Great Big History Podcast

S3:E2 – Baltic Wars: Ukraine 2022 - Where Do We Go From Here (Special Episode)

Episode Notes In April, The Camden County College Department of History and political Science Hosted a Community Lecture on the Situation in Ukraine in 2022. We discussed Russian and Soviet History, We discussed Ukrainian History since 1991, We discussed International Relations and International Institutions, and then I had the last topic "What Might Happen Next." This vid is that part of the lecture evening (expanded from its 18m original form). Unfortunately, the evening in its entirety ...

S3:E1 – BALTIC WARS! Scandinavia and Baltic 1520-1809

Episode Notes Baltic Wars: Scandinavia from 1520 - 1809 (and before and beyond) is a new season of Great Big History Podcast.  In Baltic Wars we are going to talk about the Murders, the Wars, the Heroes, the Villains of North and Eastern Europe.   In this episode we look at how a revolt in the South Eastern Ukraine sparked a larger war and then a Russian Invasion which set off Western intervention in the Baltic. We Look at the Time of Troubles, Poland-Lithuania's army, a genocide of Jewish...

S2:E33 – Roman Christianity (Bonus Episode)

Episode Notes Discussion of Christianity during the Roman Empire from the pre-Jesus conquest of Palestine by Pompey to the social commentary of Jesus to the radical Romanization of Paul to the Philosophical assimilation of Augustine's "City of God" with Platonic Philosophy. We even invent thought crimes, build a capital and destroy an Empire.

S2:E32 – Disney Princesses and American Feminism + Fight Club and American Masculinity

Episode Notes The Three Stages of Disney Princesses // The Conservative Portrayal of Liberal Femininity // Race and Women and Disney Princesses // The Continual Success of American Women // Fight Club and American Men in Continual "Crisis" //

S2:E31 – American Conservatism - From Wilderness to Dominance

Episode Notes The Suburbs, the Sixties, the Backlash, Religion, Re-Segregation, Economic Inequality, the End of the Welfare State, Racism, Sectionalism, Winning the Cold War, and the America you live in now.

S2:E30 – China After World War II - Disaster, Death, Recovery, Success

Episode Notes China occupied // Civil War // Mao's Great Leap Forward // Mao's Cultural Revolution // Starvation, Death, and independence from the West // Economic Modernization // The Square Incident // Wealth and political Conservatism

S2:E29 – Africa, Decolonization, Apartheid, Disaster and Recovery

Episode Notes Africa after World War 2 // The Trauma the Europeans leave behind // Apartheid Ends and Nelson Mandela teaches the World to Forgive // Europeans Sing Songs to "Save" Africans

S2:E28 – South Asia Partition, War and Recovery

Episode Notes India gains Independence // Pakistan Gains Independence // Bangladesh gains Independence from Pakistan // Everyone Fights, Everyone's Traumatized, and then We Add Nukes // Hindu India leaves Islamic Pakistan Behind // There are wars in Afghanistan

S2:E27 – Cold War Kids: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Episode Notes The Cold War Gets Hot // The West Grows Rich // The European East Falls Behind // Toilet paper explains the end of Soviet Communism // The US and USSR Fight Everywhere while Great Art and Music gets made under the Nuclear Threat // Genesis makes a Video // Peter Gabriel plays Games // RUSH wonders if it was worth it after the Berlin Wall Falls

S2:E26 – World Cinema After World War II

Episode Notes European Cinema Recovers After WW2 // The French Poverty // The British Bond Imperial Salvation // The Moody Scandinavian Intellectualism // Bollywood shows India can tell their Own Stories // Nollywood proves the world can make their own cinema and watch themselves on screen

S2:E25 – Disneylands and Entertaining the World's Middle Class

Episode Notes Disneyland and Entertaining Middle Class America // EPCOT brings the World to America // Disneyland Tokyo and the Success of Americanization // Disneyland Hong Kong and Shanghai and the Limits of Westernization

S2:E24 – World War II and The Death of the European Hegemony

Episode Notes What Can I say - We Murder 60 Million People this Episode, Industrialize Mass Racial Murder, and Nuke Two Cities // We Bomb Spain and Horrify Hemingway // We Show What Fascism Does to Fascists and the Poor People in the Way of Fascists // we Invent "Anti-Fascists" (like grandpa-pa) // We usher in the Nuclear Age with a Massive Collective World Trauma // China survives but the Chinese citizens are Terrorized // Japanese cities are burned to the ground // Even the Heroes do Terr...

S2:E23 – 1930s: Popular Culture -Superman Where are You Now

Episode Notes Fascism tries to Recreate the Traditional World and Bores Everyone (Even Goring) // Stalin Murders the Great Artists but Gets Lots of Graphic Design to Brag About Him // America has a Crisis of Dignity // Gangsters escape the Limits of the World and Fall to Earth // Escapism makes One Forget About Life for a While // Comic Books Save the World

S2:E22 – 1930s: Fascism Hates You

Episode Notes Conservatives flock to Fascism to Save them from Liberal Communism and Burn up the World with Hate // There's only Silly Hitler in this Episode // The Nazis are Hyper-Masculine, Women Hating and Surprisingly, well, Gay. // Scar from the Lion King Appears // Charlie Chaplin Dances with a Globe // Fascism tries to Control the Economy without Owning the Economy like Communists // America Inspires Europe with Eugenics, Segregation, and Conservative Violence

S2:E21 – 1930s:Communism and the Stalinist Destruction

Episode Notes The Communist Revolution in Russia // The Stalinist Destruction and Mass Murder // The Breaking of Society to Make a New World (and here's the thing - it works - it terribly, horribly, works) // The USSR Creates a Powerful State During the Great Depression

S2:E20 – 1930s Liberalism: Capitalism is Dead, Long Live "Capitalism"

Episode Notes The Great Depression Responses, Part 1: Killing Capitalism to Save it.

S2:E19 – The Great Depression and the Crisis of the Modern World

Episode Notes How the Great Depression Happened // How Traditional Capitalism Died // And how it Traumatized the Anglo-American-European World and gave Birth to The Modern World

S2:E18 – 1920s: The Conservative Backlash

Episode Notes The Conservative World tries to stop all the changes of the 1910s and 1920s - they win the Courts and pass some laws and loose the culture

S2:E17 – 1920's: Liberalism on the Move

Episode Notes Women and the Right to Vote // African Americans invent the jazz age // Writers Write // The World is Terrible but its Also Awesome //

S2:E16 – The Catastrophe of World War 1

Episode Notes Europeans murdered each other in staggering numbers and then there was a Plague

S2:E15 – Europe - 1900 to 1915

Episode Notes Mary Poppins and Modern Major Generals show that 1910 is the Age of (sometimes old) Men // Young men are in Crisis // Women are Marching for Rights and Rioting in the Streets // Mrs. Pankhurst is Clad in Irons Again // the World is Young and Full of Promise // The World is Old, Decadent, and Dying.

S2:E14 – Imperialism: Europe Takes Over the World

Episode Notes Opium Wars and Revolutions in China // Indian Empires Collapse, fight Back, and lose // Africa goes from Rich to Exploited // Japan Industrializes to Avoid the World's Fate // Europe gets Rich // Cultures Die

S2:E13 – The Industrial Revolution

Episode Notes Industrialization makes people rich, makes others poor, exploits workers, gives people more stuff than ever and creates a Backlash, Romantics, and Environmentalists

S2:E12 – Political Revolutions: US / France / Haiti

Episode Notes The US has a Conservative Revolution // The French have a Conservative and then Radical Revolution and then an Imperial Dictatorship // Haiti frees the Slaves // The Enlightenment succeeds and fails

S2:E11 – Sweden and the Military Revolution

Episode Notes Sweden invents the New Legions // Europe discovers how to raise gunpowder armies and, sometimes, pay them //

S2:E10 – The Enlightenment Invents Human Rights (Kind of)

Episode Notes Descartes invents the person // Hobbes thinks Hell is Other People // Locke tells us we're all great and then we have to live together // Rousseau thinks we are born free but live in chains

S2:E9 – Science As Traumatic Reaction to Mass Disaster

Episode Notes Science as Reaction to the Trauma of the Reformation // Galileo proves "it Still Moves" // New Technologies disprove Aristotle // Blood is a Solid? Yeah, Kind of. // Newton ruins College with Calculus but Proves God Exists

S2:E8 – The Reformation Breaks Christianity, Empowers the Individual, and Creates Great Catholic Art

Episode Notes Martin Luther has 99 problems and the Pope is Definitely 1 // War, Torture, Secret Police, Jesuits, Sweden, Spain, and How do we all Get into Heaven now? // The Catholic Church Unleashes Michelangelo

S2:E7 – Genocide and Slavery in the New World

Episode Notes Disease, Death, Terrorism, and Market Capitalism or How Europeans Justified Slavery with Massive Amounts of Money

S2:E6 – Discovery, Guns, Money and Conquest of the New World

Episode Notes Europeans Leave Europe, Get Rich, and Change Everything Around the World www.christophergennari.com

S2:E5 – The Ottoman Turks Could Conquer the World or Lose it All

Episode Notes The ottoman pick up the pieces // 1453 // gunpowder janissaries // magnificent rulers and the Great Porte // The Largest Mosque in the World // Terrible Rulers and Ineffective Viziers // Harems and Murder Plots // Falling Behind, Reform, Conservative Backlash, Collapse www.christophergennari.com

S2:E4 – Trauma and Empire on the Subcontinent - India and the World

Episode Notes Islamic empires invade the Indus and the Ganges // Sikhs invent a new culture // Hindu conservatives react// Buddhism Ejected // the Taj Mahal and Conservative Cultural War for the future of Culture // India Breaks Apart, Reunites, Breaks apart Again. www.christophergennari.com

S2:E3 – Yuan, Ming and Qing China - The Struggle to Define China

Episode Notes We discuss the trauma of the Mongol Conquest // China's incorporation into Mongol Asia // Ming Revolution, Zheng HE's explorations // The Great Wall and Turning Inward // Little vs Big "China" // The End of the Ming and the Manchu Conquest // The Last Ride of the Northern Barbarians // the Great Library and the Heights of Cultural Power

S2:E2 – A Cook's Tour of the World in 1450

Episode Notes We tour the world to find the state of political and cultural power in 1450 // Who has the ability to conquer the world? Who has the will? Who has the geographic and cultural advantages to do so?

S2:E1 – Introduction to Season 2 - Who Wants to Rule the World

Episode Notes Season 2: The World From 1450 to 2000 // We start with the concept of Conquering the World because that is what is going to happen in this Season. www.christophergennari.com

S1:E33 – Art - Breakthroughs and Reform in Renaissance Europe

Episode Notes Symbolism // Religion // Representation // Perspective // Proportion // The Classical World Recreated // Movement-Biology-Medicine and the New World of Knowledge

S1:E32 – Culture, Education and Gender in the European Middle Ages

Episode Notes Women's Roles in Urban and Rural Europe // Education and Trust: It is Known // Universities, Priests, and Plato //

S1:E31 – Vikings Assault Europe and Create a New World

Episode Notes The Swedes Attack the East, the Danes and Norse Attack the West, the Roman World Breaks up // The Norse settle in France and Sicily and go on Crusade // The Atlantic World is Tied Together by Longships // Icelandic Poets are Punk + Heavy Metal from the Land of the Ice and Snow

S1:E30 – The Last Ride of the Nomadic Armies - Mongols Conquer the World

Episode Notes The Last Ride of the Nomad Conquerors // The Superiority of the Mongol Armies // The Disaster for Civilization // The Breakup of the Mongol World // Terror as Legitimacy

S1:E29 – The Empires of the Caliphate

Episode Notes The Stages of Islamic Caliphate and the Consequences of Revolution // the Breakup of Islam // Sunni vs Shia // The Defeat at Constantinople and the Murder of the Umayyad // The Building of Baghdad and the Height of Civilization

S1:E28 – Arab Women in Early Islam

Episode Notes Three Stages of Female Citizenship in Arab and Early Islamic Society - from Citizen to Mother to Protected Person

S1:E27 – Early Arabic Islam - Geography and Culture

Episode Notes The Geography and Effects on the Arab World // The Qu'ran and its purpose //

S1:E26 – The Byzantine Empire Tries to Save the Roman World and Loses Itself

Episode Notes Justinian, Constantinople, Greek Fire and the Great Siege, the Bulgar Slayer, and Manzikert

S1:E25 – West Africa - Connections, War, Culture and Empire

Episode Notes Ghana builds a trade empire, Islam connects the world, Mali, Timbuktu, Mansa Musa takes a Hajj, Armies grow and professionalize, Songhay conquers the Sahel,

S1:E24 – East Africa from the Ancients to Islamic Trade Empire

Episode Notes From Civilization as Old as Egypt to being a Third of the Indian Oceanic Trade World

S1:E23 – The Qin try to Restart the World - The Han Builds Bridges to It

Episode Notes The Qin and Han Dynasties // Destroying the Old Culture // The Building of the Silk Road and a Great Wall // the Expansion of "China" to create a Greater China

S1:E22 – Confucius Teaches Us that We Are All Connected

Episode Notes Confucianism in a Time of War

S1:E21 – Ancient China Geography and Imperial Legitimacy

Episode Notes Civilization at the End of the World (or is it the Center of it?)

S1:E20 – Mauryan Empire Unites India then Disintergrates

Episode Notes Chandragupta conquers an Empire // Ashoka tries to Run it - a kinder and gentler empire

S1:E19 – Buddha, Trauma and Your 8 Fold Path