Three recommendations on New Books In History

An excellent podcast of which I try not to miss a single installment is New Books In History. With the amount of podcasts on my playlist, I continuously lag behind on this podcast. Here I will recommend three of the not so recent episodes that are all worth a listen.

The most commendable is Mashall Poe's interview with Matthew Algeo who wrote about Harry Truman's road trip. After Truman left the White House and became a regular citizen again (that was still more or less possible at the time) he took one summer off to make a road trip through the US. Algeo discloses the way the former president had to make ends meet, how the trip was conceived and in how far it could be carried out incognito. Aside from being very entertaining, this podcast gives a great insight in the culture of the early 1950's.

A more specific episode is the one with William Beezley about the Mexican Revolution. Beezley carefully paints out how modern Mexico came into being. The revolution, as it turns out, is more of a process over several decades rather than a sudden shift in a single date.

Joel Lewis wrote a book Youth Against Fascism: Young Communists in Britain and the United States, 1919-1939. This looks like a rather marginal subject, but it is very interesting and also connects quite well with a number of other issues in NBIH. Simply put, communists were the first to recognize the threat of fascism and probably this was so because the fascists saw the communists as the prime targets for their aggression.

More NBIH:
American Exceptionalism,
The Great War in short,
How Rome Fell,
Glancing over the backlog,
Jews in the Russian army.

Defining Environmental History - EEH podcast review

The Environmental History Podcast has begun a series of short podcasts addressing the question how to define environmental history. Host Jan Oosthoek interviews Donald Worster (mp3) in the first chapter.

As it turns out, the field is quickly defined as being about the interaction of humans with the natural world in historical perspective. Even though 'humans' and 'natural world' admittedly may need additional definition, the major points are how this is different from other, main stream history and from other sciences. Is this just a minor field within history that has an strong interdisciplinary character with for example geology?

Worster argues that Environmental History is to be regarded as a major line of historical research. Just as it is of major importance to historically view humans in their societies, whether states or social groups, also the natural world is crucial and has man historically embedded. And just as history has linkages with the social sciences, it necessarily has with the natural sciences. With the profound importance of the climate in the 21st century, the central position of environmental history will only become more apparent. Thinking of the environment requires an historian's help, Worster concludes.

More Environmental History:
Natural Disasters,
Canada and New Zealand,
Environmental history,
Climate Change in recent history,
Urban Air Pollution.

John Gray's cultural pessimism

On LSE Public Lectures and Events I have heard two appearances of the British philosopher John Gray, the first of which will be reviewed here. What both lectures have in common is that Gray forces us to critically evaluate what is taken for grand truths, implicitly or explicitly, in modern thinking.

Under the title Gray's Anatomy: Thoughts on Politics, Religion and the Meaning of life, Gray makes a couple of thought provoking and refreshing observations about the modern world and the thought patterns we tend to take for granted. Examples are belief in progress, in technology, in knowledge coupled with moral progress. Also the idea that prosperity will serve morality and poverty will harm it. During this, he never steps away from common sense.

The result is rather pessimistic and does not point to concrete alternative theories in ethics, politics and on the human nature. The great value, as I see it, is that Gray brings us to stop fooling ourselves and this is done not only by sharp thinking, but also by very practical and recognizable examples, clear language and a very pleasant and patient tone of voice. This is the kind of lecture everybody should hear, if not for conviction then for challenge.

In the next lecture with Gray he will refute the idea ongoing secularization (Religion and the Market).

More LSE Events:
Omniculturalism,
Controversies in the Economics of Climate Change,
Nudge: decision architecture,
The EU and the Middle East,
The British Mandate in Palestine.

The present within modern history - History 1c

UCLA's History 1c is a modern history course that covers the period 1715 unto this day. Usually with these modern history courses (notably like Berkeley's History 5) the narrative more or less stops around 1989. Historians dabble with the past and the closer you get to the present, the past gets to confused in the light of current, unfinished affairs. So even if it goes on beyond this year, you are likely not to get much more than a lecture or two beyond 1945.

The great thing about History 1c is though, that there are more lectures about the post-1945 period and I have greatly enjoyed them. I do not recall getting so much detail about the cold war, decolonization and the question whether Europe is definitively off the map of of power, or that the fledgling EU is going to bring it back.

Especially thrilling is it to get a history of the 1980's that wonderful period in which so much happened. it is not only far enough to have become sufficiently past so that historians confidently deal with it, but also it is part of my own experience. I was 14 in 1980 and as much a devourer of newspapers as a 14 year old can be. The real kick is to compare my own memories, impressions and analyses of the time with what historians tell today. Reagan, Gorbachev, Chernobyl, the fall of the Wall....

More History 1c:
Holocaust,
Nietzsche in a nutshell,
Industrialization and Italian unification,
History since 1715.

Also:
James Mann about Ronald Reagan (UChannel Podcast),
Unexpected Ronald Reagan (New Books In History),
It was 20 years ago today,
A century of Geopolitics.

The Maccabee Uprising - FITJ podcast review

The podcast series From Israelite to Jew is also a podcast about Judaism, but first of all it is a history podcast that attempts to survey the Jewish Culture in the Second Temple Period. This period ranges from the sixth century BCE to the first century CE. It implies diaspora and return, cultural influence from Persia and Hellenism, Persian rule, Greek rule and Roman rule and uprisings.

The Maccabee uprising against the Greek rulers in 165 BCE is a history that lay the basis for the Chanukkah holidays. In the traditional story the Maccabees are fed up with the Greek and assimilated Jews' desecration of the Temple. They revolt and when they gain the Temple and have to consecrate it, they need a continual burning of ritual oil. Of the oil they have an amount that will last them for a mere day, yet it takes eight days to prepare new. The miracle of Chanukkah is that the oil burnt for eight days.

The Maccabees installed a new dynasty, that of the Chashmonean kings and Satlow attempts to get a finger behind the actual history of the uprising. Here it becomes much less a tale of Jews against Greeks or observant versus assimilated Jews, but rather a quest within the oligarchy of the day between the ruling families. Who was to get power over the worship and over the people. Satlow makes the best of what few sources he has in order to construct the history.

More FITJ:
Hellenism,
Jews of the Persian Empire,
The fox and the hedgehog,
Looking for a Persian History podcast.

The science of Ersatz TV

"Ni hao, bei Ersatz TV!"

My favorite Vodcast has a new chapter out. Since my last review I found out that Ersatz TV is pretending to be a science podcast. It does seem to choose its subjects around science and technology, but with host Annik Rubens sense of humor it all becomes light and entertaining.



In this edition Annik briefly dances around the color schemes as we know them from our computers, cinemas and colorful print work. In addition she comments on the designs of the Euro coins and bills. Last but not least, a rare poison that is indispensable in industry.

More Ersatz TV:
Erzatz TV - German Vodcast.