History, Holocaust and Human Rights

The great history lecture series in Berkeley History 5 (feed) has ended this week. As usual it has been a delight in history teaching. Never listened to History 5? Go and try.

Here I would like to add some information to Lecture 26 which deals with the Holocaust and its aftermath. Professor Thomas Laqueur pays less attention to the size and methods of the Holocaust, but rather emphasizes the reception of it. How got it to be treated as not just another massacre? He talks of the trials and of the conception of the term genocide.

He also refers to a broader course he teaches, which is about the history of human rights. It just so happens that this course can be had on podcast: Letters and Science 140D (feed), The history and practice of human rights. This is a very intensive course which needs, in my experience, closer listening than History 5, but once you dedicate the attention is all the more worth it.

More History 5:
The fall of democracies,
Lecture mix up,
5 Podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog,
Berkeley History 5 by Thomas Laqueur 2010.

Heads-up for 7 December 2010

Ideas
The Book of Exodus - Part One
It is a story of epic proportions: an enslaved people's liberation from bondage and their transformation into a nation. Considered one of the most important books in the Bible, the influence of Exodus transcends religious boundaries. CBC producer Frank Faulk explores how this powerful story has reverberated through the centuries and shaped the imagination of the West.
(review, feed)

Witness
Pearl Harbour
When Japanese bombers attacked the american naval fleet at Pearl Harbour in the Pacific, it forced the USA into World War Two.
(review, feed)

Elucidations
Mark Lance discusses language and power
In this episode, Mark Lance discusses how the conventions by which we verbally address one another define the roles we play in society.
(review, feed)

Heads-up for 6 December 2010

Mahabharata Podcast
Welcome back, Arjun
from by mahabharatapodcast@comcast.net (Lawrence Manzo)
Episode 35 - It's deja-vu all over again, as the Pandavas move from the hermitage of Nar-Narayan to another one on the slopes of Mt Kailash, named for Arstisena. Another flower wafts down the hill, and Draupadi again sends Bhima off in search of the source. Bhima completely forgets Yuddistira's injunction about making trouble and he invades Kubera's kingdom, starting a war with the god's "genial leprechaun" army.
(review, feed)

EconTalk
Selgin on the Fed
George Selgin, of the University of Georgia, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about whether the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 has been a boon or a bust for the U.S. economy. Drawing on a recent paper by William Lastrapes and Lawrence White recently released by the Cato Institute, "Has the Fed Been a Failure?" Selgin argues that the Fed has done poorly at two missions often deemed to justify a central bank: lender of last resort and smoother of the business cycle. Selgin makes the case that avoiding bank runs and bank panics does not require a central bank and that contrary to received wisdom, it is hard to argue that the Fed has smoothed the business cycle. Additional topics discussed include whether the Fed has the information to do its jobs well, the role of the Fed in moral hazard, and the potential for the gold standard to outperform the Fed.
(review, feed)

Perception of African pasts, politics and cultures

Here is a short recommendation to listen to the podcast Africa Past and Present, where the latest issue had an interview with historian Paul Landau who has been reviewing the African historiography and draws the conclusion that much of this body has been formulated in a non-fitting terminology. (feed)

Landau is not the first to point out in podcast that it is hard for historians to find a proper language and framework for grasping African history. We have also had a lecture by Joseph Miller at Virginia Tech which took a step back from historiography and pointed out that in order to describe the history of Africa, one must work outside the box.

To give but one example: Western thought has imposed upon the African reality a social structure using the word Tribe and with it carrying a lot of implications Landau and Miller attempt to show that are not applicable. This causes the reader, the viewer and even the researcher to view divisions where there are none really and interpret connections where they are anthropologically misconstrued.

More Africa Past and Present:
After the Cup,
Podcast Review: Africa Past and Present.

Heads-up for 5 December 2010

History According to Bob
The Germanies 1949 to 1961
This show is the rise of West Germany and the stress it put on East Germany which led to the Berlin Wall .
(review, feed)

Philosophy Bites
Helen Beebee on Laws of Nature
What is a law of nature? Is it merely a generalisation about how things behave? Or does it have a different status? Helen Beebee investigates these questions in conversation with Nigel Warburton for this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.
(review, feed)

The impending war - LSE podcast

At the London School of Economics there are always a lot of lectures to recommend. Just now, I heard one by Dana Allin, which I think is also very much worth listening to, yet I would like to send you on the road with some advanced knowledge. (feed)

Allin's lecture comes forth from the book he wrote with Steve Simon The Sixth Crisis: Iran, Israel, America, and the Rumors of War. The subject of the lecture is the American political and diplomatic conundrum of how to deal with Iran's nuclear program and its becoming a (potential) nuclear power. In Allin's view, the issue is closely linked to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and therefore the divergent policies of the US and its ally Israel towards Iran. That makes the crisis with Iran a sixth crisis for the US with Israel.

Unfortunately Allin does not enumerate the prior five crises and therefore leaps in the middle of the subject without framing it. That is a pity and I think it helps if I gave them here. The first crisis is the 1956 Suez Crisis. The second starts with the six-day war in 1967 and continues thruough the ensuing war of attrition and 1973 Yom Kippur War. Then the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran is a third crisis - wider than just a crisis with Israel and also a first indicator that the world is not entirely triggered by the Cold-War power balance. The fourth crisis, I would say begins with the Intifadah, but if that were no crisis for the US, it sure became one in 1991 with the Gulf War. Finally, the fifth crisis, also larger than just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is 9/11 terrorist attacks and the resulting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Barely this fifth crisis is over (if at all) and there is the crisis around Iran.

More LSE:
Quest for meaning,
The plundered planet,
China and India,
The China Hegemony,
The myth of work.