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.

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

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.

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" //

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Great Depression Responses, Part 1: Killing Capitalism to Save it.

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

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

Women and the Right to Vote // African Americans invent the jazz age // Writers Write // The World is Terrible but its Also Awesome //

Europeans murdered each other in staggering numbers and then there was a Plague

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.

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

Industrialization makes people rich, makes others poor, exploits workers, gives people more stuff than ever and creates a Backlash, Romantics, and Environmentalists

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

Sweden invents the New Legions // Europe discovers how to raise gunpowder armies and, sometimes, pay them //

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

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

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

Disease, Death, Terrorism, and Market Capitalism or How Europeans Justified Slavery with Massive Amounts of Money

Europeans Leave Europe, Get Rich, and Change Everything Around the World

www.christophergennari.com

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

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

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

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?

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

Symbolism // Religion // Representation // Perspective // Proportion // The Classical World Recreated // Movement-Biology-Medicine and the New World of Knowledge

Women's Roles in Urban and Rural Europe // Education and Trust: It is Known // Universities, Priests, and Plato //

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

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

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

Three Stages of Female Citizenship in Arab and Early Islamic Society - from Citizen to Mother to Protected Person

The Geography and Effects on the Arab World // The Qu'ran and its purpose //

Justinian, Constantinople, Greek Fire and the Great Siege, the Bulgar Slayer, and Manzikert

Ghana builds a trade empire, Islam connects the world, Mali, Timbuktu, Mansa Musa takes a Hajj, Armies grow and professionalize, Songhay conquers the Sahel,

From Civilization as Old as Egypt to being a Third of the Indian Oceanic Trade World

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

Confucianism in a Time of War

Civilization at the End of the World (or is it the Center of it?)

Chandragupta conquers an Empire // Ashoka tries to Run it - a kinder and gentler empire

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.

Civil War // Weak Emperors // No Talent in the Senate // Military Dictators // The Horsemen and Vikings of the Apocalypse, Vandals at the Gates.

Octavian-Augustus wins and kills the Republic // Welfare, the Army, the Government all Change - sometimes for better, Sometimes for Worse.

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.

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

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

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

Socrates and Democratic Logic // Plato and the Tyranny of the Perfect // Aristotle and Living in the World

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

• 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

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

Cold War Economics 1945-1991

Cold War Politics 1945-1991

Africa 1945-1980

China from 1945-1980

Indian Subcontinent from 1945-1980

World Cinema 1950-2000 and what Cinema tries to do and why it is the way it is around the world

Television and the Middle Classes of American Self Identity.

The Invention and Effects of American Adolescence - the teenager of the baby boom.

How the Disney Princess Represented American Feminism

How Disneyland reflected American Optimism 1945-1985

World War 2

Popular Culture in USA and Soviet Union + Summation of the 1930s

1930s Western Democracries

1930s and Fascism

1920s Around the World

1920s and the Jazz Age

Communism in Theory and Practice

World War 1

Western Civilization before World War 1

Imperialism and the effects on India, China, Japan.

Intro to Imperialism in the 19th century

Industrialization and the effects on society, economics and the new problems created.

Early Economics from 1300-1750

Age of Revolution in US, France, Haiti

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.

Galileo, Newton and technology all = a new way of thinking. and math, lots of math

We make Protestants and Liberate Knowledge. and then the Inquistion happens - which nobody expected (they never do). Long Episode.

Collapse of the Ottoman empire and the effects on the european balance of power

The Rise and Success of the Ottoman Empire 1200-1650

Results of Slavery in the New World, Europe and Africa

Introduction to the causes of slavery in the New World economy.

Aztec civilization and the nature of human sacrifice and ritualized warfare

Inca Civilization in the 1400s and 1500s

Introduction to HIS 102 + Mayan civilization

Chariots were the first superweapon changing war and society in ancient mesopotamia.

Arab geography, culture, the coming of Islam and the changing Role of Women in society

Arabic Caliphates from 632-1258

Changes in Art during the Renaissance

Changes in Education and Marriage during the Renaissance

Byzantine Empire from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Battle of Manzikert

HIS 101: Test 3 material: east and west africa, their connections to europe, the middle east and asia and the importance of african civilization.

A brief story and effects and results of the Crusades on Western Europe, Byzantine Empire and Islamic World.

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle Oh My!

We discuss the Persian and the Peloponnesian Wars and their effects on Ancient Greece.

Mountains and the Sea. Isolation and Connection.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The First Episode. AN Introduction to Why We Study History and why it is not just Names and Dates!