Podcasts on American History

I have reported on so many podcasts in the realm of history that I have deemed it necessary to take my history directory and order it into subdivisions. There will be subdivisions into eras, into regions and into themes, to whatever extent the division is useful, accepting the overlap and holes that remain - just to cut up an unwieldy list of over 130 podcasts into reasonable chunks.

The first subset I created was Ancient History.

The second was Medieval History

And now the third will be on American History. Obviously with this I move the emphasis from the temporal to the spatial. Most history podcasts that address the Americas will take the history beyond Ancient and Medieval times, so that an overlap with the previous sections hardly occurs, but should this be so, the podcasts will go in both categories. Moreover, as we close in on modern times, the amount of podcasts is larger and the regional sectioning in many ways is an addition to the temporal. 

American Environmental and Cultural History or: ESPM 160AC (Berkeley) (review, site, feed)

Local American history taken from environmental perspective. Excellent lecture series to get acquainted with the idea of an environmental history.

American History before 1870, (review, site, feed).

Dr. Gretchen Ann Reilly at Temple College, Texas, turned her lectures into privately read 15 minute podcasts. This enhances the clarity and structure in comparison with recorded live lectures. She delivers her history in a very insightful and accessible way.

Binge Thinking History, (review, site, feed).

Tony Cocks' monologues about history. Starting off with the British roots of the American constitution and following up with the Battle of Britain.

Early American Social History (Warwick) (review, page in iTunes, feed in iTunes)

Extensive lecture series about US History before 1870. Mind the low audio that comes with live recorded lectures.

Everything Lincoln, (review, site, feed).

A history podcast that digs up anything that has to do with Abraham Lincoln. Much in the way of Tudorcast does for the Tudors. there is no didactic build in order to pass understanding of the person, but rather an unstructured stream of episodes. Charmingly done however. So far there are three podcasts in the feed.

Gilder Lehrmann history podcast (review, site, feed)

History lectures on US history, with recurring themes such as lectures about Lincoln and about Slavery.

History 131 (University of Alaska Fairbanks) (review, site, feed)

History of the Americas before 1870

History 132 (University of Alaska Fairbanks) (review, site, feed)

US History after 1870

History 7B (Berkeley) US History: from Civil War to Present, (review, site, feed).

Professor Jennifer Burns lays out American History in 39 lectures lasting less than one hour each. The lecture series is 'old' (begin 2006) but is still kept alive through Burns' personal website.

History according to Bob, (review, site, feed).

Bob Packett is a college history professor who simply cannot stop talking. He delivers history lectures, with sources, on a daily basis, touching on all corners of history. Bob has a lot of American history topics.

History of the American Revolution (review, site, feed)

Kurtis Ford, retells the American history in quite extensive detail and with great narrative power with a very personal touch.

It was 20 years ago today (review, site, feed)

Jamie Lawson takes us back 20 years and gives her personal view on history back then. These issues contain quite a few American subjects.

the Memory Palace (review, site, feed)

Nate diMeo tells historic tales in the most poetic way.

New Books In History (review, site, feed) Excellent

The one and only and most outstanding interview podcast in the history podcast genre. Marshall Poe interviews historians about their recent books. Lively, varied and intelligent content. Many American subjects.

Only in America, (review, site, feed).

350 years of the Jewish experience in America. Journalist Larry Josephson delivers historical episodes taking us through the entry of Jews in the Americas to contemporary Jewry in the US. He combines these exposes with interviews with leading American Jews on Jewish subjects.

Religion and Law in US, HIUS 155A (UCSD) (review, site, feed)

Professor Michael Parrish teaches the legal and religious foundations of the American Society until the Civil War.

Religion and Law in US, HIUS 155B (UCSD) (review, site, feed)

Professor Michael Parrish teaches the legal and religious foundations of the American Society from the Civil War until the present.

Sparkletack (review, site, feed)

Richard Miller tells the history of San Francisco.

Teaching American History, (review, site, feed).

University lectures on various subjects of American History; a project of the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University.

US History since 1877 (Temple College) (review, site, feed)

Gretchen Reilly's straightforward monologue podcast about American History from 1877 until today

We the People Stories, (review, site, feed).

A podcast of the US National Constitution Center addressing constitutional issues with lectures and forum discussions on a very high level.

קטעים בהיסטוריה (review, site, feed)

Pieces of History, a Hebrew podcast. Selected topics in history. The latest series is about the American Revolution.

This I accomplish - New Books in History (NBIH)

I tend to recommend all issues of the excellent podcast New Books In History with the caveat that you obviously must select the subjects that appeal to you. For myself I thought I might skip for example the latest interview which was with Kyra Hicks who has written a biography of a quilter. I thought: "Quilts... hm ... no, not for me." Yet, I could not stop listening to the interview. (feed)

The excitement eventually even is with the craft of quilting, which was originally putting me off, but what initially kept me glued to the podcast was the careful way the host, Marshal Poe, built up the interview. He revealed that Hicks made some exciting discovery during her research, but directed his questioning according to a build-up towards the climax.

And this makes you listen and guess what it is going to be and really get into the person about whom the biography is. Harriet Powers, a former slave, whose quilt she made by the end of the nineteenth century can be seen in the Smithsonian Museum. Hicks took on this interesting character and with determination added to what little was known about her. Mrs. Powers comes to life, quilting comes to life and of course, eventually she makes her amazing discovery.

It goes to show that New Books In History is good to listen to even if you feel no direct connection with the subject.

More NBIH:
Not your idea of World War II,
When Akkadian was Lingua Franca,
The 1910 Paris flood,
Stasi agents and informants,
War in Human Civilization.

Money, finance and an unexpected link in history

When you learn about finance, you do not exactly expect to find out new data about Florence in the Renaissance or about the Dutch revolt against the Spanish in the 16th century. But it just happened to me.

This morning I was continuing my listening in on the Berkeley Lecture series Geography C110. As I have written before, this is a course in economics with excursions in to history, geography and politics. For all who tend to shy away from economics - this might just be the course that is going to do it for you. And for all those who like geography; eventually this is geography, but there is a lot of economics to take. (feed) And then there is history...

The first few lectures had a lot of history and after that, we sort of reached the late modern era and the lecturer, Professor Walker, spent more time in laying out the economics and their geography as we experience them today. He systematically went through the economics of areas, from global capitalism all the way down to city economies and discussed production and labor and then reached finance. And finance is not the easiest part of the course, as money is eventually abstract and the mechanics of it are often counterintuitive and the terminologies inconsistent.

So you might as well skip finance. However, now that we live in a world with a financial melt-down, the interest is renewed and some of the shady mechanics are more self-explanatory as we have seen them in action (and fail). And where did this strange abstract world come from? Walker explains how it is thoroughly modern, but finds its roots in late medieval Europe. And then in lecture 19 throws a couple of statements about history that are worth pondering: The Medici family started out as bankers and financed the Florence government and this is how they got to control the city themselves. And: the bankers from the Netherlands (this includes nowadays Belgium) financed the Habsburgs and when the Habsburgs defaulted, the Dutch revolted.

The bit about the Dutch Revolt seems a bit off. I have read and listened to quite a lot about the Revolt and never found this bit. However, I wouldn't rule out that if the Habsburgs defaulted to banks in Antwerp this would have added to the grievances.

Silent Spring

We have seen a diametrical change of mindset in our life time. We started off by thinking that Nature was huge, robust and inexhaustible, but today many people view Nature as fragile, sensitive, nearly exhausted and in need of protection. We can replace nature in the the previous sentence with Earth or Eco-System, if you like, and improve the accuracy of what has happened, but I think you see what I am driving at. And I recall it from my youth: if you protested against throwing garbage in the river next to our village and said something about pollution, you were laughed at. The whole idea seemed ridiculous, but today there are cleaning systems at work, huge fines for polluting and tremendous social control. It is the same river and it may even be cleaner than thirty years ago, but it is treated fundamentally differently.

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is frequently credited to have set this major shift in motion, or at least profoundly contributed to it. If you listen to Witness (BBC), you can hear one of last week's issues (that will soon be taken out of the feed, so hurry with download) that talks with Carson's adopted son and discusses the conception and reception of the work. Carson was among the first to warn the world for fatal pollution of the environment. She was ridiculed and attacked. Today nobody doubts that the environment can be fatally polluted and many think we are very close to doing so and in some realms already have passed that point.

If you look for 'Silent Spring' in iTunes you will find a number of lectures that bear that name and even though they do not directly relate to Carson or her book, they do relate to the subject of it: how pesticides cause irreversible damage to flora and fauna. You can find an old issue of Science & The City that reports how DDT (which Carson warned about) is returning to the scene in 2007 (feed). And in iTunesU is a series from Carnegie Mellon University called Interdisciplinary Collaboration Audio which contains a fine lecture by Tyrone Hayes about the devastating effect of pesticides on amphibians which is a very captivating listen. (feed)

More Witness:
Oslo Accords,
Witness BBC.

The Memory Palace - history telling

The Memory Palace is a great podcast I cannot recommend enough (feed). Nate DiMeo has an exquisite feel to take a history trivia and turn it into a story full of suspense and humane irony. He tells his stories in five to ten minutes so that it hardly takes any of your time, but these short histories are full of delight.

Just recently I enjoyed his culinary history of the lobster, how this crustacean went from poor people's meat to a career of cheap, mass produced canned food, to haute-cuisine. Another is the story of the mythical John Frum which is the name of a Messianic figure some people in the Pacific are waiting for and until his coming, bring them to most unexpected ritual.

If you have not encountered this podcast yet, sign up now and listen. But savor the experience. I think these tales need to be told far apart and not listened to in a big batched chain.

More The Memory Palace:
Another Memory Palace fantastic find,
The Death of Edgar Allan Poe,
A Great Escape,
The Memory Palace,
Ferris Wheel and other historic experiences.

The history of the American Revolution

Here is a very thorough and conscientious podcast: History of the American Revolution (feed) Here the presenter, Kurtis Ford, retells the American history in quite extensive detail and with great narrative power. In addition he brings the history alive with reflections and overt interpretations.

When you decide to pick up this podcast, be aware that the series starts with chapter 4. It is said that Kurtis Ford has removed the first three episodes because he was not satisfied with the quality. At some point the may be redone and posted again.

The audio quality is indeed of amateur quality, so to say, but the offered material ranks with the best of them.

Always recommended: New Books in History

The weekly interviews on New Books in History will always draw my attention and it is extremely rare I do not listen until the end. This is the most valuable history podcast and it should be able to offer something for literally everybody. In addition, for those who take a closer look, there are some grander themes that can be picked up by combining several of the issues. A lot can be learned about Jewish history, about the history of the Cold War, World War II, World War I, American History and the history of Fascism/Nazism to name some recurring themes on top of my head. (feed)

Three recent episodes I especially liked are:
Jerry Muller, “Capitalism and the Jews”
In the Jewish theme and carefully discussing the actual and alleged ties of Jews and Judaism to both Capitalism and Socialism.

Ruth Harris, “Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century”
Look also at other podcast about the Dreyfuss affair and then listen how Ruth Harris adds new perspective. As Marshal Poe says in this interview: history is never definitively written.

Heather Cox Richardson, “Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre”
The traditional last question in an NBIH interview is: what is your next project and it serves to know ahead of time what Richardson's next project will be: a history of the Republican party. Then listen to her analysis of the defeat of the Indians in the US. Party politics does not feature in the title in vain, though it took me some time to figure out its importance.

More NBIH:
The best varied history podcast,
The Caucasus,
The genocide and the trial,
Nation and Culture,
Three New Books In History.

Another Memory Palace fantastic find

The Memory Palace is a great podcast I cannot recommend enough (feed). I have been saying in the past that it was five minutes every two weeks you should not miss, but it is not necessarily every two weeks and the last, great, issue lasted even 9 minutes. This is not a record, there has been an episode of over 10 minutes.

Still, every time The Memory Palace comes out, you have a short (even ten minutes is short) piece of history narration that is extremely well done. Host Nate DiMeo has an exquisite feel to take a history trivia and turn it into a story full of suspense and humane irony. This he did just now with a dear and sensitive story about a serial conman. On occasion he knows how to deliver a cliffhanger, or a stark contrast with our modern mentality, but this time around none of that is the case. And still, also this time, his story is so compelling, so well delivered. It only goes to show that a good story is a good story, even if it has no dramatic turn of events, no stunning feats accomplished or any other such hyperboles.

Get this podcast. Take a subscription, do not miss any issue. It is one small download and it is tremendous fun, guaranteed.

More The Memory Palace:
The Death of Edgar Allan Poe,
A Great Escape,
The Memory Palace,
Ferris Wheel and other historic experiences,
The hollow earth.

Three New Books In History - NBIH

A podcast that I do not miss an episode from is New Books in History (which I have been abbreviating as NBIH, but I saw the maker uses NBH). Each week there is an hour long interview with the author of a new book, in history of course. The host and interviewer, historian Marshall Poe, invariably has read the book and then conducts an interview that is very well tailored to book, subject as well as author. Every week this allows you to get a good insight in some subject of history.

Here are the three latest issues, each of which are definitely worth a listen:

Julian E. Zelizer, “Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security From WWII to the War on Terrorism” - In this interview Marshall Poe prompts Zelizer to take us through all of the recent wars the US was involved in, from Korea to Iraq and let him explain how the internal politics of the US influenced the decision of the President and his government to enter the war. Much to Poe's surprise, without exception, the President got into the war he wanted to get into. There was always some weighing of the power balance between Republicans and Democrats that, if not forced his hand, strongly influenced the move. It reminded me of Henry Kissinger's line about Israeli politics: Israel has no foreign policy, there is only internal policy. Apparently he did not have to look for to get that idea.

Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson, “Natural Experiments of History” - Although the book was edited not by Jared Diamond alone, the guest on the show is Jared Diamond only. Although there is ample talk of what is meant with Natural Experiments and some examples are discussed, the most interesting part of the interview dwells on another subject. Diamond and Poe get to discuss and criticize the current state of affairs in academia as far as the discipline of history is concerned. History is completely compartmentalized. Historians delve solely into one niche subject and stick to one research method - reading primary sources. According to Diamond this is unfortunate and he argues how history could be enriched with broadening subjects, getting historians out of their small fields and have them apply methods of social sciences together with reliance on primary sources.

Alan E. Steinweis, “Kristallnacht 1938″ - While NBIH comes out weekly on the beat, somehow it delivered two episodes this week with a mere two or three day difference. And so we could enjoy a most informative interview with Allan Steinweis about the Kristallnacht. We learn how fine and gradual the distinction were from an organized to a spontaneous pogrom. And this is all set in a historical perspective of the deteriorating position of the Jews since 1933, of a Nazi regime that was all set for this deterioration, but was also aware of its international position and had ample reason to keep the simmering pogroms in check and in the perspective of an incident two days earlier in Paris. At the German embassy a Polish Jew shot a German diplomat and although the whole affair was clearly the doings of an individual, it fitted so neatly with the widely adopted idea of a Jewish conspiracy that it could bring the simmering pogrom to burst.

More NBIH:
The fourth part of the world,
How the Soviet system imploded,
Vietnam War perspectives,
1989 - Padraic Kenney,
The Ossie twilight.

Frankfurt School - IOT

Last week BBC's In Our Time delivered a four part series about the history of the Royal Society which, I have to admit, I abandoned in the middle. Somehow it didn't take me in as the single part, 40 minute, concise and too short, regular episodes do. And as did the latest show, which was a normal one again.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discussed the Frankfurt School and it was good to hear this history again. In addition to the history, it was a challenge to engage in the kind of critical thought the School propagated. I appreciated the idea of being critical of all systems, not only the leading system, but also the alleged alternatives. This was not cheap, cynical criticism but a thrust to think further and beyond, in eternal search for a better place. No wonder such School (of Sociology? Political Science? Philosophy? Art?) had to pass out of existence, but I was a little surprised by one suggestions the best had already been over when the School went into its American Exile.

I thought it had had its heyday in America and an additional heyday in its second period back in Germany. Surely there were several versions of the Frankfurt School. There are not many podcasts that pay attention to them. The only I know of was one issue of New Books In History about The Frankfurt School in Exile, that is, the American part of the story.

More In Our Time:
The history of the Royal Society,
The weekly treat,
New season of In Our Time,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
Logical Positivism.

The fourth part of the world - NBIH

The last episode of New Books In History treated the circumstances of the discovery of the Americas. From Columbus's idea to sail to the Indies by going westward to the first map that fully recognized the Americas as a separate continent. A fourth part of the world, named after Amerigo Vespucci.

To this end host Marshall Poe interviewed Toby Lester and he gave a thrilling account of how the Americas got shape in the concept of the world. In this respect one needs to immediately set aside the myth that people thought the world was flat. It was known the world was round and there was even relatively sound data about the extent of the Asian continent in addition to a fairly accurate idea of the circumference of the earth. On the basis of those data Columbus's journey was folly, considering the vast amount of ocean that needed to be crossed. An intermediate continent was not expected and Columbus just thought he'd found some islands along the way when he got onto Hispaniola. Like the Canary Islands and the Azores.

We all know Vespucci eventually sailed around and this is how the new continent got its name. And since the world had always been conceptually assumed to consist of three parts (Europe, Africa and Asia), this was the fourth. This we know quite well, but the really interesting part of the show is the description of how the idea of what was lying in the west got shape. Starting from the discovery of the Canary Islands, through Columbus's journey, the development of ideas and additional data from the likes of Vespucci. In this respect you should listen and pay special attention to the finer details around the Canary Islands - it has nothing to do with canaries, more with dogs. And: the islands were inhabited - I never knew that.

More NBIH:
How the Soviet system imploded,
Vietnam War perspectives,
1989 - Padraic Kenney,
The Ossie twilight,
The first day of LBJ.

Vietnam War perspectives - NBIH

Interview podcasts such as New Books in History are, in my opinion, a particularly effective genre. Podcast seems to fit interviews and the technicalities of recording phone calls, especially on internet channeled calls, are not particularly complicated. So it is uncomplicated and it gives a result that is accessible for the listener and this counts for the success of New Books in History among others. Yet, at times, NBIH has more than one interview guest and then it is more difficult to pull the whole thing off.

The interview with Mark Bradley and Marilyn Young that came out last week, is a case in point. The result is quite good; and by all means this interview is heartily recommended. The sounds levels on the two lines are evened out, which would not automatically be the case and this could result in one speaker to be less audible than the other. Apart from these technical points on the audio, there are the cues for the speakers. And here, Bradley and Young occasionally tread on each other and the result is a bit chaotic here and there.

After all, the issue is very good, thanks to the content. Bradley and Young edited a multi-perspective book on the Vietnam Wars and they manage to concisely offer, in the podcast, a glimpse of how many angles there are and what important insights there are to be had from the book. One perspective that is not in there, is the one that Bradley and Young call revisionist and that is the idea that the Vietnam War was actually won by the US, or if not, could have been won.

More NBIH:
1989 - Padraic Kenney,
The Ossie twilight,
The first day of LBJ,
Ayn Rand,
Atlantic History.

Jennifer Burns on Ayn Rand - two more podcasts

Podcaster Chris Gondek did one interview with Professor Jennifer Burns about Ayn Rand whose biography she has written under the title Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. This one interview he edited to fit each on of two of his podcasts, The Biography Podcast (feed) and The Invisible Hand (feed).

I would have loved to hear the unedited interview, or at least the extended version that contained all the material for both podcasts. As it went now, I heard one and was excited about Gondek's announcement by the end that there was yet another interview on the other. Then I listened to the other and heard so much twice that I can't tell in hindsight what is fundamentally different between the two. So, listen to either one and choose depending upon the touch you'd like to get.

The Biography Podcast is, obviously, about biographies and has Burns talk about Rand's life, career and development. The Invisible Hand is a podcast about 'business, economics and strategy' and therefore puts the emphasis on Rand's political thought. Both versions start however with a questions about Rand's childhood and both interviews close with the question of what Rand would have thought was her legacy today. Although these are two professional, polished and to the point productions, my personal preference goes to the more raw and less balanced interview Burns gave at New Books In History.

More Jennifer Burns:
Jennifer Burns about Ayn Rand - NBIH,
History 7b - history podcast review,
American Civil Rights Movement,
Whittaker Chambers,
Scopes Trial.

The first day of LBJ - NBIH

The day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson took over office. At New Books in History Marshall Poe spoke with Steve Gillon, who wrote a book titled The Kennedy Assassination--24 Hours After, but while Kennedy and his assassination are subject of the title, Johnson makes the subheading and for the actual subject of the book: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President.

What is both astounding and at the same time completely expectable is the utter confusion around LBJ's succession of JFK. Astounding it is, because Kennedy was not the first president to be murdered and Johnson was not the first vice-president who had had to suddenly step in. Also, the US never have had serious succession contention. Nevertheless, the assassination struck like lightning on a bright day and shook the nation just as much as all the leading individuals, making for the most humanly confusion.

What adds to the picture and makes for the juicy story Gillon has to tell: the president's brother, Robert Kennedy had a disliking of Johnson and seemed to be scheming against the succession. Or at least, Johnson was sufficiently suspicious of the Kennedy clan and schemed, in his turn, to pull in the transition of power and stage it such that it would look swift and smooth. Poe allows Gillon to spell the story out and it makes for a riveting podcast. I wonder how much drama is left for the readers of the book.

More NBIH:
Ayn Rand,
Atlantic History,
Political rationalizations in Nazi-Germany,
Whalen / Rohrbough,
Confronting the bomb.

Jennifer Burns about Ayn Rand - NBIH

New Books in History went along with a recommendation I made, of all people. I was alerted to a book written by historian and history podcaster Jennifer Burns (Berkeley's History 7b) and passed this on to Marshall Poe, the host of New Books in History. On the show two weeks ago, he interviewed Jennifer Burns on this book of hers about Ayn Rand and the American Right.

Ayn Rand, was not born in the US and Ayn Rand was not her original name. She actually came from the Soviet Union and Burns and Poe discuss with awe and excitement how Rand managed to become an icon of the American right. Not just any right. These days, the right is mostly associated with strong conservatism, but Rand's was another kind of right. She propagated a life of stark individualism, atheism and libertarianism with a free market and little government.

She also lived that life. Taking on few bonds, being libertarian also about sexuality and drugs - she used amphetamine. Some of her erratic behavior can be ascribed, as Marshall Poe sees it, to her addiction, though Burns seems less inclined to go that road. In any case, Rand seen in this light, I wonder, may in some years' time be viewed as a leftist rather than as a rightist. Or the god-fearing, family values conservatives must have turned left, by then. They won't fit in the same church, that is for sure.

More NBIH:
Atlantic History,
Political rationalizations in Nazi-Germany,
Whalen / Rohrbough,
Confronting the bomb,
Henry Hudson's fatal journey.



More Jennifer Burns:
History 7b - history podcast review,
American Civil Rights Movement,
Whittaker Chambers,
Scopes Trial,
US History - from Civil War to Present.

The Death of Edgar Allan Poe - The Memory Palace

The wonderful history podcast The Memory Palace (feed) has its strength mainly in its narrative force and in its short episodes. Nate DiMeo takes five minutes to tell small, humane, tales in history. Apart from history drama, one could also call it micro-history.

Micro-history is not necessarily lost in oceanic waves of the larger scheme of history. DiMeo shows this for example in his latest production This Ungainly Fowl. This is the story, as far as it can be reconstructed, of the last 24 hours in the life of Edgar Allan Poe. These hours are unrecorded and utterly unclear. It begins as Poe finds himself on a train to Baltimore and it ends as he is found dying in the street, in some other man's clothes. There are several theories as to what happened and The Memory Palace offers one of them.

Not only does this attempt to give an answer as to what might have happened to the great writer, but also tells a thing or two about daily life in contemporary US in general and in Baltimore specifically. This serves as an illustration and a tale that, no matter how small, touches relevance in the greater seas of history. This, for an otherwise fine history podcast to begin with, serves as a lot of extra credit. This podcast is worth following for everyone.

More The Memory Palace:
A Great Escape,
The Memory Palace,
Ferris Wheel and other historic experiences,
The hollow earth,
The Memory Palace - history narration.

Atlantic History - NBIH

Here is a quick recommendation about one of the recent episodes of New Books in History. Marshall Poe spoke with Jack Greene and Philip Morgan about the book they edited which is a critical appraisal of a field called Atlantic History.

They explain how at one time the joint histories of Africa, Europe and the Americas was combined into a composite narrative about the exchange that took place between the four continents especially from the age of exploration until the later days of imperialism - though the field could be taken larger than that. What started off as a composite, developed into a field with its various specialties, divisions and opinions.

As part of a series about reinterpreting history, published by the National History Center and Oxford University press, their book came out mapping out this field of Atlantic History. More publications are expcected and they will also be high-lighted in NBIH.

More NBIH:
Political rationalizations in Nazi-Germany,
Whalen / Rohrbough,
Confronting the bomb,
Henry Hudson's fatal journey,
Substance abuse in the midwest.

Unabomber world views - Entitled Opinions

Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was not just a terrorist. He also was a social critic and in the podcast Entitled Opinions, host Robert Harrison and his guest Jean-Marie Apostolidès dig into the thoughts and writings of the Unabomber.

They make a point, ostensibly, in distancing themselves from Kaczynski as an activist and emphasize they do not agree with his ideas. Apostolidès begins to explain why his ideas, nevertheless, are interesting and relevant for discussion. Harrison expresses some affinity with some of the ideas, although he categorically disagrees with the conclusions. The bottom-line, I think, seems to be that in our rapidly developing world, Kaczynski's ideas are bound to pop up and need to be evaluated and critically assessed for they carry insights or point to truths that otherwise may not be ascertained that clearly.

It is interesting how Apostolidès eventually identifies Kaczynski as a writer. Not as an activist, a philosopher or even a terrorist. He was a writer and he reverted to violence to get attention to his writings. The psychology of Kaczynski, thus, is that of a failed person and his ideas badly written, missing the point and in their anti-technology stance, overtaken by the present. Kaczynski in other words, is yet another Luddite met over the course of progress. What could be added is an analysis of a historian how every technology driven change in society over history has produced its own Luddites and Unabombers.

More Entitled Opinions:
Byzantine Culture,
Jimi Hendrix,
Nietzsche,
Romanticism,
Sartre's Existentialism.

Whalen / Rohrbough - NBIH

Somehow I have managed to keep up with the production schedule of New Books in History and in the same week listen to both a new and an old issue from this eminent podcast series.

The latest episode, an interview with Brett Whalen, takes us much further back than what we usually get in NBIH: to the age of the Crusades. The need for Crusades was connected with the eschatology notion that the word of Christ needed to be known onto the whole world and that Jerusalem better be in the hands of the Christians. What was it that only by the tenth century these ideas became so convincing that they could trigger an age of Crusades? Whalen takes us into the logic of the Crusades and in the process also shows how this crusading idea never died. Gives new thoughts on George W. Bush's use of the word Crusade in the context of the War against Terror.

For the older episode I simply went to the beginning of the feed and took the oldest issue: an interview with Malcolm Rohrbough. With Rohrbough, Marshal Poe speaks about the trans-Appalachian frontier. Rohrbough is said to be the one who has written the 'definitive story' on this issue. This is basically the effort to take the history of the western frontier from its earliest point and try to tell it as one from the beginning.

More NBIH:
Confronting the bomb,
Henry Hudson's fatal journey,
Substance abuse in the midwest,
How could they continue - NBIH on WW1 soldiers,
After slavery was abolished.

Confronting the bomb - NBIH

Every issue of the podcast New Books In History is noteworthy. Each week Marshall Poe interviews the author of a book that was just published in the field of history. It allows us to listen to historians talk on a subject one of them is a specialist in - what more could the history podcast audience want?

The latest issue featured Lawrence Wittner who has done extensive research on the anti-nuclear weapons movement and has written a number of books on the subject, the last of which is somethign of a summary called 'confronting the bomb'. Wittner's claim is that the movement has been in existence ever since nuclear technology was feasible for weaponry. That is, as soon as scientists figured the military application an opposing movement came into existence. This was in the 1930's, long before the technology was actually researched and applied.

Wittner takes us through the history of the movement and wants to assure that the movement has been instrumental in the relative abolition we see today. This I find much less convincing, but surely the history is very interesting to have laid out.

More NBIH:
Henry Hudson's fatal journey,
Substance abuse in the midwest,
How could they continue - NBIH on WW1 soldiers,
After slavery was abolished,
Populism.