The Burning Archive

Over the next months until October in the Burning Archive podcast I am inviting you to participate in this unique booklover's reading challenge. And the challenge opens a unique window onto the multipolar world's cultural history. Can we read together all 120 winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature since 1901 with me? How proud would you feel to be able to say I have read a little bit of...

What is the essential skill Western leaders need to regain a sense of reality, and to provide better leadership, diplomacy and statecraft? The great historian of ideas and political philosopher, Isaiah Berlin, proposed a solution. What can you learn from his 1996 essay, "On political judgment"? We all complain about the quality of our political leaders. They seem to have lost touch with...

Rabindranath Tagore was a great Bengali and Indian writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1913, just before the world went to war. In 1917, in the depth of World War One he wrote his essay, "Nationalism in the West". I read the full essay, and introduce you to the reasons Tagore why this essay connects to debates about nationalism, "globalism", and the possibility for peaceful coope...

Rabindranath Tagore was a great Bengali and Indian writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1913, just before the world went to war. In 1941, in the depth of World War Two he wrote his essay, "Crisis in Civilization". I read the full essay, and introduce you to the reasons Tagore still speaks so powerfully to India and the world today. Subscribe to my free weekly email to receive insights from...

Please enjoy my reflections on and reading of a classic essay of Japanese literature from 1200 that still speaks to us with compassion today. When the world around you is collapsing and you are gripped by fear of its demise, four responses are available to you, or at least so modern psychology says: fight, fawn, freeze, or flight. But the world has been collapsing for a long time now, and, despite...

Can the USA bounce back from decline. Many geopolitics analysts are speculating on the end of the US empire, and the end of the unipolar moment. Is American Greatness over, or can the USA learn lessons of history to bounce back and renew its national dynamism? I share my assessment of the RAND corporation report, The Sources of Renewed National Dynamism, released 30 April 2024(https://www.rand.org...

In this video podcast, I share with you insights from the best historians of empire about whether we are living through an end of empire moment? Even Boris Johnson says the collapse of Western hegemony could be near? Will the US empire collapse? Will defeat in Eastern Europe bring on a Suez Crisis for the USA? Subscribe to my free weekly email to receive insights from world history in a weekly ess...

Judge the "father of geopolitics" yourself by listening to my reading of his celebrated essay from 1904, the Geographical Pivot of History. Try my new introductory course on geopolitics and history, Seeing the world clearly with history I have distilled a lifetime of studying history, observing world politics, and advising governments into the seven essential lessons that will make you i...

Halford Mackinder's ideas about geopolitics were so influential that he is known as the "father of geopolitics." Many people think US strategy is still based on Mackinder's ideas. But when you look at these ideas with some quality world history you discover that Mackinder was mad, bad and dangerous to know. Find out what he got wrong in this podcast, and learn what you can do abo...

This Burning Archive interview tackles a critical question: Can Australia and China rewrite their shared Asian history? Delving into the subtleties of China-Australia history, the Burning Archive interviews a brilliant Australian historian who specializes in Australian Chinese communities, Sophie Loy-Wilson. Sophie shows how we all have a capacity for a more "generous approach to storytelling...

W.G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn is an unclassifiable book - essayistic semi-fiction that traces the history of destruction and is haunted by the horrors of war and the Holocaust. I reflect on Sebald's histories of destruction, based on my recent essay at jeffrich.substack.com, and read from the first chapter of The Rings of Saturn . ▼ ▽ JOIN THE BURNING ARCHIVE - SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY Re...

Warwick Powell and I had a wide-ranging conversation about Australia-China relationships, and how history has shaped the tensions in the relationship today. But history can also show us how Australia, Asia and America can learn to live together at peace with a multipolar world. Please enjoy this wonderful, inspiring conversation with Australia-China expert, Warwick Powell. Warwick Powell is an adj...

How can smart defence strategies and multilateral diplomacy avoid a US-China war in Asia - for example over Taiwan? Have American and Australian advocates of war with China over Taiwan really thought about the realities of a war with China? How should middle powers - like Australia, Indonesia and the ASEAN nations - adapt their defence and foreign policies to the new realities of war, Asian streng...

How did Western civilization rise up from the Atlantic Ocean? How did the idea of the West get confused with the military alliance of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation? And how do we tell the story of the West if we view civilisation as a process, and civilisations as always plural? You can explore the world history of civilizations, as discussed in this podcast, by joining me in readin...

There have been many civilizations of the sea - the Vikings, the Ancient Greeks, the great Polynesian navigators of the Pacific. But among the most intriguing is Sri Vijaya that thrived in what we think of as Indonesia, in the 'middle ages'. You can explore the world history of civilizations, as discussed in this podcast, by joining me in reading in Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Civilizations....

When Americans described Afghani tribesmen as uncivilized people from the mountains they used old tropes about the culture of people from highlands. However, we learn from Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Civilizations much more about the complex achievements of civilizations of the highlands from Scotland to New Guinea, and from Afghanistan to South America. You can explore the world history of civiliza...

Did civilization spread from a cradle in the river valleys of Mesopotamia? Or is there a different story of the emergence of civilizations from fields of mud? In this episode of the special Summer of Civilizations series, I tell the story of Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations that developed in the river valleys of Mesopotamia. They left a legacy - carpets, the Epic of Gilgamesh - and an early pie...

In this episode of the special Summer of Civilizations series, I share the stories of civilizations that developed in tropical islands, including the great African walled city of Benin and the island off Papua New Guinea, once named by Europeans as Frederick Hendrick Island, and known now as Pulau Kolepom or Pulau Yos Sudarso. ▼ ▽ SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY WITH MY COURSES World History Explorers...

In this episode of the special Summer of Civilizations series, I share the stories of civilizations that developed in the ice and tundra of Northern Eurasia and the great Eurasian Steppe. ▼ ▽ SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY WITH MY COURSES World History Explorers and all my courses https://courses.jeffrichwriter.com/ ✉️ Signup for info on courses at: https:/courses.jeffrichwriter.com ▼ ▽ JOIN THE BURNI...

What is a cradle of civilisation? A simple question, but quality world history gives us a more complex, but satisfying answer. There were many in different environments. This episode will inform you about the well-known 'cradle' of civilisation in the fertile crescent of Western Asia, but also tell you about less honoured starting points for civilisation in East Asia and the Eurasian Stepp...

Civilizations are back in 2024. There is talk of Western civilizations, the diverse civilizations of the multipolar world, and the upcoming release of the game Civilization 7 . It is a great time to explore the real history of the many civilizations that have flourished and fallen in every environment around the world. This 2nd episode of the Summer of Civilizations series explores new and old ide...

Civilizations are back in 2024. There is talk of Western civilizations, the diverse civilizations of the multipolar world, and the upcoming release of the game Civilization 7 . It is a great time to explore the real history of the many civilizations that have flourished and fallen in every environment around the world. This introduction to the Summer of Civilizations series explores how the game C...

I review the highlights of the world in history that appeared on the Burning Archive podcast in 2023. And I make a special announcement of the upcoming series on the podcast, linked to my upcoming online history courses. Yes, I will be releasing a special Summer of Civilisations series. Weekly newsletter: jeffrich.substack.com Online courses in history and writing: courses.jeffrichwriter.com Sign...

Ridley Scott's movie Napoleon has sparked controversy? Is it great cinema yet terrible history? Jeff Rich gives his assessment of the movie, and points you to other classic movies about Napoleon made over the last 100 years. The podcast also shares some of the best recent history books on the intriguing character, myth and historical impact of Napoleon Bonaparte. Read more of Jeff Rich's w...

My reflections on the death of US diplomat and grand strategist, Henry Kissinger at 100. Does his death toll the bell for US leadership of the world? Read more at jeffrich.substack.com Thanks to the Twisted Nixons, the Dead Kennedies, Thomas Fazi, Nina Byzantina, Thomas Fazi, Odd Arne Westad and Richard Nixon for material used in this program.