Thursday, June 25, 2009

Two old and one New Books In History

It works out well to review three episodes of New Books In History at a time. It keeps me up with the latest and also allows me to slowly catch up with the fascinating backlog.

The oldest edition I picked out of the feed was an interview with Donald Worster about his biography of John Muir, founder of several national parks in the US. Apart from being introduced in the fascinating life of Muir, the Scottish Calvinist with a passion for nature who was ahead of his time with ideas about nature preservation, we also meet Donald Worster who is one of the leading names in Environmental History. As such we have heard him also on the Environmental History Podcast.

Carl Bon Tempo is Marshall Poe's guest to talk about his research on the reception of refugees into the US during the Cold War. The point to take from here is, that no matter how the sentiment in the US was towards specific refugees, the sluggish bureaucracy set the pace.

Giles MacDonogh was the latest guest on the show and he has done research into the atrocities committed by the allies during the occupation of Germany. For me this was only half new. Ever since I read In Europa by Geert Mak, I knew many details of the rapes by Red Army soldiers, but I was not aware of similar occurrences in the British, French and American Zones.

More NBIH:
The latest in New Books in History,
Three recommendations,
American Exceptionalism,
The Great War in short,
How Rome Fell.

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