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).

Nation and Culture - NBIH

As a citizen of Israel, I am always engaged in understanding the history of the state of Israel, of Zionism and of Judaism as a culture. As a consequence, when I listened to Marshall Poe's interview with Kenneth Moss at New Books in History, I heard all history of Zionism and of Judaism as a culture. However, Kenneth Moss's book is about Russia: Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution.

Still, this was all about a renaissance of Jewish culture and a struggle with the question whether, if there was a Jewish nation, what made it a nation or how it could be constructed and preserved. Did it need a unified language and a geographical nation state in addition? Listen to the interview as this is one of the most exciting questions and the Jews serve as an example to a much deeper question. I can testify that in many ways, even today when there is a geographical nation state for Jews in Israel and it has a unified language (Hebrew), these questions are still not (fully) resolved.

More profoundly it makes me wonder how could ever have taken the nation state as a self-explanatory thing. The example of the Jews show how essentially it is constructed or in other terms an imaginary unity. As imaginary for Jews as it is for seemingly unproblematic nations such as France, as you can learn in the Yale courses by John Merriman European Civilization and France since 1871 - by the way.

More NBIH:
Three New Books In History,
The fourth part of the world,
How the Soviet system imploded,
Vietnam War perspectives,
1989 - Padraic Kenney.

More Merriman:
France since 1871,
History of India or Europe?,
Industrial Revolutions,
Modern Western History in podcasts.

Where is the new look going?

In order to cramp down on the overhead my non-standard blogging template entails, I want to change to a standard Blogger template and therefore, the look of this blog will change. I would love to find what you think on the potential looks.

I have set up three sample blogs. Two of them have stretching templates, which means they adapt their width to your window. One has the sidebar to the left, the other to the right. A third blog will show a fixed width; not the standard 700-800 pixels, but rather I tweaked it to around 1000.

Blog 1: Stretched with sidebar to the left


Blog 2: Stretched with sidebar to the right


Blog 3: Fixed width with sidebar to the right



Let me know your preference.

Aftermath of victory - Historyzine

Last November Historyzine told the tale of the Battle of Ramillies and a little over a week ago the next episode came out and in it host Jim Mowatt spoke of the aftermath of the battle of Ramillies. And what I have learned here is that it is one thing to win a battle, it is quite the challenge to shape such victory in true military and diplomatic advantage.

Jim Mowatt continues his tale mostly from the perspective of his main character the Duke of Marlborough and his genius, not just to win close military encounters such as the Battle of Ramillies, but also in diplomatic endeavors. Marlborough in 1706 may have brought home a great victory, but the military advantage still needed to be capitalized. The French may have been defeated, but they still held Antwerp and Ostend. While the duke let his troops engage in a rush to the sea capturing as much of the land, he also needed to ensure that the fragile alliance of English, Dutch and Austrians was maintained and the contention turned out to be the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) - who was to inherit the rule over these realms? To appoint one to rule, may put the other off...

As usual, Jim Mowatt offers additional content such as podcast reviews and linguistic trivia. Especially good was the last subject, which delves into the expression 'wrong end of the stick'. I like the way Jim presents the various explanations available and then argue for his own preference. The only minor issue may be, for some listeners, is that the background music is a bit imposing. Personally I have no problem with it, but I have heard of criticism on this point. Maybe Jim should play the music at a slightly lesser volume.

More Historyzine:
The Battle of Ramillies,
Winter diplomacy,
The lines of Brabant,
Historyzine at its best,
The battle of Blenheim.