Thousands of free books in your pocket

Over the past few months I have become quite addicted to my silvery iPod Touch, Apple’s palm-sized iPod with a 3 x 5″ video screen. My iTouch was a freebie bonus when my husband bought an iMac and the big surprise for me was how much I enjoyed reading books on its tiny screen.
While it’s [...]

Freud was wrong about catharsis

Why does the “talking cure” pioneered by Sigmund Freud and his students help relieve anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses?
Freud famously taught that psychotherapy helped the patient achieve catharsis, or purging of the emotions. This was helpful, Freud thought, because he imagined that our emotions exist in a closed hydraulic system like a steam [...]

BackStory keeps getting better

BackStory (website, iTunes) is a public radio show and podcast about US history that keeps getting better and better. The latest episode, Grave Subjects: A History of Death and Mourning (website, iTunes) is a riveting discussion of death and dying in American culture, posted online last week just in time for Memorial Day.
The program’ s [...]

Book tour sightings

Recent book tour sightings on the net:
Jewish Book Week 2009
The 2009 Jewish book week is now online (website, iTunes), with lots of book news and conversations with literati and assorted pundits. Some good bets:

American Fervour (website) Columbia University historian Simon Schama talks about the role of religion in US history.
Rhyming Life and Death (website) You [...]

The fall of Rome

Book Review: The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins.
I was surprised to learn that many historians are writing a history in which the Roman Empire never fell,  and of a late antiquity that was a mostly peaceful “accommodation” with Germanic tribal culture.
Oxford University historian Ward-Perkins offers an antidote to this [...]

Authors give writing advice

If you’re looking for some writing inspiration, tips on technique, or just some insight into how authors and playwrights get their ideas and set to work, here are a couple of good online options.
Creative Writing, Open University (iTunes)
The UK’s Open University offers a full catalogue of distance learning courses with nosebleed prices (£400 to £1120 [...]

Abe Lincoln as wartime leader

Modern American presidents have had some of their finest and worst hours as they acted as commander-in-chief of the nation’s armed forces. Pulitzer prize-winning historian James McPherson argues that Abraham Lincoln invented the role of commander-in-chief during the American Civil War.
He talks about Lincoln as a wartime leader and his new book, Tried by War: [...]

The human side of debt from Margaret Atwood

Quick– before they’re removed on Dec. 19, get your podcasts of Margaret Atwood’s five lectures on CBC radio (website, feed, iTunes) entitled Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.
Atwood, one of Canada’s leading novelists, gives a wide-ranging view of the human side of debt, from pawnshops to revenge. If you miss the [...]

The Ascent of Money

Just in time for the market crash and economic crisis of 2008, Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson has hit the talk show interview circuit, promoting his new book, The Ascent of Money, A Financial History of the World which is deep background for the crisis.
You can catch Ferguson discussing his new book here:
[...]

Yale’s Robert Shiller teaches free finance course

Yale University economist Robert Shiller predicted the end of the dot com bubble in his 2000 bestseller, Irrational Exuberance, and he explains the current financial mess in his new book The Subprime Solution:How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It.
You can hear him discuss his new book in this podcast, and [...]