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Multiple hops laid on the ground
Podcast, 26 mins

Episode 3 - Hops and the Origins of Western Capitalism

Discover how hops transformed beer, brewing and drinking in medieval Europe.

Part of 5 ½ Moments When Alcohol Shaped the World, 2025 Research Highlights
4 Jun 2025 13:00

⁠Professor Phil Withington⁠ returns to medieval Europe to find out about the impact of hops on commercial brewing, the European beer trade, the drinking habits of ordinary people.

Full transcript available ⁠here.

Guests:

⁠Professor Richard Unger⁠ is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of British Columbia and a specialist in European maritime history in the medieval period.

His books include:

A History of Brewing in Holland, 900 – 1900⁠Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Dr Mark Hailwood⁠ is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Bristol. He is a social historian of England in the period c. 1500 to 1750 with a particular interest in the relationship between historical change and the everyday lives of ordinary men and women.

He is currently working on a book and podcast series on "Everyday Life in the Seventeenth-Century English Village" focusing on his hometown of Portishead in Somerset.

You can learn more ⁠here.

Dr Susan Flavin⁠ is an Associate Professor of History at Trinity College, Dublin and Principle Investigator for the ERC funded project ⁠FOODCULT⁠. Her work is grounded in interdisciplinary approaches to history and she teaches on topics such as the social and cultural history of food and drink, and gender and domesticity in Early Modern Britain and Ireland.

The FoodCult project to recreate historical beer resulted in an ⁠exhibition⁠ and ⁠case study⁠ in The Historical Journal.

This episode features two ballads from Christopher Marsh and Angela McShane, ⁠100 Ballads ⁠

Copyright details below - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0:

Ballad no. 65 - Christopher Marsh and Angela McShane, ballad no. 65, A pleasant new Ballad to sing both Even and Morne/ Of the bloody murther of Sir John Barley-corne [Pepys 1.426-27]. Performers Giles Lewin and Ian Giles. 

Ballad no. 6 - Christopher Marsh and Angela McShane, ballad no. 6, A most sweet Song of an English Merchant/ borne at Chichester [Roxburghe 1.104-05]. Performers Andy Watts, Giles Lewin, Steno Vitale and John Kirkpatrick. 

Credits

  • Writer and Presenter: Professor Phil Withington (Professor in Social and Cultural History at the University of Sheffield)
  • Writer and Presenter: Dr Nick Groat (Research Associate at the University of Sheffield)
  • Producer: Julia Letts (Freelance Consultant at Letts Talk)
  • Guest: ⁠Professor Richard Unger⁠ (Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of British Columbia)
  • Guest: Dr Mark Hailwood⁠ (Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Bristol)
  • Guest: ⁠Dr Susan Flavin⁠ (Associate Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin)
Correct as of content publication - 06/06/2025

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