Cold War Cast

Today we’re talking about a shadowy, cloak-and-dagger event that changed the course of world history and certainly cold war history – Lenin arriving back in Russia after years of exile during a turbulent period in Russia.   Germany took a gamble that this guy would go back and help to end Russia’s participation in …

Today we’re talking about the Bolsheviks, the hard-line wing of the socialists that eventually took the reins of the Soviet Union and ultimately shaped the world’s political landscape.   I discuss the ideological differences between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks and how that dictated the first part of the Cold War. My apologies for the poor …

We’ve talked a lot about Russia, it’s time to check in with the United States of America in the early 1900’s.   While we weren’t one of the top-tier global superpowers, we were well on our way there at this point.   In this podcast I briefly outline a few of the factors that helped …

In 1905 when Russia had the “dress rehearsal” for the actual Bolshevik Revolution, one of the most notorious side stories of the whole ordeal was the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin, one of the Russian Navy’s prize vessels.   In 1925 legendary direction Sergei Eisenstein depicted the uprising in one of the most …

Wow, what a year!  Probably not the brightest days in Russian history.   Today we’re talking about all the unfortunate events that almost kicked Russia over the cliff in 1905, a foreshadowing of the revolution to come a dozen years later.   Understanding 1905 and the events surrounding this period is a must to …

Jack London curls up his lip and snarls like one of the wolves in his Klondike adventures in this 1908 dystopian novel.    If The Jungle was the Socialists’ way of showing how they saw the world and the worker’s plight and Looking Backwards was a lofty vision of how the world could be, …

In our second installment of the (un) Holy Trinity of Socialist Literature series I cover this 1888 Utopian novel by Edward Bellamy.   This novel was very, very well received in the United States and brought socialism out of the realm of bomb throwing anarchists and into fine, respectable cocktail parties around the nation. … Continue reading "Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy"

In the first installment of the (un)holy trinity of American socialist literature, I cover Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.  This book goes down as one of the great books of socialist literature AND one of the great ones of the 20th Century.   I briefly sum up the book and explain how it relates to The … Continue reading "The Jungle by Upton Sinclair"

Finally!   The Cold War Cast is up and running.   In this brief introduction I introduce myself and discuss my plans for this podcast.   Episode One will be up shortly.