The History Hour
| Host: | Charles Jeanes |
| Airs: | Friday's 1-2pm PST |
The History Hour’s focus is West-centric, exploring Europe and the ancient near east in all eras from the prehistoric to today. England, Ireland, Canada, USA, and west Europe are the favoured areas of study. Attention is paid to current events in Canada and the world, BC, the Kootenays, and Nelson. The show freely offers analysis and opinion on these topics. Charles reviews films and books and studies of history. Host Charles Jeanes is passionate about the study of history, to train the mind in critical thinking skills for active citizens who want to participate effectively in democratic politics. As someone who has extensive experience as a public school teacher of history and social studies, and as a journalist.
Subscribe to this Podcast with
iTunes or
a Direct Feed -- paste this link into your rss reader -- .
Episodes
Oct 30 2008 - Rome and collapse of republican government during class warfare
Today Jeanes goes into great detail about ancient Rome's constitution, social classes, and the wars of empire it fought. He turns also to review of the Canadian federal election results, and analyses why the Liberals lost so badly. He castigates Stephan Dion, and the Bloc Quebecois, for the Harperite minority regime we will have to tolerate. Jeanes relates his part in a debate at Selkirk College on the abortion question last Oct. 24.
Download MP3 of this EpisodeOct 23 2008 - The Roman Revolution, and the crisis of Wall St. Capitalism in 2008
Jeanes is interested in the meaning of the vast changes signalled in the world economy by the actions of governments to save banks and the stock markets. He wonders what Karl Marx might think of it, and how it reflects on the question of socialist victory over capitalism as Marx predicted. No socialism is in sight in any rich nation on earth no matter the crisis. Rome in the late Republican era is looked at, and its fall from quasi-democracy to autocratic empire is introduced. Music by Sarah McLachlan.
Oct 16 2008 - Athens wins democracy, Canada wins a WWI battle
Today Jeanes is impassioned against the new film, "Passchendaele" now debuting in theatres and heavily advertises on TV and in newspaper four-page supplements. He is against what seems to be propaganda in the ads. Is the movie propaganda for war? Jeanes has not seen it, but the ads are surely a prop for rah-rah variety of cheap patriotism and stupid ideology that says war, battle, and victory, made Canada a proud, great nation. He then turns to the revolution in Athens created by the actions of the aristocrat Cleisthenes in 509 BCE. True democracy for male citizens in an Assembly was the revolutionary result of the reform of law and constitution in Athens. Jeanes refers to the work of three historians: Victor Hansen, Robin Fox, and Tom Holland, for his argument.
Oct 09 2008 - Canada’s federal election: how democratic are we?
The federal election campaign has a crisis and the Green Party leader has a victory, thanks to massive public protest that the Greens would not be allowed into the CBC leaders' debate. Green leader Elizabeth May will be there with the other four leaders, all men. Jeanes mentions how revolutions in England and the USA have not been mass uprisings so much as top-down change managed by conservative social classes to ensure political liberalization is not violent. He uses the example of Solon the Archon in Athens in the 6th century to show how law could make a revolution. Is Canada more or less democratic than ancient Athens? Jeanes says the question is about culture and consciousness more than about institutions. Solon was a moderate and all classes were somewhat winners and somewhat losers by the kind of reforms his laws enforced. Music by Led Zepplin.
Oct 03 2008 - A Discourse on Politics and the Market Economy
Jeanes does not touch any historical revolution today, but stays on the topic of Wall St. and the trembling of capitalism as world markets go into rapid decline in stock values and banks fail. He stresses that his opinion is not the opinion of the radio coop at KCR nor its board of directors. Jeanes says two main tendencies in politics are all that is needed for organizing two political parties on distinctly defined bases. One party should try always to make capitalist markets as unregulated as possible and let pure economics rule without application of government force through interventions. The other party should be for increasing regulation of the market and its operations. Is the latter socialism? Jeanes says socialist ought to mean, applying plans to the market economy, by intelligence and rationalism. He analyses PM Harper's ideas for more military spending, and says Harper wants Canada to be a capitalist power policing the world to make capitalist order prevail.
Sep 25 2008 - The Greeks’ Revolutions: how war stimulated democratic order among ancient Greeks
Jeanes looks at how ancient Greece, a clear example of class society with warrior aristocrats and equestrian military nobility ruling farmers, moved toward democracy. Sparta was a peculiar type of soldier democracy with a constitution unlike any other. War made Sparta supreme but its citizens had to be rigidly engineered by law ('social engineering") to be the best warriors. Persia's Empire impinged, and so Greeks' wars to liberate themselves from the Persians shaped Greek governmental order. Sparta was revolutionized from the top down by the lawgiver named Lycurgus, and Athens by Dracon. Hoplite infantry became better soldiers than noble cavalry and so the aristocracies lost their power to over-awe the common farming class.
Sep 19 2008 - The Revolution of Israelite Religion in the sixth century BCE
Jeanes speaks about how the political system of Canadian democracy has a ruling class and intermediate middle classes who support the rulers for a share of the wealth that falls from the table of the very very rich who are the ruling class. This world system reaches into Nelson and touches our politics for land development, and the Kutenai Landing development battle here is all about class struggle, with the middle class liberals and progressives joined to conservatives to support this big development because property interests unite the bourgeois in Nelson. Jeanes speaks at length about the revolution in Israel in its religion and politics when the Babylonians and Assyrians conquer Judah and Israel.
Sep 12 2008 - The Deuternomic Revolution in Yahwism
Today's topic is revolution in ancient Israel and how the priestly class and the kings and warlords were united, using religion as the ideology for their nation, to rule the masses in the tribes of Israel. Jeanes relies on the interpretation of Donald Akenson in his book, "Surpassing Wonder." He also refers often to books by Dr. Karen Armstrong, such as "Jerusalem."
Sep 05 2008 - The New Season of The History Hour: Revolutions in history
Host Charles Jeanes outlines his new season theme, Revolution. He introduces new theme music for the show, with lyrics all about History. The Afghan Mission where Canada's army is fighting insurgents and guerillas who oppose their government, is shown to be a betrayal of Canada's long traditions in history; not fighting against rebels who are opposed to an empire is the Canadian way in defence policy. Jeanes reviews books by J. Barzun. The Revolution of the Egyptian religion by one pharaoh, Akenaten, is detailed. Music by Paul Simon.
Jul 25 2008 - The USA in the two World Wars, and a revisionist history by Pat Buchan
A new book by Pat Buchanan, "The Unnecessary War," provokes host Charles Jeanes into a polemic on American history. Comments on local Nelson politics, the G8 summit, and Canada in Afghanistan. Music by Joe Jackson.
Listen