Month: May 2018

Reminder

Mark Update

There will be no new episode of The History of the Twentieth Century this week, owing to the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the USA. The podcast will return next week with episode 117: “What are the French Doing?”

116: What Did You Do in the Great War?

Mark Podcast
British recruiting poster from the Great War.

 
Although there was a great deal of political resistance to conscription in the United Kingdom, declining numbers of new volunteers forced Parliament to enact mandatory service. Meanwhile, all the Great Powers are experiencing manpower shortages and increasing pressures on their economies, caused by the demands of the Great War.
 
Listen:

Download.

Transcript.

 

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile!”
Composed by George Asaf and Felix Powell in 1915. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

“Your King and Country Want You”
Composed by Paul Rubens in 1914. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

 

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017, 2018 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

115: Let Them Raise Hell

Mark Podcast
Pancho Villa sits in the gilded presidential chair in the National Palace, Mexico City, on December 7, 1914. The man on the right (with a sombrero on his lap) is Emiliano Zapata. Zapata was offered his own turn in the chair, but declined.

 
The revolutionaries in Mexico ousted the dictator Victoriano Huerta, but then fell into fighting among themselves. Huerta, meanwhile, schemes with the Germans to take back the Mexican presidency, while the US government tries to stop him.
 
Listen:

Download.

Transcript.

 

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

“Marcha de Zacatecas”
Composed by Genaro Codina and Fernando Villalpando in 1892. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

“Himno en Honor de Aguascalientes”
Composed by Esteban Ávila Mier and Miguel Meneses in 1867. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing War Theme

 

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017, 2018 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

114: Beautiful Tightropes of Logic

Mark Podcast
In this deep space image from the Hubble Space Telescope, every object you see is a galaxy. In the center is a massive cluster of galaxies. The arcs around the cluster are images of a galaxy behind the cluster. The cluster bends space, which distorts the galaxy’s image into multiple curved arcs, in the same way that an imperfection in a pane of glass might. Here is clear proof of Einstein’s theory; proof that was unavailable in 1915.

 
After ten years of further work, Albert Einstein publishes his General Theory of Relativity, which changes our understanding of the very nature of reality.
 
Listen:

Download.

Transcript.

 

Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening War Theme

Symphony No. 8 in F
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1812. Public domain.
Performed on recorder by Papalin, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

Closing War Theme

 

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017, 2018 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.