Traveling with History in Your Pocket
History Can Be Hard to Take With You
I know that many of you have heard me rave about podcasts – and yes, I have yet another one to rave about. This one is straight from the classroom…Berkeley University.
There aren’t many things I would do different in my life; however, if I could go back to my 18th year, I would change one thing. I would have paid more attention in my high school history class. Mr. Durham wasn’t the best history teacher in the world – but I honestly didn’t have any passion for the subject a that time either. If I would have had some passion for history, then maybe I would have actually taken an American history class in college – but I didn’t and I opted for history of American Jazz instead.
I am one of the many Americans that knows very little (ok – nothing) about American History. Don’t evern get me started on World History…one thing at a time please. Therefore, before I started on my around the world journey, I decided that I better make up for lost time and try to educate myself a bit on American History. As I was searching around the internet, I found my answer…a History podcast!
They don't take up much space
Berkeley University has successfully moved into the technical age and is offering podcasts of class lectures to the world for free. Now – if I were a parent paying college tuition for my kid to attend Berkeley – I’m not real sure how I would feel about this development. However – as a freeloader – I loved it! I downloaded the complete lectures from American History 7B – Civil War to the Present and I took off for my big trip in September of 2006.
On flights or bus rides, and sometimes on runs – I would listen to the History Podcast as if I were a student again. Professor Jennifer Burns had passion for her subject and a great style of teaching. It amazed me at how much I learned. It made me wonder how much more I could have learned in University if I had just had simply paid more attention and enjoyed my classes.
I highly recomend this podcast for anyone – but specifically for travelers. It will provide you a basis for how the world see Americans, why we were involved in various global conflicts, what our stance was on various issues and why, and most importantly – it helped me understand how the US became who we are today and why we act the way we do globally. Now – I didn’t say that I agreed with it all, but it sure did provide me the context and knowledge I needed when I was frequently asked questions about my own culture, politics, and history from other international travelers.
If you are looking for some entertainment for the road – then consider getting educated while being entertained – I promise you that you won’t be sorry!
You can download the podcasts from the Berkley website and listen to them on your computer at this website.
Or on Jennifer Burns’ website, she has links listed on how to listen to the lectures via itunes.
or you can download them from itunes. Just ltype ‘jennifer burns’ in the itunes search function and you will find it.
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Filed Under: Digital • Reviews • Travel Gear
Hmm, interesting that you mentioned jazz. As a jazz musician (and non-American) I’ve found that I learned quite a bit about American history (20th century anyway) through my study of jazz history – which is after all, America’s only unique art form. Especially the period from 1900 through to the 1960s…as far as from a socio-economic perspective, the two are pretty much inseparable.
Big fan of educational podcasts. They’re fantastic. I will have to check out the Berkley series!
Nice tip! I’m listening to “The Peculiar Modernity of Britain” lecture right now as I make lunch in my motorhome in Cornwall.
We’ve found Rick Steve’s podcasts to be very informative and entertaining and – although it sounds like a cliche – really brings historical sites to life. We download them to the iphone then listen to them when we’re at the site. They’re a major improvement on the invariably dry coma-inducing audio tours provided at the sites themselves – who write those things?!
http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/podcast.htm