New Books In History - quick glance over the backlog

The podcast New Books In History is my new favorite on the block. I have been listening to several episodes, nearly back to back and I do want to go on and hear more. So I am do not want to review them all, but pack them together. Especially now that Marshall Poe has fixed the feed and the whole backlog has become available. (feed)

Kristin Celello wrote a history of marriage counseling in the US. In the interview she gave to Marshall Poe we come to see the origins of marriage counseling: worried conservatives who couldn't stop divorce becoming legal and stepped in by trying to save marriages. One consequence of this was that marriage counseling is not an exclusively psycho-therapy field. Another thing that struck me is that the counseling predominantly speaks to women, as if, until today, it is mostly the task of the woman to maintain marriage. An old nineteenth century concept of woman being the responsible figure in the home...

Yuma Totani studies the Tokyo war crime trials after World War II. Poe asks her to compare with the Nuremberg trials and pays a lot of attention to the question how the trials were received in Japan and are still seen today. After Totani's first book on the subject, she feels there is more to be done and she explains how she is expanding on the first study.

Tony Michels is invited to speak about Jewish socialists in the US. His book on the subject is not new, but came out as a paperback. His tales show the intricacies of how Jews dealt with Judaism, with various other cultural influences and how they decided in terms of assimilation upon arrival in the US. It is my impression the flirt with socialism is a part of this struggle. In any way, with Michels you come to see this particular aspect in its many different colors.

More NBIH:
Jews in the Russian army,
Who will write our history?,
Sentiments in International Relations,
Ronald Reagan,
Prokofiev.

Life Changing Lessons - Shrink Rap Radio podcast

Shrink Rap Radio had an old guest come back for a second interview. I also loved the first interview with prison psychologist Dana Houck when he spoke of his work with prisoners and his use of Jungian Psychology and archaic tales to help them deal with their issues.

Although Houck has had to leave the prison system -more about that below- he has spent time laying down his experience in a new book about Life Changing Lessons that his prisoners learned and that we can learn from them. It turns into a fascinating interview in which Houck retells how he managed to help hardened criminals to open up to their issues and get along in life. Some of these lessons are not so evident to the extent that interviewer Dr. David van Nuys is genuinely surprised and asks for further explanation. Houck achieved all this through a qualitative approach in group therapy. By nagging the clients, by applying tales such as the Odyssey and Three Little Pigs and digging into the prisoners' dreams.

The reason Houck has had to leave the institution is because his therapeutic approach is not as hard as CBT and other evidence based therapy methods. Tax payers and policy makers demand, probably rightfully so, some accountability for the services rendered to prisoners. But Houck and Van Nuys mark the dilemma this poses towards seemingly effective approaches such as Houck's and how to evaluate those creative and qualitative styles among the quantitative measures of main stream science. A highly recommended issue of Shrink Rap Radio - as per usual.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Shrink Rap Radio - 200 great podcasts,
Technology and The Evolving Brain,
Nova Spivack,
Relationships and the brain,
Psychologist writer.

Magna Carta - In Our Time

With a true history item BBC's In Our Time was back its usual self after last weeks science escapade (Vacuum of Space). History is its main object and usually gives the most accessible items.

The Magna Carta was discussed and mostly how it came into being. Any attempt to revisionist history was stopped immediately and bad king John was at once characterized as 'an absolute rotter'. But this did not mean the Magna Carta got a lazy middle of the road show. Though it was more historic than legal, if political in points.

Only by the end it was pointed out how the Magna Carta opened the way to constitutional thinking and the remark was made that it is more thoroughly studied in the US than in England. This neatly connects to the first series of chapters in the the podcast Binge Thinking History, that lays out exactly this: the English roots of the American constitution. With ample attention for the Magna Carta. It is a nice idea to listen to this IOT episode and these BTHP episodes together.

More In Our Time:
BBC's In Our Time - always recommended,
Brave New World,
Rafael's School of Athens and the depiction of Plato and Aristotle,
The Boxer Rebellion,
The library of Alexandria,
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.

Previously about BTHP:
It rules the waves,
Royal Navy,
Win, lose or draw,
Blitz on London,
Battle of Britain
and The American Constitution's British roots.

Medieval Islamic Medicine - University of Warwick podcast

Thanks to the Podcast Parlor, I have found out about the podcasts that the University of Warwick puts out. From the site of Warwick you can access all podcasts (feed), but I have not yet figured out how to access the separate subjects in separate feeds from there. It is possible to go through iTunes U though. Seek out the University of Warwick (under U in the universities and colleges list) and there you will find various history subjects laid out to you.

The first series I took up was Islamic Medicine (iTunes feed) by Peter Pormann. This series consists of seven short podcasts (10-20 minutes. Monologues by Pormann) about medieval medicine in the Islamic tradition. In many respects this is a continuation of classical Greek Medicine on which the sages in the Islamic world continued and to which they added. Among these sages are not only Muslims. There are Christians and Jews involved in the activities as well. The Jew Maimonides (Rambam) is part of this culture and in the translation movement that delivered a huge amount of Greek texts to Arabic, are quite a few Syriac Christians.

The importance of the Islamic Medicine is that eventually it is the bridge from the Greeks to the modern west. In spite of the fact that modern scientific evidence based medicine has been added to this tradition, some of its basics are still alive today. In culture and in various practices.

More history of medicine:
Four Humour Medicine (BBC's In Our Time),
Pain (Missing Link),
Medical History (medicalhistory podcast).

Two years, Anne is a Man - podcast reviews.

I started on May 10th 2007. Hence, now it is two years I have been writing this blog. It has been a great ride. I am so happy with the readership - people from all over the world, some of them reacting with really smart feedback. And a continuous inspiration to write. Thanks to all the great podcasters who keep on delivering their excellent content and thanks to the fact I have discovered I can write these reviews naturally. It is what they say about writing: you have to discover your voice and your form.

So... I am glad to be here and I feel privileged that all you readers keep following the blog and I want to especially thank Steve Tuckey, who has marked my history podcast page (which I have to update asap!) on stumbleupon and this has not only given a run of visits right after the share, but somehow, continues to do so.

Stay around. So will I.

Mechanical icon

For all you history podcast fans out there, here is a project from a history podcaster that is not a podcast. It is not even a video podcast. It is a video project though, a project of video essays.

There are these iconic pictures that mark history for us. As single pictures can say more than a thousand words, certain pictures capture history more than a thousand tales. And what better medium to talk about those pictures is the visual? Podcaster Marshall Poe of the great podcast New Books In History, has done this on the website Mechanical Icon. In an ever growing series of video essays, he discusses those iconic images that photography has delivered us and that capture history in a famous way.

Poe doesn't only mark the way in which these images are meaningful and manage to capture history in one shot. He also points out how these images often are manipulated and attempt to sell history in a visual that is sometimes stronger than a thousand lies. Take for example the picture of Karl Marx, that is conveniently cut by his followers in such a way as to hide what can also be seen and understood if the full picture is observed.

It is a pity these essays do not come in a vodcast feed. They surely are worth it. Independent of that, I heartily recommend everybody to go and check. This collection is a row of jewels side by side.