The History of Ideas

The Civil War: Historical Interpretation

Jack Garratt — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:09:11 GMT

Todays show is about the differences in historical interpretation which can be seen especially in the Civil War. No historical event shows that history is interpretation more than the Civil War. To bring up this war in a room full of people will cause sparks fly and a few punches. I engage in a rather biased view that the war was fought over slavery, but give readings of interpretations from the view of the Confederate like minded people and the Union like minded people. The point I am trying to show is how subjective history is to how people re-tell the past. The music you hear in the beginning is by the Oriskany Strings and their song is called "The train don't run here anymore." The outro song is by budz and the song is "New show come to town." The show is produced entirely in Ubuntu Linux from start to finish. Thank you for listening, and can't wait to see you next week.

Literary Romanticism, Historical Context, and Sorrows of Young Werther

Jack Garratt — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:59:27 GMT

This podcast will deal with the ideas of Romanticism in the early 1800's and contextualize it with the Industrial Revolution. As well, we will try to define what exactly Romanticism is. At the end of the podcast, there are two selected passages I read to get the feel of how Werther rejected the world and eventually his life. Romanticism: 1. Counter-Culture (which can be argued) 2. Rejection of the Enlightenment. 3. Emphasizes Art and Nature(with a big A and N!) If you have any questions, suggestions, or objections about this podcast, please email me at jgarratt@elon.edu The song you here is by Joe Sibol and the song is called "Lips to my Lips." I got it from Pod Safe Audio.

Is there a difference between the past and history?

Jack Garratt — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:10:57 GMT

The first podcast of the "History of Ideas." I hope you enjoy it, there are some pops at first but they smooth out as I adjusted the microphone from mouth. Summary: Most people assume that history and the past are interchangeable, and for the layman that is true. But if we want to be good historians, which I want to be, these two terms need to be defined at two different entities. This show explores the differences between the two terms using a book by Keith Jenkins called "Re-thinking History." Here are the two conclusions I come to. 1. Past are actual events that occurred. 2. History is the narrative or the story of the past.