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A randomly-chosen sample from the deepest most thorough analysis that you can find anywhere of the profoundly ancient Epic of Gilgamesh, on patreon for patrons only for one year:
We examine the Epic of Gilgamesh as a piece of literature, for its strange dream-like style and form, its points of similarity to Biblical and ancient Greek and European mythology, and finally, its deep levels of psychological and political allegory, ultimately revealing the love between Enkidu and Gilgamesh as a parable of the fraught relationship between civilization and the wild.
Please sign up as a patron at any level to hear both of the patron-only lectures on Gilgamesh: https://www.patreon.com/posts/myth-of-month-24-114591189
Image: Gilgamesh grappling with Enkidu; illustration by Wael Tarabieh.
Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: Historiansplaining – Unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal
The SOAS's recordings of scholars reading Akkadian texts: https://www.soas.ac.uk/baplar/recordings
Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem"; Rivkah Scharf Kluger, "The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh." -
Two randomly selected excerpts from Myth of the Month 24, on the Epic of Gilgamesh:
He is the earliest human being whose name and life story are known to history. We examine the origins and contents of the most ancient narrative ever found anywhere on Earth, and trace how it has been rediscovered, re-used, and re-translated in the modern world, becoming a living and evolving text in a time of anxiety over the fate of civilization.
Please sign on as a patron at any level, to hear this lecture and many others: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114062724
Image: Sumerian bas-relief sculpture of a man subduing a bull, possibly representing Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven, 2200s BC.
Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal
Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem." -
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Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only:
We consider the turbulent history and politics of the country most often blamed for the outbreak of the First World War -- Germany. The youngest of all the combatant nations in World War I, The German Reich's deep class, regional, and religious divides drove Kaiser Wilhelm and his inner circle to seek national aggrandizement abroad as a source of unity at home--which inadvertently led them to unite their rivals against them and dragged them into a war not of their making.
Suggested further reading: Christopher Clark, "Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia"; Mary Fulbrook, "A Concise History of Germany."
Image: Hand-Colored Photograph of Kaiser Wilhelm II in Tangier, Morocco, 1905
Please sign up at any level to help keep this podcast coming and to hear all patron-only lectures: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 -
We examine the complex and tumultuous history of the lands around the Caribbean basin, including the rise of the massive sugar-plantation colonies of Jamaica and Saint Domingue, which depended upon an enormous traffic in enslaved African workers, the emergence of distinctive creole languages and spiritual practices, the flourishing of piracy amidst inter-imperial wars, and the long struggle of resistance by slave rebels and defiant Maroons which eventually culminated in the catacylismic upheaval known today as the Haitian Revolution.Image: Women at a linen market, Dominica, by Agostino Brunias, ca. 1780.Our previous lecture on Creating the Caribbean: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/creating-the-caribbean-the-colonial-west-indies-pt-1-1496-1697Suggested further reading: Richard Dunn, "Sugar and Slaves"; Trevor Burnard, "Master, Tyranny, & Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves"; John Sensbach, "Rebecca's Revival"; Marcus Rediker, "The Slave Ship"; Rediker & Linebaugh, "The Many-Headed Hydra"; Christopher L. Brown, "Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism."Please support to keep this podcast coming and to hear patron-only lectures including on the Dead Sea Scrolls: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632
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We examine the tumultuous history--from the Portuguese Inquisition to the American Revolution to modern-day multi-million-dollar legal fights--surrounding a pair of rare colonial Jewish ceremonial artworks called "rimonim" or Torah finials. We consider the unique life and career of the Jewish silversmith who made them, and the symbolism that they encode, centering on life, hope, and regeneration.Please support this podcast! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632See my latest video on “Red, White & Royal Blue” on youtube: https://youtu.be/MoaQXcLhkx4 – or without ads on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/110423206Suggested further reading: Laura Leibman, “Messianism, Secrecy, and Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life”; Guido Schoenberger, “The Ritual Silver Made By Myer Myers,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Sept. 1953.
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Sign up as a patron at any level to hear this full lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls, on patreon for patrons only: https://www.patreon.com/posts/doorways-in-time-109054869The most massive and momentous manuscript discovery of modern times, the Dead Sea Scrolls blew the lid off of the long-mysterious world of messianic and apocalyptic ferment before the destruction of the Second Temple—yet it took decades of conflict and struggle to bring them to public light. We trace why the scrolls became the object of a long international struggle, what they actually say, and what they reveal about the roots of the Bible, Christianity, and modern Judaism.Suggested further reading: Lim, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction”; Collins, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography”; Shanks, ed., “Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the Biblical Archaeology Review”; Eisenman & Wise, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered”; Wise, Abegg, & Cook, eds., “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation.”Image: The Great Isaiah Scroll from Cave 1 as displayed in the Shrine of the Book
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To conclude our series on the origins of World War I, we trace how combat broke out on three different continents in the late summer and fall of 1914, and then examine the various real and imagined causes of the Great War, from the Anglo-German naval rivalry to French revanchism, and finally consider the deeper transformation in the idea of sovereignty in the West that gave a feud between an old empire and a new nation-state in the Balkans the power to ignite a global war.
Image: Mehmet Pasha Sokollu Bridge, Višegrad, Bosnia, with section destroyed, 1915.
Sign up as a patron at any level, in order to hear patron-only lectures on Germany, Japan, and the events of the July Crisis: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632
Recently unlocked lecture on Bosnia & the Assassination: https://www.patreon.com/posts/origins-of-first-86366245 -
We consider the rich, often mysterious, and fraught history of Bosnia -- a longtime borderland of East and West, disputed between rival empires, religions, and civilizations -- and trace how the politics of this small, mountainous Slavic country set the stage for the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, and in turn, the outbreak of a global war.
Image: interior of the "Painted Mosque," Travnik, Bosnia
Please sign on at any level to hear patron-only lectures, including on Germany, Japan, and the July Crisis --https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 -
We review the diplomatic landscape of Europe on the eve of war in the summer of 1914—and then follow the dizzying cascade of events that followed after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. We trace on the ensuing crisis that ricocheted through embassies, banquet halls, and barracks all across Europe, and plunged all the great powers of the continent into a war that soon spread around the world.Suggested further reading: Christopher Clark, “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914”; Margaret MacMillan, “The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914”; Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August.”Image: Photograph of nine kings (George V of Britain seated, center; Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany standing, in red), at Windsor, for funeral of Edward VII of Britain, May, 1910.Sign up here to listen to the entire lecture, as well as lectures on Germany, Japan, and Bosnia & the Assassination: https://www.patreon.com/posts/105028218
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Unlocked after one year on Patreon for patrons only:
What is "culture"? And how did a metaphor from gardening invade social-science discourse in 19th-century Germany and America and then take the world by storm? We consider the myriad, often contradictory, ways that "culture" is deployed in current rhetoric, usually to sneak in hidden value judgments; then we trace how an ancient Latin term for gardening came to refer to the "cultivation" of good character, then to the shaping of society by high art and refined customs, and then ultimately, under the influence of German and American imperial politics, to a purportedly unified, organic whole encompassing the sum total of all learned behaviors in a given society.
However you define it, I make the case that it is the defining myth of our time, and that we should get rid of it.
You can also play this episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/myth-of-month-22-82746773
Image: "Old New York" diorama, Museum of Natural History, New York
music: "Fandango," by Scarlatti or Soler, early 18th cent.; Midi version by El Gran Mago Paco Quito
Suggested further reading:
--Michael A. Elliott, "The Culture Concept: Writing and Difference in the Age of Realism"
--Hammersley, "The Concept of Culture: A History and Reappraisal." -
This is the audio track of my latest video:
"Red, White & Royal Blue: A Historian's Analysis, pt. 1: "We Really Need to Get You a Book on English History" -- The Historical Context of RW&RB"
We start our detailed analysis of the recent gay romcom, Red White & Royal Blue, by considering the expansive historical background that gives meaning to the fictitious love affair between a British prince and a son of the US President -- from the constant scrutiny of royals' bodies and love lives, to the political symbolism of royal marriages, to the reactions to homosexuality in the palace, to the awkward and paradoxical role of the American presidency and the so-called "first family," and finally to the shifting and fraught diplomatic relationship between Britain and America in the two World Wars. We conclude with a comparison between RW&RB and its post-war forerunner, "The Americanization of Emily."
See an edited version of this video on youtube (with ads) here -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAWtgmGyk-w
See this video in full without ads here --https://www.patreon.com/posts/103674430
Watch the introductory video of this series ("I know I Owe You an Explanation") here -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/red-white-royal-98784602
music: J.S. Bach, "Shafe Konnen Sicher Weiden," performed by Marco Cera. Marco Cera's youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@marcocera993 -
We examine the prophetic warnings from scholars and bureaucrats that a great-power war in the twentieth century would lead to bloody stalemate, mass destruction, and a wave of revolutions; and we trace how war strategists and generals reacted to the prophets of doom, formulating new war plans, from Russia’s blundering steamroll, to Germany’s precarious and ill-fated Schlieffen plan, to Britain's devious and mercurial scheme of economic warfare.Suggested further reading: Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August”; Nicholas Lambert, “Planning Armageddon”Nicholas Lambert’s discussion of Britain’s hope of economic warfare, “The Short War Assumption” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7jJ-POo90&pp=ygUQbmljaG9sYXMgbGFtYmVydA%3D%3DMargaret MacMillan’s lecture on war planning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RUFHkal6Jk&pp=ygUbbWFyZ2FyZXQgbWFjbWlsbGFuIHBsYW5uaW5nImage: Cartoon of the dispute over Alsace-Lorraine as a medieval romance, Puck Magazine, 1898Please sign up as a patron to support this podcast, and hear recent posts on Germany and Japan in the lead-up to World War I -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632
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The scale and horror of the First World War were possible only after the Nineteenth Century's double revolution in the nature of war. Warfare -- including weaponry, strategy, and command -- had remained mostly unchanged for three centuries, from the early integration of firearms in the 1400s until the French Revolution; the campaigns of Napoleon unleashed a new era of mass mobilization and nationalistic fury, while a series of haphazard improvements massively multiplied the killing power and reach of firearms, tearing open a battlefield "killing zone" unlike anything that prior generations of soldiers could have imagined. We follow both the breakdown in the old distinctions between war and civil society and the breakneck advance in land and sea warfare that set the stage for the nightmare of World War I.Image: Japanese riflemen defending a breastwork embankment, Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5.Margaret MacMillan on war & 19th-century society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJVe0KLONJUNicholas Murray on the emergence of trench warfare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cbq7iu8FrISuggested further reading: Nicholas Murray, "The Rocky Road to the Great War"; Margaret MacMillan, "The War That Ended Peace"; Hew Strachan, "A Clausewitz for Every Season," https://www.the-american-interest.com/2007/07/01/a-clausewitz-for-every-season/Please sign on at any level to support this podcast and to hear the recent lectures on Germany, Bosnia, and Japan -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632
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In 2022, I was asked to contribute to a symposium at Yale Law School on the question, "How can the humanities inform tech policy and design to promote 'healthier' discourse and democracy online?" The ultimate result was this article, published in the 2023 symposium issue of the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities.
A scanned pdf of the article can be found as an attachment here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/100047377
I also gave a short presentation at the symposium in 2022; since visual evidence is important to the argument of this article, I hope to expand upon the slides that I used in that presentation in order to produce a video with a full-length visual track to accompany the article.
Film of Sumi Jo performing second half of Olympia's aria, "Les Oiseaux dans la Charmille," in Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann," at Opera de Lille, 1997: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW2iiZ8MyGI
Thank you to the editors and staff of the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities and the Justice Collaboratory. -
A sample from, "Origins of the First World, pt. 10 -- Japan"To hear the entire lecture, sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/origins-of-first-99483180We trace the evolution of Japanese society -- including the tensions between its peaceable, Buddhist-inspired aspect and its martial aspect; its extraordinary transformation in the Meiji period, from an antiquated hermit kingdom to a dynamic modern power; and its crucial alliance with its European mirror image, Great Britain – which set the stage for its role in the First World War.Dan Carrick & Japanese singers’ performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1885 adaptation of the Meiji anthem, “Miya Sama” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOh5MIVP1bUA Japanese rendition of “Miya Sama” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DpgzFtHuBgImage: the grand receiving room of Nijojo, KyotoSuggested further reading: Perez, “The History of Japan”; Mason & Caiger, “A History of Japan,” 2nd ed.
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Audio track from my recent video -- "Red, White & Royal Blue: A Historian's Analysis -- Introduction: 'I Know I Owe You an Explanation'" --
We consider the political, literary, and artistic dimensions of the recent movie, "Red, White and Royal Blue" -- a gay romance on the international theme -- beginning with an overview of its origins as an escapist novel in the Trump and pandemic period, its unusual status as a same-sex "romantic comedy," and its political symbolism as a response to the crisis of confidence in American institutions and of American standing in the world. We then examine two examples of subtext and multiple meanings encoded in the film, as a preview of future analysis.
To skip the preliminaries and go straight to the analysis, go to 46:40
To view this video on youtube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6hLiraFY0k
To view the video without ads on Patreon -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/98784602
Ethan Clark's youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ethanclarkreacts
Marco Cera's youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@marcocera993 -
Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only:
In the second half of the nineteenth century, many of the most brilliant and ambitious minds in both Europe and America were bent upon solving the problem of capturing sound waves from the air and playing them back. Most of their efforts, including the earliest "phonautograms" from more than a decade before Edison's invention of the phonograph, were either forgotten or lost to decay and degradation. In the past fifteen years, however, scientists and engineers, including the First Sounds collective, have located the surviving remnants of early sound recordings and devised ways to optically scan them and reproduce the sounds that they captured, revealing much of the auditory world of the nineteenth century and the pathways by which the now-ubiquitous technology of audio recording came into being.
Special thanks to the First Sounds collective, for recovering long-lost audio recordings and sharing their files freely with the global public, at www.firstsounds.org. All audio files used in this lecture are courtesy of First Sounds, except for the Edison/Wangemann cylinder recording from 1889, which is courtesy of the National Park Service and the Cylinder Archive.
Image: engraving print of a Scott phonautograph.
Please support this podcast at any level in order to hear all patron-only lectures when released, including recent lectures on Germany and Bosnia in the lead-up to World War One: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 -
We consider the efforts of the British state, in the Victorian era and in the early 20th century, to maintain its position as the premier naval and imperial power on Earth, and to contain the political and military challenges from the borderlands of the empire, the German challenge from Europe, and the series of internal threats to the British social system -- including the radicalized labour and women's suffrage movements and the bitter fight over Irish Home Rule, which brought the United Kingdom to the brink of civil war mere weeks before the assassination in Sarajevo.
Image: Liberal Party propaganda poster promoting the People's Budget, ca. 1910.
Suggested further reading: George Dangerfield, "The Strange Death of Liberal England."
Please sign up as a patron to hear patron-only lectures on Germany and Bosnia! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 -
In keeping with a Historiansplaining holiday tradition, we try to make sense of the various struggles and conflicts of this yearby uncovering their deeper historical contexts, including:
--the roots of the Israel/Palestine conflict in the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire;
--the precedents for the bitter House Speakership struggle;
--the gradual realignment in the international balance of power, instantiated in the expansion of BRICS;
--the geopolitical stakes of the fight over Nagorno-Karabakh; and
--the histories of labor militancy that lie behind the strikes in Hollywood and Detroit
See my appearance on the Katie Halper show to discuss the travails of Zionism and Palestine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL_EzoyY17A
Corrections: I wrote my article for Yale Journal of Law and Humanities (“In the American Tempest”) in 2022, not 2021; The Screen Writers Guild, the precursor of the WGA, was founded in 1920, not the 1930s.
Image: Palestinians harvesting wheat, Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, 2020, by Rizek Abdeljawad / Xinhua
Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures and to help keep this podcast coming: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 -
In the age of absolutism, France had towered over European life and politics -- the only nation that was a major land power on the Continent and a colonial metropole with an overseas empire at the same time. Yet by 1900, tossed about by repeated revolutions and coups and torn asunder by often petty internal culture wars, France was falling behind its rivals to become almost a second-rate power. Once the Radical Party rode the Dreyfus Affair into government, they had to rush to reposition France to try to take advantage of the tensions and instability in the Balkans, and prepare the nation to possibly face off once more against their archrival across the Rhine -- Germany.
Image: illustration of the "degradation" ceremony of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, in Le Petit Journal, 1895.
Christopher Clark's lecture on "France and the Origins of the Great War": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx_V4NAUuW8
Suggested further reading: Romier, "A History of France," Norwich, "A History of France," Maurois, "A History of France."
Please sign on as a patron to hear patron-only lectures, including the earlier lecture on Germany -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 - Visa fler
