A review of PBS’s “Eleanor Roosevelt” movie

“A snub is the effort of a person who feels superior to make someone else feel inferior. To do so, he has to find someone who can be made to feel inferior.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt, at a White House press conference in 1935 – speaking of how a UC-Berkeley professor had refused to host an event where her husband’s Secretary of Labor gave a speech at the school’s Charter Day (often quoted as “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”)

The longest-serving First Lady in American history …

She is the longest-serving First Lady in American history. Her famous husband was elected to four terms (even if he didn’t complete the last one), so she served for 12 years as First Lady – far longer than anyone else! This film is the longest PBS documentary to focus specifically on her life. She was also one of the three protagonists in Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” which I have not seen. But there were two other main characters in that series, which were Franklin Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt – the latter of whom was much earlier than either Franklin or Eleanor. Thus, to your pain or pleasure, the Ken Burns series focuses on others besides her. By contrast, this PBS documentary focuses entirely on her, and spends two and a half hours on her life story. There’s an advantage to their focusing entirely on one person, even if their coverage is still comparatively short in this regard.

A review of “Maimonides and Medieval Jewish Philosophy” (audiobook)

Moses ben Maimon (better known as Maimonides) was one of the most important philosophers of the Middle Ages. He was a Jewish philosopher, but he also had a great effect on Christians and Muslims. Nonetheless, he was quite controversial in his own time, even amongst his fellow Jews. He criticized certain aspects of the era’s Jewish religion, and made many enemies by so doing. He was controversial enough that his books were burned by the authorities, sometimes at the request of his fellow Jews. This was ironic, because he lived in the Muslim Almoravid Empire, which was then fairly tolerant of the Jewish religion. Nonetheless, the Muslims would grant some of the requests to have his books burned, and some of those who had requested this burning later saw their own books burned as well. Such is the irony of censorship, then and now.

A review of Boris Fausto’s “A Concise History of Brazil”

Note: The edition that I’m reviewing here was expanded by Boris Fausto’s son Sergio Fausto, to bring it up to date.

The most populous country in Latin America, with even more people than Mexico

Brazil is the most populous country in Latin America, with even more people than Mexico. It is also the only country in Latin America (or anywhere in the Americas) that speaks Portuguese. This often surprises North Americans, because they expect South America to speak Spanish. And in many other South American countries, they do. But in fairness, Spanish and Portuguese are extremely similar languages, so they’re not too far off. Of all of the major Romance languages, Spanish and Portuguese seem to me to be the closest. In the Old World, Spain and Portugal were neighbors on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula. And in the New World, they are the two dominant languages of South America, with a large border between their respective spheres. Famously, Spain and Portugal both had territorial ambitions on this continent, and appealed to the Pope to settle the boundary between their respective territories there. Spain then got everything to the west of that boundary, while Portugal then got everything to the east of it. The boundary may not be as linear as it once was, but you can definitely see its influence in the modern map of South America. This explains why the modern nation of Brazil speaks Portuguese, rather than Spanish. And it explains many other things about Latin American geography.

Original edition of this book

A review of “The Road to War” (BBC)

Why did World War II happen? It’s a complicated (and interesting) topic, involving causes in many different nations. Some of these involve Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, while others involve Imperial Japan – which is quite distant from these European nations. This topic has enormous power to explain the events of the twentieth century. Most importantly, it explains World War II itself, the largest war in history. Thus, the BBC undertook to explore the causes of the war. In four episodes, they cover the events that shattered the peace, in a documentary aptly titled “The Road to War.” Incidentally, this documentary is written (and narrated) by the British journalist Charles Wheeler.

Neville Chamberlain

A review of John Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government” (audiobook)

John Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government” is one of the greatest political works ever written. It had a massive influence on the founding documents of the United States – specifically, on our Declaration of Independence (as I show here), and on our Constitution (as I show here). Locke’s “Second Treatise” is often studied in departments of philosophy and political science. But what did Locke say in this great work? What about the lesser-known “First Treatise”? And what sorts of things was Locke trying to respond to here? These are the questions that this audiobook examines. They also try to place the “Treatises” into the fascinating context of their times.

A review of “Chemistry and the Enlightenment” (audiobook)

It’s quite an achievement when you can make an audiobook about chemistry that is understandable for someone like me. Chemistry was literally my weakest subject in school. I particularly struggled with the lab elements of chemistry, although I also struggled with the math side of the subject. Regardless, I understood what they were talking about in this audiobook, because they kept their presentation from getting too technical.

The wisdom of the ages: The enduring legacy of books

“I cannot live without books; but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.”

– Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams (10 June 1815)

Books allow us to hear from people long dead, and speak to people yet unborn

More than 3,000 years ago, an epic poem was written in Ancient Mesopotamia. It is known as the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” and it is now available as a book. It is still being read, and still being studied – more than 30 centuries after its publication! It’s one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in human history. The book is proof that writing allows you to “hear from people long dead, and speak to people yet unborn” – to paraphrase some words often attributed to Abraham Lincoln. None of those viewing this post were alive when this book was written. None of them ever met the authors, or even saw the grainiest photograph of them – let alone the people themselves. But we can still read a translation of their words, almost as though we could hear their voices. In a way, their voices can still speak to us, and their words still echo in the ears of the living.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, on clay tablets