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Why doesn't history feel like history while we're living through it? The French Revolution. The outbreak of World War I. The Roaring Twenties. Looking back, these moments seem obvious, dramatic, and inevitable. But for most of the people who lived through them, they felt surprisingly ordinary. In this episode of Context with Brad Harris, historian Brad Harris explores the gap between lived history and remembered history. Why has Louis XVI's famous journal entry—"Nothing"—been misunderstood for more than two centuries? Why did most Americans experience the Roaring Twenties very differently from the version we remember today? And why do even civilization-changing events quickly become part of everyday life? Drawing on the work of historian Fernand Braudel, eyewitness accounts from 1914, and examples ranging from the French Revolution to artificial intelligence, this episode argues that history is shaped by two powerful forces: hindsight compresses the past into memorable stories, while human beings rapidly normalize even the most extraordinary changes. If you've ever wondered how future generations will remember the 2020s, or whether we're overlooking the real turning points of our own era, this episode is for you. Topics: French Revolution, Louis XVI, Fernand Braudel, Annales School, World War I, Roaring Twenties, history, historical memory, hindsight, artificial intelligence, civilization, culture, philosophy of history. Access bonus episodes and support the show on Patreon. Learn more at https://www.bradharris.com/ Purchase the full series, How It Began: A History of the Modern World.
Episode Summary: The Age of Victoria continues its 2026 “Famine & Revolution” series by stepping away from the political scandals of Lola Montez and into the microscopic world of a biological invader. In this episode, we begin our deep dive into the “Hungry Forties” by looking at the environmental and material foundations of the era. Using the “Longue Durée” framework of the Annales School, we explore the forces that dictate the fate of civilizations. We examine the “Malthusian Trap”—the point where surging urban populations outstripped the land's ability to feed them—and why the humble potato was both the savior and the Achilles’ heel of the 19th-century economy. Support the Show: This podcast is fiercely independent and relies on listener support to maintain access to academic archives and primary sources. To help us reach our goal of 25 paying patrons this month and keep the history deep, please join the crew at: Patreon.com/ageofvictoria Key Topics Covered: The Annales School & Fernand Braudel: Why history is more than just economics or the work of great people—it is the slow, grinding reality of the “Longue Durée”: climate, biology, and the material systems that constrain human action. The “Biological Invader”: The science of Phytophthora infestans. How a fungus from the Americas managed to cross the Atlantic and “dissolve” the food supply of a continent. The Malthusian Trap: A demographic analysis of the early 19th century. We look at the “tipping point” where population growth finally collided with limited agricultural resources. Urbanisation & The Hinterland: How industrial mega-cities like London and Paris broke the traditional link between people and their food sources, creating a precarious global supply chain. The Chemistry of the Potato: Why the potato was the “perfect” industrial crop—producing more calories per acre than any grain—and why its monoculture became a death trap. The Global “Hungry Forties”: Debunking the myth that the famine was a localized event; tracing the “Pandemic of Rot” as it moved from the USA to Belgium, Prussia, Scotland, and Ireland. Works Cited & Sources: Donnelly, James S., Jr. The Great Irish Potato Famine. (A principal source for the socio-political impact and the progression of the blight). Braudel, Fernand. The Structures of Everyday Life: The Limits of the Possible. * Allen, Robert C. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. Bairoch, Paul. Cities and Economic Development: From the Dawn of History to the Present. Wrigley, E.A. Poverty, Progress and Population. De Vries, Jan. European Urbanization, 1500–1800. Grigg, David. The Agricultural Systems of the World: An Evolutionary Approach. Flinn, M.W. Scottish Population History from the 17th Century to the 1930s. Vaughan, W.E. and Fitzpatrick, A.J. Irish Historical Statistics: Population 1821–1971. Bhardwaj, Raju Lal et al. “An Alarming Decline in the Nutritional Quality of Foods.” Foods (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 13,6 877. Clark, Stuart. The Annales School: Critical Assessments. Trinder, “Britain's industrial revolution.” pp575-602 https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/royal-agricultural-society-of-england/ https://victoryseeds.com/pages/potato-famine Allen, Robert C., The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Gráda, Cormac Ó. “The Lumper Potato and the Famine.” History Ireland, vol. 1, no. 1, 1993, pp. 22–23. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27724042. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026. Solar, Peter M. “Why Ireland Starved and the Big Issues in Pre-Famine Irish Economic History.” Irish Economic and Social History, vol. 42, 2015, pp. 62–75. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26375915. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026. The post EP066 THE PANDEMIC OF ROT appeared first on AGE OF VICTORIA PODCAST.
This video elaborates on the Annales School of History writing, highlighting its origin, development & contribution in the field of History & Historiography. Join online classes for UGC NET History preparation. For queries mail us on veenus.jain2607@gmail.com or message us at 8454931380. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/venus-jain3/message
Television had been transformed by the rise of the format. In The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution Jean Chalaby, Professor of International Communication at City University London, charts the beginnings of the format for TV shows, through the globalization of the trade in TV formats, to conclude with reflections on the future of local and global TV markets. The book uses an eclectic set of theoretical frames, including Global Value Chains, World Systems Theory and work of the Annales School, to chart the political economy of the TV format. Using a wide range of examples, detailed case studies of local markets and local production systems (including the UK), the book shows how the format is now crucial to the modern television industry encompassing everything from the game show to the long form drama. The book will be of interest to all media and communications scholars, as well as anyone keen to know why we have the sorts of television programmes we have on our screens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Television had been transformed by the rise of the format. In The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution Jean Chalaby, Professor of International Communication at City University London, charts the beginnings of the format for TV shows, through the globalization of the trade in TV formats, to conclude with reflections on the future of local and global TV markets. The book uses an eclectic set of theoretical frames, including Global Value Chains, World Systems Theory and work of the Annales School, to chart the political economy of the TV format. Using a wide range of examples, detailed case studies of local markets and local production systems (including the UK), the book shows how the format is now crucial to the modern television industry encompassing everything from the game show to the long form drama. The book will be of interest to all media and communications scholars, as well as anyone keen to know why we have the sorts of television programmes we have on our screens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Television had been transformed by the rise of the format. In The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution Jean Chalaby, Professor of International Communication at City University London, charts the beginnings of the format for TV shows, through the globalization of the trade in TV formats, to conclude with reflections on the future of local and global TV markets. The book uses an eclectic set of theoretical frames, including Global Value Chains, World Systems Theory and work of the Annales School, to chart the political economy of the TV format. Using a wide range of examples, detailed case studies of local markets and local production systems (including the UK), the book shows how the format is now crucial to the modern television industry encompassing everything from the game show to the long form drama. The book will be of interest to all media and communications scholars, as well as anyone keen to know why we have the sorts of television programmes we have on our screens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Television had been transformed by the rise of the format. In The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution Jean Chalaby, Professor of International Communication at City University London, charts the beginnings of the format for TV shows, through the globalization of the trade in TV formats, to conclude with reflections on the future of local and global TV markets. The book uses an eclectic set of theoretical frames, including Global Value Chains, World Systems Theory and work of the Annales School, to chart the political economy of the TV format. Using a wide range of examples, detailed case studies of local markets and local production systems (including the UK), the book shows how the format is now crucial to the modern television industry encompassing everything from the game show to the long form drama. The book will be of interest to all media and communications scholars, as well as anyone keen to know why we have the sorts of television programmes we have on our screens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Television had been transformed by the rise of the format. In The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution Jean Chalaby, Professor of International Communication at City University London, charts the beginnings of the format for TV shows, through the globalization of the trade in TV formats, to conclude with reflections on the future of local and global TV markets. The book uses an eclectic set of theoretical frames, including Global Value Chains, World Systems Theory and work of the Annales School, to chart the political economy of the TV format. Using a wide range of examples, detailed case studies of local markets and local production systems (including the UK), the book shows how the format is now crucial to the modern television industry encompassing everything from the game show to the long form drama. The book will be of interest to all media and communications scholars, as well as anyone keen to know why we have the sorts of television programmes we have on our screens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Television had been transformed by the rise of the format. In The Format Age: Television’s Entertainment Revolution Jean Chalaby, Professor of International Communication at City University London, charts the beginnings of the format for TV shows, through the globalization of the trade in TV formats, to conclude with reflections on the future of local and global TV markets. The book uses an eclectic set of theoretical frames, including Global Value Chains, World Systems Theory and work of the Annales School, to chart the political economy of the TV format. Using a wide range of examples, detailed case studies of local markets and local production systems (including the UK), the book shows how the format is now crucial to the modern television industry encompassing everything from the game show to the long form drama. The book will be of interest to all media and communications scholars, as well as anyone keen to know why we have the sorts of television programmes we have on our screens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices