Heads-up for 17 November 2010

My heads-up post which I try to deliver every day contains a number of good podcasts that publish on that day. It gives you the opportunity to pick and choose from a wider variety of feeds.

I noticed that my favorite blog DIY Scholar has begun to do something similar. She, Dara the DIY Scholar herself, published her 'listening notes' which do actually a little bit more than my heads-up. Where I just give you an idea what range of feeds I am keeping an eye on, Dara discloses what podcasts she has been listening to and reveals a couple of interesting points she has picked up on. I would say, heads-up, keep your eyes peeled for Dara's listening notes.

Witness (BBC)
Greek Student Protest
A woman at the centre of a momentous student protest in Athens in 1973 tells us of the moment when the country's military junta sent in the tanks.
(review, feed)

History 5 (Berkeley) by Thomas Laqueur
The Great War: Its Causes, Course, and Consequences
How an assassination in Sarajevo came to embroil all of Europe. A war of stalemate and stagnation. A war resulting in revolutions and a radically changed power balance and world map.
(review, feed)

History, linguistics and the downside of society

I want to point you to a lecture on iTunes U which has the lengthy title From Early Judeo-Iranian Jargons to Central Asiatic Argots of Rom Groups: Evidence for an Influential Jewish Underworld in the Late Abbasid Period. Martin Schwartz (Berkeley) spoke at UCLA about his research into the language of beggars and criminals of Central Asia as can be found in late medieval sources and which has traces until today. The lecture was published in the series from the Center for Near Eastern Studies (feed).

Schwartz's research is mostly linguistic, but since it uses Arabic and Persian sources from the 10th to the 14th century it becomes historic research already by virtue of that. In addition, once he delves into the linguistic peculiarities of his subject, you also get an indicator of historic influences and social stratifications. It seems almost impossible and not serious to research the underworld languages of beggars and thieves, but apart from the fact that there are sources, it always serves looking at society from below, while regular historiography most of the time takes on the top of society.

To be sure, the beggars and thieves do speak the common languages of their environment, whether it is Arabic, Persian or Turkic languages. Yet they have a need for switching to a slang of their own in order not to be understood in the environment when they need to. Strictly their colloquial is not a language but rather a jargon or an argot as Schwartz calls it. What is striking is that they look for replacement words that cannot easily be understood and often find them in Hebrew or Aramaic even if the speakers themselves are not Jewish.

More from the Center of Near Eastern Studies:
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer on Indus Valley Civilization.

Heads-up for 16 November 2010

Forgotten Classics
Episode 141: Genesis, chapters 3-4
In which Adam and Eve give in to temptation and suffer the consequences.
(review, feed)

Mahabharata Podcast
Sukanya and Cyavana
Episode 32 - Two more stories from the Book of the Forest. The first involves another Bhrgu Brahmin with a Kshatriya wife. The second story, about Mahdhatar, is short, but interesting in how it differs from all the other stories we've had so far from Lomasha.
(review, feed)

The China History Podcast
The Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty & the Sixteen Kingdoms
This week we are back with more Chinese history. We will look at a very confusing but exciting time when there was mostly a period of disunity and China was broken up into contending kingdoms. However this period of chaos brought us some of the richest tales of ancient China filled with amazing battles, events and larger than life characters. We'll look at the Three Kingdoms period that followed the demise of the Eastern Han. Then we will look at the Western Jin dynasty that briefly united China, followed by the Eastern Jin and then the period of the 16 Northern Kingdoms.
(review, feed)

Scientific American Podcast aka Science Talk
Physics Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg
Nobel physicist Steven Weinberg spoke to an audience of science journalists, and then to podcast host Steve Mirsky.
(review, feed)

Not your idea of World War II - New Books In History

I cannot recommend enough the podcast New Books In History (NBIH). Marshall Poe interviews authors of recently published books in history. Here you will earn some real insight in history topics that have your interest. Moreover, the interview format and the length of the show makes it extremely fit for podcast and accessible for all audiences. (feed)

NBIH is the podcast that frequently teaches me something radically new in history. Take for example the recent show with Joe Maiolo about the origins of World War II. Maiolo's book 'Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War 1931-1941' does away with a major consensus about WW2 which especially lives among the lay: Without Hitler no war. Maiolo attempts to show that the international politics of the interbellum and the ensuing arms race pushed Europe to a second version of the Great War. Hitler only facilitated and expedited it.

Then there was another consensus challenged, more implicitly though and apparently the challenge was not new, but again, for the lay public, that is, for me, this was also a radically different view: Germany was to lose the war, always. Germany lost the war already before it started. The victory over France in 1940 was a fluke. I always thought the attack on the Soviet Union (1941) did the Germans in, as they got overstretched, but the facts as Maiolo sees them (and apparently not just he) is that from the onset this was a war of industry and Germany never had a chance the meet the capacity of England and the US, even without France and Russia. It is a miracle they came as far as they did and the sheer industrial disparity only came out as late as 1942, 1943.

Eventually one thing nags me after the interview. In light of the second point the first actually loses some weight. If the objective power balance was such that Germany could never win, neither the arms race, nor the total war, why would you be so sure ANY other German ruler had let the whole things slide into war? It actually sort of suggests that it took a warmonger and megalomaniac such as Hitler to take on all German enemies in spite of the stack being against him. Yet, the interview makes it also clear that much of Maiolo's findings have the clarity of hindsight. Few of the leaders involved saw it as clear as all that. So maybe indeed, WW2 had to happen, although it was more likely to become a short repetition of WW1, not the huge disaster we know. So, how is that?

More NBIH:
When Akkadian was Lingua Franca,
The 1910 Paris flood,
Stasi agents and informants,
War in Human Civilization,
Always recommended: New Books in History.

Heads-up for 15 November 2010

Philosophy Bites
What is Philosophy?
What is Philosophy? We asked some of our contributors this question for this bonus episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.
(review, feed)

Office Hours
Keith Hampton on Wireless Internet and Public Spaces
This episode, we talk with Keith Hampton about his research on wireless internet and public spaces. Does public wifi encourage a stronger public sphere or diminish public life by encouraging everyone to live inside their own private digital bubble? Hampton argues it’s more complicated than that, and public WiFi can, in fact, encourage many different kinds of social interaction, both online and offline.
(review, feed)

Wise Counsel Podcast
John Doe - Transformed in Prison
His first years in prison were a continuation of his earlier experience; he continued to use drugs, later giving them up for exercise as a means of self-protection. He met a woman visiting the prison and formed a platonic friendship with her. When she became pregnant (by another man) he formed a relationship with her child. This experience helped him to realize that the purpose of life is found in relationships. About ten years into his sentence, he shifted from a motivation to "do something crazy" so as to secure his "lifer" status within the prison (apparently something experienced as comforting by prisoners) to wanting a life outside the prison. Also about this time he was tricked into participating in a substance abuse treatment program involving a good deal of psychotherapy which he found very valuable. He dealt with chronic neck pain with intensive meditation which ultimately produced in him a feeling of great contentment and peace despite continuing pain. At this moment he realized that his purpose was to be helpful to others.
(review, feed)

Power struggle over Ireland - Irish History Podcast

In the tenth century Gaelic clans and Vikings struggled for dominance over Ireland and this history is in a very captivating manner told by Fin Dwyer at the Irish History Podcast (feed).

Changing Times in Ireland 902-930 is the fifth episode in this podcast that chronologically takes us through the history of Ireland. Dwyer kicks off in this episode on 902, when the Vikings for a short time had lost power in Ireland and the two major Irish power brokers the O'Neills and the Eoganacht battle it out for dominion over the whole island. As Dwyer frequently emphasizes during this chapter this internal war was to have many unexpected outcomes and would eventually see a deep change in the power balance.

Dwyer produces short episodes (around 30 minutes) with clear breaks within them to make sure the listener does not get distracted, making for a very accessible history. People who would want to learn more about Irish history should not just follow the audio of Irish History Podcast, but read the blog posts as well.

A thing that surprises me until this point in the chronology is how little connection there is between Ireland and the history outside, apart from that of the Vikings. I expected influences from England and Scotland especially, though in these ages, they were also under the Vikings. And while we talk Vikings, I would also recommend the latest issue of BBC's In Our Time, about Vikings, even if it were too short to my taste.

More Irish History:
Conspiracy Trials in Ireland,
Hidden Heritage,
Irish History in Podcasts,
Irish History Podcast.