Descriptive and prescriptive mapping

In Stanford's Global Geopolitics course (feed) professor Martin Lewis makes a remark which reminded me of a very similar one in a language podcast. I wrote about it; one can approach grammar prescriptively and descriptively. The same thing Lewis states about maps. Maps can be made to carefully describe the situation on the ground, also geopolitically, but maybe more often they are prescriptive and represent the area as it ought to be. One may safely assume that any map that attempts to merely describe a geopolitical situation has prescriptive implications.

What we are seldom aware of is that even the simplest standard maps are prescriptive and Lewis tries to bring the point home by giving descriptive maps for example of Somalia (divided up in separately ruled area and just as many unruly, clan-controlled regions) or of the Western Sahara, or of Kashmir (divided up between India, Pakistan and China).



The course will successively address the various global regions and thus, by means of maps, give some insight in the major, sometimes even hardly known or forgotten geopolitical contests. A very fascinating course, especially for map lovers and a great successor to the previous Geography of World Cultures (feed). So far we have had three lectures; an introduction and exposes about East-Asia and South-Asia and thus far, we can see it has considerable overlap with the previous course. In many ways that should not surprise us as naturally the geopolitical tensions are rooted in much of the cultural, religious and linguistic divisions in the world.

Relevant other reviews:
Global Geopolitics - Martin Lewis,
A listener's guide to Geography of World Cultures,
Geography of World Cultures by Martin W. Lewis,
The End of Hegemony,
Prescriptive and descriptive grammar.

Hoererij met beleid en politie onder bezetting

Op 27 april heb ik weer eens naar OVT geluisterd. Nadat de serie In Europa zijn mid-eeuwse onderbreking is ingegaan, was ik de draad even kwijt, maar die heb ik nu weer even opgepakt, omdat de onderwerpen me bijzonder aanspraken. In het bijzonder een Amsterdams en een Rotterdams onderwerp - beide met een universeel karakter.

Het Amsterdams onderwerp is een historische beschouwing op het beleid van de gemeente Amsterdam inzake de prostitutie in het algemeen en op de Wallen in het bijzonder. Wat de aanwezige gasten daar over zeggen (Parool-journalist Paul Arnoldussen en conservator van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum Annemarie de Wildt, auteurs van het boek ‘Liefde te koop: vier eeuwen prostitutie in Amsterdam: zes wandelingen’) komt hierop neer dat de autoriteiten een soort cycliek doorlopen van strengere en mildere aanpak. De verwijdering en het verbod schoof de prostitutie in de loop der eeuwen alleen maar naar andere uithoeken en sloot verdere regulering uit, terwijl een gedoogbeleid weliswaar de regulering mogelijk maakte maar de problemen leek aan te trekken (misschien alleen meer zichtbaar makend). Het huidige meer strikte beleid lijkt daarom in alle opzichten in die op en neer gang (sic) te passen en je zou er alleen al daarom geen grote veranderingen van verwachten. Amsterdam raakt haar hoeren niet kwijt.

Het Rotterdamse onderwerp is naar aanleiding van het proefschrift dat de agent Frank van Riet schreef over de Rotterdams politie in bezettingstijd. Hoewel de man geen begenadigd spreker is, komt toch heel pregnant het beeld naar voren van een halfhartig collaborerend apparaat. In een poging de collaboratie wat in te perken, worden de NSB agenten en andere sympathisanten in een aparte afdeling gestopt. Het effect was averechts, deze ploeg werd er alleen maar effectiever van. Ze is waarschijnlijk zelfs betrokken geweest bij het fusilleren van collega's die verzet hadden gepleegd.

Eerder van OVT op dit blog (in het kader van In Europa):
1943 - Polen,
1943 - Stalingrad,
1941 - Handlangers,
1940 - Heesters, Petain, Leopold achteraf,
1939 - Patriotten tot landverraders.

A century of geopolitics - podcast review

Stanford's podcast The History of the International System (feed) is an excellent podcast in contemporary history, but the title may be misleading in a way. As explained in the first lecture and recounted in the first review I posted, it is claimed that among states there is some kind of cohesion and dynamic, hence a system.

When thinking of a system of such sort, one may immediately think of institutions, no matter how weak - at least so did I. I thought of the League of Nations, the United Nations and the EU, but these hardly figure. NATO does slightly more so, but not at all do other international organizations that, it cannot be denied, each in their own field and fashion attempt to order the international world. I am thinking of the OECD, the WTO, the IMF and such. This course however is not so much into legal or economic order. Yet is much more a traditional history lesson in geopolitics, paying attention to the major conflicts and its surrounding phenomena. We go from the origins of the First World War, to the Great War itself, to Versailles, to the interbellum, to the Second World War, to Yalta, Potsdam and the new strategic reality within the Cold War and nuclear arms race, decolonization, the end of the cold war and what came after that.

As a matter of fact, no matter how interesting, up to the end of the cold war the course holds hardly any surprises. Much more compelling, innovative (if tentative) is the lecturer, Professor James Sheehan's attempt to analyze the system of the new order with one superpower and the rise of Islamist fundamentalism. I would urge everybody to go through the whole course, but if you want to jump ahead to these cherries on the cake, do not enter too late, as the roots of the new reality are pointed out early on, especially explicit from 1979 on. 1979 the year when Iran became an Islamist republic, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein came to power in Iraq.

Previous review:
History of the International System.

More geopolitics:
Global Geopolitics - Martin Lewis,
A listener's guide to Geography of World Cultures,
Geography of World Cultures by Martin W. Lewis,
The End of Hegemony.

World history guided by the religions

UC San Diego's Charles Chamberlain delivers one of the two MMW 3 (Making of the Modern World - The Medieval Heritage) history podcast lectures that I have recently discovered and am enjoying completely. The other is delivered by Matthew Herbst and I have reviewed that series yesterday.

Chamberlain covers roughly the same material as Herbst, but takes a very original perspective. He uses the dominant religions as a starting point. The first 12 lectures thus far, started from Christianity and mixed church history with theological history. He clearly is convinced that this perspective allows the students to get easier access to the history. It certainly works for me and also works very nicely in a complementary fashion towards those areas that are covered by other, more standard, history podcasts, most notably Herbst's.

On a technical note it needs to be pointed out that the first two lectures were not podcast and that what appears as lecture #11 is actually empty. One should not fear missing out on too much, at most some of the visuals referred to, but there are not too many of those. Also some prolonged silences at the beginning and end of the podcasts shouldn't prove to be insurmountable. Around those minor points there is a superb history podcast to be enjoyed.

Perfect additions to this lecture series are In Our Times issue about the Nicene Creed and Thomas Sheehan's The Historical Jesus (Stanford, feed, review). Whereas In Our Time could be a nice preparation or a valuable complement to the lectures 8-12, The Historical Jesus digs much deeper and would be an excellent follow-up from the first handful of lectures.

Relevant other reviews:
The Nicene Creed - IOT,
Historical Jesus - Tom Sheehan, Stanford,
World history outside the European box,
Making of the Modern World - UCSD,
UC San Diego's podcast courses.

World history outside the European box

There are several things great about UC San Diego's history podcasts, the ones I recently discovered. MMW 3, The Making of the Modern World, section Medieval Heritage contains two versions of World History in the period 100 BCE - 1200 CE, the second of which I will write separately soon; the first of which is being taught by Professor Matthew Herbst.

Since history podcasts are a focus on Anne is a Man!, I can compare to many, many other versions of World History. By all means, Herbst's series is very good; splendid lectures with great many details and delivered in a comprehensive framework. However, it is yet another great quality I would like to pick out here. Not only does Herbst dig into the main stream World History, the direct roots of the Western World, that is, Christianity and the Classics with a touch of Byzantium and Muslim world.

As of this week, he has begun to take on the history of China and India and I understand Buddhism will also feature in the course. Thus the history is broadened and with the extensive attention to China in the latest lectures, he stands rather alone in the history podcast world. There is the podfaded David Kalivas' World History and there are some old issues of History according to Bob that are only available on pay per CD, which have paid attention to the history of China. Therefore Herbst addresses a great need, especially in the light of modern geopolitical shifts.

Other areas in the world Herbst has touched upon were Armenia and Ethiopia. By this he filled a gap in my knowledge and possibly for the large majority of us. And what he taught about Persia, I would not have known anything about, had I not listened to In Our Time on the Sassanid Empire.

In short, UC San Diego's MMW courses are an outstanding addition to the history podcast world.

More about MMW 3 and UC San Diego's lectures on podcast:
Making of the Modern World - UCSD,
UC San Diego's podcast courses.

Romanticism and Bismarck

When you take the History 5 lectures in the pairs that are delivered each week, you may run into subjects that possibly at face value have little in common. Such may be the case with those two in March, one about Romanticism and one about Bismarck. Romanticism and The Search for Wholeness (audio, video) and Bismarck and the Re-Configuration of Europe (audio, video).

I think however, one may find on many levels that these two subjects are very much related. With Romanticism a very dominant style of thinking appears on the European scene and even a Realpolitiker such as Bismarck was affected by it, not to mention that the mere idea of a one German identity which served him to forge and force the German unity has strong roots in Romantic thought.

At this point History 5 becomes even more compelling. As of these two lectures, the world takes on a completely recognizable shape and we can identify most easily with the history. I wonder how much we are still romanticists in this postmodern age...

More History 5:
Capitalism and Socialism,
Enlightenment and French Revolution,
Absolutism and Science,
Witches, plague, war and Hobbes,
Reformation,