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Special Guest: Charlie Pearson on the Persian Wars, the Crusades, and the role of conflict in shaping cultural identity
Manage episode 474604976 series 3622287
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In this episode of the Bristol Grammar School Classics Podcast, Andy Keen and Dan Watkins are joined by historian and educator Charlie Pearson for a rich and thought-provoking discussion exploring the Persian Wars, the Crusades, and the role of conflict in shaping cultural identity.
The episode opens with a question of directions—East versus West—and quickly turns to deeper themes: how the Crusaders were perceived by the sophisticated cities of the Islamic world, the disunity among Muslim powers at the time, and the surprising ways the Crusader states embedded themselves in a patchwork of shifting alliances. The conversation then shifts to the Greco-Persian Wars, interrogating Herodotus’ Greek-centred narrative and how Persian sources seem almost indifferent to the conflict. They consider how both conflicts reveal as much about myth-making and propaganda as about the historical events themselves.
Through wide-ranging comparisons, they examine how ancient and medieval societies constructed ideas of self and other—Greeks versus barbarians, Christians versus Muslims—and how war often became a tool for forging collective identity. Along the way, they tackle themes like nationalism, dehumanisation in war propaganda, gender and power, the role of religion, and the lasting impact of cultural exchange—from spices to algorithms.
The episode ends with a challenging question: what, if anything, is war good for? From advances in medicine to questions of moral justification, the panel reflects on whether some of the most significant human developments have been driven, disturbingly, by destruction.
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