{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Intellectual History","slug":"new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753","podcast_index_feed_id":1045753,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/w9MOrNGB","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/ea7b1c52-c072-4295-b066-cec4067bc5e2/849571c7-bcd2-4e7f-b939-f60b0b82e141/3000x3000/7b472a09e0ba06314b3d8cd1401cd52a.png?aid=rss_feed","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":600,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history","last_synced_at":"2026-09-19T12:22:14.721883+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753"},"episode":{"title":"Divining the Past: How to Do Conjectural History with Anthony Grafton","slug":"divining-the-past-how-to-do-conjectural-history-with-anthony-grafton","published_at":"2026-08-26T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753/divining-the-past-how-to-do-conjectural-history-with-anthony-grafton","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753","url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","audio_url":"https://injector.simplecastaudio.com/ea7b1c52-c072-4295-b066-cec4067bc5e2/episodes/2493b1d8-95a7-4e62-af29-91aec26d2aa6/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=ea7b1c52-c072-4295-b066-cec4067bc5e2&awEpisodeId=2493b1d8-95a7-4e62-af29-91aec26d2aa6&feed=w9MOrNGB","summary":"Whether recovering a lost history or charting a new land, scholars and explorers alike often hit at frontiers not only of place, but also knowledge. When the evidence only goes so far, what is the right way to advance? The answer is to make a conjecture: an educated guess that discourses on what is likely the case. Historical examples range from Italian humanists stealing manuscripts from monasteries and reconstructing classical languages, to Jesuit missionaries speculating about land bridges to the Americas, and even Renaissance magicians pioneering in alchemy and astrology. This collective practice is called “conjectural history,” and its roots go far back. But how far back? To answer that question, as we continue Season 6, I have as our guest, Professor Anthony Grafton. A former president of the American Historical Association, and the Emeritus Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, Grafton is a scholar of early modern Europe and written history, a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and London Review of Books, and the author of many books such as The Footnote (1997) and Magus (2023). Today, we will discuss his current project on “conjectural history.” We discuss the use of conjectural versus counterfactual history, its founders in Herodotus and Thucydides, and proponents like the explorer Jose de Acosta, S.J. and the scholar Lorenzo Valla. Also discussed are Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, the birth of modern science from renaissance magic, C.S. Lewis’ The Discarded Image, recent scholarship on premodern eyewitness testimony to the supernatural, the magician Henry Cornelius Agrippa, and the best lost spots of Princeton University. Hosted by Ryan Shinkel, Madison’s Notes is the podcast of Princeton University’s James Madi…","meta_description":"Whether recovering a lost history or charting a new land, scholars and explorers alike often hit at frontiers not only of place, but also knowledge. When…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3843,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753/episodes/divining-the-past-how-to-do-conjectural-history-with-anthony-grafton/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-intellectual-history-1045753/divining-the-past-how-to-do-conjectural-history-with-anthony-grafton.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}