Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Jason Jewell
ParticipantAnother example of what you are talking about is the Mongols’ outward expansion after Genghis Khan united the various clans in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The Hanseatic League in the Baltic region was a federation that made war on other states in the late medieval period.
If you’re looking for a counterexample, the Holy Roman Empire is not a great one, but on the whole I’d say that the component parts of it were not really at each others’ throats during much of the Middle Ages.
ParticipantThanks, Tobias. I wasn’t aware of that online version!
ParticipantHey, guys. Sorry for the slow reply. I have been traveling a lot the last month with spotty internet access.
From that repository of all human knowledge, Wikipedia:
“Ancient cultures such as Incan, Mayan, Hopi, and other Native American Tribes, plus the Babylonians, Ancient Greeks, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and others have a concept of a wheel of time, that regards time as cyclical and quantic consisting of repeating ages that happen to every being of the Universe between birth and extinction.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time#Linear_and_cyclical_time
So the belief is that what we are experiencing now has happened already and will happen again. These cycles can be very long; I believe the Hindu belief is that each revolution of the wheel of time takes more than 100,000 years.
The Hebrew belief in linear time is theological in origin. It stems from the belief that God created the universe in a one-time event and that He then works in history to bring His plans to fruition. In reference to Matt’s question, the Old Testament is full of genealogies and references to events that occurred in the Xth year of King Y’s reign or in the Xth year since the Exodus.
ParticipantIf you have a basic familiarity with the Old Testament and the Hebrew history that Zionists are hearkening back to, it’s probably best to move on to more modern sources. Barbara Tuchman’s first book was an examination of the historical relationship between the English and Jews, focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s very readable and will give you the basics, although it was written in the mid-20th century and will not bring you up to date. I think it stops shortly after WWI. It’s a decent starting point, though.
ParticipantNothing come to mind at the moment. If I think of anything, I’ll let you know.
ParticipantWell, it is an origin story of sorts, and it tells of people wandering in search of a home, so it shares a couple of themes in common with Genesis and Exodus, but I don’t know if I’d try to stretch things any further than that. In fact, your comment is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone suggest a parallel. It’s an interesting idea.
ParticipantThe area more or less corresponding to the British Mandate. My use of “Palestine” is not intended to convey any view on the modern Middle East, and obviously it’s not intended to deny any historic connection between the Hebrew people and the region.
ParticipantHmm. I thought this had been fixed. I’ll look into it.
ParticipantThe main reason for the use of “Palestine” is to avoid any confusion resulting from the changing names of Hebrew kingdoms through the ancient period. For example, if I say, “Israel,” that could be interpreted as simply the area occupied by the northern ten tribes following the secession under Jeroboam. I figured the only generic terms that wouldn’t be confusing were “Palestine” and “Canaan.” Of the two, I think more people are familiar with “Palestine,” so I used that.
ParticipantCharles, it depends on what the speaker meant by “Christendom.” A definition including the Byzantine Empire, for example, might not be considered by some to be Western, although it could be considered part of Christendom. I think it hinges on whether Germanic influence is considered essential to “Western-ness.”
ParticipantAleksei, thanks for noting the error on the quiz question. I’ll ask the web people to fix that.
You might be surprised how much water could be diverted from even fairly large rivers by digging channels for irrigation and the like. The Persians famously changed the course of the entire Euphrates during one of their military campaigns. During years of drought, river levels could get fairly low, and near the mouth of the river this could lead to increased salinity in the water to the point where it might become problematic for drinking or irrigation.
The plausibility of the “challenge/response” theory for the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia is based on the major coordination needed to construct levees along the rivers, which flooded violently at various times. It doesn’t matter how good the farmland is if it’s under water. No, I don’t emotionally like the theory. The “prosperity” theory appears to fit Egypt’s circumstances better on the face of things.
ParticipantThanks for the heads up. Here’s the Gutenberg Project’s version: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3567
ParticipantThanks for your feedback. I apologize for the slow reply; I’ve been out of town without internet access for several days.
I recorded all the series lectures using the Camtasia screen-casting software with the PIP (picture in a picture) option to video myself. The software is a little pricey, but with an academic discount you can get it for less than $200. There may be more cost-effective options out there.
As for Russia since 1861, I have done a little searching on Youtube myself for materials that would help supplement my Modern Europe course without discovering anything great. You can find some interesting documentaries about specific events or rulers, though.
ParticipantI believe Dr. Woods has responded to Ferrara on this question elsewhere. I found this after a Google search: http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/keep-digging-that-hole/
ParticipantThere’s also the issue of Russia’s development for several centuries without much interaction with the peoples of Western and Central Europe. Russia was viewed as exotic by Westerners even after Peter the Great tried to “Westernize” it.
-
AuthorPosts