Mid-week Update

Mark Update

Next Sunday’s episode will be more Italian history—reunification (1870) through the Italo-Ethiopian war of 1897—with an emphasis on what’s going on in southern Italy, since the previous episode was largely from a northern perspective. I’m also putting the finishing touches on my version of “Funiculì, Funiculà,” which was composed in 1880 and will be a part of the episode.

This week I am also working on a script for a future episode on the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. So far, we’ve released two episodes on TR, with one more coming shortly. This script I’m working on this week may be the last episode on the Roosevelt presidency, but it may get long enough that I’ll have to split it into two parts. That would make five episodes on a seven and a half year presidency. It was never my plan to give each US president this much attention, but TR demands attention, as much so today as he was when he was President.

We’re coming up on the Russo-Japanese War pretty soon. I expect that will take seven (!) episodes to cover properly. And, of course, the Great War of 1914 is looming off in the distance.

022: La Forza del Destino

Mark Podcast

Luciano Pavarotti sings “La donna è mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto.

The story of how a united Italy was born in the nineteenth century.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Josh.

 

Playlist:

 

Fanfare

Overture to La Forza del Destino (“The Force of Destiny”)
Composed in 1862 by Giuseppe Verdi. Public domain.
Performed by the University of Chicago orchestra and used pursuant to a Creative Commons license. Details

“La donna è mobile” (“The Lady Is Fickle”) from Rigoletto
Composed in 1851 by Giuseppe Verdi. Public domain.
Performed by Enrico Caruso. Public domain recording. Source.

Overture to Nabucco (“Nebuchadnezzar”)
Composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi. Public domain.
Performed by the DuPage orchestra and used pursuant to a Creative Commons license. Details

 

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

021: A Man, A Plan, A Canal—Panama!

Mark Podcast
1902 Washington Post political cartoon on Theodore Roosevelt's bear hunting trip.
1902 Washington Post political cartoon on Theodore Roosevelt’s bear hunting trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We return to the United States this week to examine more of the issues confronting Theodore Roosevelt’s administration: Are American soldiers committing war crimes in the Philippines? The signing of a treaty with Nicaragua Colombia Panama to build a canal across Central America. A coal strike that threatens to leave Americans in the cold during the 1902 mid-term election. And the burning question of whether Theodore Roosevelt is really all that great a hunter.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Josh.

 

Playlist:

 

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Symphony No. 9 in E minor (“From the New World”)
Composed in 1893 by Antonín Dvořák. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Coro di zingari (“Anvil Chorus”) from Il trovatore
Composed in 1853 by Giuseppe Verdi. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

“The Teddy Bears’ Picnic”
Composed in 1907 by John Walter Bratton. Public domain.

 

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

Reminder

Mark Update

Just a reminder that this week is a bye week for the History of the Twentieth Century. We’ll be back next Sunday with a new episode that takes a further look at the Roosevelt Administration in the USA.

020: Heart of Darkness II

Mark Podcast
Roger Casement
Roger Casement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

King Leopold’s claim to the Congo is recognized by the Western nations, and he sets to work to extract as much money from the Congo as possible, with no regard for the lives or welfare of the people living there, until he is exposed by Roger Casement, the British consul in the Congo.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Josh.

 

Playlist:

 

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Trois Odes Funèbres (Three Funeral Odes)
Composed in 1866 by Franz Liszt. Public domain.
Performed by Mauro Tortorelli, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons license. Details.

Closing Theme

 

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

019: Heart of Darkness I

Mark Podcast
Detail of central Africa from an 1872 map of the world. Note the "unexplored region."
Detail of central Africa from an 1872 map of the world. Note the “unexplored region.”

King Leopold II of Belgium, unsatisfied with reigning over “a small nation of small people,” decides what he really needs is a colonial empire to call his very own.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Josh.

 

Playlist:

 

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Trois Odes Funèbres (Three Funeral Odes)
Composed in 1866 by Franz Liszt. Public domain.
Performed by Mauro Tortorelli, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons license. Details.

Closing Theme

 

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

018: The Spectre Haunting Europe

Mark Podcast
Adolescent boys working the midnight shift in a glass works in Indiana, USA, in 1908.
Adolescent boys working the midnight shift in a glass works in Indiana, USA, in 1908.

The stark economic inequalities of the era inspire a new political movement.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Josh.

 

Playlist:

 

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Academic Festival Overture
Composed in 1880 by Johannes Brahms. Public domain.
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. Public domain. Source.

Closing Theme

 

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

Mid-week Update

Mark Update

So the episode on dreadnoughts that I started writing last week turned into a two-parter, because it turns out I have a lot to say about naval arms races. Who could have guessed?

But I’m fleshing out these two episodes by talking about other aspects of diplomacy among the Great Powers during this time, 1904-07, during and immediately after the Russo-Japanese War. There was a lot going on. France was angling to take over Morocco, Italy was eyeing Libya, the British were trying to smooth over relations with France, Russia, and Germany, as well as keep up with the German naval buildup.

This Sunday’s episode, The Spectre Haunting Europe is almost ready. The weather forecast for where I live is for a heavy snowstorm Friday night through midday Sunday. It’s possible I may lose electricity or Internet service during this time, so I’m going to try to pre-post Sunday’s episode before the storm gets here, just in case. But if next Sunday’s episode is late, the storm will be the reason.

017: Such a Bully Pulpit

Mark Podcast
President Roosevelt. Two words most Americans never expected to hear together.
President Roosevelt. Two words most Americans never expected to hear together.
Theodore Roosevelt becomes president, and immediately puts his stamp on American government.

Listen.

Download.

Transcript.
Transcript provided by listener Joseph M.

 
Playlist:  

“The Twentieth Century Rag”

“The Entertainer” Composed in 1902 by Scott Joplin. Public domain.

Closing Theme

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

Dreadnought

Mark Wargames

Dreadnought
Dreadnought, the 1975 SPI war game.

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One of the resources I am using for the episode on dreadnoughts, is this 1975 SPI wargame, which includes individual counters, individually rated, for every dreadnought battleship ever produced. Here are the Brazilian and Argentine dreadnoughts from the game:

 

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