Stalingrad - OVT

1943. Later gaan we het nog over de Boerenpartij hebben. Professor Wesseling is in de studio om over zijn boek te spreken, evenals Herman Pleij, maar in het kader van In Europa werd bij OVT vorige week over Stalingrad gesproken. Wat is er meer dan een verhaal van overschatting en onderschatting?

We wisten al dat de Duitsers hun hand overspeelden. Voor wie het boek van Mak gelezen heeft (en vele anderen naar ik aanneem) is ook bekend dat Hitler de feiten niet onder ogen wilde zien. OVT laat een radiofragment uit December 1942 horen van de Nederlandse gelijkgeschakelede radio. In schallende termen wordt over een overwinning van het 'Germaanse Zwaard' gesproken. Die taal is zo bombastisch dat de presentator het niet beter kan nazeggen dan "Duitse Zwaard".

Militair-historicus Wim Klinkert en de oud-Rusland correspondent Alexander Münninghoff zitten als gasten in de studio en maken duidelijk hoe de soviets deze oorlog wonnen. Wat er niet aan de orde komt, of nauwelijks, is hoe de Duitser deze slag verloren, want behalve te weinig tanks is er misschien wel meer te zeggen. De Russen, zo wordt uitgelegd, hadden zoveel tanks dankzij hun industrieel vermogen en de simpele beslissing om maar twee types te produceren. Ze kwamen tot meer dan tweeduizend stuks per maand, terwijl Hitler duizend al voor onmogelijk hield.

Zoals gezegd, er is nog veel meer te genieten op deze podcast. Het blijft een feest, iedere week.

Eerdere besprekingen van OVT in dit blog:
1936 - Spanje,
1938 - Hitler en Holocaust,
1939 - Patriotten tot landverraders,
1940 - Heesters, Petain, Leopold achteraf,
1941 - Handlangers.

Review Podcast Reviews Podcasts

Within 12 hours:
- OVT (Stalingrad en Boerenpartij)
- Podwatch and That Podcast Show (review of the podcast review podcasts)

Within 36 hours:
- History 5 / OVT / IOT
- Something about the Roman Empire

In the coming days
- Irvin Yalom (on KQED and Wise Counsel)
- Susan Yacoby (The Age of American Unreason)
- Shrink Rap Radio (Mindmentor and others)
- Simek interviews Jaap van der Zwan

In New podcasts on trial we have March as a history podcast month with a wide range of candidates:
American History before 1870
Hank's History Hour
History of Rome
History 106B
Podcasts on Medieval Texts
Redborne History Podcast
Teaching American History Podcast
History 2311
Tudorcast

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You can let your preferences (I'd love get new podcast recommendations) know by commenting on the blog or sending mail to The Man Called Anne at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

A Rhetorics Series by The Word Nerds

Excitement struck when TWN took up Rhetoric, I couldn't wait to write about it. I turned out, this was part of a series and the second part was going to have to wait. Only now, this second part has come out, so I was all set to listen again and go write, when we hit a snag.

By old fashioned tradition, rhetoric is part of language education. It may come with philosophy, but not, to my surprise, in a law school. At least not in mine. So I feel I have a little gap here that has been waiting to be filled. I may not have to be alone - many more people are missing out. Yet we are submitted to rhetoric, Scot Limbaugh and Micheal Moore were mentioned on the show. The other day I saw a discussion about Obama's oratory qualities pass by, cherished and criticized at the same time.

Howard Shepherd is the specialist. He used to travel for an Academic Publisher and reminisces about selling 'Classical rhetoric for the modern student' and reveals the tongue in cheek mangling of this title. And here is what makes TWN such a superb podcast, where is succeeds in educate and entertain at the same time. It is the first time they took a subject and spread it out over more than one episode. I thought it was going to be two, but now it turns out to be three. I did not want to wait with the review, because this is great stuff. I want to encourage you to start listening. And the last chapter will still have to wait.

Previous reviews of TWN on this blog:
Silence and Speechlessness,
Religious Words,
Nicknames,
Public Speaking,
Transitions.

Absolutism and Science

Last week in History 5 is characterized with absoluteness. The first lecture goes into Louis XIV, the French king that is the exemplar of Absulotism - even if Professor Anderson argues his power was not absolute. The second is called New Science, it stretches from Copernicus to Newton and is about absolute knowledge - as we shall see.

My ear infection has caused a week's delay. We are talking here about the lectures of the 19th and 21st of February. I will continue to report weekly about History 5, maybe squeeze a trio or a quarter of lectures in a post or end just two weeks later than Berkeley - how bad is that? So here is about what is so absolute.

Louis was not an absolute ruler in our modern sense of the word - he was not a totalitarian autocrat, having a grip on the entire country and populace. He is more that kind of monarch Hobbes probably thought of and he is the most profound example of what happens to the states in Europe in the 17th century - they get centralized. The head of state becomes the sole ruler that unifies the entire country and is absolute in that sense.

Truly absolute is what happens in science. Anderson's illustration comes from a German doctor's reaction to an English work about the human body: 'Interesting in England the blood circulates.' This is the voice of the past. From here on, science is universal. If we find the blood circulates, this will apply everywhere. The rise of modern science brings about knowledge with absolute claims. The hero of the week: Johannes Keppler; the most sympathetic of the pioneers of science as portrayed by Anderson.

More History 5:
Witches, plague, war and Hobbes,
Reformation,
Europe and 1492,
The making of Europe in 1453,
From the Renaissance Until Today.

The End of Hegemony

If ever there was an hegemony in recent history it was the US's and they have lost it. The hegemony is over. Two authors, Parag Khanna and Eric Hobsbawm have written books around this issue and are being interviewed on the Open Source podcast. The two episodes (Khanna, Hobsbawm) which came out recently, but not immediately one after the other, should be listened to in conjunction. And then it is a great treat.

There is one drawback though, especially in the talk with Parag Khanna (which has more than one speaker) the radio is not conducted in a fashion that is fit for every audience. There is a frame of reference I was sorely missing and I assume anybody else will miss, unless he has read Khanna's and Hobsbawm's books and is part of the Open Source listener's community. In other words, there are some inside presumptions I felt I missed out on, or a thread in the thinking and asking of the host that was not entirely clear to me.

Nevertheless, if you are into this kind of subject, be it from a historical perspective, be it from a political, economic, sociological, global perspective, it is very much worth the effort to listen in, kick yourself to stay focussed and get the questions and answers and enrich yourself with the thoughts of thorough thinkers and researchers. As a fine point of contention before you go ahead and listen (which you must), Khanna and Hobsbawm have very similar thoughts even though their perspective and language differs, but hold a radically different judgment of Europe. For Hobsbawm Europe is past as much as the US is and for Khanna, Europe is a new player and a strong one at that. Now go ahead and find out.

More Open Source:
Go for a walk with Open Source.

Back on track with Podcast Reviews

Within 12 hours:
- The End of Hegemony: The Open Source podcast speaks with Parag Khanna and Eric Hobsbawm about failing US, upcoming China and whether Europe plays or not.

Within 36 hours:
- History 5 about absolute rule and absolute knowledge
- The Word Nerds's double issue about Rhetorics

In the coming days
- OVT
- Irvin Yalom (on KQED and Wise Counsel)
- Susan Yacoby (The Age of American Unreason)
- Shrink Rap Radio (Mindmentor and others)
- Simek interviews Jaap van der Zwan
- Something about the Roman Empire

In New podcasts on trial we have March as a history podcast month with a wide range of candidates:
American History before 1870
Hank's History Hour
History of Rome
History 106B
Podcasts on Medieval Texts
Redborne History Podcast
Teaching American History Podcast
History 2311
Tudorcast

Subscribe in a reader

Paste the link
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Anne_Is_A_Man
into the RSS reader of your preference.

You can let your preferences (I'd love get new podcast recommendations) know by commenting on the blog or sending mail to The Man Called Anne at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk