Person
Every book Mike Duncan recommended on podcasts
Mike Duncan is a podcaster and historian best known for creating the popular and influential history podcasts The History of Rome and Revolutions. Appearing as a guest on Behind the Bastards in the episode titled It Could Happen Here Weekly 179, broadcast on April 26, 2025, Duncan discussed and recommended the historical study The Old Regime and the French Revolution by Alexis De Tocqueville. During the conversation, Duncan praised the text as a dynamite book that everybody should read. He highlighted a specific aspect of the work, noting that at the end of the book, the author lays out arguments that resonated with the broader themes of the episode. Duncan specifically referenced Tocqueville's work while discussing the concept of social atomization and how such conditions could potentially enable the rise of tyranny. By bringing this classic historical text into the discussion, Duncan provided listeners with a foundational framework for understanding how societal structures can fracture and create vulnerabilities that lead to authoritarian control. His recommendation serves as a bridge between historical analysis and contemporary political concerns regarding the stability of democratic institutions and the dangers posed by isolated populations within modern societies.
Books recommended by Mike Duncan
-
The Old Regime and the French Revolution
The Old Regime and the French Revolution by Alexis De Tocqueville is a classic historical analysis examining the deep institutional and social continuities that preceded the dramatic upheavals of 1789.
Recommended“There's a great line, I don't have it right in front of me at the moment, but in uh in Toqueville's regime in the French Revolution, which is really dynamite book everybody should read. At the end of it, he lays it out.”
Where to get it
Books Mike Duncan wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| It Could Happen Here Weekly 179 | Behind the Bastards | 2025-04-26 | 1 |
Other mentions (3: passing, ad reads, own books)
“my first book which is called the storm before the storm the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic”
“Storm Before the Storm, the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic, which is a lot of what we talked about today.”
“and then out of, you know, an outgrowth of of my work in revolutions, I wrote a biography of the marquee de Lafayette, who is a guy who had like a 50-y year long revolutionary career.”