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W.G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn is an unclassifiable book - essayistic semi-fiction that traces the history of destruction and is haunted by the horrors of war and the Holocaust. I reflect on Sebald's histories of destruction, based on my recent essay at jeffrich.substack.com, and read from the first chapter of The Rings of Saturn.
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Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat: Writing on Governing https://amzn.to/3SaI4Ty
From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2022
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Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020
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Warwick Powell and I had a wide-ranging conversation about Australia-China relationships, and how history has shaped the tensions in the relationship today. But history can also show us how Australia, Asia and America can learn to live together at peace with a multipolar world. Please enjoy this wonderful, inspiring conversation with Australia-China expert, Warwick Powell.
How can smart defence strategies and multilateral diplomacy avoid a US-China war in Asia - for example over Taiwan? Have American and Australian advocates of war with China over Taiwan really thought about the realities of a war with China? How should middle powers - like Australia, Indonesia and the ASEAN nations - adapt their defence and foreign policies to the new realities of war, Asian strengths and US power today?
How did Western civilization rise up from the Atlantic Ocean? How did the idea of the West get confused with the military alliance of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation? And how do we tell the story of the West if we view civilisation as a process, and civilisations as always plural?
You can explore the world history of civilizations, as discussed in this podcast, by joining me in reading in Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Civilizations. Join my World History Explorers world history book club, with Season 1 starting on March 1.
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✉️ Paid subscribers receive bonus content weekly: https://jeffrich.substack.com
There have been many civilizations of the sea - the Vikings, the Ancient Greeks, the great Polynesian navigators of the Pacific. But among the most intriguing is Sri Vijaya that thrived in what we think of as Indonesia, in the 'middle ages'.
You can explore the world history of civilizations, as discussed in this podcast, by joining me in reading in Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Civilizations. Join my World History Explorers world history book club, with Season 1 starting on March 1.
▼ ▽ SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY WITH MY COURSES
World History Explorers and all my courses https://courses.jeffrichwriter.com/
✉️ Signup for info on courses at: https:/courses.jeffrichwriter.com
▼ ▽ JOIN THE BURNING ARCHIVE - SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY
Join 200+ email subscribers who receive insights from world history and fragments of my reading weekly.
✉️ Signup is free: https://jeffrich.substack.com
✉️ Paid subscribers receive bonus content weekly: https://jeffrich.substack.com
When Americans described Afghani tribesmen as uncivilized people from the mountains they used old tropes about the culture of people from highlands.
However, we learn from Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Civilizations much more about the complex achievements of civilizations of the highlands from Scotland to New Guinea, and from Afghanistan to South America.
You can explore the world history of civilizations, as discussed in this podcast, by joining me in reading in Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Civilizations. Join my World History Explorers world history book club, with Season 1 starting on March 1.
▼ ▽ SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY WITH MY COURSES
World History Explorers and all my courses https://courses.jeffrichwriter.com/
✉️ Signup for info on courses at: https:/courses.jeffrichwriter.com
▼ ▽ JOIN THE BURNING ARCHIVE - SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY
Join 200+ email subscribers who receive insights from world history and fragments of my reading weekly.
✉️ Signup is free: https://jeffrich.substack.com
✉️ Paid subscribers receive bonus content weekly: https://jeffrich.substack.com
▼ ▽ MY BOOKS
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat: Writing on Governing https://amzn.to/3SaI4Ty
From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2022
https://amzn.to/4b7cyyw
Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020
https://amzn.to/3u2Yh56
▼ ▽ MY RECOMMENDED BOOKS for World History Explorers
Fernández-Armesto, Civilizations - https://amzn.to/3OaNr3T
Darwin, After Tamerlane - https://amzn.to/3Ht5AGd
Frankopan, The Earth Transformed - https://amzn.to/3SqZb4B
Overy, Blood and Ruins - https://amzn.to/3Ubd8oU
Quinn, How the World Made the West - https://amzn.to/3U422St
Did civilization spread from a cradle in the river valleys of Mesopotamia? Or is there a different story of the emergence of civilizations from fields of mud?
In this episode of the special Summer of Civilizations series, I tell the story of Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations that developed in the river valleys of Mesopotamia. They left a legacy - carpets, the Epic of Gilgamesh - and an early piece of fake news, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But is their true story how they struggled against the environment, and lost?
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World History Explorers and all my courses https://courses.jeffrichwriter.com/
✉️ Signup for info on courses at: https:/courses.jeffrichwriter.com
▼ ▽ JOIN THE BURNING ARCHIVE - SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY
Join 200+ email subscribers who receive insights from world history and fragments of my reading weekly.
✉️ Signup is free: https://jeffrich.substack.com
✉️ Paid subscribers receive bonus content weekly: https://jeffrich.substack.com
▼ ▽ MY BOOKS
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat: Writing on Governing https://amzn.to/3SaI4Ty
From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2022
https://amzn.to/4b7cyyw
Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020
https://amzn.to/3u2Yh56
▼ ▽ MY RECOMMENDED BOOKS for World History Explorers
Fernandez-Armesto, Civilizations - https://amzn.to/3OaNr3T
Darwin, After Tamerlane - https://amzn.to/3Ht5AGd
Frankopan, The Earth Transformed - https://amzn.to/3SqZb4B
Overy, Blood and Ruins - https://amzn.to/3Ubd8oU
Quinn, How the World Made the West - https://amzn.to/3U422St
In this episode of the special Summer of Civilizations series, I share the stories of civilizations that developed in tropical islands, including the great African walled city of Benin and the island off Papua New Guinea, once named by Europeans as Frederick Hendrick Island, and known now as Pulau Kolepom or Pulau Yos Sudarso.
▼ ▽ SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY WITH MY COURSES
World History Explorers and all my courses https://courses.jeffrichwriter.com/
✉️ Signup for info on courses at: https:/courses.jeffrichwriter.com
▼ ▽ JOIN THE BURNING ARCHIVE - SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY
Join 200+ email subscribers who receive insights from world history and fragments of my reading weekly.
✉️ Signup is free: https://jeffrich.substack.com
✉️ Paid subscribers receive bonus content weekly: https://jeffrich.substack.com
▼ ▽ MY BOOKS
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat: Writing on Governing https://amzn.to/3SaI4Ty
From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2022
https://amzn.to/4b7cyyw
Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020
https://amzn.to/3u2Yh56
▼ ▽ MY RECOMMENDED BOOKS for World History Explorers
Fernandez-Armesto, Civilizations - https://amzn.to/3OaNr3T
Darwin, After Tamerlane - https://amzn.to/3Ht5AGd
Frankopan, The Earth Transformed - https://amzn.to/3SqZb4B
Overy, Blood and Ruins - https://amzn.to/3Ubd8oU
Quinn, How the World Made the West - https://amzn.to/3U422St
In this episode of the special Summer of Civilizations series, I share the stories of civilizations that developed in the ice and tundra of Northern Eurasia and the great Eurasian Steppe.
▼ ▽ SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY WITH MY COURSES
World History Explorers and all my courses https://courses.jeffrichwriter.com/
✉️ Signup for info on courses at: https:/courses.jeffrichwriter.com
▼ ▽ JOIN THE BURNING ARCHIVE - SEE THE WORLD MORE CLEARLY
Join 200+ email subscribers who receive insights from world history and fragments of my reading weekly.
✉️ Signup is free: https://jeffrich.substack.com
✉️ Paid subscribers receive bonus content weekly: https://jeffrich.substack.com
▼ ▽ MY BOOKS
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat: Writing on Governing https://amzn.to/3SaI4Ty
From the Burning Archive: Essays and Fragments 2015-2022
https://amzn.to/4b7cyyw
Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020
https://amzn.to/3u2Yh56
▼ ▽ MY RECOMMENDED BOOKS for World History Explorers
Fernandez-Armesto, Civilizations - https://amzn.to/3OaNr3T
Darwin, After Tamerlane - https://amzn.to/3Ht5AGd
Frankopan, The Earth Transformed - https://amzn.to/3SqZb4B
Overy, Blood and Ruins - https://amzn.to/3Ubd8oU
Quinn, How the World Made the West - https://amzn.to/3U422St
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