Greek and Roman Sources on Ancient Africa

Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages Jan 5, 2021
In this episode special guest Dr. Raoul Mclaughlin takes us into ancient Greek and Roman Knowledge of ancient Africa from discussing its geography such as how the ancients outside of Africa viewed the land and shape, various peoples, animals, vegetation, conflicts and so very much more. Though a second episode is coming on Roman expeditions into ancient Africa, this episode sets the foundation as we watch a Roman Commander Gaius Suetonius Paulinus rise in fame from fighting the Celts in Britain to putting down rebellion in Africa. This is a fantastic collection of sources and commentary that are vital and fun when trying to understand ancient History and Africa. Check out Dr. Raoul Mclaughlin at the links below! Y
ouTube Channel: / @drraoulmclaughli…

Spotify lectures: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5kHy…

Website: https://raoul-mclaughlin.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RaoulMcLaughlin

Academia: https://independentresearcher.academi…

Attribution for video footage: Incredible Views Of Earth From Space: Africa To Europe
• Incredible Views …

Africa [ 4K ] • Africa Images: Manna Nader, Gabana Studios Cairo

See related series:

• Greek and Roman Sources on Ancient Africa – series

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Herodotus on Ancient Africa: There is no Sub-Saharan

Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Nov 26, 2020 Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean

In this episode Dr. Rebecca Futo Kennedy guides us into not only ancient Africa but also specifically North Africa and brings up the history of a commonly used and misused term that we constantly see today and that is the term “Sub-Saharan.” She not only gives us a history of the term but how it is used to often whitewash or erase black Africans and their presence in North Africa and its history.

Memorial Day and seditious conspiracy against the United States

Friends,

Memorial Day is an occasion to honor those who have given their lives so that our democracy can endure. It’s also an occasion to reaffirm our commitment to holding accountable those who have threatened its endurance.

Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy against the United States. Rhodes is the first January 6 defendant sentenced under that charge, and he received the longest prison term yet in the Justice Department’s probe into the Capitol attack.

“Seditious conspiracy” is defined under law (18 U.S. Code Section 2384) as “conspir[ing] to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”

Federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Rhodes “proposed that he and other Oath Keepers members and affiliates forcibly oppose the lawful transfer” of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. They also said that Rhodes “pushed the idea among Oath Keepers members and others that with a large enough mob, they could intimidate Congress and its Members and impose the conspirators’ will rather than the American people’s: to stop the certification of the next President of the United States.”

…(read more)

Jared Hardesty, Slavery in Boston and Boston’s Role in the Slave Trade, October 13, 2020

NU History of Boston Oct 21, 2020 BOSTON
Simon Rabinovitch and Jared Hardesty discuss slavery and the slave trade in Boston in the 17th and 18th centuries. Northeastern University, History of Boston (HIST 1232). https://historyofboston.cssh.northeas…

Northeastern HIST 1232, History of Boston, Charlestown neighborhood tour (with credits)

NU History of Boston CHARLESTOWN

Simon Rabinovitch takes students around Charlestown, with stops in City Square, Paul Revere Park, the Navy Yard, Bunker Hill Monument, and the Bunker Hill Housing on Monument Street. Northeastern University, History of Boston (HIST 1232). https://historyofboston.cssh.northeas…

Small Books, Folding Maps & Expanding Ideas: Exploring the Cartography, Ethos & Ethics of Global Maritime Empires

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Comments on Exploring Global History on a Small Planet

[A series of reflections.]

Modern Europeans did not invent the idea of empire. Nor were their societies the first to be built upon the labor and trade of enslaved peoples. Nonetheless, the expansion of European maritime empires since roughly 1492 has radically changed the nature of human social relations and global ecological history in ways that are irreversible and we are still only beginning to understand. Mapping this history and exploring the ethos and ethics of those that lived through it is of vital importance at this point for the human community as it seeks to map a sustainable future for human survival on this small planet.

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Focusing upon Africa and its interaction with the Atlantic world, these essays reflect upon themes that need yet to be explored, documented and elaborated as part of a human narrative in the transition toward a sustainable future.

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Jeffrey Sachs: Bipartisan Support of War, from Iraq to Ukraine, Is Helping Fuel U.S. Debt Crisis

Democracy Now! – May 24, 2023

The United States faces a default on its debt in early June if a deal on the debt ceiling is not reached between the Biden administration and Republicans in Congress before then. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is pushing for sweeping budget cuts and new work requirements for recipients of government programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP. Notably, however, neither Republicans nor Democrats are proposing cuts to one of the biggest drivers of the nation’s debt: the massive U.S. military budget. “We’ve got to get this military-industrial lobby under control, but it’s hard to do, because it’s a bipartisan affair,” says our guest, economist Jeffrey Sachs, whose recent article is headlined “America’s Wars and the US Debt Crisis.”

Global Reports and the Human Prospect

 

The trend in recent reporting about Earth’s ecosystem is not encouraging concerning the human prospect. Consider, for example the following recent news stories of major global assessment reports:

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• BBC World Service – Newshour, UN climate report warns of disaster
• BBC World Service – Newshour, UN issues dire warning over water
• BBC World Service – Newsday, Dire warning on global warming from the United Nations
• BBC World Service – Newshour, Global warming report sparks calls for urgent action
• BBC World Service – Newshour, Global warming set to break key limit – report
• James Hansen Warns of a Short-Term Climate Shock Bringing 2 Degrees of Warming by 2050 – Inside Climate New
• Setting the Record Straight: The Depth, Severity and History of the Scientific Evidence on Earth’s Unfolding Climate Catastrophe

and

• Half of world’s species in decline, study suggests

At the same time that biogeochemical changes are underway throughout Earth’s ecosystems, there is a growing discussion in some circles focused upon the historical causes of our collective circumstance:

See, for example,

• G7 owes huge $13 trillion debt to Global South | Oxfam International
• Oxfam: G7 Countries Owe the Global South More Than $13 Trillion in Development & Climate Assistance

Then there are mounting anxieties about how quickly human institutions and cultural habits can change.  See, for example:

• Transcending the Institutions We Inherit and Create: Climate Change and System Change in the Anthropocene
• Overcoming the Multiple Legacies of European Colonialism: Can The West Survive Its Most Cherished Historical Myths?
• “One of the biggest legacies of colonialism….is the marginalization of the human population…”
• “Just take the case of agriculture…”
• Global Balliol

 

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Climate impacts are increasing; textbooks aren’t keeping pace

A new study from North Carolina State University finds that biology textbooks have done a poor job of incorporating material related to climate change. For example, the study found that most textbooks published in the 2010s included less information about climate change than they did in the previous decade—despite significant advances in our understanding of how climate change is influencing ecosystems and the environment.

“In short, we found biology textbooks are failing to share adequate information about climate change, which is a generation-defining topic in the life sciences,” says Jennifer Landin, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of biological sciences at NC State. “These books are the baseline texts for helping students understand the science of life on Earth, yet they are providing very little information about a phenomenon that is having a profound impact on habitats, ecosystems, agriculture—almost every aspect of life on Earth.”

For the study, researchers analyzed coverage of climate change in 57 college biology textbooks published between 1970 and 2019. The researchers found that climate coverage has varied substantially over those five decades.

Prior to 1990, textbooks had a median of fewer than 10 sentences addressing climate change. In the 1990s, the median length of climate content was 30 sentences. The median length of climate content rose to 52 sentences in the 2000s, which is not surprising given the amount of emerging research into climate change and its impacts. However, the researchers found that the amount of climate coverage in textbooks actually declined in the 2010s—dropping to a median of 45 sentences.

In addition to length, the nature of the content has also changed substantially over time. For example, sentences dedicated to actionable solutions to climate change peaked in the 1990s at more than 15% of the climate content. However, in more recent decades, actionable solutions make up only about 3% of the climate content.

“One of the most troubling findings was that textbooks are devoting substantially less space to addressing climate solutions now than they did in the 1990s—even as they focus more on the effects of climate change,” Landin says. “That suggests to students that nothing can be done, which is both wildly misleading and contributes to a sense of fatalism regarding climate change.”

…(read more).

See related:

• Examining the portrayal of climate change in history textbooks
• James Hansen Warns of a Short-Term Climate Shock Bringing 2 Degrees of Warming by 2050 – Inside Climate News
• Deleting History, Rewriting Science: The Case of NCERT Textbooks
• BBC World Service – Newsday, Dire warning on global warming from the United Nations
• BBC World Service – Newshour, Global warming report sparks calls for urgent action
• BBC World Service – Newshour, Global warming set to break key limit – report

Examining the portrayal of climate change in history textbooks

California and Texas textbooks have their differences when it comes to teaching teenagers about American history and the way that subjects like race, gender, and immigration weave through it. But a new Stanford University study has found the two states’ U.S. history textbooks are surprisingly similar when dealing with climate change and environmental topics.

Published May 23 in Environmental Education Research, the study analyzed each word and sentence in 30 of the most popular U.S. history textbooks in California and Texas. The results suggest widely used history textbooks in the two states, which strongly influence textbook content nationwide, tend to emphasize controversy in discussions of climate science and prompt students to think about our planet’s rapid warming as a matter of opinion or a two-sided issue.

Teaching complexity

“When teaching history, it’s an important skill for students to be able to consider alternative viewpoints,” said senior study author Patricia Bromley, an associate professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and Stanford Graduate School of Education. “But the way that this skill is being applied to climate change falsely suggests that the science is undecided.”

Scientific evidence unequivocally shows human activities, mainly through emissions of greenhouse gasses, have caused global warming. The planet’s surface temperatures are now 1.1 Celsius (2 Fahrenheit) hotter on average compared to when burning fossil fuels for energy took off in the 1800s.

Bromley and lead study author Hannah D’Apice, a Ph.D. student in international comparative education, say a better approach—found in a few of the popular textbooks they analyzed—is to invite students to consider the complex social dimensions of climate impacts and political processes for creating policies, without misrepresenting the scientific consensus around climate change.

“It matters how students are taught to see climate change as a civic issue and integrate scientific information into their understanding of what it means to be an engaged community member and citizen,” said D’Apice. “Scientific literacy is really important for social issues, public health, and long-term public well-being.”

…(read more).

More information: Hannah K. D’Apice et al, Climate change discourse in U.S. history textbooks from California and Texas, Environmental Education Research (2023). DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2023.2206595

See related:

• Climate impacts are increasing; textbooks aren’t keeping pace
• James Hansen Warns of a Short-Term Climate Shock Bringing 2 Degrees of Warming by 2050 – Inside Climate News
• Deleting History, Rewriting Science: The Case of NCERT Textbooks
• BBC World Service – Newsday, Dire warning on global warming from the United Nations
• BBC World Service – Newshour, Global warming report sparks calls for urgent action
• BBC World Service – Newshour, Global warming set to break key limit – repor