LEADERSHIP – Page 10 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

NO WAY OUT

Gorbachev freed the Russian economy and Putin capitalized on that freedom. However, both reached beyond their grasp and damaged Russia’s standing in the world.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A History of Russia: From Peter the Great to Gorbachev

By: Mark Steinberg, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Mark Steinberg

Mark David Steinberg (History Professor at University of Illinois specializing in the cultural, intellectual, and social history of Russia.)

Professor Mark Steinberg’s history of Russia is an informative tour of Russian history that gives some context to the perplexing, contradictory, and murderous behavior of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Though Steinberg’s history focuses on Tsarist Russia, a little research reveals why Putin argues Ukraine is historically a part of Russia.

Russia is an ancient nation that reaches back to the year 862.

The northern and southern lands were combined in 882 by Prince Oleg of Novgorod upon the seizure of Kiev in what is today the capital of Ukraine. Kiev becomes the capital of the combined lands. Eastern Christian religion is adopted from the Byzantine Empire by Russia in 988. Upon the Mongol invasion in 1237-1240, Russia’s size diminishes, and Russia’s capital moves to Moscow.

The first leader to be titled Tsar of Russia is Ivan the Terrible in 1547.

Ivan IV (Called Ivan the Terrible’s visage is forensically reconstructed by Mikhail Gerasimov)

Ukraine emerges as a nation in the mid-18th century, but large portions of the country remain under the control of Russia.

It is not until 1991, that Ukraine’s independence is recognized by America, Poland, and Canada.

Steinberg’s history addresses the time of Peter the Great through Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. What one hears from the lectures is the vacillation of Russian leadership from Europeanization to de-Europeanization. The primary interest of non-aristocratic Russians is in the political principle of socialism.

Autocracy is a common thread in Steinberg’s history of Russia. However, beginning with Peter the Great, that thread is frayed by changes that modernize Russian government management of its citizens. It remains autocratic but recognizes the country is behind Europe in its economic and cultural improvement.

Tsar Peter the Great (As Tsar from 1682 to 1721, Pyotr I Alekseyevich leads Russia as a harsh autocrat with the goal of defeating Ottoman and Swedish control of the Sea of Azov and the Baltic.

Steinberg explains Peter the Great’s objective is to create a new Russia by replacing its traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with enlightened public policies. He plans to modernize Russia by promoting education and industrialization. His objective is to emulate and compete with European modernization. The Russian Academy of Science and Saint Petersburg State University are founded in 1724. Peter the Great creates a governing Senate in 1711 and other institutions to improve the administration of the Russian autocracy.

Peter the Great dies unexpectedly and fails to designate an heir to the throne. Succession founders for several years with little progress toward modernization until Catherine II becomes Catherine the Great, empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796.

Catherine the Great II (Born 1729, dies in 1796 at age 67.)

Catherine the Great marries the grandson of Peter the Great who died months after becoming Emperor of Russia. Catherine the Great is of the same mind as Peter the Great in modernizing Russia. New Russian cities, universities, and theatres are created by Catherine the Great. With the help of fellow nobles, Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin, and Russia’s generals of that time, Russia expands their territory and continues its Europeanization. Western philosophers like Voltaire become friends of Catherine the Great.

After Catherine the Great, her son Tsar Paul I takes control of the Russian government. Steinberg characterizes Paul I as a despotic ineffectual leader who projects an authoritarian and patriarchal image and reverses many of the liberal policies initiated by Catherine the Great. He is assassinated by the elite guards of the Russian military and his son, Alexander I, becomes Tsar.

With the rise of education, Steinberg explains the creation of what is called the “intelligensia”, a class of younger Russians interested in social change. Some were largely self-educated like Vissarion Belinsky, the son of a rural physician and Nikolai Gogol, born into the Ukranian family gentry (a class below aristocracy). Others were from the aristocratic class like Alekasndr Pushkin.

From left to right, Belinsky, Gogol, Pushkin–associated with the Russian Intelligesia in the early and mid-19th century.

Alexander I (reigned 1801-1825) is described by Steinberg as a leader of two minds that on the one hand reestablishes many of the reforms of his grandmother, Catherine the Great.

On the other hand, Steinberg suggests Alexander I resists revolutionary movements that were roiling Europe during his reign. Alexander, I joins Britain in 1805 to defeat Napoleon Bonapart. Alexander switches sides and forms an alliance with Napoleon in the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. However, in 1810, Alexander abandons Napoleon over disagreement on Polish territory. Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 is a disaster for the French and Russia gains territory in Finland and Poland.

Nicholas I (Reign 1825-1855, Grandson of Catherine the Great.)

Serfdom is a troubling social problem in Russia that is acknowledged by Catherine the Great but not resolved until after an 1861 decree for abolition by Alexander II. Though Catherine and Allexander II are not related, it is Alexander II who initiates what Catherine the Great recognized as the iniquity of Russian inequality. Though it is many years before the reality of abolition of Serfdom is truly addressed, Alexander II is the first to begin its reversal. His predecessor, Nicholas I did nothing to eliminate serfdom and in fact tried to re-establish aristocratic privilege.

Mid-day meal for peasants in 1860s Russia

Inequality in Russia, just as is true in America, remains a work in progress. Steinberg offers more detail of Russia’s drive toward modernity, but the next great change is of course the revolution of 1917. Steinberg explains Russia’s growing interest in socialism and its conflict with patriarchal rule. He notes the two major factions that wished to change the course of Russian history. One is the Bolshevik movement. The other is the Menshevik movement. But, before we get to 1917, it seems the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war is important because of its relevance to Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

The last Tsar of Russia is Tsar Nicholas II. Nicholas II’s reign is from 1894 to 1917, after which his entire family is murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries.

A precursor to the 1917 revolution is the 1905 uprising of Russian citizens who are unhappy with Tsar Nicholas II’s leadership. Growing inflation, poverty and hunger, a defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, and widespread discontent lead to a revolt. A workers demonstration leads to “Bloody Sunday”. An estimated 1,000 to 4,000 Russian citizens are murdered by Russian soldiers.

Of particular interest is the loss of the Russo-Japanese war. Both Russia and Japan want warm-water ports in the Pacific Ocean. A port that served that purpose is on the Korean peninsula, either off Manchuria or Korea. Tsar Nicholas’s inept management and the superior military actions of the Japanese defeat Russia.

The relevance of that defeat is the position Putin has put the Russian government in with the invasion of Ukraine. The question is whether Ukraine will be as successful as Japan in defeating Russia. The west must ask itself whether they have a dog in this fight or let Ukraine bear the brunt of an unjust war.

Tsarist Russia is ripe for revolution. Unhappiness of the general population of Russia is fertile ground for Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov. A key difference between the two in creating committed followers, according to Steinberg, is that Lenin made joining his movement an exclusive opportunity based on the background of interested revolutionaries. In contrast, Martov allowed anyone interested the right to join his Mensheviks. To Steinberg, this is a key to the success of Lenin’s control of the revolution. The commitment of Lenin’s followers eventually took over the revolution. Though not suggested by Steinberg, one wonders if Martov’s Jewish religion might not have also contributed to Lenin’s success in taking over the revolution.

The exclusiveness of being a member of Lenin’s red party undoubtedly aided the ultimate success of the revolution because it required committed enforcers to rally the Russian people.

Steinberg explains Lenin clearly understood that authoritarian force would be required for communist’ socialism to succeed. The future of the revolution became dependent on a leader like Stalin who exemplified a party member that understood the importance of authoritarian command. The test of that truth comes in 1924 when Lenin dies from a brain hemorrhage.

Joseph Stalin (1878-1953, died at age 74, ruled Russia from 1929 to 1953.)

Authoritarian leadership, with its history of competent and incompetent Russian Tsars, is not new to the Russian people. With an improved education system in the 18th century, Steinberg explains even the intelligentsia accepted authoritarian rule. Adding to Russian’ acceptance of authoritarian rule is the belief that something had to change because life in Russia during Tsar Nicholas II’s rule is abysmal for the majority of Russian people.

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022, died at age 91. Ruled the U.S.S.R. from 1985-1991 and served as President of Russia 1990-1991.)

Nearing the end of Steinberg’s lectures, the rise of glasnost with Mikhail Gorbachev is addressed. Between the death of Stalin and the rule of Gorbachev, 5 men ruled the U.S.S.R. Gorbachev wishes to keep the U.S.S.R. together but fails. His failure, in part, seems related to Steinberg’s history. Rather than glasnost, the U.S.S.R. seems to have needed a more authoritarian leader. Not in the sense of repression but in a demand to keep the U.S.S.R. together until the government’s effort at reform has time to be enacted. America had a civil war to prove it is one nation. That may have been a possibility with a more authoritarian Russian leader but that appears not to have been in the nature of Mikhail Gorbachev.

The U.S.S.R. dissolves in 1991. Since that dissolution, Russia has occupied some of the eastern territory of Ukraine and Crimea.

Though Steinberg does not fully address Vladimir Putin in his history of Russia, he sets the table for understanding why a reader/listener might think there is no way out for Vladimir Putin. The history Steinberg suggests Putin in one sense is the perfect transitional leader of the territorially reduced Russia. The firm hand of a secret police officer, with 16 years’ experience as a former KGB agent, and a position as Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg’s seems an apt formula for success for a future President of Russia. Putin did well in his first years as President of Russia but seems to have made a career, if not life ending, error in his invasion of Ukraine.

Steinberg illustrates how Russia’s leaders range from enlightened to repressive managers of government. At different times in history, that management style served Russia’s economy and citizens, sometimes well and sometimes poorly. It is up to Russian citizens to decide which government actions and leaders best serves their needs.

From a western perspective, both Gorbachev and Putin served Russia well.

Gorbachev freed the Russian economy and Putin capitalized on that freedom. However, both reached beyond their grasp and damaged Russia’s standing in the world. With the invasion of Ukraine, Putin threatens Russia’s future. Today, there seems no way out for Putin. Russia without the countries that left the U.S.S.R. will never return without an economic incentive that can only be achieved with the advance of the Russian economy. If Russia wishes to be a successful socialist country, it needs a leader who cares about what the Russian people need, not what an authoritarian’ thinks.

LESSONS OF HISTORY

The question of whether the free world should support Ukraine in every way possible can be answered. The answer is yes because Putin like Hitler will not stop.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A History of France

By: John Julius Norwich

Narrated by: John Julius Norwich

John Julius Norwich (Author, English historian, travel writer, television personality, Royal Navy veteran with degrees in French and Russian from Oxford.)

John Norwich’s “A History of France” is an intimidating summary of a country that makes one understand how young and inexperienced America is in the history of nations.

France is recognized as a nation in 987 with its first King, Hugh Capet, born in 939-died in 996 at the age of 56 or 57. (King of the Franks from 987-996.)

The actual title King of France is not used until the crowning of Phillip II in 1190 (a descendant of Capet) who died in 1223 at the age of 57. Norwich’s “…History…” recounts the many Kings of France since Phillip II.

The longest serving King is Louis XIV (the Sun King) who ruled from 1643 to 1715 (a total of 72 years).

King Louis XIV moved the center of French government to the Palace of Versailles in 1682. He is the third of five Bourbon Kings of France. King Louis XIV is noted to have expanded France’s borders while centralizing power in France. Norwich notes Louis XIV’s wife, Maria Theresa of Austria, plays a significant role in France’s history. Theresa’s three major accomplishments are to create education for serfs, consolidate the French government’s financial system, and create a unified judicial code that became a foundation for Central European Laws.

The last Bourbon King of France is Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, who are deposed and beheaded after the 1789 revolution.

The brutality of the revolution is exemplified by factions called Royalists, Jacobins, and Montagnards. The Royalists supported monarchy and the Catholic Church. The Jacobins founded the 1789 Nation Constituent Assembly that wished to moderate authoritarianism, offer equal rights to French citizens with government intervention to insure social change. The Montagnards campaigned for the needs of the working and poorer classes of French society.

The 1789 revolution eventually led to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte who through ascension and a series of military conquests reestablishes a French monarchy under his rule.

Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the first president of France which is recognized as a Republic. However, though France is a Republic between 1848 and 1852, Charles reestablishes the monarchy in 1852 until he is deposed in absentia in 1870.

A new faction is formed called the Bonapartists. This faction roiled France throughout the 19th and into the early 20th century.

As the nephew of Napoleon, King Charles oversaw the modernization of the French economy. However, reestablishing the monarchy and his failure in the Franco/Prussian war led to a famine that permanently turned the French against monarchal rule.

Seven French revolutions finally ends France’s monarchy. However, each revolution precipitated chaos, and declarations of war from other monarchies. The final death of French monarchy did not occur until liberation after WWII.

Norwich explains there were actually seven revolutions before France becomes a permanent republic.

The first is the 1789 revolution which is most widely known by Americans. The irony of that revolution’s importance is France’s considerable support of America’s revolution in 1776. The newly established French government did not have a leadership group that could create a republic that could manage the monumental inequities of its long-established French culture. The repression of the poor created by centuries of royal leadership entailed too much animosity to avoid the Reign of Terror that caused the execution of thousands of French citizens. As many as 40,000 people were said to have been killed. It would take six more revolutions to create the lasting Republic of France.

The French Revolution (1789-1799)
The Napoleonic Era (1799-1815)
The July Revolution (1830), a 3 day uprising that overthrew King Charles X because he tried to restore absolutism and censor the press.
The February Revolution (1848), based triggered by economic hardship, discontent, and social unrest.
The Second Empire (1852-1870), a coup against Napoleon III despite the improvements made to France, he poorly manages and loses the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
The Third Republic (1870-1940) did establish a parliamentary democracy but is tarnished by antisemitism, and WWI that killed millions of French soldiers.
The Vichy Regime that collaborated with Nazi Germany led to the 7th and final revolution against monarchy and for a Republic.

The collaboration of France’s Vichy Regime and Chamberlain’s appeasement agreement with Hitler’s Germany are lessons for today’s handling of Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.

The world did not fully respond to Hitler with force when Germany invaded Poland. Hitler, like Stalin and Putin, presumed the world would not respond to Germany’s taking of a sovereign country.

Whether Putin directs the murder of any opposition to his rule is not a question that can be answered but the imprisonment of Navalny and the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin is reminiscent of Hitler’s lies to the world.

The question of whether the free world should support Ukraine in every way possible can be answered. The answer is yes because Putin like Hitler will not stop.

U.S. AND ISRAEL

What seems glaringly obvious in Mead’s “too long” story is the immense contribution Jews have made to the United States.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Arc of a Covenant

By: Walter Russell Mead

Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg

Walter Russell Mead (American Author, Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College, taught American foreign policy at Yale.)

Walter Russell Mead hardens the consequence of race and creed in the history of the modern world. Mead offers a biblically influenced history of human progress in “The Arc of a Covenant”. One cannot diminish the value of human diversity, but Mead implies millions who were murdered, maimed, or imprisoned in history have paid a price for human progress. Mead suggests the greatest price paid is by Jews who were largely abandoned by Franklin Roosevelt’s America and imprisoned, gassed, and murdered in WWII.

Despite America’s decisive role in WWII, largely orchestrated by Franklin Roosevelt, Mead suggests President Truman’s actions to end the war and gain the peace shine as brightly as the social programs created by his predecessor.

As is widely known, the Ark of the Covenant carried two stone tablets that were given to Moses by God that contain the Ten Commandments.

Mead implies these commandments were adhered to by Truman more than any President before or after his presidency. He notes that despite Truman’s lack of a college degree and inexperience as a politician, he utilized the universal values of the ten commandments to guide America out of war into a peace meant to reinforce the “…Covenant” given to Moses by God. It is clear from Mead’s history, that Truman did not do it alone, but he led the effort with the support of his predecessors, direct reports, and successors.

As the 33rd President, Truman re-engaged the U.S. in internationalist foreign policy, adopted Kennan’s recommendation of containment of U.S.S.R. during the Cold War, passed the Truman Doctrine that helped eliminate the communist threat in Greece and Turkey, responded to the Berlin Wall crises with the Berlin Airlift, and passed the $13 billion dollar Marshall Plan to aid Western European recovery after WWII. Truman also ended racial segregation in the Armed Services, and established the NSC, the CIA, and the NSA.

In America, Henry Cabot Lodge and evangelist, William Blackstone, were two predecessors to Truman that martialed American opinion to support the Balfour proposition of Englishman Arthur Balfour who recommended support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. To an evangelist, one presumes the motivation is biblical belief in the prophecy of Armageddon that is to occur in the Middle east with the return of Jesus Christ to save believers in the faith. Lodge supports Zionism (a 19th century plan for a Jewish homeland in Palestine) as the Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference from 1918 to 1924.

In 1946, Palestinians refuse to agree to a separate Jewish homeland in their country. They would only agree based on a one state solution where Jews would be a minority in a Palestinian controlled state. The consequence of that refusal is to diminish the territorial control of the Palestinian people.

Mead notes the British walked a fine line between their need for oil from the Middle East and their effort to fulfill the promise of the Balfour agreement.

The conflict between Jews and Palestinians is initially controlled by the British military when the Jewish settlements first came to Israel. In the end, the British need for oil is greater than their continuing act as arbitrator for the Palestinian/Jewish conflicts.

The British decide to turn the conflict over to the United Nations which was formed in 1945 as a replacement for the League of Nations.

Though this body is meant to resolve international conflicts, it has five permanent members that have veto powers over its policies. They are China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US. Russia for a short time supports an independent Jewish State but becomes a notorious abuser and murderer of Russian Jews during the Stalinist years.

By a slim margin, with Stalin’s real-politic support, a UN resolution is passed to create a Jewish state in Palestine.

Stalin’s goal is to drive a wedge between Western powers like the UK and the US by supporting the resolution. The UK needs Arab oil even at the expense of the Balfour plan and the UN resolution. In enforcing the partition, Mead notes Truman is caught between the jaws of Cerberus guarding what is the hell between Arab states and a boundary line for Israel.

Mead explains Eleanor Roosevelt is a major force in politics of the U.S., particularly after the death of President Roosevelt.

She supports the UN resolution and expects the American government to enforce its implementation. In 1948, Mead notes Truman plans to enforce the UN resolution with the American military, if necessary, which is not popular with some American leaders and U.S. voters.

Mead illustrates how America aided Israel in its early formation, but notes Israel grew strong on its own. After the end of the Cold War, the world enters a Cold Peace. Mead drops a cultural bomb on his readers by noting America’s role as western world savior morphs into western world goat. Mead infers that transmogrification is the base upon which Donald Trump is elected. He suggests the fall of the U.S.S.R. seemingly created a bed of roses but turned into a crown of thorns.

**Mead suggests America in in a post-cold-war era. America’s left-wing support of Israel is now Right-wing support.**

Deregulated growth of the economy is a causal factor in the widening gap between rich and poor. 9/11 destroyed America’s self-confidence by suggesting America cannot protect itself, let alone spread democratic values in the world. American power emulates authoritarian government with slogans like “Make America Great” with an underlying disregard for foreign relations and world peace. Mead suggests there is a growing loss of faith in American government.

It is sad to think how vilified and unfair history has been to such a small ethnic minority.

What seems glaringly obvious in Mead’s “too long” story is the immense contribution Jews have made to the United States. As a small minority, their contribution to the world outstrips any ethnic group in this dilatant’s flawed memory. Mead gives some perspective to that realization.

COMPANY BUILDING

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Scaling People (Tactics for Management and Company Building

By: Claire Hughes Johnson

Narrated by: Claire Hughes Johnson

Claire Hughes Johnson (Author, former chief operating officer of Stripe, lecturer on management of companies, former technology and operations manager.)

In “Scaling People”, Claire Hughes Johnson offers an insightful and actionable skill-set for both creators and managers of eleemosynary, government, and business organizations. She explains how large and small organizations can become more effective in executing their plans for development.

Johnson suggests every successful organization must have a clear statement of mission. “Mission” statements are the beginning of an entrepreneur’s creation of a company, a non-profits’ purpose, or a government’s departmental objective.

Every effective manager within an organization begins with a clear understanding of mission. Small and large organizations become successful when managers understand their organizations’ mission. The only difference is an entrepreneur’s mission is to prosper and grow a business, a minister’s mission is to ameliorate sin and grow a congregation, a charities mission is to grow and do good for others, and a government agency is to provide public service and grow as needed for those who cannot help themselves.

Johnson explains a manager’s success begins with self-understanding.

Johnson notes the ancient saying inscribed on the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece, “know thyself”. Knowing oneself is being aware of one’s nature and limitations. Johnson infers every good manager is a leader because, by definition, managers and leaders lead people.

Johnson works in the high growth industry of technology but her book applies to all organizations whether staid and maintenance driven or growth oriented.

When addressing growth companies, Johnson explains high performers fall into two categories. She classifies the first as “pushers” and the second as “pullers”.

Both are valuable employees but Johnson notes pushers want more money and power while pullers are subject to burn-out. Though their reasons are different, both may leave the organization. The potential cure Johnson suggests is a biannual review, designed in different ways, to motivate them to stay. The pushers should be counseled on what they can do within the company that trains them to take on more responsibility in return for more pay and power. Johnson’s counsel to pullers is to acknowledge their contribution and offer a new challenge that benefits the company and their skill without taxing their life/work balance. Johnson notes this does not always work but it directly confronts, and tries to serve the needs of employees and the organization.

**Once a mission is understood by a manger, organizational missions are accomplished with the help of others.**

A large part of Johnson’s book is how to make organization’ managers effective leaders of their respective management teams. Johnson explains teams are organized to achieve goals to meet an organization’s mission as a sin quo non of success. Johnson’s book about organizational management is based on her challenging experience as a manager for Google and as the Chief Operating Officer for a successful tech company called Stripe.

Johnson addresses work horses of organizations that at times are low performance employees. Johnson argues their biannual reviews require recognition of measured performance deficiencies with constructive conversation about how they can improve. Johnson suggests it is important to recognize their longevity as employees and their cultural value as longer-term employees. However, if performance does not improve by the next review, a performance plan is written that offers what may be a final opportunity for a low performance employee. If that fails, the employee may be discharged. (Second chances are in the best interest of organizations because of the investment they make in hiring and training employees, let alone continued employment for the worker.)

“Scaling people…”, is about measuring yourself as a manager and others that are a part of a companies’ team. The first step is scaling yourself and your own strengths and weaknesses. That is Johnson’s insight to her own organizational effectiveness. Good managers and leaders build on their strengths. That is why Johnson explains how important it is to know yourself. To Johnson “knowing yourself” is the source of an effective manager’s productivity. By knowing yourself, one can overcome personal weaknesses with people who have complementary skills. The key to success is in team building that achieves an organization’s defined mission.

The hard part of Johnson’s insight is in having self understanding. It is made harder by a willingness to reveal it to others. In that willingness, team cohesion is formed. Team members experience self-understanding’s value by fulfilling an organization’s mission.

Only with self-realization, does one focus on mission with the energy and will needed for organizational success. Achieving an organization’s defined mission requires team work.

A manager/leader needs to focus on strengths and weaknesses of teams in the same way he/she understands their own strengths and weaknesses.

Johnson notes self-understanding is only a beginning. “Scaling people…” requires measurement of performance against goal. Teams have to be monitored, measured, and adjusted to more effectively achieve the organization’s defined mission. Johnson offers a number of tools that can be used to monitor, measure, and adjust a team’s effectiveness.

“Scaling people…” is a great addition to the literature of organizational management. “Scaling people…” is an excellent tool for forward thinking organizations interested in growing and improving their performance.

NO GIANTS AMONG US

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight

Website: chetyarbrough.blog

When Women Ruled the World

The Chancellor

By: Maureen Quilligan By: Kati Marton

Narrated by: Suzanne Torne Narrated by: Alex Allwine, Kati Marton

Maureen Quilligan and Kati Marton illustrate how mistaken society is in forsaking women as leaders of the world. Quilligan argues four famous women “…Ruled the World” in the 16th century. “The Chancellor” addresses one woman who “…Ruled the World” in this century.

Quilligan explains an overriding conflict in the 16th century is a schism in the church. In 1517, Martin Luther posts the 95 Thesis that accuses the Catholic Church of selling indulgences to forgive sin to pave the way to heaven.

During Henry VIII’s reign (1509-1547) his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon does not produce a male heir to the throne. Henry wishes to dissolve his marriage to Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. However, he needs an annulment from the Pope to marry Boleyn. The Pope resists.

Henry the VIII takes advantage of the growing schism in the church, exemplified by the 95 thesis. At the same time, as some historians note, Henry wishes to confiscate Catholic property in England to replenish the royal treasury. Henry the VIII creates the “Church of England” in 1534 as an alternative to the Papal Church in Rome. The Church of England annuls Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine and the confiscation of Catholic Church property begins.

With the formation of the Anglican Church, England becomes Protestant which is the faith of Elizabeth I, the daughter of King Henry and Anne Boleyn.

Still, even after the marriage to Boleyn, there is no male heir. Catherine of Aragon remains Catholic, along with her daughter who becomes Queen Mary I of England after Henry’s death. Mary I, as a Catholic, is half sister to Elizabeth I who is Protestant. Mary I rules as a Catholic despite her half sister’s insistence on remaining Protestant.

Quilligan recounts the religious differences between Queen Mary I and Elizabeth, but Quilligan suggests they remain close, bound by their father and their sisterhood.

Queen Mary I of England (1516-1558)

Upon the death of Mary I, Elizabeth I ascends the throne as a Protestant Queen replacing England’s Catholic Queen. Quilligan explains religious differences were important but Mary I and Elizabeth I maintain a sister to sister relationship despite there religious difference. Quilligan implies Elizabeth I knew that maintaining a good relationship with Mary meant she would one day become Queen of England.

Quilligan then turns to Scotland’s monarch. Scotland’s history shows Mary Queen of Scots is a committed Catholic leader. She brutally persecutes Protestants during her reign and becomes known as “bloody Mary”.

Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587)

Quilligan characterizes the relationship between Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I as friendly (almost sisterly), but a plot to assassinate Elizabeth I leads to the beheading of Mary Queen of Scots. The irony of that act is that Elizabeth paves the way for Prince James, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, to become James I, King of England after Elizabeth’s death.

The beheading of Mary Queen of Scots is said to have required two strokes with the first not completely severing her head. To some, Mary Queen of Scots became a martyr.

Elizabeth is known as the virgin queen but her sister-like relationship with the beheaded Scottish Queen gave Elizabeth a somewhat motherly relationship with James. However, Elizabeth (after her long reign) refuses to identify an heir at her death. Other historians note that James I ascends the throne by presumption and selection by remaining leaders of England, after Elizabeth’s death. Quilligan notes James I is a committed Protestant rather than a Catholic like his mother.

Maureen Quilligan’s history is less convincing about women who ruled the world because it relies on recollected details from scant original documents and facts proffered by other historians.

Quilligan’s book about women that ruled the 16th century world seems hyperbolic and only marginally convincing. Quillian’s argument for at least one woman of the 16th century who ruled the world is credible–based on Elizabeth I’s long reign and her acclaim by most historians.

Quilligan explains Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots of (bloody Mary), and Queen Catherine de’ Medici of France are world leaders.

Queen Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589)

They were leaders in the 16th century but the author’s reported facts only fit the book’s catchy title. Quilligan’s history fails to convince listener/readers that women ruled the 16th century world. Spain is noted as the strongest world power of the 16th century. Spain was largely ruled by Kings with only one Queen (Queen Isabella) who ruled for four years of the 16th century.

In contrast to Quilligan’s the gathered historical facts of 16th century leadership by women, Kati Marton has the good fortune of first person interviews of Angela Merkel’s leadership in the 21st century.

There are boat loads of original source material that confirm Merkel is a great ruler of the world. Merkel serves Germany while 3 Presidents (George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump) are elected in the U.S. Marton convincedly explains why Merkel is a great woman leader of the 21st century world. Marton explains how Merkel comes to power in Germany. Merkel’s remarkable rise beggars imagination.

The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 reunites Germany.

Merkel is raised in East Germany as a scientist, fluent in Russian and German, and then as an English speaker, when she chooses to become a national politician. In 16 years Merkel, an unknown quantum chemist, becomes leader of the third wealthiest country in the world with only the U.S. and Japan having higher GNPs.

Marton notes Helmut Kohl is Chancellor of West Germany when the Berlin Wall is taken down. Kohl became Chancellor of the entire country in 1990 (originally elected in 1982) and remained Chancellor until 1998.

Kohl recognized the political value of Merkel early in her political career. She represented East Germany’s zeitgeist because she lived the life of an East German. When Kohl loses the Chancellorship to Gerhard Schroeder, the table is set for Merkel to challenge Schroder for Germany’s seat of power.

Kohl’s last race is against Schroeder. Kohl is expected to be reelected. An exposed financial scandal ruins Kohl’s chance. He is beaten by Gerhard Schroeder.

Gerhard Schroeder (Former Chancellor of Germany.)

Marton explains what you see is what you get with Angela Merkel. Though much of Merkel’s rise in politics is due to Helmut Kohl’s support and sponsorship, she forthrightly and publicly criticizes Kohl for using an intricate web of secret bank accounts to illicitly finance the party that had got him elected. Schroeder beats Kohl but is challenged by Merkel for Chancellor in 2005. Schroder loses re-election and Merkel becomes the first woman in history to become Chancellor of Germany.

Marton explains how Merkel abjures the macho machinations of Vladimir Putin and directly confronts Putin’s lies about Russia’s Ukraine incursion in 2014.

Marton shows Merkel is not a glib politician but a highly intelligent leader, with immense energy, who does what she believes has to be done. Merkel is shown to be an independent thinker who represses her emotions when confronted with the exigencies of political conflict.

Marton goes on to explain her admiration of George H.W. Bush, and Mikhail Gorbachev and their support of independence. In the beginning of Obama’s administration, Merkel initially feels Obama talks a good game but she reserves judgement until she sees positive results. Merkel grows to respect Obama’s intelligence and what he accomplishes but nearly breaks with him when she finds her personal cell phone had been tapped by the U.S.

Marton shows the humanity of Merkel by noting her decision to accept 1,000,000 Muslim refugees from the war torn Middle East in 2015.

Thousands of German citizens welcomed the refugees and offered clothes, food, and support. At the same time there is German opposition to Muslim immigration. Merkel notes the human need of her action but also explains the value of the refugees to an ageing German population that needs more young workers.

Marton’s book reveals a concern that Merkel has about the hardening of German opposition to non-German immigrants. Merkel’s concern is the rise of a right wing party like that which brought Hitler to power.

Marton reveals one of Merkel’s speeches in Israel that addresses the Holocaust. Marton implies it is the first speech by a German Chancellor in Israel since WWII.

Marton implies Merkel views Trump as trouble for American democratic values.

Marton gives some insight to reader/listeners on Merkel’s perception of Trump. Trump reinforces beliefs of right wing Germans by denigrating immigrants and supporting right wing authoritarians like Putin in Russia and Pen in France.

One comes away from Marton’s book with admiration for Angela Merkel. Merkel appears to be one of the few politicians in the world that have a “superior perception of reality”, a phrase made famous by the American political strategist Lee Atwater. (One may like the phrase but Atwater is considered by some as the most devious campaign strategist in America. He played a role in electing Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Atwater died in 1991 at the age of 40.)

What both Quilligan and Marton make clear is that the world loses half the world’s intelligence and capability by not recognizing women are equals of men. There are no giants among us. We are all human, neither omniscient nor unerringly correct.

HUMANE WAR

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Humane (How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War)

By: Samuel Moyn

Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne

Samuel Moyn (Author, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University.)

Sameul Moyn’s “Humane” shows America is one of many passengers on a train bound for Armageddon. The idea of a humane war is oxymoronic. War cannot, by definition be humane. There is no denying America’s war against Indians, Filipinos, Japanese, and Germans, with a history of mass violence against Blacks and other American minorities, is inhumane. The reasons for war’s violence range from defense of country to racism, to self-interest, to greed, i.e., the ingredients of human nature. From the crusades of Catholics against Muslims to persecution of Jews through the ages, to today’s Palistinian/Israli mayhem, inhumanity seems an integral part of the human condition.

Though Samuel Moyn makes war’s atrocity clear, it is odd to suggest America has reinvented the definition of war. The definition of war has never changed.

War is a conflict between power elites and the powerless. Though Moyn suggests President Obama revises nation-state war to be more humane, the tools of surreptitious killing by drone is just another weapon of war. It can as easily kill or injure the innocent as a WWI propeller driven dirigible dropping a bomb on an alleged enemy combatant. There will always be collateral damage. War boils down to a government leaders’ political strength whether he/she is President of Russia, America, China, or some other military power. Mistakes will always be made. Misjudgment and misperception are part of being human. Innocents will always die in war.

In accusation, Moyn’s history is an excellent reminder of war’s brutality. It is valuable to be reminded of war’s atrocity and stupidity, particularly in the face of Putin’s Ukraine invasion and attempt to recreate the U.S.S.R.

The galling part of Moyn’s reference to President Obama is to imply America is a lesser villain than other nation-states leaders by reinventing war, subject to rule-of-law. As the election of Trump proves, rational intelligent leadership is never guaranteed in democracy. The idea of targeted strikes in the hands of a Trump rather than an Obama is hard evidence of the ridiculous belief in humaneness of war.

War was designed by human nature to become more lethal with the science of many nations.

There is no reinvention of a humane war by any nation-state, let alone America. The only change in war is in scale, i.e., weapons of mass destruction have geometrically increased the number of human beings that can be murdered, wounded, or victimized by war’s execution. Science has added to potential world destruction with bigger nuclear bombs and viral research that could end life on earth, with many nations’ culpability. The point is America is just another player among nations that carry the risk of corruption of power, not to be an inventor of humane wars but to become hegemons of what they believe is their world. War is never humane.

Moyn recalls the history of George W. Bush’s decision to start a war on terror in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Few Americans, if any, can forget or forgive those who perpetrated that heinous act. To prepare a response, the Bush Administration promoted the USA PATRIOT ACT. To some, that ACT violated American civil rights.

Considering Moyn’s history of the creation and legal defense of the USA PATRIOT ACT, rule-of-law is merely a matter of picking the right attorney to get the result a President wants.

That is what the Department of Justice leader John Ashcroft did in choosing John Yoo. Moyn explains Yoo’s family came from Korea, with their son having become a Harvard graduate and lawyer working for the government. Moyn implies Yoo’s success in America and his family’s knowledge of North Korean repression influenced John Yoo’s legal opinion of the PATRIOT ACT. Legal opinion is a fungible skill based on the biases of its writers.

Being humane is in the eye of the beholder whether the beholder is moral or amoral.

Government leaders may represent a nation or a faction of people, but unless one believes in “the arc of the moral universe” as originated by Theodore Parker in the 19th century (made modern by Martin Luther King in the 20th century), the world will continue to have wars; all of which become inhumane.

HUMANITY’S TRIAL

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Earth Transformed: An Untold History

By: Peter Frankopan

Narrated by: Peter Frankopan

Peter Frankopan, (Author, Professor of Global History at Oxford University, Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research.)

Peter Frankopan journeys from pre-history to the present to offer perspective on the earth’s global warming crisis. He reviews what is either speculated or known of disastrous world events. Frankopan recalls histories of major volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, famines, pandemics, and epidemics that have changed the course of history.

In the beginning, one thinks Frankopan is setting up a rationalization to argue global warming is just another world changing crisis that will be managed by humanity.

However, Frankopan is explaining the history of world crises and how humanity dealt with its eternal recurrence. In broad outline, he suggests world crises are dealt with in two ways, i.e., one, with religion or mysticism, and/or two, with adaptation. In every historical crisis, leadership is the presumed key to survival.

Frankopan explains the common denominator for crises that change the world is death.

Just as America and the world recovers from Covid-19, millions have died. We who remain carry on.

Whether a catastrophic event is geological, climatological, or pathogenic, life is a victim. Before history is written, Frankopan offers explanations of what happened to life based on fossilized remains. Causes for death are either geological (like earthquakes), climatological (like volcanic dust that blocks the sun), pathogenic (like the plague or a virus), or manmade (like the nuclear bomb). When written history begins, Frankopan’s evidence of world crises is more precisely explained. (From an objective perspective of any historian’s story, any history of the past is trapped in His/Her’s interpretation of other’s reported facts.)

Frankopan argues life on earth has come and gone through centuries of crises.

The evolution of human beings shows they have managed to ameliorate past crises by meeting them head-on. Humans have overcome crises by adapting to change, whether manmade or environmental. If the past is prologue to life’s survival, global warming’s threat will be met and ameliorated by human response. Just as all crises in world history have ended lives, the same is true of global warming. That does not necessarily mean all human life ends. Frankopan’s history infers life will be changed by global warming but leaves unanswered whether human life will end.

Jumping ahead in Frankopan’s scholarly review of history, the age of Sputnik emphasized the growing importance of science in the ecology of the world.

The Russian Launch of Sputnik in 1957.

Ironically, Russia’s giant step ahead of America in the space race awakened the world to the importance of science. Frankopan notes the hubris of humanity taking center stage with Khrushchev’s comments about humankind’s need and ability to control nature. To Frankopan, control of nature is a turning point in the hubris of humankind. He notes the U.S.S.R. experiments with weather control as a way to improve agricultural productivity. Frankopan suggests the real objective is to realize the potential of weather control as a weapon of war and goes on to explain how America capitalizes on that idea in the Vietnam war.

The irony and hubris of humanity in believing it can control the weather is evident in the despoiling of earth by human ignorance and action.

The profligate use of carbon-based energy for industrial growth far outstrips any science driven effort by humanity to control the weather. World ecology has proven too complex for constructive control by human beings. It is as though the world is being turned back to religion and myth to explain the phenomenon of world existence.

The last two chapters address overwhelming evidence for causes and consequences of late 20th and early 21st century world’ environmental damage.

From deforestation in the Amazon, to automobile increase in China, to waterway dams and aquifer depletion, a listener/reader’s fear and depression are kindled.

Harvard educated politicians like Ted Cruz and poorly educated Presidents like Donald Trump insist global warming is a hoax. As political power representatives of the wealthiest country in the world, one cannot but be appalled by climate change deniers.

The world’s future is based on an unknown solution to global warming.

Some suggest A.I. is key to solving global warming. Frankopan’s history suggests it is human beings that gave humanity the ability to overcome past crises. A.I. is one of humanities tools. It seems fair to suggest today’s crises will be another difficult chapter in the history of humanity. Judging by Frankopan’s history of human adaptation, global warming may not be humanities last chapter. However, Frankopan warns listerner/readers against the hubristic belief that nature can be controlled by humankind.

Stephen Hawking suggested humanity will not survive another 1,000 years on Earth and that human survival depends on colonization elsewhere in the Solar System. Frankopan seems to infer, humanity does not have that much time.

Frankopan wryly observes global warming is a crisis, but that human life is more likely to end from some other cataclysmic natural event like that which killed the dinosaurs (a meteor strike), a massive underwater volcanic eruption, or nuclear war before global warming kills us all.

One hopes histories past lessons inform a future that includes a place for the youth of this, the next, and future generations. World change brought on by crises have been overcome in the past through human adaptation. It seems reasonable to presume, despite the ignorance of some national leaders, that humanity will survive today’s global warming crisis.

HINDSIGHT (G.W.’S LEGACY)

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Landfall (A Novel)

By: Thomas Mallon

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Thomas Mallon (Author, novelist, essayist, and critic.)

Thomas Mallon’s book is a fictionalized account of George W. Bush’s administration. Mallon cleverly includes a fictional love story that adds some drama to his story. What one should be wary of is Mallon’s political bias and how it might color the story.

In listening to a book of fiction that uses the names of the known, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Fictionalizing history-making characters is particularly difficult when it is written about events of the near past. What helps is the knowledge that all history books are partly fictionalized by choice of an author’s facts. Revisionist history is why past Presidents have both risen and fallen in the eyes of historians and the public.

George W. Bush makes some bad decisions as a young man, but more importantly and significantly, as a two-term President.

The son of former President H. W. Bush comes across as a decent and flawed human being. America’s consequence from Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and George W.s response to Katrina show American government hubris and failure. Mallon’s story shows American’s fallibility as a democratic government. Both Republican and Democratic parties in America have made good and bad domestic and international decisions; some of which have been reversed, others not.

**Mallon writes of the difficulty of working through America’s deadly mistakes in Iraq.**

Mallon chooses to write a fictional account of the bad decisions made by President George W. Bush. Some of us have short memories but Mallon reminds listeners of the last four years of George W.’s Presidency. Some in Bush’s administration reluctantly suggest America must withdraw from the mess America created by removing Iraq’s autocratic and brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein. Some of George W.’s leaders were misled (or lied to themselves) about Iraq’s threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No one in George W.’s administration manages to persuade policy makers that American nation-building in foreign cultures is a fool’s errand.

Autocratic governments know little about what it means to be free, or at least free within the rule of law.

Mallon creates a story that implies there is a great deal of descension in the second term of George W.’s administration. This is particularly evident in the intellectual conflict between the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. There is a growing recognition by leaders in the administration, that America could not re-build Iraq’s government. Rumsfeld may have suggested immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq with political spin that infers America’s job is done. The President and Secretary of State Rice realize the Presidency and American resolve is tarnished by withdrawal, whether it is militarily or diplomatically accomplished. Mallon’s novel concludes G.W.’s legacy is the Iraq debacle and the mishandling of the Katrina disaster in Louisiana.

As time passes and history is rewritten, Mallon’s conclusions are likely to be repeated. Neither George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, nor Secretary Rice will be remembered as great leaders. It is not judgement about their patriotism or their desire to make America safer or better, but a consequence of political mistakes.

George W’s administration fails to understand nation-building is folly, and natural disasters are not about the dead but about quick and organized aid to survivors. Mallon’s book is a reminder of how difficult it is for any organization’s leader to become great in the eyes of history.

HUMAN SINGULARITY

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Heart of the Machine (Our Future in a World of Artificial Emotional Intelligence)

Release Date 3/14/17

By: Richard Yonck

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Richard Yonck (Author, futurist, consultant, TED speaker, MA from London Film School 1981-1983, Attended Univ. of Wa. 1977-1980.)

Richard Yonck argues the next step in technology is to program emotion into machines. As a skeptic, one’s first reaction is to search for information on Yonck’s background. One finds it is eclectic and more literary than science driven.

Yonck notes human learning is intimately connected with emotion. Emotions of parents and offspring arguably shape children’s view of the world as much as genetic inheritance. Yonck explains parents’ and people’s faces become a school from which children learn the characteristics of emotion. Yonck explains emotional signals reinforce human’ memory, belief, and behavior.

Yonck notes as the growth of facial recognition expands, facial expressions can be programmed into machines to interpret human emotion. The troubling thought is that machines programed with emotions may either negatively react to human facial expression or worse, become unbalanced, like children who act out of anger. With the addition of emotion, machines become capable of learning but also of becoming psychotic just like humans. Yonck suggests a safeguard like Asimov’s three robot rules that argues for programing machines to protect humanity. These rules are meant to deny machines any right to harm humans.

Assimov creates a fourth rule to preserve humanity, but a recurrent theme in his stories show ways in which these rules fail. In the real world, even if the rules were effective, who ensures all machines are programmed with Asimov’s rules?

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992, Russian born American author and professor of biochemistry.)

Programming emotions into machines gives them an essential requirement for learning but that learning can be subverted. Human nature accompanies every decision made by human beings, whether a Hitler or Mahatma Gandhi. A non-conforming leader could refuse to program machines with Asimov’s rules. Government leaders could have machines programmed to kill anyone who disagrees with their leadership.

Money, power, and prestige incentivize both good and bad leaders. The same might be said for learning machines.

Putting concern with the history of human nature aside, Yonck notes some benefits from programming emotions into machines. Machines will be able to think and learn on their own with emotion programming. The demographics of countries like China and Japan suggest an aging cohort will hinder economic growth and diminish needed help for relatives of the working population. Much of that help could be provided by programmed intelligent’ machines. Just as happened with the industrial revolution, jobs will be lost, and retraining will be required. But, a benefit will inure to the elderly who need assistance and the working young who do not have the time or inclination to care for the elderly.

Yonck’s inference is that thinking machines will replace many jobs in the world economy.

Yonck suggests machines will be partners and companions of human beings. Psycho-sexual relationships will develop between machines and humans. Machines will replace work for humans while increasing product research, development, and production. Machines will reduce social inequality by increasing the general wealth of the world. That is a best-case scenario.

A consequence of thinking-machine programming is that machines will either outlast their human companions or break down and be grieved by their survivors. Of course, machine death is not much different than the birth and death of humans. Humans break down (die) and are grieved by those left behind.

Another evolutionary possibility suggested by Yonck is the melding of human mind and machine. He notes a treatment for PTSD (actually approved by FDA) that involves electrical stimulation of a portion of the brain that appears to activate anxiety from recalled traumatic events. Yonck suggests continuing brain research will reveal neuronal pathways of thought and action that can be modified by electrical stimulation. He infers this is a first step in a journey toward a human/machine singularity like the transition from ape to humanoid to homo sapiens in geological history. He suggests a new human/machine society might be the next evolutionary change of humankind.

In the last chapters of Yonck’s book several examples of brain intervention are noted. Two interventions are direct with invasive insertions of wire into the brain and electrical stimulation from skull caps and clothing. A third type of intervention is with drugs. All have mixed results.

Yonck is a TED conference speaker. His writings have a quality of entertainment that makes him interesting if not steeped in science. On balance, Yonck appears more optimistic than pessimistic about the future of A.I. whether emotion programing for machines occurs or not.

VISITING LONDON

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

London: A Short History of the Greatest City in the Western World)

By: The Great Courses

Narrated by: Robert Bucholz

Robert O. Bucholz (Professor at Loyola University in Chicago, Graduate of Oxford and Cornell.)

Robert Bucholz’s brief history of London walks the curious through ancient and modern streets of London. Like John Wayne in “True Grit”, this history shows what grit means to British Londoners. Possibly as far back as 1750 BC, archeological remains show evidence of a community on the Thames that later becomes the site of London. Around the year 43 AD Londinium was founded by the Romans. It became the capital of Roman Britain with a population estimated at 60,000 inhabitants.

King Aethelberhtl (589-616AD.)

The Saxons displace the Romans in the 5^th century AD. An Anglo-Saxon (mixture of German and British descendants) was established as King. His name is Aethelberht (spelling varies). He was the first Anglo-Saxon king to convert to Christianity.

Bucholz notes Saint Mellitus is the first bishop of London appointed when a Cathedral is dedicated to St. Paul in AD 604. Though the site (the highest point in the city, Ludgate Hill) is the same today as then, the original cathedral evolved and was replaced four times.

It was destroyed in the “Great Fire of London” in 1666 and soon after rebuilt to its current form at the direction of Christopher Wren.

In 1066 the Saxons are replaced by the Normans (mixture of Vikings and French). They rule into the 1400s when the Tudor’ monarchs (a mixture of Welsh and English) come to power. King Henry VII, and then Henry VIII take charge.

King Henry VIII (1491-1547, Coronation 1509)

It is the reign of Henry VIII that is most well-known, in part, because of the split that occurs between the Roman Catholic Church and England’s Protestant Anglican Church. The other reason Henry becomes well-known is because of his future wife, Anne Boleyn, whom he has beheaded. The consequence of church schism reverberates through the rest of London’s history.

Bucholz gives a brief history of Chaucer who is born around 1340 and lives until 1400. Chaucer lives in the heart of London. Though Chaucer is known to most as the author of the Canterbury Tales, he is an important servant of the crown as comptroller of customs at the Port of London.

Bucholz reminds his audience of the first Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She is shown as a consummate politician by opening herself to the London public.

The wealth of the empire was diminished by the devaluation of money and profligacy of King Henry the VIII. Elizabeth’s political skill replenishes the royal coffers. London grows to an estimated 200,000 residents. Though the wealth of the royal coffers improves, poverty rises dramatically. Bucholz notes the population increase in London rises faster than the economic benefits to its people. The increase is not from natural births but from the country people moving into the city in greater numbers than can be handled by the local economy. Bucholz notes more babies die than needed to replace the population that dies from natural causes.

Bucholz briefly recounts the unsuccessful gunpowder revolution during James I’s reign (1601-1625). James I is not a popular King. Though he manages to bring Scotland into the empire, the rift between Catholics and protestants continues to roil the country. At the same time, poverty increases as London’s population expands.

Jumping to the 1800s, Bucholz addresses the consequence of London’s rapid growth. Now the population is nearing a million. Pollution, crime, and poverty are aggravated by industrialization. Crime is an everyday reality ranging from pickpockets to, to prostitution, to the infamous “Jack the Ripper” murders. The Thames is a running sewer, streets are spottily paved, the city is dark or poorly lit by candles, burning torches are carried by guides who will pick your pocket as often as guide you through the city.

The infamous London fog is caused by coal burning factories and home heating demands. This is the London which Charles Dickens writes of in “A Christmas Carol”, “Oliver Twist”, “Great Expectations” and “A Tale of Two Cities”.

Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850, Home Secy, Chancellor of ther Exchequer, Prime Minister served from1828-1846.)

Each 19^th century problem is attacked by London’s leaders. In 1829, Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel forms a municipal police force. Initially, it was formed for the countryside on the outskirts of London but became institutionalized and eventually adopted within the London city boundaries. Those who were employed in these new police wore uniforms, including distinctive hats. They became known as “Bobbies”, possibly because of Peel’s first name. By 1851, there were 13,000 police across England and Wales.

Cholera infected the London’s population because of Thames’ pollution.

By 1858, the stink from the Thames was so great in the summer that one had to hold their nose. Cholera and the stink of the river dropped dramatically when a large system of sewers was built. It was commissioned by the Metropolitan Board of Works which became the London County Council in 1889. It was designed by Joseph Bazalgette, an English civil engineer. It took 9 years to build with future repairs and improvements as the years passed and the population continued to grow.

Its estimated length is around 82 miles of brick main sewers and 1,100 miles of street sewers.

Joseph Bazalgette (1819-1891, English Civil Engineer.)

A British Clean Air Act was passed in 1956. The key to its abatement was the reduction of coal burning particle emissions. Of course, pollution remains a worldwide problem.

London fog worsened through to the 1950s. In December 1952, the pollution level grew so dense, 150,000 people were hospitalized and an estimated 4,000 died.

Bucholz reminds listeners of Londoner’s grit during WWI and WWII. WWI introduces the reality of war to every 20th and 21st century human. The consequence of war never leaves those who experience it. PTSD is not diagnosed in WWI but found as an incurable disorder in all subsequent wars. It is never cured but many have learned how to live with it. With the help of friends and medical assistance, PTSD is managed by many but not all.

Visiting London today is a great pleasure. It has some of the greatest theatres, museums, and entertainments of the world. Bucholz’s history of London shows political unrest, pollution, poverty, and crime are killers but there are solutions.

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