Audibly Speaking: Listening to History

Twitter Facebook In this podcast we look at the false hope that the French Revolution of 1830 put in the hearts of the liberal bourgeoisie (middle class).  “Hearts” is the correct word, because Romanticism was a driving force of this liberal revolution, as the painting by Eugene Delacroix shows here.  The Revolution of 1830 set up the middle class for an awful fall, and the fall came with the bloo...

Twitter Facebook Here we trace the reasons why the Industrial Revolution in its first place and time, 1750-1848 Great Britain was so unregulated and cruel. “Bobbin Boys in the Depths of the Industrial Revolution Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Between 1750 and 1840, Great Britain was alone in experiencing the first Industrial Revolution. In this podcast I discuss what every nation first has to possess in order to experience an Industrial Revolution of its own, and what Great Britain did possess by 1750. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook In this Introduction, we look at the definition and revolutionary consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Many leaders of the nineteenth century, reflected Romantic ideas by their actions. Among the most notable was Abraham Lincoln, US president from 1861 to 1865. Here our podcast looks at the ways in which Lincoln reflected the values of Romanticism in his person, actions and ideas, and how he would never have been heard from had there not been a Romantic movement. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook In this podcast we continue talking about the French Revolution, specifically its ideas and the events within the Revolution that represent those ideas and helped to trigger them. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook In this brief essay we review your textbook’s list of causes of the French Revolution. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Here we look at the French Revolution’s consequences, as a prelude to looking at its causes. Why reverse the logical order of this analysis? If you understand the consequences of the French Revolution, namely its importance, you should then be in a position to be interested in learning next about its causes. Twitter Facebook

This podcast only concerns Part One of the Final Exam, which consists of the following question that you must answer in an essay. I include the rubric that I will use to grade the essay. Part Two of the Final exam is covered in the Study Guide for the Final Exam for our course in Western Civilization. Discuss TWO major ideas, developments or events whose origins can be located in the nineteenth ce...

Click Here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Podcast Episode About Your Primary Source Assignment In this assignment you will analyze a propaganda poster, “ Revolution Nationale,”  produced by the government of Vichy France between 1940 and 1942.  The student will analyze the image utilizing the graphic worksheet provided by the Library of Congress.  A  Copy of the Library of Congress Cartoon Ana...

Since we will not have a class meeting on Thursday, October 24, complete the following four steps as an out of class assignment: * Listen to the Podcast Recording above, which completes my lecture on the Federalist Era of the 1790s. * Look over the PowerPoint presentation, “The Federalist Era,” under the Unit 4 Content as you listen to the above podcast * Complete the Unit 4 Discussion Assignment...

In this podcast, I get more specific about the structure of your Good War Discussion post.  How many examples of your topic do you discuss? What might be good topics for you to discuss?  Which ones were positive and which were negative? You need to give one specific example each and explain how it was negative or positive.  I hope that this helps.  This is what you need to listen to instead of com...

Click here for a Transcript of this Episode Why did the American Revolution stop being a revolution and, in the words of historian Eugen Weber, the French Revolution by contrast became an avalanche of social change? Why was it that the American Revolution escaped the fate of all other revolutions, and did not become, like the French Revolution, a prelude to a violent overturning of the social orde...

In this brief overview, we preview the other podcasts in this episode, which define the ideas of liberalism, nationalism and romanticism, and we preview their role as triggers of two very different kinds of revolution in the nineteenth century to come. Freistadt ( Upper Austria ). Mühlviertler Schlossmuseum: Painted targets ( 1848 ) commemorating the revolution of 1848. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

In this audio podcast I introduce the first Unit of the Course, "Inventing the Modern West," with this three-minute video, "The Seventeenth Century, Inventing the Modern."  Each Unit has 5 audio podcasts, each about three minutes long. The first is the introduction, the next three each look at a different example of the themes set out in the first podcast.  The final podcast of each Unit discusses...

In this first of three examples of what was so modern about the 17th century, we look at the emergence of the modern nation-state.  This brief podcast will help you discuss one topic (in 50 words) that will become part of your 500-word essay on the Unit.

Here we look at the role of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century (the 1600s) in making that century the first modern century. This podcast will help you with that portion of your 500-word description of this period that is devoted the the example of the Scientific Revolution (75 to 125 words).  At the end of this podcast episode I give you a question to try to answer in this 75-125 word p...

The Age of Absolutism also gave birth to the first modern theories of government. What did they have in common? What made them "modern?"  How did the theories of each of the three men (Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) differ?   Once you know the answers to these questions, which this podcast episode wil help you with, you will have unlocked the key to writing well another 50 to 75 words in your 500-wor...

We close this Unit with the philosophical movement of the 18th century that owed so much to the 17th century: the Enlightenment.  Join Dr. Reiman on a tour of its most important ideas and philosophers and the impact that they had on the society--and the Revolutions--of the Eighteenth century.

In this vignette of the life of Louis XIV, you will listen to contact that will serve as the source material for your topics to write your 500-word "Personification" essay.  How did Louis personify the Age of Absolutism. This podcast contains topics that are excellent for such an analysis.  Choose one and show how.

In this first part of two brief episodes, I summarize the evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald.  The evidence discussed was presented first by the Warren Commission investigation in 1964 and has only been further strengthened in the years since.  This episode focuses on only one of the two key questions: Did Oswald fire the shots that hit JFK and Texas Governor John Connally?  In the next episode, I...

Our minute biography series continues with this reflection on the life of Anne Frank, Holocaust victim and diarist non pareil. Many people regard her diary as the most famous "Holocaust book." Yet the diary is not a book about the Holocaust nor was it written by one who was, at the time she wrote it, a Holocaust victim.  Nevertheless the story of Anne Frank is essential for those hoping for a worl...

A projected new series of "Hijacking History," will present "minute biographies" of 5 to 10 minutes or so in length on famous individuals in American history. Here, while on the on the go or on your commute, you can catch up on the people you thought you knew from school, but wanted a refresher on, or a more updated dive from the latest knowledge of historical scholarship.

This podcast episode reviews the film director Peter Jackson's new film about World War I, "They Shall Never Grow Old."  Using new technologies and old-fashioned respect for the facts, Jackson has crafted a documentary that brings old newsreels vividly to live, converting what the film was able to capture into what the cameramen of 1918 actually saw through their lens.

Historians today largely agree that slavery was central to the causation of the American Civil War. Prior to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, however, other factors had pride of place in the estimation of most (though not all) historians. After the nationalist historians of the late nineteenth century, who did see slavery as central to the causing of the war, historians, reflectin...