea. If governments can't print or spend too much money, prices should be stable. Simple, but wrong. Back in 2011, the state of Utah took an interesting step toward a gold standard by eliminating state taxes on the exchange of gold coins. Read more here. The Cato Institute issued a paper ("Is the Gold Standard Still the Gold Standard among Monetary Systems?") with a cautiously pro-gold standard slant. You can read the whole interview with Allan H. Metzler that Frank quotes at the end of podcast here. Well, all the way back to the 1970s I used to debate Ron Paul on radio about the gold standard. And of course, as you know, he’s an advocate of the gold standard – was then and is now. My final remark to him on almost every occasion was, “Look, we don’t have the gold standard. It’s not because we don’t know about the gold standard, it’s because we do.”The post Ep 47 – The Gold Standard in 7 Minutes (MINICAST) appeared first on The Hidden History of Business Podcast.

What do large scale sea travel, the Hajj, Parson Weems's biography of George Washington, and Welsh naming customs have to do with the richest man in history? EVERYTHING, folks! They all help tell the story of how Mansa Musa became Emperor of Mali, amazed a fortune of $400 BILLION in today's dollars, and used business incentives and savvy PR stunts to do it.Additional Links & ResourcesHere's the article that started it all for us: "The 25 Richest People Who Ever Lived - Inflation Adjusted". Mansa Musa is, of course, #1. Sorry, Bill and Warren.This is the amazing Catalan Map of 1375 we discuss in the podcast. You can see Mansa Musa sitting in the bottom right corner holding up a nugget of gold. Click through here to get a more up-close look at different parts of the map. Here's the detail of Mansa Musa:John Green did a great 10-minute Crash Course episode on Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa. Watch it here.Here's an excerpt from the African Muslim scholar Mahmud Kati's "The Chronicle of the Seeker" about Mansa Musa, including that tantalizing bit about his motivation for undertaking the hajj: This Mali-koy was an upright, godly, and devout sultan. His dominion stretched from the limits of Mali as far as Sibiridugu, and all the peoples in these lands, Songhay and others, obeyed him. Among the signs of his virtue are that he used to emancipate a slave every day, that he made the pilgrimage to the sacred house of God, and that in the course of his pilgrimage he built the great mosque of Timbuktu as well as the mosques of Dukurey, Gundam, Direy, Wanko, and Bako.His mother Kankan was a native woman, though some say she was of Arab origin. The cause of his pilgrimage was related to me as follows by the scholar Muhammad Quma, may God have mercy on him, who had memorized the traditions of the ancients. He said that the Mali-koy Kankan Musa had killed his mother, Nana Kankan, by mistake. For this he felt deep regret and remorse and feared retribution. In expiation he gave great sums of money in alms and resolved on a life-long fast.He asked one of the ulama of his time what he could do to expiate this terrible crime, and he replied, "You should seek refuge with the Prophet of God, may God bless and save him. Flee to him, place yourself under his protection, and ask him to intercede for you with God, and God will accept his intercession. That is my view."Kankan Musa made up his mind that very day and began to collect the money and equipment needed for the journey. Read al-Umari's description of Mansa Musa's visit to Cairo here. While he arrived in Cairo a few years after Mansa Musa's visit, he spoke to many people who had seen Mansa Musa firsthand and this is one of the best contemporary accounts we have. From the beginning of my coming to stay in Egypt I heard talk of the arrival of this sultan Musa on his Pilgrimage and found the Cairenes eager to recount what they had seem of the Africans’ prodigal spending.  I asked the emir Abu…and he told me of the opulence, manly virtues, and piety of his sultan.  “When I went out to meet him {he said} that is, on behalf of the mighty sultan al-Malik al-Nasir, he did me extreme honour and treated me with the greatest courtesy.  He addressed me, however, only through an interpreter despite his perfect ability to speak in the Arabic tongue.  Then he forwarded to the royal treasury many loads of unworked native gold and other valuables.  I tried to persuade him to go up to the Citadel to meet the sultan, but he refused persistently saying: “I came for the Pilgrimage and nothing else.  I do not wish to mix anything else with my Pilgrimage.”  He had begun to use this argument but I realized that the audience was repugnant to him because he would be obliged to kiss the ground and the sultan’s hand.  I continue to cajole him and he continued to make excuses but the sultan’s protocol demanded that I should bring him into the ...

This is the story of why tarring and feathering government employees is not a legitimate form of democratic expression.  Also, booze. (Happy Tax Day! We're getting this up one day late - because, like many of you, we were still working on our taxes, too!)Additional Links & Resources:Read a quick overview of the Whiskey Rebellion from Encyclopedia Britannica here and from PBS's series "The American Experience" here.Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, was a key figure in the Whiskey Rebellion. Here's a portrait of him done by John Trumbull in 1792, not long before the Whiskey Rebellion:Listen to the entire "Cabinet Battle #1" (where Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson argue about the national bank and states' debt - and allude to the future whiskey tax) from the musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda below. (There's a bit of NSFW or NSFChildren language, so be aware of that.)whiskeyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBmTdJ4XTfs This illustration shows the mob tarring and feathering the government tax collector (that's him on top of the pole the two men are carrying). It was drawn almost a hundred years later, but shows the heightened emotions this issue raised among the people.This painting of George Washington surveying his troops near Fort Cumberland, Maryland, in preparation for the march to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. George Washington remains the only sitting U.S. president to have led troops into battle.The post Ep 45: The Whiskey Rebellion appeared first on The Hidden History of Business Podcast.

A few years ago, inspired by the films he watched during his naval training, Frank wrote this funny little blog post about Godzilla and leadership. Years later, it's still our most popular post - and it's even been used in a few MBA course syllabi. We've included the entire original post below:  11 Leadership Lessons From Godzilla (original post here: http://me2-solutions.com/2013/05/leadership-lessons-from-godzilla.html)One week when I was eight, Channel 9 in Los Angeles chose Godzilla as their Million Dollar Movie – the original Godzilla with Raymond Burr. They played it every day for a whole week.  I saw the movie eight times in eight days!  It was love at first sight. There’s something universal about Godzilla that really speaks to kids’ imaginations – three generations later, my grand kids still clamor to watch it every time they come over.50+ years since I first heard Godzilla roar, I’ve worked with everyone from the Boy Scouts to Rickover to Congress. I’ve studied Attila the Hun and Sun Tzu and modern business leadership gurus. But looking back, I realize that everything I needed to know about leadership, I learned in that first Godzilla movie.1.  In the Beginning – when a problem first appears we make up lame excuses for what’s happening. Ships mysteriously bursting into flames and sinking – that’s all the information that anyone has at first.  So what does our fearless hero have as an answer?  “Maybe it was a mine!”  It’s a truism that we always seek to explain mysteries with the known or familiar.  That means that we can deal with the problem because we know what the answer will be.  It’s not that big a deal.  The unusual doesn’t appear to be unusual in the beginning.2.  Godzilla can’t be scheduled, Godzilla happens when Godzilla happens. Problems are always unscheduled.  After all, if they are scheduled, then we can and would be prepared for them or avoid them.  It like the Weather Bureau’s 100-year events – they are supposed to occur only once in a hundred years – but how many times have you heard “storm of the century” lately on the news?  (Hint: There are 89.3 million hits on Google)  The Weather Bureau makes a lot of their predictions based on what’s happened in the past – If we have a low pressure area here, then we’ll have snow here.  And yes, they have a lot of science to back up their predictions, but it’s based on what’s happened before. The Challenger blew up 73 seconds after launch because the launch was scheduled for a very cold morning and the O-rings were too brittle to contain the gases generated by the boosters.  So easy to see after the event, but evidently, before the event, it was impossible to see.  Which leads to our next lesson…3.  When Godzilla first appears we’re always surprised Experts don’t have a clue until they have data and it takes time to gather data and understand the information generated.  If you can gather information, create models and run enough simulations, then it’s easy to know – or at least have a good idea – what will happen when the unexpected happens.  But we can’t conceive of what we can’t imagine. If the largest animal is an elephant, then why would you ever think that an animal could be 450 feet tall?  (In the original, Gojira was only 150 feet tall.)  Or spit fire?  Or that someone would deliberately fly a jetliner with a full load of passengers into a skyscraper? (Side note:  On 9/11, I spoke with my division director who was a retired Air Force pilot.  He explicitly stated that he couldn’t imagine flying a plane into a skyscraper – everything in his training and experience said you avoided crashing into buildings even if it meant you stayed with the plane as it augured into the ground.)4.  When Godzilla wants to play, you have to play with what you’ve got. When it hits the fan, you don’t have the time to plan, buy supplies, build new systems,

Godzilla is - and always has been -- more than a monster movie. April 27th will be the 60th anniversary of Godzilla's release in the U.S. Join us as we geek out about our favorite guardian monster, and explore: how an 8 year old Frank fell in love with Godzilla what really happened when the atomic bombs dropped the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs -- emotionally, economically, and socially. how a visa issue nearly derailed the Japanese film industry the connection between Godzilla and Batman how Godzilla helped Japan process the effects of the war and radiation poisoning what modern businesses can learn from the men who created GodzillaBonus! You'll also get to hear Meredith and Frank recommend their favorite monster movies. We have opinions on this subject, folks. OPINIONS.Be sure to check out Part B of this episode  -- a minicast about the 11 Leadership Lesson from Godzilla.Additional Links & ResourcesFirst off, take a look at the awesome original 1954 Japanese movie poster for Godzilla:We here at Me2 Solutions love Godzilla with a passion usually reserved for our children and rich chocolate desserts (Emily is drooling). So it makes sense that we have written about Godzilla several times:Read our original blog post, 11 Leadership Lessons from Godzilla for a brief overview of some valuable insights like this:When Godzilla wants to play, you have to play with what you’ve got. When it hits the fan, you don’t have the time to plan, buy supplies, build new systems, or even run for cover.  You are it.  So, what do you do?  Well, I hope you really understand what you have in people, materials and other resources because you will have to respond or be the one stomped on. The fact is that many of the unexpected problems can be responded to or, at least, reduced the consequences of, with actions or procedures that would work for problems we were expecting.  When Godzilla appears, having a plan to evacuate your neighborhood in case of an industrial accident – say a rail car full of chlorine gas derailing – will work if you have to evacuate because of a 450 foot green lizard.  You will have an idea of what you have to do, at the least. Here's my favorite meme from that article. Makes me smile every time. -Emily Next, check out 5 Leadership Lessons from the Men Behind Godzilla. One excerpt: In America, Hollywood was cranking out films about radioactive monsters and making money hand-over-fist. But radioactivity was a real, overwhelming issue for the Japanese – Even though they’d never developed or tested atomic bombs themselves, they were the only people in the world who had actually experienced the horrors of nuclear war. And they were still grappling with the consequences ten years later.That’s when Tanaka had his epiphany. What if the monster were less a reaction to the atomic bomb that a symbol of the bomb itself? What if the monster was awakened by the bomb? What if it attacked Tokyo? What would the country do then?It worked. Godzilla spoke to the Japanese about the atomic bomb and destruction the same way the Batman reboot spoke to America about terrorism, corruption, and justice. The Japanese fell in love with Godzilla because he embodied the fears, worries, and pain of an entire nation still trying to rebuild after Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The characters and story became a symbol of the Japanese determination to work together to recover their national pride and rebuild their country.Godzilla was such a success because Tanaka identified his customers’ pain – problems they faced on daily basis, that the entire nation struggled to talk about — and addressed it with hope and passion.The director, Ishiro Honda (on the left holding Godzilla), works with his special effects crew.Read Hiroshima Anniversary: What Actually Happened When th...

Nana Asma'u is the smartest and most influential women you've probably never heard of. She was a teacher, princess, scholar, social reformer, teen mother -- and the original glass ceiling smasher. Oh, and in her spare time she just happened to revolutionize education for African women in the massive Sokoto Caliphate.  In this episode, Emily explains how her story challenges stereotypes of Muslim and African women -- including how she used her mad poetry skills, religious training, branding savvy, and strategic genius to create educational opportunities and careers for women that **still exist today**Links & Additional Resources:Nana Asma'u by Heba Amin (notice the malfa she's wearing)For a great brief biography on Nana Asma'u, check out this page at www.wisemuslimwomen.org. For a more in-depth look at Nana Asma'u, read Jean Boyd's The Essential Nana Asma'u.The Sokoto Caliphate was huge! To get a sense of just how much area it covered, take a look at this map from African Diaspora Maps:For more information on how Nana Asma'u and her father Usman dan Fodio's views on education were related to their Muslim faith and Sufism, read "Nana Asma'u Tradition: An Intellectual Movement and a Symbol of Women Rights in Islam During the 19th Century DanFodio’s Islamic Reform" by Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u. Here's a brief excerpt we liked: Islam has the precedence in calling of human rights, their protection and the conception of the individual, society, and the state as the guardians of human rights in the sense that human rights are essentially religious duties. Whoever, performs these duties is rewarded and whoever neglects them gets punished (cited in Al-Hageel 2001:117).Islam provided legislation on human rights fourteen centuries ago, and provided all assurances for protecting those human rights for the whole scheme of life. The provisions and principles guaranteeing the rights of humans were explicitly and thoroughly stipulated in the Holy Qur’an and the honourable Sunnah fourteen hundred years prior to their declaration by any secular system. And this description of 'Yan taru is fascinating: The greatest of Asma’u’s contribution which signifies her political and intellectual sophistication, is the ‘Yan taru movement. A movement which is the backbone of her teaching philosophy and the soul of her reform strategy, hence the genesis of the Nana Asma’u tradition.Asma’u established a cadre of literate, itinerant women teachers (Jajis) who disseminated her instructive poetic works among the masses. Trained by Asma’u, these women were extension teachers using Asma’u’s works as lesson plans and mnemonic divices through which they instructed secluded women in the privacy of their homes… Nana Asma’u’s training of Jajis and the ‘Yan taru was community work whose primary tool was the spoken word.Asma’u relied on each Jaji to act as a mentor and to bring groups of women to her. To each she gave a large malfa hat made of fine silky grasses. Usually worn by men, the hats have a distinctive balloon shape because they are intended to be worn over turbans. A Malfa was also (and remains) one of the marks of the office used by the Inna of Gobir, the chief of women devotees of bori. Asma’u deliberately took up the symbol, and by giving each Jaji a Malfa, she at once devalued its uniqueness and transformed what it stood for From being symbolic of bori, it turned into an emblem of Islam. This article, "Nana Asma'u: A Spark Who Continues to Illuminate", talks about not only the history of 'Yan taru, but also how Nana Asma'u's influence is still felt today in the modern iterations of 'Yan taru across the globe. To read more about modern 'Yan taru, check out here and here. If you'd like to learn more, you can buy a copy of the biography One Woman's Jihad: Nana Asma'u, Scholar and Scribe written by Beverly Mack and Jean Boyd,

Frank explains the Crimean War in 7 minutes. This is a clip from when we recorded Episode 40 on Mary Seacole that we had to edit down for the episode -- but it was such a great explanation that we didn't want you to miss it! He also drops some awesome Pride and Prejudice references, discusses how buying commissions caused trouble for military leadership, and the total failure of French and British military intelligence at Sevastopol.Listen to the full episode on Mary Seacole here: Ep 40: Mary Seacole: Nurse, Doctress, & Social Entrepreneur  The post Ep 41: The Crimean War in 7 Minutes (MINICAST) appeared first on The Hidden History of Business Podcast.

There's a reason Mary Seacole was voted the greatest black Briton in history.  Long before Silicon Valley coined the term "social entrepreneurship," she was using her business savvy to address society's urgent medical needs and subsidize medical treatments for the poor.  Did you know that indigenous people in the Caribbean understood germ theory hundreds of years before Europeans jumped on the band wagon? Mary did! She combined that understanding with modern medical techniques to combat cholera, infection, and disease in the Caribbean, the Crimean War, and England.  We'll also discuss the snarky things Karl Marx said about the British and French, why comparing Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale is misguided, and that time Mary sold refreshments to "battle spectators" in the 1850s.Links & Additional ResourcesIn 2004, Mary Seacole was voted the greatest black Briton; you can read a brief biography at www.100greatblackbritons.com.A watercolor painting of Mary Seacole, c. 1850 (unidentified artist). (Credit - public domain)Sketch of Mary Seacole drawn by William Simpson during the Crimean War, 1855. (Credit - public domain)Drawing of Mary Seacole's "British Hotel" in the Crimea by Lady Alicia Blackwood. (Credit - public domain) Seacole describes it in her autobiography: Let me, in a few words, describe the British Hotel. It was acknowledged by all to be the most complete thing there. It cost no less than £800. The buildings and yards took up at least an acre of ground, and were as perfect as we could make them. The hotel and storehouse consisted of a long iron room, with counters, closets, and shelves; above it was another low room, used by us for storing our goods, and above this floated a large union-jack. Attached to this building was a little kitchen, not unlike a ship's caboose – all stoves and shelves. In addition to the iron house were two wooden houses, with sleeping apartments for myself and Mr. Day, outhouses for our servants, a canteen for the soldiery, and a large enclosed yard for our stock, full of stables, low huts, and sties. Everything, although rough and unpolished, was comfortable and warm; and there was a completeness about the whole which won general admiration. The reader may judge of the manner in which we had stocked the interior of our store from the remark, often repeated by the officers, that you might get everything at Mother Seacole's, from an anchor down to a needle. The front cover of Mary Seacole's bestselling autobiography, published in 1857. Here's a passage from the beginning of her life: My mother kept a boardinghouse in Kingston, and was, like very many of the Creole women, an admirable doctress; in high repute with the officers of both services, and their wives, who were from time to time stationed at Kingston. It was very natural that I should inherit her tastes; and so I had from early youth a yearning for medical knowledge and practice which has never deserted me...I saw so much of her, and of her patients, that the ambition to become a doctress early took firm root in my mind; and I was very young when I began to make use of the little knowledge I had acquired from watching my mother, upon a great sufferer – my doll...whatever disease was most prevalent in Kingston, be sure my poor doll soon contracted it. I have had many medical triumphs in later days, and saved some valuable lives; but I really think that few have given me more real gratification than the rewarding glow of health which my fancy used to picture stealing over my patient's waxen face after long and precarious illness.Before long it was very natural that I should seek to extend my practice; and so I found other patients in the dogs and cats around me. Many luckless brutes were made to simulate diseases which were raging among their owners, and had forced down their reluctant throats the remedies which I deemed most likely to suit their s...

Happy St. Patty's Day! What do St. Patrick and Irish beer have to do with the Wicked Witch of The West? EVERYTHING! And we really mean EVERYTHING! Learn how competition between local Irish brewer created the modern witch caricature, how the Grain wars of the 1600-1800s changed the brewing industry, why the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars were only possible because of English brewers and malters, and how Guinness finally stopped Irish dependence on English beer. Beer history is back, folks!Links & Additional ResourcesFirst, read this brief history of beer in Ireland to get your bearings. It begins a loooooong time ago... Irish beer is ancient.You can trace it back no fewer than 5,000 years, back into the earliest days of Irish agriculture, when the magical trilogy of fertile soil, soft rain and gentle, cool breezes made for a climate that could produce superb barley. And then check out this article that focuses more on the brewing from the 1700s on. Portions of the fascinating book Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World 1300-1600 by Judith M. Bennett are available on Google Books. Here's one money quote: Perhaps most important, like all women, alewives were deemed prone to disobedience...their work threatened the ideal of a proper patriarchal order. In flirting with customers, alewives undermined the authority of their husbands; in handling money, goods, and debts, they challenged the economic power of men, in bargaining with male customers, they achieved a seemingly unnatural power over men; in avoiding effective regulation of their trade, they insulted the power of male officers and magistrates; and perhaps most important, in simply pursuing their trade, they often worked independently of men. And talking about how depictions of alewives in popular poems and ballads of the day affected the public's perceptions: They socially marginalized the alehouses run by alewives; they implied that alewives were particularly likely to cheat and deceive their customers; they suggested that the rink sold by alewives was particularly filthy and adulterated; and they dangerously associated alewives with disorder, heresy, and witchcraft. In everyday life, these sorts of accusations carried real force. In 1413, the brewster Christine Colmere of Canterbury lost all her trade when Simon Daniel told her neighbors that she was leprous; although the charge was false, her customers left her for fear of contaminated ale. In 1641, an unnamed widow who brewed for the garrison at Ludlow castle lost her trade because, despite her fine reputation, a male competitor spread false rumors about her person and her business. As both Colmere and this unnamed widow learned, a brewster's trade could be damaged by words alone. What they lost though specific slander, other alewives--who worked in a world abounding with images that ridiculed them and maligned their trade--might have lost through more general opprobrium. Here's the insightful genius that helped connect Irish beer and alewives with our modern day cartoon image of witches, including connecting the dots on why we think of witches today as women with big, pointy hats, cats, cauldrons, and brooms. You know, something like this:The post Ep 42: Irish Beer, Alewives, and Witches appeared first on The Hidden History of Business Podcast.

Mary Anning had the deck stacked against her from the beginning - not only was her family poor and part of a religious minority, she was a woman in Regency England interested in science (gasp!). Yet she was defining the fields of  biology, zoology, and paleontology when Darwin was still in diapers. Blocked from joining the gentlemen scientists of established societies, she sold seashells by the seashore -- using business and branding to control the fossil market and make them her devoted customers.   We'll explore how her story connects with tongue twisters, dinosaur pool, the effects of the Napoleonic Wars on tourism, and Harry Potter plot twists (yes, really!).Links & Additional ResourcesThis brief biography from the University of California Museum of Paleontology includes the quote we read from Lady Harriet Sivester: . . . the extraordinary thing in this young woman is that she has made herself so thoroughly acquainted with the science that the moment she finds any bones she knows to what tribe they belong. She fixes the bones on a frame with cement and then makes drawings and has them engraved. . . It is certainly a wonderful instance of divine favour - that this poor, ignorant girl should be so blessed, for by reading and application she has arrived to that degree of knowledge as to be in the habit of writing and talking with professors and other clever men on the subject, and they all acknowledge that she understands more of the science than anyone else in this kingdom. In 2010, the Royal Society compiled a list of the ten most influential British women in the history of science and Mary Anning made the cut! You can read the entire list, as well as brief biographical sketches of the women, here. To celebrate International Women's Day on March 8, the Geological Society of London posted "The road to Fellowship - a history of women and the Geological Society" on their blog. While Mary Anning isn't mentioned (what's up with that, GSL??), it provides great insight into the barriers to women participating in scientific fields and receiving recognition for their work. Find the lyrics to this delightfully catchy song here. Emily's favorite verse is the second: By circa 1820, She ran a fossil store. She put the bones together For the col-lect-ors. And science was the province Of men of noble birth. But I'd take Mary Anning Over those stuffed white shirts! This band, artichoke, has an entire album of songs about scientists. AN.ENTIRE.ALBUM. You can buy it on their website here. Take my money -- right??Portrait of Mary Anning by B.J Donne - notice her dog Trey in the bottom right (Credit)This is an example of a fossilized ammonite like those Mary would have found in Lyme Regis by the hundreds. (Photo credit)Fossilized skeleton of a rhomaleosaurus, a type of plesiosaurus discovered and identified by Mary Anning (Photo credit)Duria Antiquior by Henry De la Beche. This watercolor was the first to represent what a prehistoric scene might have looked like based on fossil evidence. De la Beche used Mary Anning's discoveries in Lyme Regis to inform his painting. This painting is also the first known example of the aquarium view showing the action both above and below the water. (Public domain)Google got in on the Mary Anning action with this Doodle celebrating her 215th birthday on May 21, 2014. (Credit) Just before publishing this podcast, we discovered a fun poem about Mary Anning written by Jamaican poet John Kenyon (1784-1856), a distant cousin and good friend of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (Mostly, I'm impressed with all the rhymes he came up with for "Anning"!) An excerpt is below: Though keenest winds were whistling round, Though hottest suns thy cheek were tanning, Nor suns, nor winds could check or bound

Ever heard people say that "women entered the workforce during World War II?" Meredith, Emily, & Frank address why that belief is incomplete and inaccurate -- and how that myth was manufactured by media and propaganda in the 1900s. They review the history of women's work from hunter-gatherer societies through the 1960s, including: How World War II REALLY changed women's role in the American workforce How that stereotype whitewashes the history of black female slaves, indentured servant, and immigrants in America Women on the frontier (including how Emily & Meredith's great-grandma, Lillian Eschler, homesteaded her own land) How the Victorian "Angel of the Home" stereotype existed side-by-side with child labor and female factory workers Why hunter-gatherers and early agrarians didn't segregate work by gender as much as we thought How medieval women used convents to preserve their wealth and stabilize inheritances Why Catherine de Medici and Eleanor of Aquitaine were skilled brand managers Links & Additional Resources:"It's Your War, Too!" American Women in World War II via The Best Film Archives. This is a real, honest-to-goodness War Department movie from !944.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGp93ijzok4The Ledger of Ann DeWitt Bevier (1762-1834), Early American Estate Manager and Mother by Sally M. Schultz & Joan Hollister from the Accounting Historian's Journal. This is an amazing piece of research that we'll dig into with more depth in a later episode. From the introduction:"Ann DeWitt Bevier was widowed on April 18, 1802, and with her husband’s death, she assumed responsibility for man-aging the family’s agricultural interests, supervising a staff of both slave and free labor, and raising their eight children. On April 19, 1802, Ann Bevier began keeping detailed accounting records, in her careful and comely script, to track her business and personal affairs. The ledger that she maintained until 1813 represents a rich primary source that provides perspective on how a rural agriculturalist and household head in New York’s mid-Hudson River valley interacted with the social and cultural environment in the young American nation. Like a diary, such an accounting record tracks aspects of an individual’s life, focusing on the ongoing activities of daily living and their economic impact. The detail that Bevier included in her ledger helps create a unique perspective on her life as she managed a farm, family household, brick kiln, rental property, and investments in financial instruments, and so expands the gendered history of economic life."The History Chick's episode on Lillian Moller Gilbreth.  She's one of Meredith and Frank's long-time heroes (efficiency geeks, unite!). Beckett and Susan knock this one out of the park, as usual.Women & Equality via Exploring US History. This article explores women's work equality in pre-market economies.The Angel of the House, poem by Coventry Patmore 1854: Man must be pleased; but him to please Is woman's pleasure; down the gulf Of his condoled necessities She casts her best, she flings her breast [...]She loves with love that cannot tire; And when, ah woe, she loves alone, Through passionate duty love springs higher, As grass grows taller round a stone.The female virtues of the cult of domesticity (source):"...true women" were to hold and practice the four cardinal virtues: 1. Piety – Religion was valued because—unlike intellectual pursuits—it did not take a woman away from her "proper sphere," the home, and because it controlled women's longings. 2. Purity – Virginity, a woman's greatest treasure, must not be lost until her marriage night, and married women had to remain committed only to their husbands. 3. Submission – True women were required to be as submissive and obedient "as little c...

Pirate operettas, misogynistic courtship rituals of uncertain origin, and varying levels of government incompetence? It can only mean one things, folks: We're talking about Leap Year! Join us as we explore what the Pope has to do with standardized calendars, why the calendar has always been controlled by business interest, and that one time Roman bureaucrats randomly started scheduling leap years every 3 years instead of every 4 -- and it took them 50+ years to notice.(You had one job, guys. ONE JOB)We also explore the twisted myths and extreme courtship traditions surrounding Feb 29th, and the leap year-y goodness of Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance.BONUS! Emily recounts the strange things men had to buy a woman if he rejected her marriage proposal in a leap year. Here's a wee preview: Woman: Marry me, darling! Let's marry our fortunes together.Man: Thanks, but I'll pass.Society: That's cool. BUT NOW YOU MUST BUY HER TWELVE PAIRS OF GLOVES TO HIDE HER SHAMEFULLY BARE RING FINGER. Links and Additional Resource:Actual postcards from 1907 and 1908, featuring satirical (... we hope) depictions of women plotting to exploit these traditions.The Leap Day Paradox, from The Pirates of Penzance:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WTSlr_WRgoThe post Episode 37: Leap Year & Government Bureaucracy (A Love Story) appeared first on The Hidden History of Business Podcast.

Join Emily, Meredith, & Frank as they explore the real story of southern food. They discuss: how a recent episode of the PBS series Mercy Street both illuminated and perpetuated the idea that white supervisors could claim credit for their slaves' innovations.the native, slave, and immigrant roots of iconic southern foods, why early English settlements in the South were catastrophic failures at agriculture the real story of former slave, Nancy Green - the woman who created the Aunt Jemima persona to sell pancake mix how Emancipation and Southern Reconstruction obscured the real origins of southern food the difference between Creole and Cajun foods the real origins of fried chicken and other fried southern foods (Lewis & Clark make an appearance!)Links & Additional Resources:"The Belle Alliance" Episode 4 of Mercy Street As discussed in our show, this episode features a conflict between a white quartermaster and a white southern gentlewoman - and the work of their black servants.A Brief History of Southern Food via SouthernFood.com.  This page discusses how different native, slave, and immigrant groups contributed to southern cuisine over time. It also features the Hammond-Harwood House menu we discuss in the episode: During the first half of the nineteenth century many of the richest citizens of the United States lived in the South. Based on slave labor and ever expanding land to the west king cotton reigned. When Southerners feasted they made a good job of it. The following menu for an 1857 supper is from the Hammond-Harwood House's cookbook, Maryland's Way.Supper Crab Flakes Maryland Veal and Ham Pie, Jellied Dressed Cucumbers Augustine's Chicken Croquettes Goose in Aspic Chilled Sliced Tomatoes Hot Rolls A Trifle with Syllabub Peach Ice Lemon Iced Cream Little Sponge Cakes Maids of Honor Queen's Punch Claret Cup Cherry BounceNow this was only supper, not a full-blown dinner and luckily for all those 19 inch waists, there was no dancing afterwards.The Real Roots of Southern Cuisine Interview with Chef Todd Richards, via DeepSouthMag.com. Todd Richards is an Atlanta-based chef who specializes in the history of southern food -- especially its roots in slave food.  YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS READING THIS INTERVIEW. Almost every sentence is packed with new information that completely challenges stereotype about southern food and culture. Don't miss his explanations of why greens tell the story of southern food, how native peoples taught Lewis & Clark frying as a preservation technique, and why it's so important to understand how slaves shaped southern food -- and the entire South.  More from the interview: Southern food is really not that simple. It is an essential American storyteller along with our government and music. It has a long history. Southern food encompasses many regions, people and economics. It’s good, healing food born from strife and survival. The slaves weren’t creating Southern cuisine in order to make history, they were cooking to stay alive.BM: How did the slaves influence Southern cooking? What were the typical ingredients they were working with at the time? TR: You have to look at two things: what came with the slaves on the boat and what they had to work with when they got to America. There was a strong Native American influence in the early beginnings of Southern food when slaves began arriving: crops like corn and techniques like frying. Then, you have crops and techniques that came over from West Africa with the slaves, like the peanut (or goober peas), okra (or gumbo) and stewing techniques. There’s also daily survival ingredients like watermelons, which served as canteens in the fields. It’s 95 percent water. The slaves also used the rind as soles for their shoes.

Join Meredith and Emily as they explore the  history of Nushu - a secret language used by Chinese women in Hunan province for centuries. They discuss how Nushu arose out of contract marriages, why the Chinese government can't decide if it's a dying language or not, and why they've spent so much money trying to control and manipulate its history.  The real story of Nushu is hard to unravel, but is an important lesson in what happens when history, political agendas, and commercialism intersect.Links & Additional ResourcesExcerpt and essay from Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Sacred Fan.  Also includes her pictures of women who speak Nushu and their community. From the excerpt:As I did my research, I discovered that few nu shu documents—whether letters, stories, weavings or embroideries—have survived, since most were burned at gravesites for metaphysical and practical reasons. In the 1930s, Japanese soldiers destroyed many pieces that had been kept as family heirlooms. During the Cultural Revolution, the zealous Red Guard burned even more texts, then banned the local women from attending religious festivals or attending gatherings where nu shu might be written, read, sung, or exchanged as gifts. In the following years, the Public Security Bureau's scrutiny further diminished interest in learning or preserving the language. During the last half of the twentieth century, nu shu nearly became extinct as the primary reasons that women used it disappeared. (For more information on nu shu , please read Cathy Silber's forthcoming non-fiction book, Writing from the Useless Branch: Text and Practice in Nushu Culture .)Excerpt from the 1999 documentary "Nu Shu: The Secret Language of Women."https://youtu.be/hqRcD8CpucgNu Shu: A Hidden Language of Women in China A film by Yue-Qing Yang Canada/China, 1999, 59 minutes, Color, DVD, Subtitled Order No. W00655"NU SHU: A HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF WOMEN IN CHINA is a thoroughly engrossing documentary that revolves around the filmmaker's discovery of eighty-six-year-old Huan-yi Yang, the only living resident of the Nu Shu area still able to read and write Nu Shu. Exploring Nu Shu customs and their role in women's lives, the film uncovers a women's subculture born of resistance to male dominance, finds a parallel struggle in the resistance of Yao minorities to Confucian Han Chinese culture, and traces Nu Shu's origins to some distinctly Yao customs that fostered women's creativity." via http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c473.shtml  Harpist Elizabeth Hainen talks about working with Tan Dun on his Nu Shu symphony.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-1t-lnJ3YgObituary for Yang Huanyi, "China's oldest inheritress of the mysterious Nushu language" or "the last living speaker of Nushu" (depending on who you talk to!). She died at the age of approximately 90-100. Includes a brief biographical sketch. Via China DailyInheritor Proposes to Establish Cultural Reserve for Nushu from February 2014, via China Women's News. From the article:Delegate of the 12th Hunan Provincial People's Congress and inheritor of Nüshu(women's script) Hu Xin recently proposed to establish a special cultural reserve for the special written language in Jiangyong County in central China's Hunan Province...  ...According to Hu, Jiangyong County meets the requirements of establishing a cultural reserve. Local government has made plans for the preservation of Nüshu and acquired a 10 million yuan (US$ 1.65 million) grant from the Ford Foundation in 2005 to collect and catalogue Nüshu information and materials, establishing Nüshu schools and museums over the past few years. Meanwhile, Nüshu has been building into a cultural brand to boost local tourism industry.  Hu believes the establishment of a cultural reserve will drive the development of local economy as well as Nüshu culture.

Join Meredith and Frank as they discuss the darker side of business. They'll explore what organized crime is (and isn't!), the real meaning of "mafia," and how both Al Capone and the FBI used image and media to manipulate public opinion.  You've heard that Al Capone was finally convicted for tax evasion? We'll explain why the real story is much more complicated than that, and also why watching shows like Narcos may contribute to modern organized crime.Links & Additional ResourcesGuns and Roses, 1929: St Valentine's Day Massacre via the Chicago Tribune newsblog. This features several glass plate images from the investigation and inquest, discovered in the Tribune archives in 2012. Images include: a coroners jury being sworn in at the inquest for the St. Valentine's Day massacre five days after the slayings, on Feb. 19, 1929;  Chicago Chief of Detectives William Shoemaker showing four machine guns used in the massacre; and Mrs. Myrtle Gorman, , common-law wife of Peter Gusenberg, who was murdered in the massacre, leaving Gusenberg's inquest.A photo essay of historical images from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre via the Chicago Tribune. **WARNING**  **GRAPHIC CONTENT** This gallery includes crime scene images that may be disturbing for some readers.The FBI's page on the Al Capone investigation and trial.  From the site: On June 16, 1931, Al Capone pled guilty to tax evasion and prohibition charges. He then boasted to the press that he had struck a deal for a two-and-a-half year sentence, but the presiding judge informed him he, the judge, was not bound by any deal. Capone then changed his plea to not guilty.On October 18, 1931, Capone was convicted after trial and on November 24, was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison, fined $50,000 and charged $7,692 for court costs, in addition to $215,000 plus interest due on back taxes. The six-month contempt of court sentence was to be served concurrently.On November 16, 1939, Al Capone was released after having served seven years, six months and fifteen days, and having paid all fines and back taxes.Suffering from paresis derived from syphilis, he had deteriorated greatly during his confinement. Immediately on release he entered a Baltimore hospital for brain treatment and then went on to his Florida home, an estate on Palm Island in Biscayne Bay near Miami, which he had purchased in 1928.Following his release, he never publicly returned to Chicago. He had become mentally incapable of returning to gangland politics. In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist, after examination, both concluded Capone then had the mentality of a 12-year-old child. Capone resided on Palm Island with his wife and immediate family, in a secluded atmosphere, until his death due to a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947. The Chicago History Museum site on Al Capone's trial. From the article: Capone pleaded guilty to all three charges in the belief that he would be able to plea bargain. However, the judge who presided over the case, Judge James H. Wilkerson, would not make any deals. Capone changed his pleas to not guilty. Unable to bargain, he tried to bribe the jury but Wilkerson changed the jury panel at the last minute.The jury that convicted Capone consisted almost entirely of rural, white men. Among them, a retired hardware dealer, a country storekeeper and a farmer. Judge Wilkerson substituted this jury for the original jury to prevent tampering.  (c) 2015-2016 Hutchison Solutions, LLCThis website, its content, and all podcasts are copyright of Hutchison Solutions, LLC- © Hutchison Solutions, LLC 2015-2016. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited. You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content.