
Working Historians is a podcast series that showcases the work and careers of historians in a wide variety of career fields. We hope to introduce history students and the general public to the career paths available to people who study history, introduce and promote historians to students and the public, and showcase the work that historians do on a regular basis. Hosts Rob Denning and Jimmy Fennessy can be reached at workinghistorians@gmail.com.
Episodes

Friday Mar 17, 2023
How Do I Find Secondary Sources for a History Research Project?
Friday Mar 17, 2023
Friday Mar 17, 2023
In this third episode of our series on how historians research and write on historical topics, the panel explains how they tackle the potentially vast body of existing secondary sources that will help them provide context on the research project. We discuss different ways to search for secondary sources, how to determine which secondary sources might be more useful or important than others, and the historian’s ethical responsibility to be familiar with the entire existing literature on the topic.
Speaker timeline:
02:42 - CB Repass
03:20 - Matt Schandler
07:31 - Allison Millward
08:14 - Eric Greisinger
09:11 - Matt Schandler
11:08 - Allison Millward
11:45 - CB Repass
13:07 - Allison Millward
14:14 - Ryan Tripp
15:02 - Eric Greisinger
15:21 - CB Repass
15:34 - Rob Denning
18:13 - Matt Schandler
20:27 - Ryan Tripp
21:35 - Rob Denning

Friday Mar 03, 2023
How Do I Develop a Historical Research Question?
Friday Mar 03, 2023
Friday Mar 03, 2023
In this second episode of our series on how historians research and write on historical topics, the panel tackles the importance and selection of a good research question, which will guide the historian throughout the research process.
Speaker timeline:
01:00 - CB Repass
01:48 - Eric Greisinger
02:13 - CB Repass
02:28 - Matt Schandler
03:09 - Allison Millward
04:48 - Rob Denning
05:55 - CB Repass
06:15 - Ryan Tripp
06:51 - Rob Denning
08:14 - Matt Schandler
11:53 - CB Repass
12:00 - Rob Denning

Friday Feb 17, 2023
How Do I Find a History Research Topic?
Friday Feb 17, 2023
Friday Feb 17, 2023
With this episode we are launching a new series on how historians research and write on historical topics, starting with the selection of a research topic and ending with the writing process. In this first episode, a panel of historians discuss the initial selection of a research topic.
Speaker timeline:
00:58 - CB Repass
01:58 - Ryan Tripp
02:48 - Allison Millward
04:31 - Eric Greisinger
05:31 - Allison Millward
05:36 - Rob Denning
06:10 - CB Repass
06:47 - Eric Greisinger
07:10 - Ryan Tripp
07:51 - Matthew Schandler
11:05 - Rob Denning
13:24 - Matthew Schandler
15:10 - Rob Denning
16:05 - Matthew Schandler

Friday Feb 03, 2023
Legal Careers for Historians: Mathew Merz - Conflicts Analyst, Akerman LLP
Friday Feb 03, 2023
Friday Feb 03, 2023
Mathew Merz earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Southern New Hampshire University in 2020 and works as Conflicts Analyst at Akerman LLP. In this episode, Mathew discusses the research, writing, and analytical skills that he learned as a history major which have been particularly useful to his job as a researcher for a law firm.
Recommendations and Links:
Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Random House, 2014) - recommended by Mathew Merz
Derry Girls, created by Lisa McGee, Netflix - recommended by Jimmy
“American Historical Association Action Alert Concerning Proposed History Standards for Virginia (February 2023)” - recommended by Rob
David Gilbert, “Inside a US Neo-Nazi Homeschool Network With Thousands of Members,” Vice News, January 29, 2023
Nilanjana Roy, “How Teen Vogue Got Political,” Financial Times, January 24, 2017

Friday Jan 20, 2023
Friday Jan 20, 2023
Nina Thomas is the manager of the Westerville History Museum, which is part of the public library system in Westerville, Ohio. In this episode, Nina discusses her academic and professional background, life as a museum manager, the nature of the museum’s public outreach efforts, and what a museum manager might look for in job applicants.
Recommendations:
Clint Smith, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America (Little, Brown, 2021) - recommended by Nina
Philomena Cunk - recommended by Nina
Jennifer Schuessler, “As Historians Gather, No Truce in the History Wars,” New York Times, January 8, 2023 - recommended by Rob

Friday Jan 06, 2023
Friday Jan 06, 2023
In this episode, Rob talks to Deb Gogliettino, Associate Dean for online Business Academics at Southern New Hampshire University, about the ways that her undergraduate degree in history has helped her business-oriented career, which included positions in human resources, business administration, and academics. We also discuss how history students can market themselves to non-academic employers.

Friday Dec 16, 2022
Friday Dec 16, 2022
In this episode, Jimmy and Rob talk to Paul Witcover, Associate Dean for the online Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Southern New Hampshire University, about his recent novel, Lincolnstein, and the skills and responsibilities required of authors writing historical fiction.
Recommendations:
Paul Witcover, Lincolnstein (PS Publishing, 2021) - recommended by Rob
Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998) - recommended by Paul Witcover
Meet Me in the Bathroom, Will Lovelance, Dylan Southern, and Andrew Cross, dirs., (2022) - recommended by Jimmy
The Civil War, Ken Burns, dir. (1990) - recommended by Rob

Friday Dec 02, 2022
Friday Dec 02, 2022
In this second episode on the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and Covid-19, Rob Denning, James Fennessy, and Scotty Edler discuss the long-term political, social, economic, and cultural consequences of the plague and the flu, and they attempt to use those precedents to predict the long-term effects of Covid-19 on our own future lives.

Friday Nov 18, 2022
Friday Nov 18, 2022
During the next two episodes, Rob and James talk to Scotty Edler about his research into the causes and consequences of three major disease epidemics: the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and Covid-19. Here we discuss the historical contexts of each disease and the lessons learned from each outbreak.

Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Juneteenth: The Second Independence Day
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
In this episode, Rob presents his research into quick questions from his employer's communications office regarding the history of the Juneteenth Holiday. He does not provide quick answers.

Friday Jun 17, 2022
Working Historians Roundtable: Watergate
Friday Jun 17, 2022
Friday Jun 17, 2022
On the fiftieth anniversary of the Watergate break-in, Rob and six fellow historians discuss the international and domestic political contexts leading up to the event, the break-in and subsequent investigations, and the short- and long-term consequences of Watergate on American political and constitutional history.
Thanks to historians Mike Green, Eric Morgenson, Ryan Tripp, Adam Lehman, and Joel Tscherne for participating.

Friday Feb 18, 2022
Careers in History: Rob Denning - Associate Dean for History, SNHU
Friday Feb 18, 2022
Friday Feb 18, 2022
In this episode, re-broadcast from the Passion and Practicality podcast series, Rob discusses the skills that students learn while in pursuit of a history degree that will be valuable on the job market after graduation (even in fields that don't include the word "history"). He also describes some of the ways that students can prepare for the job market before graduation.
Special bonus feature: To see Rob present this on camera, click here!

Friday Nov 05, 2021
Friday Nov 05, 2021
John Bertland is the Digital Librarian and Content Specialist for the Presidio Trust in San Francisco, California. In this episode, we discuss John’s academic and professional background, his work at the Presidio Trust, and we end with a story about mules.
Recommendations
Harwood P. Hinton and Jerry Thompson, Courage Above All Things: General John Ellis Wool and the U.S. Military, 1812-1863 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) - recommended by John Bertland
“Exclusion: The Presidio’s Role in World War II Japanese American Internment” at the Presidio Officers’ Club, recommended by Jimmy
Lizzie Johnson, Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire (New York: Penguin Random House, 2021), recommended by Rob

Friday Sep 17, 2021
Constitution Day 2021: Elections, Protests, and Transfers of Power
Friday Sep 17, 2021
Friday Sep 17, 2021
It’s Constitution Day, and we are celebrating with a roundtable discussion of elections, protests, and the transfer of political power in the context of the Constitution of the United States by a panel of historians including Natalie Sweet, Ryan Tripp, and Joel Tscherne. Associate Dean Robert Denning hosts the presentation. Listeners can access this presentation, and Constitution Day podcasts from previous years, on the Working Historians Podbean page, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and any other podcast app. Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is an American federal observance recognizing the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens by birth or naturalization. It is normally observed Sept. 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787 in Philadelphia.

Friday Aug 20, 2021
Friday Aug 20, 2021
Joe Flickinger teaches high school history outside Cincinnati, Ohio, and is the Vice President of the Green Township Historical Association. In this episode, Rob, Jimmy, and Joe discuss how to research and write local history, with examples from Joe’s writings on the Bridgetown Cemetery, suburbanization in Colerain Township, and the bicentennial of Green Township.
Recommendations:
Joe Flickinger, A History of Bridgetown Cemetery: Quietly Serving Cincinnati’s Western Hills for over 50 Years (Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, 2021) - recommended by Rob
Alexis Coe, You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington (New York: Penguin Random House, 2020) - recommended by Joe Flickinger
Rachel Wolgemuth, Cemetery Tours and Programming: A Guide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) - recommended by Joe Flickinger
Gideon Defoe, An Atlas of Extinct Countries: The Remarkable (and Occasionally Ridiculous) Stories of 48 Nations that Fell Off the Map (New York: Europa Editions, 2021) - recommended by Rob
All the Streets are Silent: The Convergence of Hip-Hop and Skateboarding, 1987-1997, Jeremy Elkins, dir. (2021) - recommended by Jimmy

Friday Aug 06, 2021
Friday Aug 06, 2021
Encore presentation (and therefore outdated in just about every way): Jennifer Bryant is an instructor at SNHU and a preservation compliance officer with the Colorado State Historical Preservation Office. In this conversation, we talk about some aspects of the history of the American West, blindspots in history regarding violence against minority groups, and her career as a volunteer and professional agent for historic preservation.

Friday Jul 30, 2021
Friday Jul 30, 2021
Jennifer Bryant appeared in our third episode back in 2017, and in this episode Jimmy and Rob catch up with Jen to discuss her new job and then wander down a variety of historical footpaths to discuss environmental history, the American West, historical memory, and the future history to be written about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Friday Jun 25, 2021
Friday Jun 25, 2021
Dr. Bob Irvine teaches history in the Master of Arts in History program at SNHU and is a consultant for Parc Resources in Oregon. In this episode, Dr. Irvine talks about his research and teaching interests, water reclamation projects in Kansas during the twentieth century, and the historical skills he uses in his job as a consultant.

Friday Jun 18, 2021
Friday Jun 18, 2021
Bob Irvine teaches history in the Master of Arts program at Southern New Hampshire and is a consultant for Parc Resources in Eastern Oregon. In this episode we discuss what Bob has been up to since his last interview in 2017, including new projects in collaboration with Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest.

Monday Jun 07, 2021
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Christopher Kline, an instructor and Learning Community Facilitator for Southern New Hampshire University, discusses his research and teaching interests, why the Whiskey Rebellion broke out in post-Revolutionary Pennsylvania, the evolution of his career, and advice for students looking to break into careers in history. Professor Kline has worked as a history tutor, a member of a museum board, and an adjunct instructor at community colleges and universities.

Friday Jun 04, 2021
Friday Jun 04, 2021
Chris Kline is the Senior Manager for General Education at Western Governors University. In this episode, Rob, Jimmy, and Chris discuss Chris’s decision to start a doctoral program, the online student experience, the real estate market, the changing work habits that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6 Insurrection, the need for better education in source analysis and critical thinking, and the lessons we learned about the American government after the 2020 election and the insurrection

Friday May 21, 2021
Friday May 21, 2021
Kate Schaefer teaches history at Southern New Hampshire University. In this episode, Kate discusses her research into female spies during the Irish Rebellion of 1916 and World War II. And then there is some chatter about the Sisters of Mercy and the CIA’s suggestions for disrupting Zoom meetings, kinda.
This episode’s recommendations:
Sarah Rose, D-Day Girls: The Spies who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped win World War II (Penguin Random House, 2020).
Trevor Ristow, Waiting for Another War: A History of the Sisters of Mercy, Volume I: 1980-1985 (GWK, 2019).
Simple Sabotage Field Manual (Office of Strategic Services, 1944), available at Project Gutenberg.

Monday May 03, 2021
Season 2 Trailer
Monday May 03, 2021
Monday May 03, 2021
Season 1 lasted for four years, and then Rob put the podcast on hiatus because, I dunno, pandemic? Exhaustion? While searching for the meaning of life, he found his old chum Jimmy Fennessy on a remote mountaintop and the two decided to get the band back together and work on Season 2 of Working Historians, which will be bigger and better than ever before! There’s even a website now. In this episode you get a brief teaser of what you can expect from Season 2, however long that one may last.

Monday Feb 22, 2021
Update for Soundcloud Subscribers
Monday Feb 22, 2021
Monday Feb 22, 2021
The Working Historians podcast is switching its hosting site from Soundcloud to Podbean, so Soundcloud subscribers should consider re-subscribing through Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or any of the other dozens of podcast apps out there. In this episode, Rob provides a teaser for upcoming changes to the podcast (including a new website).

Thursday Jan 07, 2021
Peter Milich - Historian
Thursday Jan 07, 2021
Thursday Jan 07, 2021
Dr. Peter Milich is a historian who specializes in Russian, Soviet, and Eastern European history. As a witness to the collapse of modern nations like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, Rob and Pete discuss the state of modern international affairs.
This episode’s recommendations:
Alfred McCoy, “The Rise and Decline of US Global Power” (October 25, 2017), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GygmGSwvcI
Dominic Lieven, “The Tsar Liberates Europe? Russia against Napoleon, 1807-1914” (October 8, 2009), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzElqomAATI
Daniel Junge and Steven Leckart, dirs., “Challenger: The Final Flight” (2020), https://www.netflix.com/title/81012137