Inheritors, (1921) by American dramatist Susan Glaspell concerns the legacy of an idealistic farmer who wills his highly coveted midwest farmland to the establishment of a college (Act I.) Forty years later, when his granddaughter stands up for the rights of Hindu nationals to protest at the college her grandfather founded, she jeopardizes funding for the college itself and sets herself against her own uncle, president of the institution's trustees (Acts II & III.) Ultimately, she defies her family's wishes, and as a consequence is bound for prison herself (Act IV.) The play was a stirring defense of free speech and an individual's ability to stand for his or her own ideal during a time of aggressive anti-Communist politics in the US. Inheritors was first performed at Provincetown Playhouse in 1922, the last of Glaspell's plays presented there. It has been revived in New York City by Mirror Repertory in 1983 and Metropolitan Playhouse in 2005. (Summary by Wikipedia)Cast:Smith: Chris MarcellusGrandmother: Margaret EspaillatSilas Morton, Emil Johnson: AnthonyFelix Fejevary the First: AllenJohnsFelix Fejevary the Second: Rick Cahill, Robert HoffmanSenator Lewis, Ira Morton: Nathanial W.C. HigginsHorace Fejevary: Chuck WilliamsonDoris: Elizabeth KlettFussie: Liz BenningtonMadeline Fejevary Morton: Arielle LipshawIsabel Fejevary: Linette GeiselHarry: MichaelH-SHolden: Delmar H. DolbierNarrator: Amanda FridayAudio edited by Chuck Williamson
4 episodes
ivil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government) is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. In it, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican–American War. (Summary by Wikipedia)
2 episodes
Coleção de discursos famosos, traduzidos para o português ou escritos em português.
12 episodes
The Masque of Anarchy was Shelley's response to the Peterloo massacre at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, where 18 died and hundreds were injured, after Hussars charged into a rally for parliamentary reform. Written in Italy in 1819, the poem was not published until 1832, ten years after Shelley's death. This reading is from the first published edition with the addition of three words that were inserted in full only in later additions ('Eldon' in Stanza IV and 'Bible' and 'Sidmouth' in Stanza VI). The poem is preceded by Leigh Hunt's preface to the 1932 edition and followed by Harry Buxton Forman's 1887 lecture on the poem to the Shelley Society. (Summary by Phil Benson)
3 episodes
The full title of this book is Bible Defense of Slavery; and Origin, Fortunes, and History of the Negro Race, by Rev. Josiah Priest, A. M. 5th edition.
This is a compilation of pro-slavery literature and propaganda that went through numerous editions in the Southern United States before the Civil War. It contains the highly influential book, Slavery, as it Relates to the Negro, or African Race, by Rev Josiah Priest, which was originally published in 1843. This compilation also includes many essays and favorable reviews of Rev Priest’s book from contemporary magazines and newspapers, and written endorsements from national politicians.
From the preface: ‘The question, “Is slavery, as it exists in the United States, justifiable?” is one which, at least, admits of discussion. If it be in harmony with the immutable principles of truth and justice, and not a “crime against humanity,” and a libel upon our holy religion, let it be so understood and practiced by our honest citizens, whose highest ambition consists in faithfully serving God, and living in obedience to the laws of the country.’ (Summary by JoeD)
47 episodes
Paris in 1792 is no longer what it was in 1789. In 1789, the old French society was still brilliant. The past endured beside the present. Neither names nor escutcheons, neither liveries nor places at court, had been suppressed. The aristocracy and the Revolution lived face to face. In 1792, the scene has changed."France was now on the verge of the Reign of Terror (la Terreur), the violent years following the Revolution, and this book chronicles the terrible period of French history which culminated in the proclamation: "Royalty is abolished in France. All public acts will be dated from the first year of the Republic. The seal of State will be inscribed with this motto: Republique française." (Summary by Ruth Golding, with quotations from the book itself)
37 episodes
Charles Pinckney, member of the South Carolina legislature, Confederation Congress, U.S. Congress, and notably the Constitutional Convention of 1787, may have been regarded by some as perhaps the true author of the U.S. Constitution, although most likely James Madison would vehemently argue the point. This book investigates what may, or may not have happened to the draft of the Constitution which was drawn up by Charles Pinckney and submitted to the Constitutional Convention in May of 1787, and how (or if) it differed from the Constitution which was adopted. The questions which are delved into most deeply revolve around the following mystery: why, if, and by whom Pinckney's version of this important document was overlooked, or was it possibly destroyed intentionally (or for other reasons).Author Charles C. Nott was formerly Chief Justice of the United States Court of Claims, appointed by president Lincoln. (Summary by Roger Melin)
18 episodes
Written by the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus or Theologico-Political Treatise was one of the most controversial texts of the early modern period. It was a preemptive defense of Spinoza's later work, Ethics, published posthumously in 1677, for which he anticipated harsh criticism. In the treatise, Spinoza put forth his most systematic critique of Judaism, and all organized religion in general. Spinoza argued that theology and philosophy must be kept separate, particularly in the reading of scripture. Whereas the goal of theology is obedience, philosophy aims at understanding rational truth. Scripture does not teach philosophy and thus cannot be made to conform with it, otherwise the meaning of scripture will be distorted. Conversely, if reason is made subservient to scripture, then, Spinoza argues, "the prejudices of a common people of long ago... will gain a hold on his understanding and darken it." He reinterpreted the belief that there were such things as prophecy, miracles, or supernatural occurrences. He argued that God acts solely by the laws of "his own nature". He rejected the view that God had a particular end game or purpose to advance in the course of events; to Spinoza, those who believed so were only creating a delusion for themselves out of fear. (Summary from Wikipedia)
23 episodes
Published five years before John Kendrick Bangs had the same idea with Alice in Blunderland, Saki, in his 1902 series of satirical articles, takes an Alice in Wonderland view of British politics, which Alice finds even stranger than events in Wonderland.In all honesty, owing to its extremely topical nature this political satire hasn't worn well, which explains why it has virtually sunk without trace. To appreciate it at all, it's really rather necessary to understand the topical references. I am no historian, least of all a political historian, but I have researched it as well as I can, and made some notes in an attempt to put the events and characters into their political context for the listener. My notes may be found on the Internet Archive in audio form or in text form.I hope that this may still appeal to the political sceptic of today. With some basic understanding of the situation, I found the satire bitingly keen at points, and was left with the feeling that some aspects of British politics have changed little in more than a century, although current political satire sadly lacks Saki's wit. As the Red Queen says: "I don't know what business you have here, if you don't belong to the Cabinet; of course... there are so many of them, and they're mostly so unimportant that one can't be expected to remember all their faces." (Introduction by Ruth Golding)
12 episodes
Carl von Ossietzky (1889-1938), Journalist, Pazifist und Friedensnobelpreisträger [1935], zählte zu den herausragenden Persönlichkeiten in Deutschland zwischen den Weltkriegen. Durch seinen investigativen Journalismus machte er in der Zeitschrift "Die Weltbühne" erstmals auf die Aufrüstung Deutschlands aufmerksam und wurde dafür 1931 wegen Spionage verurteilt.
Dieser zweite Teil seiner gesammelten Schriften umfasst in verschiedenen Zeitschriften und Zeitungen erschienene Artikel über Politik, Geschichte und Kunst. Provisorische Zusammenfassung von Carolin
50 episodes
Supporters of political democracy, human rights, and social justice have good reasons to be alarmed about coups d'état. These abrupt seizures of the state apparatus have occurred with great frequency in recent decades. Coups have overthrown established constitutional democratic systems of government, halted movements toward greater democracy, and have imposed brutal and oppressive regimes. Coups d'état are one of the main ways in which new dictatorships are established. Coups may also precipitate civil wars and international crises. Coups remain a major unsolved defense problem. This book describes an anti-coup policy focused on defense of the society by the society itself, using non-violent methods. The two basic principles of anti-coup defense promoted in this book are to: 1) deny legitimacy to the putschists, and 2) to resist the putschists with noncooperation and defiance. (Summary by Benjamin Gittins)
37 episodes
Originally entitled A frutefull pleasaunt, and wittie worke of the beste state of publique weale, & of the newe yle, called Utopia: written in Latine, by ... Syr Thomas More knyght, and translated into Englishe by Raphe Robynson ...The first book tells of the traveller Raphael Hythloday, to whom More is introduced in Antwerp. The second book consists of Hythloday's description of the island and people of Utopia, their customs, laws, religions, economy, language and relations with other nations. Hythloday portrays Utopia as an idealised state, where all property is common to all the people and money does not exist within its bounds, thus, he argues, removing all poverty, hunger and fear, and most criminal acts. More himself appears unconvinced by some of his narrator's arguments.This is recorded from a reprint of the 1556 Robinson translation, with a foreword by William Morris. (Summary by Ruth Golding)
15 episodes
A collection of 13 essays written between 1900 and 1908, published in 1910. The lead essay, "Revolution", outlines how and why London renounced capitalism as a failed social system and declared himself an active participant in the "socialist revolution", the last essay is an autobiographical piece, and the essays in between are on diverse subjects. A few of the “essays” are actually humorous short fiction stories; others are serious, sometimes angry rants against capitalistic greed and political corruption. All of the pieces are thought-provoking and excellently written, though only loosely intellectual, highly opinionated, and rife with contradiction, as was London himself. -- Summary by Michele Fry
14 episodes
The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in America was D.W. Griffith's first response to the attacks made on The Birth of a Nation. In it he played on the 'intolerance' of those who would not permit him freedom of speech in his films. This view on intolerance led directly to the creation of the film of the same name. Summary by The University of Exeter.
8 episodes
This is the first book in the bibliography of Walter Lippmann, written three years after emerging from Harvard where he studied under the pragmatists Santayana and James. Although the work is a century old, the reader of today may still find in it, with its focus on practical human needs, a refreshing view towards the fundamental purpose (and persistent flaws) of politics, and indeed government itself, just as relevant and meaningful today as when it was written. (Summary by David Martin.)
13 episodes
From Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation is a book-length essay on the generic problem of how to destroy a dictatorship and to prevent the rise of a new one. The book was written in 1993 by Gene Sharp (b. 1928), a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. The book has been published in many countries worldwide and translated into more than 30 languages. Editions in many languages are also published by the Albert Einstein Institution of Boston, Massachusetts. This is the Fourth United States Edition, published in May 2010. The book has been circulated worldwide and cited repeatedly as influencing movements such as the Arab Spring of 2010–2012. - Summary by WikipediaThis second version is newly recorded, with a faster reading pace than the first version.
13 episodes
Het boek bevat raadgevingen voor vorsten over hoe ze hun staat moeten besturen. De voornaamste bezigheid van de vorst moest volgens hem het bemachtigen, consolideren en in stand houden van zijn macht zijn. Hij was vol bewondering voor grote staatsmannen, omdat ze eenheid, orde, vrede en voorspoed brachten voor de bevolking. Hij maakte een onderscheid tussen de heersers en het volk; tussen degenen die willen heersen en degenen die niet beheerst willen worden. Hij koos duidelijk de kant van de heersers.
Machiavelli was op zoek naar een principe nuovo (nieuwe vorst) om de vreemdelingen te verdrijven en Italië te herenigen. Hiermee had hij voornamelijk de Katholieke Kerk op het oog, die hij het liefst verbannen zag uit de Florentijnse stadstaat. Hij wijdde zijn leven aan het Italiaanse vaderland en wilde dat Italië opnieuw zo groot en machtig werd als het oude Rome. Machiavelli staat bekend om amorele machtspolitiek op basis van staatsmacht, militaire kracht en een open oog voor machtsuitbreiding. - Summary by Wikipedia
29 episodes
Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859) first foreign minister, and then chancellor of the Austrian Empire was a great diplomat: crafty, manipulative, and single-minded in his determination to overthrow Napoleon and his revolutionary ideals and to reestablish the European monarchical system. In this short 1888 biography, the British officer, Colonel G. B. Malleson, describes how the charming, aristocratic Metternich devoted countless hours to winning Napoleon's trust and to buying time for his country, until a rearmed Austria, at the head of the Sixth Coalition, was able to defeat the still-formidable Corsican. From 1815 until his downfall amid the revolutions of 1848, Malleson writes of Metternich that he devoted "all his power, all his influence, all his untiring energy, to the forging of new fetters for the human race." (summary by Pamela Nagami)
17 episodes
The book is not a discussion of measures or of programs. It is an attempt to express the new spirit of our politics and to set forth, in large terms which may stick in the imagination, what it is that must be done if we are to restore our politics to their full spiritual vigor again, and our national life, whether in trade, in industry, or in what concerns us only as families and individuals, to its purity, its self-respect, and its pristine strength and freedom. (From the Preface) - Summary by Woodrow Wilson
13 episodes
Emma Goldman, the most famous anarchist in American history, shows the whole range of her iconoclastic thought in this collection of essays. Drawing from a wealth of illustrative material, including the examples of fellow anarchists and radicals of her own acquaintance, modern martyrs, dissident playwrights, poets, and authors, etc., she delineates the main themes of her philosophy with incisiveness and evangelical passion. Included among these themes are: a definition of decentralized anarchism itself; the ambiguous morality of direct action; the curse of modern patriotism; the horrors of early twentieth-century prisons; the need for an entirely new kind of education; the relationship of legal marriage to true love; the insidious danger of Puritanical thought within feminism itself; the deadly spread of sex trafficking; the limitations or even undesirability of woman suffrage; and the extraordinary revolutionary potential of modern theatre. Sadly, none of these themes seem obsolete even to a modern reader; every one of them has direct application to twenty-first century society. - Summary by Expatriate
24 episodes
Olive Schreiner was a South African writer born in 1855 to missionary parents in the Eastern Cape. She is credited with being the first Internationally famous South African Novelist. She was an extraordinary person and was one of the earliest campaigners for women's rights, including the right to equal pay for equal work, saying: "The fact that for equal work equally well performed by a man and by a woman it is ordained that the woman on the ground of her sex alone shall receive a less recompense is the nearest approach to a willful and unqualified "wrong" in the whole relation of woman to society today". She opposed racism of all kinds whether against the Boers or Black People and she was also a pacifist and anti-war campaigner.
She was a vociferous critic of British Imperialism in South Africa and of Cecil Rhodes and his policies while prime minister of the Cape. As a result of her public support for the Boers, all her manuscripts and her house were burned by the British during the Anglo-Boer War and she was interned in a concentration camp for several years.
Her most well known book is "The Story of an African Farm" from 1883, in which her own free thinking and progressive views on equality, sexuality and marriage are explored. It became a best seller in Europe and The United States, praised by feminists for portraying a strong heroine in control of her own destiny. The book was originally published under a pseudonym and it was only eight years later with the publication of the second edition that she was able to use her own name.
In 1911 she published "Women and Labour" after having partly reconstructed it, as this was one of the manuscripts that had been destroyed. The book was immensely influential to the women's emancipation movement in England and The United States and is often referred to as the "bible" of the Women's Movement. One of the essays from that book, "Woman and War" was published as a separate booklet in 1914.
Olive Schreiner died in 1920.
- Summary by Noel Badrian
3 episodes
This is a posthumous collection of essays by Randolph Bourne. Many originally appeared in the journal "The Seven Arts," before the controversial end to its run. Also included is the unfinished manuscript of "The State," the book Bourne worked on until his tragic death in December, 1918, at the hands of the Spanish flu pandemic. In the words of the book's editor, poet James Oppenheim, "We have nothing else like this book in America. It is the only living record of the suppressed minority, and is, as so often the case, the prophecy of that minority's final triumph." - Summary by Ben Adams
10 episodes
"That government is best which governs least" is the famous opening line of this essay. The slavery crisis inflamed New England in the 1840s and 1850s. The environment became especially tense after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. A lifelong abolitionist, Thoreau delivered an impassioned speech which would later become Civil Disobedience in 1848, just months after leaving Walden Pond. The speech dealt with slavery, but at the same time excoriated American imperialism, particularly the Mexican–American War. Thoreau asserts that because governments are typically more harmful than helpful, they therefore cannot be justified. Democracy is no cure for this, as majorities simply by virtue of being majorities do not also gain the virtues of wisdom and justice. The judgment of an individual's conscience is not necessarily inferior to the decisions of a political body or majority, and so "[i]t is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.... Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice." He adds, "I cannot for an instant recognize as my government [that] which is the slave's government also." from Wikipedia
2 episodes
Carl von Ossietzky (1889-1938), Journalist, Pazifist und Friedensnobelpreisträger [1935], zählte zu den herausragenden Persönlichkeiten in Deutschland zwischen den Weltkriegen. Durch seinen investigativen Journalismus machte er in der Zeitschrift "Die Weltbühne" erstmals auf die Aufrüstung Deutschlands aufmerksam und wurde dafür 1931 wegen Spionage verurteilt.Dieser fünfte Teil seiner gesammelten Schriften umfasst in verschiedenen Zeitschriften und Zeitungen erschienene Artikel über Politik, Geschichte und Kunst. Viele der politischen Schriften sind noch immer perfekt auf die heutige Zeit übertragbar. - Summary by Carolin
50 episodes
The Charter of the United Nations signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945 is the constituent treaty of the United Nations. It is as well one of the constitutional texts of the International Court of Justice which was brought into being by the Charter. This recording contains:
UN Charter
Statute of the International Criminal Court
Millennium Declarations
13 episodes
Il Principe (titolo originale in lingua latina: De Principatibus, "Riguardo i Principati") è un trattato di dottrina politica scritto da Niccolò Machiavelli nel 1513, nel quale espone le caratteristiche dei principati e dei metodi per mantenerli e conquistarli. Si tratta senza dubbio della sua opera più nota e celebrata, quella dalle cui massime (spesso superficialmente interpretate) sono nati il sostantivo "machiavellismo" e l'aggettivo "machiavellico". - Summary from http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_PrincipeProof-listeners: mrnmrz72 and Sonia
11 episodes
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530) will always be remembered as the Lord Chancellor who fell from power when he failed to obtain the annulment of King Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The eminent British historian, Mandell Creighton, writes that Wolsey was branded by Tudor historians as "the minion of the Pope, and the upholder of a foreign despotism." But the publication in the nineteenth century of the mass of documents relating to the reign of Henry VIII made possible a truer assessment of the visionary schemes of the great cardinal and of his underlying patriotism. In his patient diplomacy and careful construction of alliances, the author concludes that "at a great crisis of European history he impressed England with a sense of her own importance and secured for her a leading position in European affairs." - Summary by Pamela Nagami
14 episodes
This is a book by the famous 20th century British philosopher Bertrand Russell on Political Ideals. It was written during the course of World War 1 and contains a critique on the politico economic situation of then Europe. What is interesting is that some of his beliefs are still relevant today. (Summary by Sid)
5 episodes
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), four times Prime Minister of Great Britain, dominated the Liberal Party for thirty years, but ultimately divided it over the issue of Irish Home Rule, which he unsuccessfully championed. He brought to parliamentary politics a moral fervor which made him the personification of the Victorian Age, but which also challenged the complacency of its imperialistic assumptions. In this 1897 biography, the Liberal Irish member of Parliament, Justin McCarthy, presents a Gladstone still vividly remembered, rising to speak in the House of Commons among a host of illustrious contemporaries, including Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Palmerston, and Sir Robert Peel, or expounding his views to a bored and baffled Queen Victoria, who called him a "ridiculous, wild, and incomprehensible old fanatic." (Pamela Nagami)
34 episodes
Edward I of England (1239-1307) will always be remembered as the "Hammer of the Scots" who condemned William Wallace (Braveheart) to a traitor's death in 1297. But Edward was one of England's greatest statesman-kings. In this short biography the British historian, Thomas Frederick Tout writes of Edward that he was "a man of unusual and commanding height," lean and powerful, who, despite a slight stammer, was able to "speak with a simple and natural eloquence that often moved his susceptible auditors to tears." Edward conquered Wales, reformed the legal and judicial systems of England, curbed the power of the church, and through conquest and diplomacy managed to subdue the ambitions of the wily French King, Philip the Fair.
19 episodes
The Constitution is the charter of government and the supreme law of the United States of America. It was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 17, 1787. The first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified together in 1791. Amendments 11 through 27 were ratified separately from 1795 through 1992. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)
3 episodes
This is a short life of Henry John Temple (1784-1865), Third Viscount Palmerston, Great Britain's affable, able, and always available Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, and Prime Minister. Sanders writes that by 1841 Palmerston "had raised the prestige of England throughout Europe to a height which it had not occupied since Waterloo. He created Belgium, saved Portugal and Spain from absolutism, rescued Turkey from Russia, and the highway to India from France." (Pamela Nagami)
30 episodes
The English Constitution is an extremely accessible work of political and legal science by Walter Bagehot, first published in serialized form in 1865-7. While some of his observations on the English system no longer apply to the modern constitutional organization of the United Kingdom, his philosophical basis is for the most part as sound as ever. For instance, Bagehot observes in the chapter on the Monarchy that, It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations. The nature of a constitution, the action of an assembly, the play of parties, the unseen formation of a guiding opinion, are complex facts, difficult to know and easy to mistake. But the action of a single will, the fiat of a single mind, are easy ideas: anybody can make them out, and no one can ever forget them. When you put before the mass of mankind the question, "Will you be governed by a king, or will you be governed by a constitution?" the inquiry comes out thus—"Will you be governed in a way you understand, or will you be governed in a way you do not understand?" The issue was put to the French people; they were asked, "Will you be governed by Louis Napoleon, or will you be governed by an assembly?" The French people said, "We will be governed by the one man we can imagine, and not by the many people we cannot imagine". - Summary by Carolin
23 episodes
Constance Lytton worked along Emmeline Pankhurst for the cause of women's suffrage in England. Upset that she was getting preferential treatment by the authorities, she assumed a pseudonym (Jane Wharton) so that her titled status wouldn't be obvious. This book chronicles her involvement in the suffrage movement, including her arrest and subsequent incarceration at Holloway Prison, a place notorious for the poor treatment of the women in their charge. - Summary by KHand
17 episodes
A History of the politics surrounding The Union of Norway with Sweden, from 1814-1905, from the Norwegian perspective - Summary by Ærik Bjørnsson
10 episodes
"England Since Waterloo" by Sir John Arthur Ransome Marriott (1859-1945) was first published in 1913 and went through many editions. The author taught history at Worcester College, Oxford for thirty-six years and served as a Conservative member of Parliament for fifteen. "England Since Waterloo" begins with the defeat of Napoleon who, Marriott writes, was impotent "to assail English power at sea, foiled in his attempt to ruin her commerce...overwhelmed under Russian snows, and finally conquered by the genius of Wellington." He portrays the people and the events of nineteenth century Britain, ending his narrative with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. We see the "ascendancy of Science and Industry...the advent of Democracy...and the extension of Empire" in this panoramic survey of reform at home and imperialism abroad. - Summary by Pamela Nagami
52 episodes
Η Αθηναίων Πολιτεία του Αριστοτέλη γράφτηκε μεταξύ 328 και 322 πΧ. Περιέχει πολλές πληροφορίες για την πολιτειακή εξέλιξη των Αθηναίων αλλά και για το Αστικό και για το Δημόσιο Αττικό Δίκαιο.
Το σύγγραμμα διαιρείται σε δυο μέρη: το Ιστορικό και το Περιγραφικό μέρος.Το ιστορικό μέρος είναι ελλιπές στην αρχή του επειδή δεν υπάρχει η ιστορία των Αθηνών εως τη συνωμοσία του Κύλωνα. Το περιγραφικό μέρος είναι ελλιπές γιατί λόγω της φθοράς του παπύρου λείπει η περιγραφή του οργανισμού και των δικονομικών τύπων των Αθηναϊκών δικαστηρίων.
Ο Αριστοτέλης πήρε πληροφορίες απο τους: Ηρόδοτο, Σόλωνα, Θουκιδίδη, Θεόπομπο, αλλά και από τους Ατθιδογράφους, Κλεόδημο, Φανόδημο και Ανδροτίωνα. Πολλές πληροφορίες επίσης πήρε από τα διατάγματα και τα επίσημα έγγραφα του Κρατερού του Μακεδόνα απο επιγραφές, τα ποιήματα, τα μνημεία του Σόλωνα, τα λαϊκά άσματα και παροιμίες.
Στο δεύτερο μέρος του έργου, ο Αριστοτέλης δεν αναφέρεται σε ιστορικές πηγές γιατί περιγράφεται το σύγχρονό του πολιτειακό σύστημα, αντιλαμβανόμενος και πληροφορούμενος ο ίδιος τα πράγματα.
Από ιστορική αλλά και από φιλολογική άποψη, η Αθηναίων Πολιτεία είναι ένα από τα πολυτιμότερα κειμήλια που κληροδοτήθηκαν σε εμάς από την κλασσική Ελληνική αρχαιότητα. (Summary by karampas1968)
29 episodes
Madame Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) was the daughter of the Swiss banker and statesman, Jacques Necker. Her mother hosted a popular Paris salon where intellectuals gathered, many of whom contributed to the education of the brilliant girl. After his fall from political power in 1781, her still-wealthy father was able to marry Germaine to Baron Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein, but the couple separated in 1797. A successful novelist, Madame de Staël was a fervent defender of J.J. Rousseau and of the ideals of the French Revolution. In 1792 she was forced to flee to England where she continued to socialize with such French luminaries as Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. After the death of Robespierre in 1794, she returned to Paris where she met and came to oppose Napoleon. (Pamela Nagami)
24 episodes
Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of the subject and their oeuvre.
In this volume he reflects on the lives of American Statesmen, presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but also others like Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, or William H. Seward. (Summary by Lucy Perry, adapted by Ava)
This is Volume 3 in a series of 14 books.
25 episodes
The word technocracy refers to a system of government by technical experts such as scientists, technologists, and engineers. William Henry Smyth is often thought to have invented the term in 1919, although it had in fact been used earlier. (Summary following Wikipedia)
6 episodes
Julio Camba Andreu (1884 - 1962) fue un escritor y periodista español. Nació en una familia gallega de clase media. A los trece años, se escapa de casa y embarca como polizón en un barco a Argentina. En Buenos Aires se introduce en los círculos anarquistas y comienza a redactar proclamas y panfletos. A consecuencia de ello, en 1902 es expulsado de Argentina, junto a otros anarquistas extranjeros. De regreso en España en 1903, comienza a colaborar en El Diario de Pontevedra, pero rápidamente se instala en Madrid, en donde escribe sucesivamente en El Porvenir del Obrero, en su propio propio periódico El Rebelde, en El País y en España Nueva.
Su vida como corresponsal en el extranjero comienza en 1908, cuando es enviado a Turquía por La Correspondencia de España. El Mundo le envió a sus corresponsalías en París, Londres y Berlín. En 1912 empieza a escribir en La Tribuna y desde 1913 empieza a colaborar con el diario monárquico ABC, donde escribió durante muchos años, con una interrupción escribiendo en El Sol. Sigue girando por varias corresponsalías. Durante la Guerra Civil sus crónicas (en las que expresaba sus simpatías por el bando franquista), se publican en el ABC de Sevilla. Mantuvo otra colaboración de dos años, entre 1951 y 1953, con Arriba. En este periódico comienza con la reelaboración de crónicas y artículos antiguos que se siguen publicando en ABC y La Vanguardia. En 1949 fija su residencia en el Hotel Palace de Madrid, hasta su muerte en 1962.
La rana viajera cuenta la vuelta de la rana Camba a España después de sus estancias como corresponsal durante ocho años en capitales como Londres, Berlin, Roma o Nueva York, es decir, cuando la rana torna a la charca. Ya no es la misma rana de antes de partir, es menos ingenua, algo más instruida, y hasta está provista de gafas. ¿Qué efecto le producirán las otras ranas a esta rana que está transformada de tal modo? ¿Cómo encontrará su charca la rana viajera, después de una ausencia de tantos años?
Camba utiliza España como punto de referencia por ser español y no porque España le parezca la medida ideal de todos los valores. Y en su opinión, no sólo resultará que España no puede ser un modelo para las otras gentes, sino que no sirve apenas para los mismos españoles. La rana encontrará su charca muy poco confortable. - Summary by Basquetteur y la introducción del libro
84 episodes
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1769-1852), was born in Dublin, the younger son of an Irish Protestant aristocrat. He served with his brother in India and rose to prominence during the Napoleonic Wars in the Peninsular Campaign. As a youth, his mother saw little promise in him, but Wellesley was an early riser and a hard worker, inured to the harsh life of the army camp, and conscientious in his knowledge of terrain and of defensive tactics. He famously commanded the allied forces at the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, but the two men never actually met. Although a staunch conservative, as prime minister in 1829, he was persuaded by Robert Peel to approve the long-overdue Catholic Relief Act. The journalist, George Hooper, penned this lively little biography in 1889, when he wrote that there were still many people alive who could "cherish the recollection of the silver-haired veteran, wearing a blue coat and white waistcoat and trousers, riding or walking through the streets, or painfully listening with one hand to his best ear, in the House of Lords." (Pamela Nagami)
17 episodes
Eleanor Constance Lodge, (1869-1936), was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Letters from the University of Oxford. In this short survey, the 180 years between 1273 and 1453 are characterized as a period of "transition--a time in which medieval characteristics were decaying and modern characteristics were growing up." This is the age of Joan of Arc, of the recovery of Spain from the Moors, of the failed Crusades of the Teutonic Knights, and of the union of Poland and Lithuania under the strong house of Jagello. The Swiss Republic rose, while schism divided the Papacy and the German states. And all the while the European powers were wrangling among themselves, the Ottoman Turks were advancing across the eastern Mediterranean. The book closes with the fall of Constantinople before the overwhelming assault by land and sea of the great general, Mehmed the Conqueror, which marked the end, after 1500 years, of the Eastern Roman Empire. - Summary by Pamela Nagami
27 episodes
In 1906, William Jennings Bryan, himself a famous American orator, and Francis Whiting Halsey published a series of the most famous orations of all time. They are ordered by both geographic area and time period, ranging from Ancient Greece to their contemporary United States. The third, fourth, and fifth volumes of this collection concern British speakers. The speeches contained in this third volume are ordered chronologically. We begin in the year 710 AD with a speech on the Saints, and end this volume in 1777 with the realisation of the impossibility of regaining control over the American colonies. - Summary by Carolin
28 episodes
This volume by the British historian J.H.B. Masterman (1867-1933) is a short survey of the first four centuries after the fall of Rome. The author writes of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, who sought to impose order on a shattered Italy, of the rise of the Franks under Clovis, and of the resurgence of the Eastern Empire under Justinian and his general, Belisarius. At the close of the book, Charlemagne's descendants are wrangling for power among themselves, while, writes Masterman, from "the north came the Norsemen, ravaging and plundering along every river valley which their long ships could sail; from the south came the Saracens, the pirates of the Mediterranean, and ... a foe more fierce and implacable still appeared on the eastern frontier in the Magyars or Hungarians." - Summary by Pamela Nagami
25 episodes
Beatrice Lees writes that the history of the period of the Middle Ages from 918 to 1273 is that of "a heroic period, the age of feudalism and monasticism, of chivalry and the Crusades." The era opened "with gloomy prospects for Western Christendom. On every side danger threatened" from the Vikings, the Saracens, and the Magyars. But better things lie in store in this little volume as the Capetian dynasty is founded in France, the Holy Roman Empire becomes the political center of Europe under Frederick Barbarossa, the Papacy attains its greatest influence under Innocent III, and Frederick II, called "stupor mundi," the wonder of the world, rules the cosmopolitan Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. - Summary by Pamela Nagami
28 episodes
In seinem Buch, Der Judenstaat. Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage versucht Theodor Herzl eine jüdische Antwort auf die damals so genannte Judenfrage aufzuzeigen. Es geht bei dem Judenstaat nicht so sehr um Religion, sondern um die Idee einen eigenen Staat für die Juden zu schaffen und somit auch die Judenfrage zu beantworten. Hierzu will Herzl eine Gesellschaft, die Jewish Company gründen, welche die Organisation der Staatenbildung (Landkauf, Infrastruktur, Zuwanderung usw.) übernimmt. Summary by lorda
8 episodes
In 1906, William Jennings Bryan, himself a famous American orator, and Francis Whiting Halsey published a series of the most famous orations of all time. They are ordered by both geographic area and time period, ranging from Ancient Greece to their contemporary United States. The third, fourth, and fifth volumes of this collection concern British speakers. The speeches contained in this third volume are ordered chronologically. We begin in the year 1781 with a speech on the war in America, and end this volume in the middle of the 19th century with a speech on the "Trent" Affair. - Summary by Carolin
22 episodes
W.R.W. Stephens, the Anglican Dean of Winchester, writes a short, lively biography of the great church reformer, Hildebrand of Sovana (1015-1085), afterwards Pope Gregory VII, setting his life within the larger context of the struggle for dominance between the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The roots of the conflict can be traced to the alliance made between Pope Stephen II and his successors and the Frankish King Pippin and his son Charlemagne to break the power of the Lombard Kingdom in Italy. Later emperors sought first to reform and then to dominate the Papacy, but they finally met their match in Hildebrand, leading to the famous confrontation between Pope and Emperor on the snowy steps of Canossa Castle. Facing an imperial invasion, Pope Gregory took the fatal step of summoning his fierce Norman allies. They sacked and burned Rome and carried Hildebrand off to Salerno where, his body weak but his spirit unbowed, he breathed his last crying, "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity--therefore I die in exile." After Hildebrand's death, his ally Duchess Matilda, the greatest power in northern Italy, continued the struggle with the tragic Emperor, Henry IV, over investiture and reform, a conflict which was only settled under his perfidious son, Henry V. (Pamela Nagami)
26 episodes
In the Fourth Year is a collection H.G. Wells assembled in the spring of 1918 from essays he had recently published discussing the problem of establishing lasting peace when World War I ended. It is mostly devoted to plans for the League of Nations and the discussion of post-war politics. Summary by jfschuurman.
14 episodes
