The Burning Archive

Over the next months until October in the Burning Archive podcast I am inviting you to participate in this unique booklover's reading challenge. And the challenge opens a unique window onto the multipolar world's cultural history.

Can we read together all 120 winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature since 1901 with me? How proud would you feel to be able to say I have read a little bit of every winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature?

This week I look at the winners from 1907 to 1913, from the British-Indian poet of empire, Rudyard Kipling, to the great Indian writer who saw beyond empire and nation while remaining rooted in his home of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore.

What is the essential skill Western leaders need to regain a sense of reality, and to provide better leadership, diplomacy and statecraft?

Rabindranath Tagore was a great Bengali and Indian writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1913, just before the world went to war. In 1917, in the depth of World War One he wrote his essay, "Nationalism in the West". I read the full essay, and introduce you to the reasons Tagore why this essay connects to debates about nationalism, "globalism", and the possibility for peaceful cooperation between peoples of many nations.

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Rabindranath Tagore was a great Bengali and Indian writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1913, just before the world went to war. In 1941, in the depth of World War Two he wrote his essay, "Crisis in Civilization". I read the full essay, and introduce you to the reasons Tagore still speaks so powerfully to India and the world today.

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Please enjoy my reflections on re-reading Foucault's classic history of madness after 40 years. I also share my audiobook reading of the preface and conclusion of Michel Foucault's famous, ground-breaking history of mental illness, Madness and Civilization. I give you an introduction to the book and share what I discovered when I reread Michael Foucault, Madness and Civilization, after 40 years.

The books discussed in this podcast are available here:

- Michael Foucault, Madness and Civilization https://amzn.to/3UJQ1Am

- Michael Foucault, History of Madness https://amzn.to/4dGT6tz

You can support the Burning Archive by contributing at:

- Patreon: https://patreon.com/BurningArchive

- Buy Me A Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/burningarchive

Subscribe to my free weekly email to receive insights from world history in a weekly essay on Saturday at https://jeffrich.substack.com

Please enjoy my reflections on and reading of a classic essay of Japanese literature from 1200 that still speaks to us with compassion today.

Please enjoy my reflections on and audiobook reading of Chōmei, Hōjōki.

#Japanese literature

#History of Japan

Can the USA bounce back from decline. Many geopolitics analysts are speculating on the end of the US empire, and the end of the unipolar moment. Is American Greatness over, or can the USA learn lessons of history to bounce back and renew its national dynamism?

In this video podcast, I share with you insights from the best historians of empire about whether we are living through an end of empire moment? Even Boris Johnson says the collapse of Western hegemony could be near? Will the US empire collapse? Will defeat in Eastern Europe bring on a Suez Crisis for the USA?

Judge the "father of geopolitics" yourself by listening to my reading of his celebrated essay from 1904, the Geographical Pivot of History.

Or take a deep dive with me into empires, civilizations or mindful history. More information on all my courses at https://courses.jeffrichwriter.com/

You can support the Burning Archive by contributing at:

Patreon: https://patreon.com/BurningArchive

Buy Me A Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/burningarchive

Subscribe to my free weekly email to receive insights from world history in a weekly essay on Saturday at https://jeffrich.substack.com

By upgrading your subscription to paid you will also receive a bonus essay every Wednesday: https://jeffrich.substack.com

Halford Mackinder's ideas about geopolitics were so influential that he is known as the "father of geopolitics." Many people think US strategy is still based on Mackinder's ideas. But when you look at these ideas with some quality world history you discover that Mackinder was mad, bad and dangerous to know.