Baconian Science — In Our Time, Apr. 2, 2009
Among the most informative shows I can remember. What I found most interesting was that idea best summed up at the end by one of the guests that the Baconian ideology was much more important than the actual Baconian method. The method itself was somewhat challenging in [...]
The School of Athens — In Our Time, Mar. 26, 2009
This show touches on a number of different interesting points. It only briefly discusses the fresco itself as a fresco. The bulk of the show is focused on where and how pagan philosophy found itself inside the walls of the Vatican. It’s noted that while [...]
The Boxer Rebellion — In Our Time, Mar. 19, 2009
Very interesting show today (well, broadcast yesterday, but heard today). Listening to scholars of Chinese history discuss a topic, one becomes aware of how ill-served one is by the massive focus on the history of Western civilization during one’s education. The result being that major events [...]
The Library of Alexandria — In Our Time, Mar. 12, 2009
This wound up being a bit of a challenging show since it’s clear that the Library at Alexandria was an enormously influential institution for a very long time, but we don’t know a lot of the details that would make for interesting exploration. We know [...]
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Observatory at Jaipur — In Our Time, Feb. 19, 2009
Fun show about an astronomical observatory in India that I’d never heard of. This show demonstrates another of the reasons I enjoy it so much; in depth discussion of topics that are totally unknown to me, but done in such a way that it’s informative [...]
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Destruction of Carthage — In Our Time, Feb. 12, 2009
This show was a lot of fun. I had been excited all week about it since it’s the kind of topic I enjoy most; one that historians themselves enjoy talking about. Additionally, Melvyn keeps the focus on the destruction of the city. The benefit [...]
Thursday, February 5, 2009
The Brothers Grimm — In Our Time, Feb. 5, 2009
Fascinating program on both the stories themselves, and the project to create a German nation by in part using these stories as a common heritage shared by all German-speaking peoples. I also enjoyed the part of the show covering the violence in the stories, and how [...]
A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal is a work that I heard referenced many times, but I realize quickly into the program that I knew nothing of the actual text. The show’s conversation moved so smoothly that it felt over before its time. The full measure of the Swift’s satire didn’t hit home for me until [...]
A History of History — In Our Time :: This show moved at a brisk pace. It was clear from the outset that Bragg and his guests knew they had a lot of ground to cover, and yet they still could only barely get to Gibbon, and then only just barely. This show is the [...]
Thoreau — In Our Time :: Enjoyed this program quite a bit. I’m more of an Emerson fan than a Thoreau fan, but this show does a good job of situating Thoreau in his time and element. Growing up in Concord, I was particularly interested in Fender’s discussion of what Walden Pond actually is (a [...]
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, In Our Time did a 4-part series on his life and work. Taken as a whole, the series is fascinating, as are its constituent parts. Darwin has, to a certain extent, become reduced to the human stand-in for the Science vs. God debate in [...]
The Consolation of Philosophy — Interesting show, but I felt it didn’t spend enough time directly on Boethius and the work itself. Perhaps it’s that there isn’t a great deal to discuss there, or that to properly be understood one needs the context of later philosophers, but particularly in the section on Camus I found [...]
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Great Fire of London — Very enjoyable episode this week. The discussion of how the Lord Mayor of London handled himself during the fire is particularly enjoyable. Also the bit at the end on the work done by Robert Hook is fascinating.
Guests:
Lisa Jardine
Vanessa Harding
Jonathan Sawday
References:
Great Fire of London
Samuel [...]
A new top 100 list! The Atlantic publishes their top 100 most influential Americans. As they said in their email, "Let the debates begin." Plenty to debate here, but I loved this one-sentence description of Woodrow Wilson (#10): "He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy." — # 11/21/2006
Via DeLong. British History 101: This is the place to come for all the things that have made Britain what she is today! — # 11/14/2006
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Mark Schmidt has been trying to shine the light of comparison away from 1994 and to the 1970s. The next two years will be interesting since Iraq will only get worse, and the candidates in ‘08 general election (both R and D) will be fighting to show who is the more anti-war, and who will [...]
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
A very happy 300 to the ghost of Ben Franklin. I read HW Brands’s The First American a couple of years ago and enjoyed it tremendounsly. I heard Walter Isaacson talking about Franklin on NPR and he made a great point that Franklin was the best kind of self-made man that Americans still aspire to [...]
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Saturday, December 10, 2005
At the very back of the October Harper’s we have a review of Stacy Schiff’s A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America. The war itself is a fascinating the study, but the cast of characters is in a class by itself. Reviewer Jeffrey Mehlman explains:
During the reign of Louis XV, when the [...]
Thanks to the This Day in History widget, I note that today marks the 552nd anniversary of the fall of Constantinople. In an effort to better understand the broader Hellenic world (see also here) I’ve picked up A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich. As I noted previously, I think it’s [...]
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Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Hear him! Matthew Yglesias on Woodrow Wilson:
Fundamentally, though, there are some very real similarities between the two. In my opinion, Wilson, despite the large role he plays in certain versions of Democratic Party automythology was a pretty fantastically terrible president. Like Bush, his policies abroad tended to be animated by worthy ideals, but they [...]