RevolutionsPodcast. After blowing up the Czar, the revolutionaries went into exile in Europe and began having theoretical arguments amongst themselves. Episode 10.17 The Emancipation of Labour Group goes through the arguments mounted by different groups e.g. you had to allow industrialization so that the industrial proletariat could rise up like Marx predicted; or you had to rely on the peasants because Russia was different to other countries and hadn’t even embarked properly on feudalism; or – from Marx and Engels themselves- criticism that Marxism was being twisted out of its original meaning.
Letters of Love in World War II. Oh no- only one more episode after this. Episode 7: Bergen-Belsen: Sorrow and Shock, deals with late 1944 to mid 1945. The people of England are anticipating that the war will soon by over, but Cyril knows that it may take longer. Faced with ‘ordinary’ Germans, Cyril finds their instructions against fraternization to be very harsh, but Olga is more clear-sighted, especially in view of the news coming out from the concentration camps.
Shaping Opinion. (August 5 2019) I’m on a bit of an Irish Famine thing at the moment, but I’m almost ready to leave it alone. In The Famine that Changed Ireland and America podcaster Tim O’Brien interviews Christine Kinealy, the Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University, an author, and a member of the Irish American Hall of Fame. She says much the same things: that it wasn’t that there wasn’t enough food but the problem of access and that the British Government was inexorably wedded to an ideology that made things worse. She also argues that even for those who emigrated to America, it wasn’t really until the 1960s with the election of President Kennedy that they felt American. She suggested that the prominence of the Irish Famine in the historiography is largely due to the Irish Peace Treaty and the Celtic Tiger economy of the 1990s which encouraged Irish people to look back at their history.
Vickers- Vimy that Ross and Keith Smith flew between London and Darwin Source: Wikipedia
The History Listen (12/11/19) I write a regular feature in our Heidelberg Historical Society newsletter about what happened in the Heidelberg district one hundred years ago. One hundred years ago, the Great Air Race between London and Darwin brought fame and celebrity to the winners, Ross and Keith Smith and two mechanics Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers. Their achievement is celebrated in The great air race, but unfortunately for me, the contribution of Cedric Ernest Howell from Heidelberg is only a footnote. And if you want to find out more, you could join Heidelberg Historical Society for only $40.00 and have access through our newsletter to my pearls of wisdom every two months about Heidelberg 100 Years ago!!! (including a piece about Cedric Ernest Howell)
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 