Cooper Talks

A very quick look at the Tsarist regieme, the problems it faced and of Russia as a whole up to and including the Revolution of 1905.

A quick look at Cholera and the outbreaks in 19th century London. The work of John Snow in identifying dirty water as the source and the attempts to improve the water supply.

In this episode I take a look at the work of Edward Jenner and the development of vaccines at the end if the 18th centruy and how vaccines became popular and successful at ending small pox in the UK.

In this episode we look at the work of William Harvey which disproved Galen’s theory thet the liver pumped blood and made dramatic increases in the development of anatomical understanding and medical reseach, if not in diagnosis and treatment during the 17th century.

One of the medicine case studies we look at the last major outbreak of the bubonic plague in England, known as the Great Plague of 1665. A different outbreak but the same disease as afflcited England during the Black Death, the Great Plague offers a useful comparison between the middle ages and Renaissance period in terms os similarities and differences in attitudes towards the cause and treatment of disease.

A look at Medieval Medicine, focused on England, lookinng at the Black Death as a case study for attitudes and ideas relating to the causes and cures for illness in this time. Though much if it shows the severe limitiations if medieval medicine, some if the new measures may feel familiar to the modern world. More than anything, it raises the quesrion if why so little change occured follwoing this major pandemic.

An episode looking a the third of three key crises in the middle period of the Cold War. The Prague Spring marks a big test for Brezhnev and parallels the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Slightly dofferent and showing that, despite Detente, the old super power rivalries were continuing much as before.

Here we look at the Vietnam War in summary, covering the causes, origins, path and ultimate faikure of the US to stop the spread of Communism. Very much a highlights episode as the Veitnam War could be an enitre series in its own right, this is designed to give some context and understanding to what was happening in Vietbam and how it impacted the wider Cold War.

In this episode we look at the events and consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. This builds on recent podcast episodes thet shows the building of tensions between the USA and USSR from 1959 until they reach their peak here in 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis was possobly the closest the world came to a full scale nuclear war during the Cold War and it ushered in a period of relative peace and easing of relations called detente.

In this episode we look at the cosntruction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. We link it back to Potsdam and the changes that had occured in the 1950s as well as the short term causes that ked to the construction of the physical wall. One of the pivitol moments of the Cold Wat with huge symbokic consequences for the course of the conflict, I hope this epsidoe gives you the important contextual information for understanding the significance of the bulding of the Berlin Wall and why Beelin was such a flashpoint in international relations during the Cold War.