I didn’t have high hopes Enemies: A History of the FBI
I learned a lot about the history of the FBI so the book succeeded in its goal. I had no idea that Hoover was such a large part of the agency. For the first 2/3 of the book I felt like I was reading his biography.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the FBI. I now feel I have a better understanding of one of our nations super secret agencies.
This will be a quick post to tell you about the great book group I found on goodreads.com. It is for people who like to read history books. Every month the book group reads different books. You can choose to participate in all group reads or just in the ones that are reading books you are interested in.
The best part is the free books. Ever once and a while the group leader will receive free books from publishers. Around 30 copies are usually sent to him. He then ask who would be willing to read the book and participate in the group discussion online. If you agree you are put in the running to receive the book. No shipping fees, nothing. Just a free book with the understanding that you will participate in the discussion once it begins. I did this already once for Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch. It was a great read and the discussion was wonderful.
If this sounds like something you would like to do head on over to Goodreads History Book Club. Joining Goodreads is free and joining the history book club is free. Right now the free book that we are all reading is Enemies: A History of the FBI. It is not too late to join in the discussion on this book if you want to pick up the book yourself and join in the conversation. Everyone is welcome.
On July 9, we start reading Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. You still have plenty of time to pick this one up. There are also other book readings going on in this group at the same time. So, have a look around and see if there is anything you are interested in. The Catherine read has already maxed out on the free books available, but join the group now so you don’t miss out on the next free book group read.
If you start reading the FBI or Catherine book as part of the online group read, please let me know on the goodreads discussion boards. I’d like to know if some history podcast listeners are out there. I will be reading the books right along with you.
I saw the in the app store and could not resist checking it out. After all it is free. And it seems like more and more people have iPads now.
As you can see from above it’s a completely separate app you will need to download, but it is free so if you have the space go ahead and download it.
That’s what it looks like and you can preview the content that will be available once you download too.
Once you download it will be available in an app that looks just like iBooks.
And here is a look at the content that you get for free.
I recently read Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
Zuckoff writes in a way that is very readable especially for those with no interest in history. There is action, adventure and drama in this great book. It all happens during WWII but there is very little about the war in this book, it all about a small group of people stranded after a plane crash. I don’t want to say anything more because this book is very much worth your time if you decide to read it. I really enjoyed this book and I think any reader of this site will too. If you have read it please let me know what you thought of it in the comments. Happy reading!
For a long time I have wanted to write a post about what I do to produce a podcast. For episode 119 The Thirty Years War I first did a lot of research. I read about the war on wikipedia, then I searched the Internet for other sources. I found Hank’s History Hour episode on the religious wars, and I found Nathan Barber’s website. I listened to what Mr. Barber had on his website and I read the materials he had there. Then I started writing long hand, 10 pages. I also stopped at my local library to see what they had as far as books. I borrowed The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy
Then it was time to start recording. Easier said then done though. There are a few problems to recording. First finding the time to have a quiet house. For those who don’t know I have a little girl that is currently 2 and a half. If you know two and a half year-olds, then you know they are not a quiet group. Secondly, my microphone is packed up and at my in-laws home, since we have been trying to move for a year now, with no luck. The housing market in Southern California is less than ideal. So I had to record on the built in microphone on my laptop.
I went back and started using Audacity to record my podcast with. It is free and easy to use. After recording I use another program to normalize the audio so it is not too quiet or too loud anywhere. That software is called levelator. Then I import back into Audacity for finishing touches, like adding the intro music. After which I usually add the tags to the podcast using iTunes, but I think I forgot to do that this last time, so you may notice that.
Then it is already to go and I upload to Libsyn. After they have it, it is time to update my rss feed for the podcast and post the accompanying blog article. Thats it. Well, thats it for the audio portion of the podcast. For the Thirty Years War I also did a video, a PDF history guide and a timeline. I haven’t always done all these “extras”. I probably won’t continue to do them either. I didn’t get any feedback on any of the extras and I received very little feedback on the actual audio podcast.
There it is. If there are any questions just post them in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks!
This is my first time attaching a PDF in wordpress, so lets hope it works. This is the last bit of information on the thirty years war. I think we have covered this topic pretty well. I’m thinking about the next podcast already. Hopefully, I will be able to one again soon.
We finally have another podcast out! You voted for it! We finally have a winner. 17 of you voted 4 of those votes were for the Thirty Years War. So here it is. I hope you all enjoy it. One of Eric K.’s request can finally been crossed out. I hope you all enjoy this podcast and more importantly learn something from it. Above is a picture of Wallenstein’s Palace.
I’ll be posting up the PDF soon as well. Might take longer for the video. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Below are some of the related links:
Nathan Barber’s website – http://apeuro.nathanbarber.com/StudyAids/studyaids.html
The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy
Eyewitness Accounts of the Thirty Years War 1618-48
While you guys are still fighting over what podcast topic to cover next, 30 years war and Japan’s aspirations leading to WWII are still tied, you might want to take a look at some of these podcasts. I’ve already reviewed a few to help you choose. Also, I’m going to start working on something for the 30 years war this weekend. But you can still vote on the poll below:
Choose the next podcast episode
Total Voters: 17
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Time for a short re-cap of last months top topics:
Texas City Disaster – A 1947 harbor explosion in Texas City.
Congress of Vienna – A 1815 congress that divided up the different areas of Europe.
London Bridge sold to an American – in 1968 a oil tycoon bought the London bridge.
Vladimir Komarov & Yuri Gagarin – The mystery of what really happened to these two astronauts may soon be revealed.
Cleopatra – Learn about one of the most famous women in history.
Every once and a while I try to stop by TED because they have really cool presentations there and you can watch them for free. One day a few weeks ago I did that and I stumbled upon this:
I thought this was very cool. He has some great videos up on youtube here are just some of them. Never mind, I can’t embed it here so you will have to use the link above to check it out.
