Great Big History Podcast: Recent Episodes
Dr. Christopher Gennari
Lecture style Podcast covering Ancient History to Modern world events.
We Cover War and Art
Philosophy and Education
Great Pyramids and Great Walls and why they work (and why they dont)
We cover Gender and Race, Sex and Marriage, Masculinity and Feminism,
We cover David, Dante, and Disneyland
And
We try to relate all of it to us today and analyze what the past has to tell us about ourselves
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 was not recorded.
So I made this special video just for you. I hope you like it.
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 settlers which was a precursor to ethnic violence for the next 400 years. We look at battles won and lost and treaties signed but never carried out. And we set up the wars to come in the 1650s and beyond.
you can find my book on Sweden in the 1650s Invasions, Insurgency and Interventions: Sweden's wars in the 1650s at Amazon
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.
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" //
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 Terrible Things in this Episode
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
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
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
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
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
Episode Notes Women and the Right to Vote // African Americans invent the jazz age // Writers Write // The World is Terrible but its Also Awesome //
Episode Notes Europeans murdered each other in staggering numbers and then there was a Plague
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.
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
Episode Notes Industrialization makes people rich, makes others poor, exploits workers, gives people more stuff than ever and creates a Backlash, Romantics, and Environmentalists
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
Episode Notes Sweden invents the New Legions // Europe discovers how to raise gunpowder armies and, sometimes, pay them //
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
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
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
Episode Notes Disease, Death, Terrorism, and Market Capitalism or How Europeans Justified Slavery with Massive Amounts of Money
Episode Notes Europeans Leave Europe, Get Rich, and Change Everything Around the World
www.christophergennari.com
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
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
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
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?
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
Episode Notes Symbolism // Religion // Representation // Perspective // Proportion // The Classical World Recreated // Movement-Biology-Medicine and the New World of Knowledge
Episode Notes Women's Roles in Urban and Rural Europe // Education and Trust: It is Known // Universities, Priests, and Plato //
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
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
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
Episode Notes Three Stages of Female Citizenship in Arab and Early Islamic Society - from Citizen to Mother to Protected Person
Episode Notes The Geography and Effects on the Arab World // The Qu'ran and its purpose //
Episode Notes Justinian, Constantinople, Greek Fire and the Great Siege, the Bulgar Slayer, and Manzikert
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,
Episode Notes From Civilization as Old as Egypt to being a Third of the Indian Oceanic Trade World
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
Episode Notes Chandragupta conquers an Empire // Ashoka tries to Run it - a kinder and gentler empire
Episode Notes Size and geography break up the Subcontinent's cultures // The Indus must control the Mountains (or Pakistan must Control Afghanistan) // Apartheid that works - Caste system keeps kids from having the "wrong" babies with the "wrong" people.
Episode Notes Civil War // Weak Emperors // No Talent in the Senate // Military Dictators // The Horsemen and Vikings of the Apocalypse, Vandals at the Gates.
Episode Notes Octavian-Augustus wins and kills the Republic // Welfare, the Army, the Government all Change - sometimes for better, Sometimes for Worse.
Episode Notes How did the Roman Republic collapse just a few generations after its great victories? // Inequality of Imperial Wealth + Lack of Dignity for Ordinary Romans + Lack of Government Reform. A Modern Collapse for an Ancient System.
Episode Notes The Political Geography of Italy // Rome Surrounded // Endless War and the Invention of the Republic // Women and Citizenship and Independence // Carthage, Hannibal and the War for Control of the World // Roman Republican Empire and Violence
Episode Notes The Persian Wars // The Rise of Athens and its Navy // The Insurance of the Delian League // The Mobster Rule of the Athenian Empire // The Great Violence of Democracy and Slavery // The Ruin of Athens and the Death of Sparta // the Rise of Macedon and the Conquest of the World
Episode Notes The Rise of the Phalanx and its Role in Creating Greek Government // The Trireme Navy and the Rise of Athenian Democracy // Women are Left Out of Citizenship
Episode Notes Socrates and Democratic Logic // Plato and the Tyranny of the Perfect // Aristotle and Living in the World
Episode Notes The Mountains and the Sea // The Rise of Liberty, Freedom, and Isolation // Homer teaches the Greeks how to be Men // The Tragedies teach the Greeks about Life
Episode Notes David Creates and Empire // Solomon Runs the Empire // The Assyrians Destroy Israel // The Babylonians Sack Judah // the Hebrews revolutionize their culture to survive the disasters
Episode Notes The Middle Kingdom recreates the glory, builds infrastructure, and tells great stories about itself // Mesopotamian pirates invade and wreck the place! // The New Kingdom needs a Hero! and gets them // Ramses II bestrides the World and inspires Walter White // Greek vikings wreck the party and inaugurate part of the Bronze Age Collapse
Episode Notes The Deserts Protect Egypt, The Nile brings life // The Pharaohs create a Nation // Life is so good egyptians wonder if they even need a government // PYRAMIDS!
Episode Notes Cyrus is conquers the Middle East and is so Nice the Hebrews name him as a Messiah // Cambyses is so mean the Egyptians revolt against him // Darius builds cities and roads // The Persians create the first Imperial Army - where all are invited // and the Greeks ruin the Persian Imperial Party
Episode Notes the chariot revolution makes rich people and societies more important than poor ones || the bronze age collapse is the first Apocalypse Armageddon // the Assyrians rise and conquer the world with violence, precision, professionalism, and terror - lots of terrorism // the world destroys the Assyrians
Episode Notes Mesopotamia and the Rise of the Urban Elite // Babylon and the Invention of the Cosmopolitan City // Hammurabi and the Law // Women as Children, Wife and Mother - No longer Worker-Citizen // Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Hating Cities and Trying to Live Forever
Episode Notes * People start to settle down to grow food and revolutionize everything * We get Kings, and Gods, and Burnt Sacrifice * We get Capitalism and Women Lose their Rights and Roles in society * We get Walls and Wars and the Problem of the Commons * We get problems with Nomads, Nature and Each Other - all have to be solved
Episode Notes People move about looking for food
Women have rights and roles
Communism is a way of life - everyone contributes, everyone shares, no one owns anything
Elders run the Courts
Reputation is everything
War is Traumatic, Destructive and Constant
www.greatbighistory.com
Episode Notes World Cinema 1950-2000 and what Cinema tries to do and why it is the way it is around the world
Episode Notes The Invention and Effects of American Adolescence - the teenager of the baby boom.
Episode Notes Industrialization and the effects on society, economics and the new problems created.
Episode Notes What are people like deep down inside in the places they dont talk about at parties? good? awesome? terribly violent? enlightenment philosophers want to know.
Episode Notes Galileo, Newton and technology all = a new way of thinking. and math, lots of math
Episode Notes We make Protestants and Liberate Knowledge. and then the Inquistion happens - which nobody expected (they never do). Long Episode.
Episode Notes Collapse of the Ottoman empire and the effects on the european balance of power
Episode Notes Aztec civilization and the nature of human sacrifice and ritualized warfare
Episode Notes Chariots were the first superweapon changing war and society in ancient mesopotamia.
Episode Notes Arab geography, culture, the coming of Islam and the changing Role of Women in society
Episode Notes Byzantine Empire from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Battle of Manzikert
Episode Notes HIS 101: Test 3 material: east and west africa, their connections to europe, the middle east and asia and the importance of african civilization.
Episode Notes A brief story and effects and results of the Crusades on Western Europe, Byzantine Empire and Islamic World.
The Only thing that could destroy a roman army or a roman civilization were romans. Starting in 180 AD they did so - and it still took them 300 plus years to finally tear it all down to the point forest barbarians and horse nomads could push over the rotten tree.
The Roman Empire in all its glory changed the way people thought about everything from glory, to government, to themselves.
The Roman Republic died in a conversation between a rich man who wanted glory and an unemployed ex-soldier who wanted dignity. 100 years of fire and blood destroyed the senate, the republic, got cicero-cato-pompey-caesar-cleopatra-marc antony killed and left only Octavian standing.
The Roman Legion used the sword, shield and discipline to turn the roman farmer into perhaps the best soldier of the ancient world
Divisions of Italy between Gauls, Etruscans, Latins and Greeks determined much of Rome's future. Here we discussed how Rome dealt with being surrounded and how it ended up creating the Republic.
Episode Notes We discuss the Persian and the Peloponnesian Wars and their effects on Ancient Greece.
Episode Notes After Solomon, the wheels fall off the wagon. There's a bitter breakup, Assyria shows up, and then babylon comes a calling. But we find a culutre capable of surviving terrible traumas when other socieites disappeared.
Episode Notes Little episode. We invent the concept of one super duper God and then explain why bad things happen to good people. While we are at it - we explain the nature of the universe, kill almost everything on Earth, and meet God in the Whirlwind for one last conversation.
Episode Notes Settling down in the land of milk and honey brought advantages and disadvantages. We discuss early Hebrew culture and the effects of geography on a kingdom stuck between Egypt and Babylon.
Episode Notes The New Kingdom rose from the trauma of the Middle Kingdom. It needed a hero and got one. It needed an army and built one. It even got a Ramsses II - Shelley's Ozymandias and blessed us with the awesomest statues ever made. And then sea barbarians with giant axes smashed it on theri way to somewhere else.
Episode Notes The Middle Kingdom was born and died in blood and fire. It aimed for stability and told wonderful tales until the wrong people heard them and got the wrong impression. Shhh! Loose lips sink kingdoms.
Episode Notes The Egyptian Old Kingdom created the first nation state and then built the largest structures people would build for 4000 years and then it all faded away like sand cast on an ocean breeze.
Episode Notes Ancient Egypt was made by geography. A river in the middle of the desert which flooded in a nice predicatable way which made Egypt the richest country in the world.
Episode Notes The Persians built the largest armies in the western world until the age of Napoleon. How did they do it? and what did they look like? Here we discuss the invention of imperial armies where diversity was a bonus and a negative.
Episode Notes The Persians created an empire housing one-quarter of the ancient world's population - linking Europe to India. Founded by Cyrus the Great - a Conqueror, a King, a Messiah.
Episode Notes The First Episode. AN Introduction to Why We Study History and why it is not just Names and Dates!