Saturday, November 27, 2010

A Soviet Memoir - New Books in History

Here is yet another warm recommendation for New Books In History, Marsahll Poe's weekly podcast in which he interviews the author of a recently published book in history. (feed)

This week he spoke with Deborah Kaple about her book Gulag Boss, a Soviet Memoir. While Kaple was in Moscow for research on another project, she ran into Fyodor Vasilevich Mochulsky who had been a boss in a Gulag work camp and had written his experiences down. He had tried to find a publisher for it, but to no avail. Kaple translated and delivered some additional material to the work of Mochulsky.

The interview (and the book obviously) give a very fine insight in the workings of Soviet society, of the NKVD and the Gulag camps. Mochulsky is a faithful and dedicated communist yet also has to find his way between strict obedience and proper treatment of the prisoners. The prisoners, by the way, are not just men and not just political prisoners, making for a very challenging environment for Mochulsky to run the camp.

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

Friday, November 26, 2010

Heads-up for 26 November 2010

Shrink Rap Radio
A Buddhist Perspective on Psychotherapy with Mark Epstein, MD
Mark Epstein, M.D., is a psychiatrist and author of Psychotherapy Without The Self: A Buddhist Perspective (Yale University Press, 2007), Going to Pieces: Without Falling Apart (Broadway Books, 1999), and Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective (Basic Books, 1995). Dr. Epstein is a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Medical School. He is a psychotherapist with a private practice in New York City and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University. Dr. Epstein has been a contributing editor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review since it was founded in 1991. He writes for Yoga Journal, O, The Oprah Magazine, Buddhadharma, Body and Soul and other periodicals. Additionally Mark Epstein is the author of well-respected books that deal with the difficult and counter-intuitive Eastern teachings of non-self, a concept which has sometimes proved so alien to the western mind as to be out of reach for many western Buddhists. As a student of Vipassana meditation, he teaches periodically with Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman at Tibet House in New York and lectures to therapists around the country on the relationship of Buddhist and western approaches to psychotherapy.
(review, feed)

Distillations
Space Science
Space, the Final Frontier! Mention the chemistry of space and you’re likely to hear bad jokes about Tang or the behavior of liquids in zero gravity. But it turns out that there’s an entire field—astrochemistry—dedicated to understanding the chemistry of the universe. Chemical Agent: Panspermia.
(review, feed)

The Economist
Climate change and development
Adil Najam of Boston University on the danger of kicking the can down the road at Cancun
(review, feed)

London School of Economics: Public lectures and events
Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us
The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism--the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many-- even some of those charged with cleaning up the mess. John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us--and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future. John Quiggin is professor of economics at the University of Queensland in Australia.
(review, feed)

The fall of democracies - History 5

The interbellum is a very fascinating period. How could a damaged Europe while it recovered from the devastations of the Great War choose for the fast lane for yet another world war? We learned just recently how international politics failed and states embarked on an arms race that drew the world to war on the podcast New Books in History - Not your idea of WW2. It was not just that though, national politics also failed, especially democracy had to make way.

The 25th lecture of History 5 is dedicated to the failure of democracy in Germany and Italy and the hard to explain rise to power of their fascist dictators. Speaker is Margaret Anderson and I am not sure whether this is a guest lecture or a rerun of the 2008 lecture. Anderson is a great lecturer and she delivers History 5 in a very clear and organized way. She also has a knack for narrative suspense. (feed)

Take for example how she kicks off this lecture with telling the sordid details of two losers and how they fail in society. One a school teacher who is too easily tempered and eventually gets kicked out for knifing a student and consequently is arrested for loitering. The other a drop out from high school who sleeps in homeless shelters and tires to make ends meet by selling postcards in the street. Who are these men? Could they be Mussolini and Hitler in their youth?

More History 5:
Lecture mix up,
5 Podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog,
Berkeley History 5 by Thomas Laqueur 2010,
History 5 by Laqueur in previous years,
History 5 by Margaret Anderson.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Heads-up for 25 November 2010

In Our Time (BBC)
Metaphor
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore metaphor; the literary device that pervades our language, literature and lives. From medieval literature to Shakespeare, the Metaphysical poets and Virginia Woolf, this programme considers the role of metaphor in their work and more. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Julie Sanders, Professor of English Literature and Drama at the University of Nottingham; Steve Connor, Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck, University of London; and Tom Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Sussex.
(review, feed)

New Books In History
Deborah Kaple, “Gulag Boss: A Soviet Memoir”
In Gulag Boss: A Soviet Memoir (Oxford UP, 2010), Deborah Kaple gives us the biography of Fyodor Vasilevich Mochulsky – ordinary fellow, Communist Party member, and GULAG officer from 1940 to 1946.
(review, feed)

TED Talks
Creative houses from reclaimed stuff - Dan Phillips (2010)
In this funny and insightful talk from TEDxHouston, builder Dan Phillips tours us through a dozen homes he's built in Texas using recycled and reclaimed materials in wildly creative ways. Brilliant, low-tech design details will refresh your own creative drive.
(review, feed)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Heads-up for 24 November 2010

The China History Podcast
The Southern & Northern Kingdoms
The Southern and Northern Kingdoms were a collection of dynasties that lasted 170 years and preceded the time of unification under the Sui Dynasty. North of the Yangzi River you had the Northern Wei, the Northern Qi and the Northern Zhou. South of the great river reigned the Liu Song, Southern Qi, the Liang and finally the Chen. Although there was disunity in China and plenty of warring going on to make things miserable for most, it was still a very critical and formative time in China with mass migrations of Han Chinese from the north to the south. It was also a time when Buddhism triumphed in China.
(review, feed)

TED Talks
Jason Fried: Why work doesn't happen at work
Jason Fried has a radical theory of working: that the office isn't a good place to do it. At TEDxMidwest, he lays out the main problems (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make work work.
(review, feed)

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.