The Indian Rebellion 1857 - BBC, Berkeley, UCLA

In a short a time, three podcast series have started paying attention to the revolt in India in 1857. What began with disconcerted Indian foot-soldiers in the British colonial army - hence the rebellion is also called a mutiny - extended into a broad revolt which eventually even got the Mogul Emperor involved. After the fighting and the massacres neither India nor Britain would be the same.

This week's issue of BBC's In Our Time is dedicated to the Indian Rebellion and it is good to download it by Wednesday, before the shop will close. Melvyn Bragg has his guests pay a lot of attention to the roots of the revolt, to the factuality of the alleged massacres and eventually to the change it brought about. In Berkeley's course History 151c (The Peculiar Modernity of Britain) (feed) the perspective is obviously on Britain and the 5th lecture (The triumph of liberalism 1848/1857) deals among others with the Indian Rebellion and how it turned Britain into an empire and Queen Victoria into an empress.

UCLA's course on the History of British India, has countless references to the revolt and points to it in many of the lectures over and over again as the major turning point in British rule over India. Although the revolt failed, it spawned Indian nationalism and it is the first sign that this foreign rule on the subcontinent is not going to last. (feed)

Image: Wikimedia commons

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Stay tuned, I will be back

As you surely have noticed, I have not been blogging for the last week. The reason was, and is, that I am struck by a rather stubborn cold, that has me partly incapacitated. I have not been listening to new podcasts and I have not had the energy to convert what prepared posts I had to published posts. However, I am on my way out and hope to be back in form after the weekend.

Anne

Hans Galjaard - Het Marathon Interview

Het jaar 1989 had een ruim aanbod van gedenkwaardige Marathon Interviews. Zojuist verscheen in de nieuwe feed van VPRO's Het Marathoninterview alweer vijf uur om meteen op te halen en te beluisteren: Het interview met Hans Galjaard. Toen ik het interview besprak in 2007 (uit de oude feed van de VPRO), bleek dat het gesprek aan actualiteit niet had ingeboet. Ziehier:

Het marathoninterview met Hans Galjaard wordt overschaduwd door de televisieserie van Wim Kayzer Beter dan God. Hans Galjaard werd in die serie geinterviewd en dat bracht zoveel teweeg dat er twee jaar later in het marathoninterview opnieuw voortdurend aan gerefereerd wordt. In 2005 werd er in Holland Doc over nagepraat (video-stream) en ik heb er ook even naar gekeken om na te gaan hoe actueel het oude marathon interview nog was.

Eigenlijk ten overvloede, omdat het interview hoe dan ook fascinered was. Galjaard geeft aan dat hij het als onderzoeker veel te druk heeft om zich in alle ethische aspecten van zijn werk te verdiepen. Hij spreekt ook zijn zorg uit, dat bij de ethische hetze van die in de media steeds opsteekt, als bijgevolg zal hebben, dat de onderzoeker niet meer openheid van zaken zal geven. Anno 2007 kennen we de hetze nog steeds. Anno 2007 is noodzakelijkerwijs te technolgie razendsnel voortgegaan en men zal mogen geloven wat Galjaard al in 1989 ervoer: de technoloog heeft zich met ethiek niet beziggehouden. Hoe erg zijn de ethiek en de technologie nog verder uit elkaar gedreven?

Ik zie hoe moeilijk het is om achter de stand van de techniek te komen. In podcasts kom je wel eens technologen tegen en die vertellen dan wat er mogelijk is en niet meer. Toen ik op zoek ging naar podcasts die de ethiek bespraken, kwam ik niet verder dan de zwaar aangezette Christelijke podcast Bioethical Podcast. Als dat representatief is, dan is dat precies de realiteit waar Galjaard voor vreesde. De ethici in dit beeld, zijn fundamentalistische Christenen die op voorhand hun mening al klaar hebben en dus meer aan hetze dan dialoog doen. En de techneut, kent de taal van ethiek niet. En wat is er terechtgekomen van het sociaal-wetenschappelijke onderzoek waar Galjaard om vroeg, daar kom ik niet achter.

Hoe hard de ontwikkelingen ook gegaan zijn, het gesprek lijkt na 18 jaar nog zeer relevant.

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
Bert ter Schegget,
Lea Dasberg,
Rudi Kross,
Ina Muller van Ast,
Jan Wolkers.

A recent history of Yemen - Rear Vision

Here is a quick recommendation to the podcast Rear Vision from Australia's ABC. This is a very informative program that gives historical background to current issues. It compiles the explanations and thought from two or three specialists that are interviewed for the show.

A good example that would want to recommend was the show about A history of modern Yemen. In which Dr. Elham Manea (University of Zurich) and Dr. Paul Dresch (University of Oxford) retell the volatile political history of Yemen in the last 50 years. It shows how Yemen was the stage for proxy wars, not just between the opponents of the Cold War, but also between the regional players Saudi Arabia and Egypt. This chaos latched onto a much older phenomenon in the Yemenite history: religion. The resulting narrative is meant to explain how Yemen became a place where Islamist terrorists find their refuge and education. If that explanatory goal of the story is not entirely met, you should try and find out by yourself. It sort of went past me as I became much more interested in the earlier narratives of this old, old country.

Another chapter of Rear Vision that I just heard and enjoyed, was the show about Illegal immigration into Europe. Here you will learn that illegal immigration is first and foremost an issue of policy and political definition rather then one of physical trespassing. Most immigrants arrive legally, but attain illegal status by overstaying their visa or obtain employment beyond the limitations of their visa, or are refugees that forged the reason for flight. It becomes clear Europe is the economic magnet that knows not how to deal with the millions that are attracted.

More Rear Vision:
Freemasons,
China,
A history of the Israeli-Arab conflict,
Fish depletion,
Follow up on Iran and Versailles.

Revolution, Industry & Empire - UCSD

Last October, I wrote a post about the modern history courses that are available from Berkeley, Yale, UCLA and UCSD. To sum them up quickly History 5 at Berkeley, European Civilization at Yale, History 1c at UCLA and then there was MMW 4 at UCSD, with the proviso that this course started earlier and went on to the beginning of modern history.

To complete the picture from UCSD, one needs to follow this semester MMW 5 (feed), which incidentally goes on until 1914, so eventually it takes MMW 6 to top it off. As usual with UCSD, one must take heed and download the course this semester as it will be taken off line immediately afterward.

The title MMW 5 got is Revolution, Industry & Empire and the time frame is 1750-1914. Obviously this means French Revolution, Industrial Revolution and Imperialism. The lecturer Professor Heidi Keller-Lapp makes sure you get a good handle on the 18th century landscape of political philosophy, especially on the three thinkers about Social Contract: Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. Consequently, the first lectures (I have made it through to lecture 7 of the current 16 available), are exclusively about these three thinkers and there is hardly any historical narrative delivered. I have been told though that this is certain to come and in addition to the French Revolution, there will also be talk of the American Revolution and a lecture about the Haitian Revolution (which was delivered around the time the earthquake nearly wiped out this country). In short this is one lecture series to have.

Europe from its origins - A history of Europe

Here is a podcast I have recently discovered and about which I am very excited: Europe from its origins (feed). The first 10 episodes in the podcast are enhanced podcasts. These are m4a files with slides inside. When you listen to this podcast on iTunes or in iPod, you can view the slides as you go. You can also navigate between chapters within the podcast. As of episode 11, it is a vodcast (m4v format) and the visuals are much more lively than the previous slideshows. But basically, you get a sectioned monologue by presenter Joe Hogarty who takes you from the 4th to the 13th century CE and does a splendid job in showing the transition from the western half of the Roman Empire into Medieval Europe.

Although Hogarty's reading is a bit monotonous, the podcast relatively easy to follow. The sections are short and interspersed, not only by the slides, also by good and fitting musical bytes. Thus Hogarty gets us into the perspective of the inhabitants of the Roman west and how they continued their social, political, religious and military enterprise as the Roman Empire receded. (I deliberately do not write of the fall of the empire) Nevertheless, while we stay in this perspective, we are updated extensively of what happens in the Eastern half of the Empire, that is Byzantium, and also, importantly, how the Islamic forces rise and develop a powerful neighbor to the Roman east and the post-Roman west.

Apart from the narrative, Hogarty also presents discussion of the underlying themes and issues as they can be summarized and interpreted. As a consequence, he helps to fit the chronology within the conceptual framework of how Europe developed from the Roman empire and it makes for an excellent preparation to Modern History -the European Era of world history- courses such as Berkeley's History 5, Yale's European Civilization, UCSD's MMW 5 (currently running so check the feed) and UCLA's History 1c that connect the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Reformation, through Englightenment, the French Revolution, Industrialization, Imperialism, Nationalism onto modernity, which in a way marks arguably the recession of Europe.

More Medieval History:
12 Byzantine Rulers,
Byzantine Empire (UCSD),
Medieval Heritage (UCSD - Chamberlain),
Medieval Heritage (UCSD - Herbst),
Norman Centuries.

More Modern History:
MMW 5 (UCSD),
Industrial Revolutions,
Modern Western History in podcasts,
History 1c (UCLA),
History 5 (Berkeley).