The death of Marat - History by picture

Let's start this review with a picture: The Death of Marat, by David. Any podcast that pays ample attention to the French revolution is likely to make reference to this picture and if not to the picture then at least to the political murder that David envisaged with it. Marat was an influential figure during the reign of terror. Charlotte Corday felt he threatened the nation and decided to kill him.

The story of the murder and the details of the painting are an excellent starting point for getting a grip on the phase of the Reign of Terror during the revolution. Not only the fundamental lecture podcasts discuss the episode and the painting - Berkeley's History 5 and UCLA's History 1c. Also in UCSD's art history class Formations of Modern Art, Professor William Bryson extensively discusses this work by David and its historic and political implications.

Not only the murder is political, also the painting is. David was a supporter of Marat and he went to great lengths in this depiction to make Marat into a martyr for the revolution and Corday into the reactionary ghost of all that was wrong with France. Surely, she is not in the painting, but one must realize that the story was widely known. Corday had with a false pretense gained entrance to Marat's bathroom. Marat spent most of his days in a bath, because of a skin condition. So there was nothing weird in him receiving her. There she stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife. What is left to see of her in the painting is the letter. Her letter, together with his are carefully constructed by David to achieve his effect. Listen to Bryson on UCSD (when the course is available) and the others to be filled in on the details.

Picture: La Mort de Marat - 1793 by Jacques-Louis David
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
Public Domain

Russian Rulers Podcast

Here is a new amateur history podcast that deserves a break. The Russian Rulers History Podcast has reached only its fourth episode and is still struggling with audio-issues, with Russian names and with its format and as such is still far from perfect. Yet, the maker Mark Schauss has chosen a field that is beyond the beaten track of history podcasts and on account of that alone deserves our attention. (feed)

Inspired by the pioneer of history podcasts, 12 Byzantine Rulers, Schauss is intent on telling us the history of Russia, by successively treating the Princes of Kiev, Novgorod and ultimately Moscow. This project should stretch over a dozen centuries and after four episodes has reached the twelfth century. Already, Schauss feels it is not enough to talk just rulers and he has announced to add rubrics with other influential figures.

As indicated, there is a lot of quality improvement still needed. The third episode has below standard audio and Schauss should also invest more practice in his text as to be able to more fluently read it when recording. Nevertheless Schauss is giving us a historic overview you are not getting elsewhere.

Romanticism - Open University

I am always fascinated by Romanticism. Although this term is usually reserved for a cultural movement in nineteenth century Europe, it is not so clearly a movement as rather a style of thinking, a type of mind set, a particular view of man and the world. As such, it is sufficiently amorphous so that it cannot so easily be pinned in space and time. Part of my fascination is the inkling Romanticism actually never went away and is still part of our cultural landscape today.

This demands a more active definition of Romanticism and one might consider turning to the Open University which offers an undergraduate course From Enlightenment to Romanticism and together with this course, it offers a small set of audio under the title Analyzing European Romaniticism (feed). Although this is far from a course, or even an introduction to Romanticism, it does give six useful audio essays delineating critical aspects of nineteenth century Romanticism.

The Open University will set the scene in Germany, in literature, philosophy and the adversaries of Romanticism and consequently it will go on to talk of England, France and Spain. Eventually this is a mere kick off and in order to dive deeper into the atmosphere and logic of Romanticism, one must continue to look. In podcast, fine contributions were made by Entitled Opinions and Berkeley's History 5.

More Open University:
Ethics Bites,
The things we forgot to remember.

The Age of Inequality - Big Ideas

In our series of podcasts about India, I want to direct you to TVO's Big Ideas which had a lecture delivered by Palagummi Sainath on the problem of poverty. Sainath makes a passionate demand for attention to the problem of poverty in India. His point concerns one of the most devastating faces of poverty: starvation. Sainath argues more people than ever are starving in India.

Should this surprise us? Just as we were being informed of the rising economic power if India, you would not immediately think of starvation happening the same time. Yet, if you have listened to Professor Pranab Bardhan at LSE, poverty already stood out as a serious challenge to India. Also the interview Christopher Lydon did with Amartya Sen (review coming soon) touched on t his subject. Yet, Sainath is most outspoken. He addresses India's successes, but claims that this reflects only the upper realm of society. In fact, he argues, the increased wealth is ending up with an increasingly smaller portion of the population. For the masses, the opposite is the case: a descent into poverty. And if statistics indicate that Indians eat better than ever, this also goes only for the upper portion. Per head, there is less food and therefore, for the absolute bottom of society Sainath asks: 'What the heck do they eat?'

He adds, that the poorest people, also do the hardest work and as a consequence are in need of more calories than the middle class office dwellers (who have the food). The implication of his argument is not only the stunning injustice and a revelation of desperate human suffering, but also a warning of great social upheaval to come. Unless the problems are addressed. A bail-out is needed for the poor and this would be a global truth, not just one for India. Bail-outs, unfortunately, in this world, are devised for the rich, not the poor.

More Big Ideas:
Disappearing cultures,
Waiting for Godot,
Religion as culture - Camille Paglia,
Christopher Hitchens on the Ten Commandments,
The empire.

Mark Leslie on the Writing Show

For a long time, the 'Getting Published with...' section had not appeared at the Writing Show (feed). In this section, host Paula B speaks with aspiring writers and follows up on their current project. How is the writing progressing? And when the writing is done, how is the search for an agent or a publisher going? The idea is to show the entire process from conception to publishing.

Although I find this the most fascinating feature of the Writing Show, it has also a disheartening quality to it. It shows how hard the writers struggle with their work and ultimately how tremendously difficult it is to get published. It has been two years since we last met Mark Leslie on Getting Published and as he just reappeared, we learn he has, still, yet to finish the novel he was working on. A Canadian Werewolf in New York has mostly been lying around and needed to give way to other projects.

Leslie is full of confidence. He reminds us of what has been said by many writers, it is always good to let a finished (or nearly finished) novel lie for a while. When you return to it, not only will you view it with fresh spirit, you are likely to have grown as a writer and as a person and will be able to improve on the work so far. This is how Mark feels and with this new zeal he will finish the book and tell us about it in his next appearance on the Writing Show.

More The Writing Show:
Short Story Beginnings,
Getting Published with Jean Tennant,
Getting Published with Janice Ballenger,
Getting Published with Mark Leslie,
Psychological Aspects of Writing.

China and India - LSE podcast

At the LSE podcast (feed) Professor Pranab Bardhan appeared with two consecutive lectures comparing China and India. As the title of both his book and his two lectures, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay, both powers are rising quickly, but in spite of their increasing economic weight, each has their own set of major problems to overcome.

The first lecture is the more technical of the two. Bardhan delivers the figures of both economies and gives an analysis how these should be interpreted. There is a funny line he recalls from his Indian socialist friends in the past. They would say, China is doing better, because they are better socialists than we are. Today, Bardhan jests, probably the Chinese do better, because they are better capitalists than the Indians. Although some of the figures seem to indicate that, India is not lost without advantages. And we awaited the second lecture to find about problems on both sides.

In the second lecture, when the huge problems of both countries, poverty, illiteracy, the position of women, minorities, lack of democracy, corruption and lack of accountability and so on, are summed up, India does not come out better or with better prospects than China. The challenges each country faces is very different from the other. The conclusion is that it very much remains to be seen how India and China will handle them and how they will come out and whether they indeed will rise to the kind of power that everybody seems to believe they do.

More LSE:
The China Hegemony,
The myth of work,
Pasts and futures of Christianity,
Global capitalism - the Gray view,
Israeli at the London School of Economics.