I'm glad you were able to go into much greater detail in this lecture on the subjects you discussed in your first lectures in your class on Ukrainian history. So interesting. I find Ukrainian history to be wonderfully complicated, c. 1917-1922 even outrageously complicated. I'm working on that one. I don't know that I'll ever be able to understand it.
Happy to learn that after you finish the book on freedom you'll be writing a "brief but global history of Ukraine." I hope it's not too brief. Ideally it should be at least 900 pages. Even that would be a bare minimum.
PS. Re the book you're writing on freedom: I very much enjoyed your conversation with Volodymyr Yermolenko when you were in Ukraine last Sept. (For anyone interested, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LkXsW14qJQ&t=1s). I know you're being pulled in many directions at once, but I'd like to make one little request about this book: I know you try to reach as many people as possible, which is good! But I hope the book on freedom is more like the discussion you had with Mr Yermolenko and the intellectual history Prof. Shore does. You're more famous than she is, but her writings, especially her articles, are beautifully written and so good. Exactly 3 years ago I was reading Adam Tooze's "The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931," when I stumbled upon Prof. Shore's "On the Uses and Disadvantages of Historical Comparisons for Life." I thought, "I'll read this and get right back to the book." But I couldn't, so I took a long walk with my dog to think about it, and when I returned I still couldn't get back to the book, not until the next day. The article is not so much about freedom as it is about the universal and the particular, but I use it and the conversation with Mr Yermolenko as examples of the level I'm looking for in your book on freedom.
That same conversation included Professor Snyder mentioning Isaiah Berlin's views about Positive Freedom vs Negative Freedom. That got me to pick the book "The Crooked Timber of Humanity" out of my library to find its context. Wow! In the essay 'The Apotheosis of the Romantic Will', Berlin analyzes the makings and characteristics of fascism that are startlingly visible 70 years later.
Hello, Roxanna! Sorry it took me so long to respond. Here in the US, negative freedom is the only kind of freedom most Americans understand. It is deeply rooted in our culture, and is childish. I just ordered "The Crooked Timber of Humanity" from amazon. Because of the current situation in the US, sometimes books like this cause an unpleasant physical reaction. Because I'm getting older and my blood pressure has been gradually rising, I've been placing a limit on what I read. I read mostly history, which can be pretty stressful at times, though. My blood pressure is still within the normal range--at least most of the time--but it's much higher now than the 108/68 that was normal for me before about 2017.
Love your remark that negative freedom --" freedom from" rather than "freedom to" -- is childish. The "I don't wanna" complaint implicit in the insistence of doing things they way they want to, the way they 'believe' (today), regardless of its consequences is often accompanied by hysterical screaming and gesticulating and stomping around, along with deliberate destruction of anything in range. Actually seems similar to the mental workings of mass shooters.... And the press feeds off the drama like lookie-loos at traffic accidents. As if the mentality has regressed to third grade. And, yet, voters fall in line for their team, right or wrong.
Luckily, some people are realizing that they are risking everything for themselves while their 'stars' get off with slaps on the wrist. The persistent courage and resilience of Ukraine identifies the evil persecuting it and threatening others (Poland was recently threatened by Medvedev with loss of statehood).
And, also true, Rose -- blood pressure, never an issue for me, is now…. But meditation wasn't in my sights either and is now routine. The book doesn't require either. Berlin, as someone put it, was fluent in many languages and incomprehensible in all of them. The writings are profound but not terrifying. Comprehensively thought out and presented deliberations on the nature of human society.
You think as I do, Roxanna. It is natural for young children to think the world revolves around them. They think everyone is thinking their thoughts and wants what they want. And if a parent stops them from doing something they want to do say, for safety reasons, they often throw a tantrum. I don't know if these people have arrested psychological development or they've regressed, but I find their behavior undignified and unseemly. You can't be a responsible citizen if you become unhinged when you hear/read a truth you don't like.
I've been thinking about meditation, but have never pushed myself to do it. Thanks for the note about Berlin. The book should arrive sometime within the next few days. Am not sure I'll be able to get to it right away. After a months-long study of Ukrainian history I'm now returning to my first love in history-- the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, and the Balkan peninsula. It's impossible to understand Ukrainian history without them. Prof. Snyder is right when he says that everything that happens in European history happens more intensely in Ukraine. Ukraine's history is so complex! And the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, and the Balkan peninsula are all part of that history.
And so recently was the Habsburg Empire that my father's family and his father's family were distinctively affected by it in Western Ukraine. Enjoy the travels through time and the human temperament! The Berlin book isn't one to race through -- sometimes, just parts of a chapter are enough for a while....
lots to be fascinated by in these 44 minutes: ghost-guest-host etymology / bronze age origins / iliad-agamemnon-iphigenia / poseidon-athena-olives+wheat / sythians+greeks / bosporus+kerch straits / misapprehension of renaissance / van veen amazons + female ukrainian soldiers / misapprehension of fall of rome and dark ages / constantinople+byzantium elided by west / ukraine north-south fundamental historical axis / ukraine as essential global food source / drone de-mining tractors / vikings,orcs,beowulf + tolkien / vikings as seminal european catalyst / kievan viking-byzantium hybrid as typical not exotic / polish,russian military,cultural assaults on crimea,ukraine / efforts to sanitize ua history into classical greek-russian narrative... the snyder ukrainian bias is well represented in this short lecture, though with each telling it only becomes clearer that this is the bias we would all do well to share.
Another excellent whirlwind tour of history. Mind blowing and complex. Also very enticing and offered with an engaging sense of humour and depth of knowledge. Thank you!
In 44 minutes, Professor Snyder highlights some of the key themes of "The Making of Modern Ukraine" lectures. This is a great starter for the Yale lectures, available online, and probably for many of us, an incentive to watch those lectures again.
Thank you for this timely interjection about Ukraine with eyes turned on the unending disaster of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We are already reading those who are pairing our involvement in both wanting to back away from both. This is a time for being strong about the differences and the root causes. These two crises are paired and used in some quarters, linking Ukraine's battle and Israel's in ways that are perverse.
I am reading about the unsuccessful attempt by Syrians, 1918-1920, to draft a constitution which would reduce "...the monarch's power, disestablished Islam as the state religion, and granted equal rights to Muslims and non-Muslims alike." (From How The West Stole Democracy From The Arabs by Elizabeth F. Thompson) This was scuppered by Britain and France at the time. She also points out how this history contributed to the failure of the 2011 Arab Spring.
I remember feeling helpless to see how Syria could get rid of Assad when two thirds of the opposition to him were Jihadists. The opposition was as bad as the despot.
That is where Ukraine is different. They are not hobbled by religion and ethnicity. With our help they have a chance to make another thriving democracy. It would not be the same as the war in Iraq or Afghanistan where powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia can use religion to keep the people down.
I am a Substack subscriber to Tim Snyder, Jim Fallows, and Heather Cox Richardson. Heather provides a marvelous overview of events with a superb historical context. The reader commentaries are enriching.
Jim posts topical blogs and comments on responses.
I am severely disappointed that Snyder, who I first discovered and applauded with his BLOODLANDS book, is now providing a poor audible history lecture. Earlier he had simply provided a difficult-to-hear Yale student lecture series. Though his subscriber comments are first class, there has never been a comment by Snyder.
As an intensive history Yale grad (1955), I hope that Yale Professor Snyder will be more forthcoming to his paid subscribers.
Hi, Stephen. OK, yes, that's good, too. The reason I suggested speakers is because I can't stand headphones because they're too tight and, though my hearing is still good, I have a problem with ear-ringing, which is temporarily exacerbated by headphones. All day long I hear a combination of odd, high frequency pitches with occasional medium frequency pitches thrown in, so I try to avoid anything that will make it worse.
I don’t want to tick the like button on something like ear-rings and weird pitches of sound. I have a nice pair of headphones. The padding is good, it fits comfortably and I can’t wear them for more than half an hour. They suction on to my ears and it hurts.
What I do like is my wireless Beats Flex earbuds. They hang about my neck lightly and the ends are magnetized so when I pull them from my ears they stick together and I don’t lose them. Apple sells them too but for about $20 more. Shamless.
Hi Keith. Yes, do that. Bose speakers, which is what I have, are cheap. I got a pair for $99. Go ahead and order them so that when you grandchildren arrive everything will be ready. Hmm. I just checked amazon, and they're now $149, but they're worth it because the sound is so clear and the volume can be cranked up to very loud. They're especially good for listening to music. I find that I can hear all the parts perfectly. One of my favorite groups is the Netherlands Bach Society, with the most fantastic musicians in the world. They record performances of All of Bach (their motto) and make them free to the public on youtube. Those Bose speakers are so good that it sounds like a live performance.
Rose I’m simply a curmudgeon who watches DVDs and VHSs (my grand kids have never heard of these) during my nightly PT exercises.
Currently I am rewatching the PBS American Presidents series. Reagan seemed somewhat better than I remembered. FDR: BINGO! In the middle of Woodrow Wilson.
Rewatched Gettysburg—wonderful. Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, CNN’s Cold War (which revealed much that I didn’t know or had forgotten as a Foreign Service Officer), Michel Finestein’s duperb first 100 years of American Song, Ken Burns’ Civil War, and MGM’s That’s Entertainment.
As for music, Robert Greenberg’s great classical music covers a bouquet of music with a commentary that I find exquisite. As an historian, I loved his Music as a Mirror of History.
‘Nuff for now. Incidentally I almost never watch daily TV. Oh yes, Tora Tora Tora, Midway, and The Crossing (Washington’s Trenton Hail Mary.) Mommas and the Poppas, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Flanders & Swan.
Keith, I can be a bit of a curmudgeon myself. I haven't had a TV for about 30 years, and don't miss it at all. I've never been much of a movie person. Pete Seeger is good. I love folk music, but the real thing. I don't like a prettified, commercialized folk music. There is a harshness about real folk music that I love--the nasal voice, for example, like the late Ralph Stanley, or the home-made instruments. The best folk music of all is performed by people with no formal music education who are mostly unknown to the rest of us: the singers of tall tales, of ballads that deal with everyday life, like birth, death, marriage, pain, sorrow, love, hatred, pettiness, unfaithfulness, war, unrequited love, etc.
And I love the music of composers who bring folk elements into their music. Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák is best known for his 9th symphony, but the very best is his 7th in D minor, which is full of the most wonderful Bohemian and Moravian folk music and rhythms. It opens with a folk melody that becomes the driving force for the entire movement. In the final movement, he combines several different folk rhythms, played off against each other, all at the same time, which sounds really wild.
Bedřich Smetana is another Bohemian composer, known for his cycle of 6 symphonic poems, "Má vlast," the most famous of which is "Vltava," better known in English as "The Moldau." You can actually *hear* the moving water in the music. The melody is well known and loved. It is one of my very favorite pieces. Everyone who listens to classical music knows it and is absolutely crazy about it.
Rose Robert Greenberg has a number of wonderful music courses on the Great Courses. On occasion, when there is a sale, I have bought several, which at retail I find pricy. I had his Great Music course on cassettes in the early 90s. Now on DVD it’s marvelous. His linking of music to history in the 18th-20th century I found provided a new dimension to both the Punic and the period.
[I send a copy of this together with other professor-to-professor materials to Tim Snyder and never got an acknowledgement.]
Hi, HL. I'd like to add one more: Andrés Orozco-Estrada, up until recently, was the conductor of the hr-Sinfonieorchester/Frankfurt Radio Symphony. His readings of the complete cycles of the symphonies of Brahms and Mahler, as well as Schubert's Great C major symphony--Is there any symphony in the world better than Schubert's 9th? I'll settle that right now: No, there is not--which are all on youtube, are fantastic. Brahms's C minor symphony, the 1st, is probably his best-loved, but I fell in love afresh with his D major symphony, the 2nd, after I heard Orozco-Estrada's performance. It is so good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbcfuMlNRWg&t=1195s
Thanks Rose, the link to AO-E was great. It lead on to Hillary Hahn (Tschaikowsky) and several more. YouTube kept giving me great selections which it doesn’t often do. The Bach BWV 1043 was my wedding music almost 30 years ago and I never tire of it. My husband was the musician. He taught too. Elementary school K-6 in Brooklyn NY. He taught me to appreciate so much more too. I will listen to Shubert’s 9th again. I’m not sure it’s the best in the world but I’ll let it wear a path to my heart. I do have it on CD.
I think I understand the hyper-typical links that connect Ukraine and its place in the world. In the past and now in this dangerous present and future. The concerns about keeping Ukraine top of mind while Gaza/Israel does not sort things out. I see the automatic, “we stand with Israel” which I’ve always considered a bit hypocritical as it was not so long ago that that they didn’t. But now the Christo-fascists in Congress and happy for all the Jews to return so things can move ahead. What Hamas has done is beyond the pale except history shows us it has happened before. It will happen again.
President Zelenskyy is struggling. He’s exhausted, he’s frustrated. A year ago he was feted wherever he went hat in had and the people were happy to hand over cash and guns. America still has plenty of cash and guns but it has a new Speaker who is a baby-faced soft-spoken orc in his own right. He smiles a lot, his eyes are dead, but he has purpose.
I don’t know how much more the EU can support. Nor do I know what Canada can do, I suspect less than we should. So much is riding on Biden but can he deliver?
I truly believe that if Ukraine is lost to Russia, even if a part of Ukraine is lost, Russia will become impossible to deal with. More so than at any other time before. The sanctions are slowly being felt. That Putin has to rely on NK for shells has got to dent his pride. St Putin of that new cathedral will not want a mosaic of Kim next to him. Xi maybe, but not Kim. Putin will gather his forces (how long is a valid question, he’s killed 100s of 1000s) and he will mess with other countries in the neighbourhood. Transnistria? Syria? Georgia? What does this old man see?
Ukraine is fighting for all of us. So we don’t have to. Drone footage shows strange black pockmarks across fields out to the horizon. Shattered villages look like smashed Lego blocks neatly in rows on dirt streets. Forested areas have every leaf crushed underfoot, only odd-shaped stumps and slivers are left. Until next spring, maybe.
Yesterday Putin caused the largest Russia shelling of more than 110 settlements within the last 24 hours, more than in any single day so far this year. And after a couple of weeks of less shelling. I haven’t looked at what those numbers mean. I can’t bear to today.
Ukraine needs what it will take to finish Putin and his cabal. So many countries have given but never enough to finish the job. I hear from news programs that it is better if it’s a true stalemate. But for whom? The Ukrainian people will finish Russia off as a threat to any of us. They have never shirked in their responsibility. How can we shirk from ours?
"The name Artan derives from Arthania, an ancient state of ruthless and invincible warriors, which, as chronicled by Arab and Persian historians and geographers, lived on the territory of modern Ukraine. The battalion’s motto is, “Artan – the spirit of victory.”"
Your leadership and commentary are truly inspiring
Keep them coming. You are a ray of intellectual sunshine
I'm glad you were able to go into much greater detail in this lecture on the subjects you discussed in your first lectures in your class on Ukrainian history. So interesting. I find Ukrainian history to be wonderfully complicated, c. 1917-1922 even outrageously complicated. I'm working on that one. I don't know that I'll ever be able to understand it.
Happy to learn that after you finish the book on freedom you'll be writing a "brief but global history of Ukraine." I hope it's not too brief. Ideally it should be at least 900 pages. Even that would be a bare minimum.
PS. Re the book you're writing on freedom: I very much enjoyed your conversation with Volodymyr Yermolenko when you were in Ukraine last Sept. (For anyone interested, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LkXsW14qJQ&t=1s). I know you're being pulled in many directions at once, but I'd like to make one little request about this book: I know you try to reach as many people as possible, which is good! But I hope the book on freedom is more like the discussion you had with Mr Yermolenko and the intellectual history Prof. Shore does. You're more famous than she is, but her writings, especially her articles, are beautifully written and so good. Exactly 3 years ago I was reading Adam Tooze's "The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931," when I stumbled upon Prof. Shore's "On the Uses and Disadvantages of Historical Comparisons for Life." I thought, "I'll read this and get right back to the book." But I couldn't, so I took a long walk with my dog to think about it, and when I returned I still couldn't get back to the book, not until the next day. The article is not so much about freedom as it is about the universal and the particular, but I use it and the conversation with Mr Yermolenko as examples of the level I'm looking for in your book on freedom.
BTW, if I were teaching an undergraduate course in historiography, Prof. Shore's article would be required reading, because it is like a how-to manual on what it means to think historically. I invite everyone who reads this comment to read Prof. Shore's article here: https://publicseminar.org/essays/on-the-uses-and-disadvantages-of-historical-comparisons-for-life/
That same conversation included Professor Snyder mentioning Isaiah Berlin's views about Positive Freedom vs Negative Freedom. That got me to pick the book "The Crooked Timber of Humanity" out of my library to find its context. Wow! In the essay 'The Apotheosis of the Romantic Will', Berlin analyzes the makings and characteristics of fascism that are startlingly visible 70 years later.
Hello, Roxanna! Sorry it took me so long to respond. Here in the US, negative freedom is the only kind of freedom most Americans understand. It is deeply rooted in our culture, and is childish. I just ordered "The Crooked Timber of Humanity" from amazon. Because of the current situation in the US, sometimes books like this cause an unpleasant physical reaction. Because I'm getting older and my blood pressure has been gradually rising, I've been placing a limit on what I read. I read mostly history, which can be pretty stressful at times, though. My blood pressure is still within the normal range--at least most of the time--but it's much higher now than the 108/68 that was normal for me before about 2017.
Love your remark that negative freedom --" freedom from" rather than "freedom to" -- is childish. The "I don't wanna" complaint implicit in the insistence of doing things they way they want to, the way they 'believe' (today), regardless of its consequences is often accompanied by hysterical screaming and gesticulating and stomping around, along with deliberate destruction of anything in range. Actually seems similar to the mental workings of mass shooters.... And the press feeds off the drama like lookie-loos at traffic accidents. As if the mentality has regressed to third grade. And, yet, voters fall in line for their team, right or wrong.
Luckily, some people are realizing that they are risking everything for themselves while their 'stars' get off with slaps on the wrist. The persistent courage and resilience of Ukraine identifies the evil persecuting it and threatening others (Poland was recently threatened by Medvedev with loss of statehood).
And, also true, Rose -- blood pressure, never an issue for me, is now…. But meditation wasn't in my sights either and is now routine. The book doesn't require either. Berlin, as someone put it, was fluent in many languages and incomprehensible in all of them. The writings are profound but not terrifying. Comprehensively thought out and presented deliberations on the nature of human society.
You think as I do, Roxanna. It is natural for young children to think the world revolves around them. They think everyone is thinking their thoughts and wants what they want. And if a parent stops them from doing something they want to do say, for safety reasons, they often throw a tantrum. I don't know if these people have arrested psychological development or they've regressed, but I find their behavior undignified and unseemly. You can't be a responsible citizen if you become unhinged when you hear/read a truth you don't like.
I've been thinking about meditation, but have never pushed myself to do it. Thanks for the note about Berlin. The book should arrive sometime within the next few days. Am not sure I'll be able to get to it right away. After a months-long study of Ukrainian history I'm now returning to my first love in history-- the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, and the Balkan peninsula. It's impossible to understand Ukrainian history without them. Prof. Snyder is right when he says that everything that happens in European history happens more intensely in Ukraine. Ukraine's history is so complex! And the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, and the Balkan peninsula are all part of that history.
See you later!
And so recently was the Habsburg Empire that my father's family and his father's family were distinctively affected by it in Western Ukraine. Enjoy the travels through time and the human temperament! The Berlin book isn't one to race through -- sometimes, just parts of a chapter are enough for a while....
lots to be fascinated by in these 44 minutes: ghost-guest-host etymology / bronze age origins / iliad-agamemnon-iphigenia / poseidon-athena-olives+wheat / sythians+greeks / bosporus+kerch straits / misapprehension of renaissance / van veen amazons + female ukrainian soldiers / misapprehension of fall of rome and dark ages / constantinople+byzantium elided by west / ukraine north-south fundamental historical axis / ukraine as essential global food source / drone de-mining tractors / vikings,orcs,beowulf + tolkien / vikings as seminal european catalyst / kievan viking-byzantium hybrid as typical not exotic / polish,russian military,cultural assaults on crimea,ukraine / efforts to sanitize ua history into classical greek-russian narrative... the snyder ukrainian bias is well represented in this short lecture, though with each telling it only becomes clearer that this is the bias we would all do well to share.
ALWAYS I welcome your lectures. You put the pieces together so very well; I’m looking forward to your next books. Bravo, professor!
Another excellent whirlwind tour of history. Mind blowing and complex. Also very enticing and offered with an engaging sense of humour and depth of knowledge. Thank you!
Thank you for your plain-spoken and accessible history. We bought your books and are working our way through them.
Tim, you are yourself. You owe us nothing but your dedication which is sustaining.
In 44 minutes, Professor Snyder highlights some of the key themes of "The Making of Modern Ukraine" lectures. This is a great starter for the Yale lectures, available online, and probably for many of us, an incentive to watch those lectures again.
I so look forward to your book of Freedom 🤗
Thank you for this timely interjection about Ukraine with eyes turned on the unending disaster of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We are already reading those who are pairing our involvement in both wanting to back away from both. This is a time for being strong about the differences and the root causes. These two crises are paired and used in some quarters, linking Ukraine's battle and Israel's in ways that are perverse.
I am reading about the unsuccessful attempt by Syrians, 1918-1920, to draft a constitution which would reduce "...the monarch's power, disestablished Islam as the state religion, and granted equal rights to Muslims and non-Muslims alike." (From How The West Stole Democracy From The Arabs by Elizabeth F. Thompson) This was scuppered by Britain and France at the time. She also points out how this history contributed to the failure of the 2011 Arab Spring.
I remember feeling helpless to see how Syria could get rid of Assad when two thirds of the opposition to him were Jihadists. The opposition was as bad as the despot.
That is where Ukraine is different. They are not hobbled by religion and ethnicity. With our help they have a chance to make another thriving democracy. It would not be the same as the war in Iraq or Afghanistan where powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia can use religion to keep the people down.
I am a Substack subscriber to Tim Snyder, Jim Fallows, and Heather Cox Richardson. Heather provides a marvelous overview of events with a superb historical context. The reader commentaries are enriching.
Jim posts topical blogs and comments on responses.
I am severely disappointed that Snyder, who I first discovered and applauded with his BLOODLANDS book, is now providing a poor audible history lecture. Earlier he had simply provided a difficult-to-hear Yale student lecture series. Though his subscriber comments are first class, there has never been a comment by Snyder.
As an intensive history Yale grad (1955), I hope that Yale Professor Snyder will be more forthcoming to his paid subscribers.
Have you tried hooking your laptop up to a couple of speakers?
Or a decent set of headphones.
Hi, Stephen. OK, yes, that's good, too. The reason I suggested speakers is because I can't stand headphones because they're too tight and, though my hearing is still good, I have a problem with ear-ringing, which is temporarily exacerbated by headphones. All day long I hear a combination of odd, high frequency pitches with occasional medium frequency pitches thrown in, so I try to avoid anything that will make it worse.
I don’t want to tick the like button on something like ear-rings and weird pitches of sound. I have a nice pair of headphones. The padding is good, it fits comfortably and I can’t wear them for more than half an hour. They suction on to my ears and it hurts.
What I do like is my wireless Beats Flex earbuds. They hang about my neck lightly and the ends are magnetized so when I pull them from my ears they stick together and I don’t lose them. Apple sells them too but for about $20 more. Shamless.
https://www.beatsbydre.com/earbuds/beats-flex $69.99
Rose At 90 what you suggest would vastly exceed my technical ability. Next time a grand kid comes by, I’ll seek his/her technical help.
Hi Keith. Yes, do that. Bose speakers, which is what I have, are cheap. I got a pair for $99. Go ahead and order them so that when you grandchildren arrive everything will be ready. Hmm. I just checked amazon, and they're now $149, but they're worth it because the sound is so clear and the volume can be cranked up to very loud. They're especially good for listening to music. I find that I can hear all the parts perfectly. One of my favorite groups is the Netherlands Bach Society, with the most fantastic musicians in the world. They record performances of All of Bach (their motto) and make them free to the public on youtube. Those Bose speakers are so good that it sounds like a live performance.
https://www.amazon.com/Bose-Companion-III-Multimedia-Speakers/dp/B00CD1PTF0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13MA6VMNMXZHP&keywords=bose+speakers+for+laptop&qid=1698591572&sprefix=bose+speakers+for+lap%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1
Rose I’m simply a curmudgeon who watches DVDs and VHSs (my grand kids have never heard of these) during my nightly PT exercises.
Currently I am rewatching the PBS American Presidents series. Reagan seemed somewhat better than I remembered. FDR: BINGO! In the middle of Woodrow Wilson.
Rewatched Gettysburg—wonderful. Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, CNN’s Cold War (which revealed much that I didn’t know or had forgotten as a Foreign Service Officer), Michel Finestein’s duperb first 100 years of American Song, Ken Burns’ Civil War, and MGM’s That’s Entertainment.
As for music, Robert Greenberg’s great classical music covers a bouquet of music with a commentary that I find exquisite. As an historian, I loved his Music as a Mirror of History.
‘Nuff for now. Incidentally I almost never watch daily TV. Oh yes, Tora Tora Tora, Midway, and The Crossing (Washington’s Trenton Hail Mary.) Mommas and the Poppas, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Flanders & Swan.
Keith, I can be a bit of a curmudgeon myself. I haven't had a TV for about 30 years, and don't miss it at all. I've never been much of a movie person. Pete Seeger is good. I love folk music, but the real thing. I don't like a prettified, commercialized folk music. There is a harshness about real folk music that I love--the nasal voice, for example, like the late Ralph Stanley, or the home-made instruments. The best folk music of all is performed by people with no formal music education who are mostly unknown to the rest of us: the singers of tall tales, of ballads that deal with everyday life, like birth, death, marriage, pain, sorrow, love, hatred, pettiness, unfaithfulness, war, unrequited love, etc.
And I love the music of composers who bring folk elements into their music. Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák is best known for his 9th symphony, but the very best is his 7th in D minor, which is full of the most wonderful Bohemian and Moravian folk music and rhythms. It opens with a folk melody that becomes the driving force for the entire movement. In the final movement, he combines several different folk rhythms, played off against each other, all at the same time, which sounds really wild.
Bedřich Smetana is another Bohemian composer, known for his cycle of 6 symphonic poems, "Má vlast," the most famous of which is "Vltava," better known in English as "The Moldau." You can actually *hear* the moving water in the music. The melody is well known and loved. It is one of my very favorite pieces. Everyone who listens to classical music knows it and is absolutely crazy about it.
Rose Robert Greenberg has a number of wonderful music courses on the Great Courses. On occasion, when there is a sale, I have bought several, which at retail I find pricy. I had his Great Music course on cassettes in the early 90s. Now on DVD it’s marvelous. His linking of music to history in the 18th-20th century I found provided a new dimension to both the Punic and the period.
[I send a copy of this together with other professor-to-professor materials to Tim Snyder and never got an acknowledgement.]
I've had Bose speakers for years now, and they're so easy to hook up - really!
One wire is plugged into a wall outlet, another into the back of your computer in a free port, if you have one. Easy-peasy.
They really are easy to hook up!
I concur. Bose, Bach, and the Netherlands Bach Society, who needs anything more? Ah, we need more Tim Snyder.
Hi, HL. I'd like to add one more: Andrés Orozco-Estrada, up until recently, was the conductor of the hr-Sinfonieorchester/Frankfurt Radio Symphony. His readings of the complete cycles of the symphonies of Brahms and Mahler, as well as Schubert's Great C major symphony--Is there any symphony in the world better than Schubert's 9th? I'll settle that right now: No, there is not--which are all on youtube, are fantastic. Brahms's C minor symphony, the 1st, is probably his best-loved, but I fell in love afresh with his D major symphony, the 2nd, after I heard Orozco-Estrada's performance. It is so good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbcfuMlNRWg&t=1195s
Thanks Rose, the link to AO-E was great. It lead on to Hillary Hahn (Tschaikowsky) and several more. YouTube kept giving me great selections which it doesn’t often do. The Bach BWV 1043 was my wedding music almost 30 years ago and I never tire of it. My husband was the musician. He taught too. Elementary school K-6 in Brooklyn NY. He taught me to appreciate so much more too. I will listen to Shubert’s 9th again. I’m not sure it’s the best in the world but I’ll let it wear a path to my heart. I do have it on CD.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I think I understand the hyper-typical links that connect Ukraine and its place in the world. In the past and now in this dangerous present and future. The concerns about keeping Ukraine top of mind while Gaza/Israel does not sort things out. I see the automatic, “we stand with Israel” which I’ve always considered a bit hypocritical as it was not so long ago that that they didn’t. But now the Christo-fascists in Congress and happy for all the Jews to return so things can move ahead. What Hamas has done is beyond the pale except history shows us it has happened before. It will happen again.
President Zelenskyy is struggling. He’s exhausted, he’s frustrated. A year ago he was feted wherever he went hat in had and the people were happy to hand over cash and guns. America still has plenty of cash and guns but it has a new Speaker who is a baby-faced soft-spoken orc in his own right. He smiles a lot, his eyes are dead, but he has purpose.
I don’t know how much more the EU can support. Nor do I know what Canada can do, I suspect less than we should. So much is riding on Biden but can he deliver?
I truly believe that if Ukraine is lost to Russia, even if a part of Ukraine is lost, Russia will become impossible to deal with. More so than at any other time before. The sanctions are slowly being felt. That Putin has to rely on NK for shells has got to dent his pride. St Putin of that new cathedral will not want a mosaic of Kim next to him. Xi maybe, but not Kim. Putin will gather his forces (how long is a valid question, he’s killed 100s of 1000s) and he will mess with other countries in the neighbourhood. Transnistria? Syria? Georgia? What does this old man see?
Ukraine is fighting for all of us. So we don’t have to. Drone footage shows strange black pockmarks across fields out to the horizon. Shattered villages look like smashed Lego blocks neatly in rows on dirt streets. Forested areas have every leaf crushed underfoot, only odd-shaped stumps and slivers are left. Until next spring, maybe.
Yesterday Putin caused the largest Russia shelling of more than 110 settlements within the last 24 hours, more than in any single day so far this year. And after a couple of weeks of less shelling. I haven’t looked at what those numbers mean. I can’t bear to today.
Ukraine needs what it will take to finish Putin and his cabal. So many countries have given but never enough to finish the job. I hear from news programs that it is better if it’s a true stalemate. But for whom? The Ukrainian people will finish Russia off as a threat to any of us. They have never shirked in their responsibility. How can we shirk from ours?
"The name Artan derives from Arthania, an ancient state of ruthless and invincible warriors, which, as chronicled by Arab and Persian historians and geographers, lived on the territory of modern Ukraine. The battalion’s motto is, “Artan – the spirit of victory.”"
https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/10/30/ukrainian-fighter-battles-exhaustion-in-14-hour-swim-for-survival/