This weeks most viewed podcast reviews

We haven't posted many reviews this week, but normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.  One of the reasons was the sudden appearance of an old review of the Darkness Falls episode from Ancient Warfare.  We had to go back and give it another listen.  Highly recommended.

History Network Ancient Warfare Magazine - Darknes... 9 Jan 2011 34 Pageviews

William Rufus and the First Crusade - History of E... 16 Jul 2011 24 Pageviews

Aethelred, Svein Forkbeard and years of misery - H... 29 Apr 2011 21 Pageviews

Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo - History Books Review Co... 9 May 2011 21 Pageviews

Tiber and the Potomac - History Books Review 3 Feb 2011 18 Pageviews

Natural Experiments of History - New Books in History Jared Diamond

What does Jared Diamond think of historians?  They are unloved and don't get paid much for good reason, because they produce work of little value.  They are too specialised and not good enough at sums.

This emerges in this podcast where he talks about it.  To an historian.

Incidentally they also talk about a history book that Diamond has just edited.  That sounds quite interesting too.


http://newbooksinhistory.com/2010/01/20/jared-diamond-and-james-a-robinson-natural-experiments-of-history/

This weeks most viewed podcast reviews

Cock of the heap this week?  Epicurus.  Sadly, he is not around to enjoy his success, but he would be philosophical about that.

Epicurus - ABC Philosophy Podcast 7 Jan 2011 32 Pageviews

Tiber and the Potomac - History Books Review 3 Feb 2011 26 Pageviews

Anglo Saxon England - History of England Dave Crow... 17 Jun 2011 23 Pageviews

Introduction to World War II - History of World Wa... 31 May 2011 23 Pageviews

Julian the Pre Apostate - History of Rome Mike Dun... 24 Jul 2011 21 Pageviews

Waterloo Pts 1 and 2 - Napoleon Podcast

The Napoleon podcast was really the one that got the historical podcasts website, and now blog and forum as well going.   But unfortunately they have not been particularly productive lately - I guess the fact that they have done the man himself from beginning to end means that they don't have a huge amount of material to hand.  But it is always good to hear from them when they come up with something.

In the meantime here is one of the classics from the series.  The battle of Waterloo episodes were among the best shows of the series and stand up pretty well if you just want to get a flavour of the podcast without committing to working through the full 50 odd hours.

http://napoleon.thepodcastnetwork.com/2007/12/06/the-napoleon-bonaparte-podcast-33-the-battle-of-waterloo-part-1/

http://napoleon.thepodcastnetwork.com/2007/12/13/the-napoleon-bonaparte-podcast-34-the-battle-of-waterloo-part-2/

Enduring the Great War - New Books in History Alexander Watson

 How did the troops who fought in the First World War cope with it?  It is a good question and one that Alexander Watson has set out to answer in this book.  He looks specifically at the British and German armies.  The two organisations seem to have faced largely the same challenges and solved much the same problem.   But there were some differences, and this may explain why the German army seemed to give in first.  It turns out that the end of German resistance didn't happen in quite the way I imagined it.  In particular it wasn't on the point of mutiny as I imagined.  Have a listen if you want to find out what really happened.

http://newbooksinhistory.com/2009/08/06/alexander-watson-enduring-the-great-war/

Voices of the Past Podcasts

I haven't had a chance to listen to any of these yet, but I thought I'd draw attention to the website as it is likely to be of interest to readers.  The focus is on ways of using different media to explore aspects of history and other culture.  If you have something to say and are looking for a way to say it this might well be worth a look.


http://www.voicesofthepast.org/category/podcast/

The End of Dunkirk - History of World War 2 Podcast Ray Harris Junior

We finally get to the end of the evacuation from Dunkirk.  We get the whole of that speech by Winston Churchill, the one everyone in Britain has heard.  I never thought Ray would manage to keep the podcast going on this subject for 4 whole episodes.  By the end he must have been exhausted, but he managed to carry on.  It seems quite likely that even if this podcast series lasts a thousand episodes, when people look back they will say 'that was his finest hour'.

Seriously though, this series is becoming a real treat and well worth giving a try if you haven't sampled it yet.

http://web.me.com/mtcove1/MountainCoveProductions/World_War_II_Podcast/Entries/2011/7/31_WWII_Podcast-Episode_30.html