A Damned Serious Business. La Haye Sainte Waterloo strongpoint
Brendan Simms, Professor of the History of International Relations at Cambridge, explains the vital role taken by four hundred men of the King’s German Legion at Waterloo, in relation to the University Library’s exhibition ‘A damned serious business: Waterloo 1815, the battle and its books’.
It has been a damned serious business. Blücher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing—the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. - The Duke of Wellington, 19 June 1815, quoted by Thomas Creevey.
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, ten miles south of Brussels in what was then the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the climactic engagement of a campaign that pitted an invading French army under Napoleon Bonaparte against a combined force of Allied troops—chiefly British, Netherlandish and Hanoverian—commanded by the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian army led by Gebhard von Blücher. The French were routed, and the warfare that had plagued Europe for more than two decades was definitively ended: there were to be no hostilities on such a scale on the continent until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Through its impact on the politics and power-relationships of a Europe approaching the height of its worldwide influence, the outcome of Waterloo remains significant to this day.
Although Cambridge University Library has never set out to assemble a specific, single collection relating to Waterloo, the strength and breadth of our accessioning activity mean that over the course of two hundred years we have amassed a rich and fascinating variety of written records, maps and book arts relating to the battle and the era in which it played so significant a part. To mark the bicentenary of Waterloo, this Digital Library collection presents a sample of such material, encompassing military drill-books, manuscript letters, hand-coloured engravings, battlefield plans, printed mementos and tourist reminiscences.
Virtual Exhibition
Cambridge Digital Library
Music: British Grenadiers Fife by Bryan Davis. Music ID#:27502885
Film made by: Blazej Mikula
Medieval Books of Hours in the Public Library of Bruges
The Public Library of Bruges presents a brief documentary about the patronage, content and use of medieval Books of Hours. The Biekorf (Beehive) Library, best known for its collection of Cistercian manuscripts from the abbeys of Ten Duinen en Ter Doest, holds 21 medieval Books of Hours. Visit our collections at
A Dutch version of this documentary is also available on Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=kbaespMWPK0
Art, Fiction, & History: The Work of W.G. Sebald
In this roundtable, Mark Anderson (Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Columbia University), Daniel Kehlmann (Novelist and Fellow, The New York Public Library), and Judith Ryan (Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Harvard University) discuss the relationship between fiction and history in W.G. Sebald’s work.
Sebald situates his work in the gray zone between fiction and history, positioning himself with both proximity and distance to his subject matter, alternating between first-hand victim and third-hand witness. At the center of Sebald’s writing is the taboo of the “wrongful trespass:” a fear that either he will falsely identify with events he himself has not experienced or that his objectivity will dilute the emotional impact of what he describes. This roundtable, moderated by André Acian (Distinguished Professor, The Graduate Center CUNY) examines how Sebald responds to this concern by creating works that straddle the boundary between fact and fiction in order to portray and grapple with historical events.
Presented on May 6, 2017, with the Critical Theory Certificate Program, the Writers’ Institute, and the Center for the Humanities.
REC2019 | Session 2-01 | Dr. Phyllis Zagano
Workshop 2-01: Dr. Phyllis Zagano: Women Deacons: Who Were They? What Did They Do?
'Illumination' at the Jewish Museum, London
Medieval and renaissance manuscripts and other objects, some never before seen in the UK, have been loaned from the Vatican Library, the Bodleian and the Oxford Science Museum for this new exhibition, Illuminations, at the renovated Jewish Museum in London. Simon Schama and Alan Yentob opened the exhibition. The video, recorded by Ruth Gledhill for The Times, features in order of appearance, museum director Rickie Burman, curator Robin Navrozov and designer Patrick Kinmonth. Ruth Gledhill's story for The Times about this is (via paywall) at Ruth has also posted this video on her blog, Articles of Faith, at The Times:
Emma Capron: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and the Charterhouse of Bruges
September 26, 2018
Emma Capron, 2016–18 Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, The Frick Collection
In the 1440s, Jan Vos, the prior of the Charterhouse of Bruges, commissioned two panel paintings from Jan van Eyck and Petrus Christus. Now considered masterpieces of early Netherlandish painting, these works are reunited at The Frick Collection for only the second time in their history. The curator of the special exhibition examines the panels in their Carthusian context, highlighting how images shaped devotional life and funerary practices in late medieval Europe.
[previously hosted on Vimeo: 769 views]
France Travel Skills
Rick Steves European Travel Talk | France travel expert Steve Smith describes scintillating Paris, Normandy's D-Day beaches, Loire châteaux, Dordogne cave art, fortified Carcassonne, Burgundy vineyards, alpine peaks, hill towns of Provence, and the glitzy French Riviera — and teaches skills for traveling in France. Download the PDF handout for this class: goo.gl/lHh0Sd
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Sophie Calle
Sophie Calle is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement of the 1960s known as Oulipo. Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like ability to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. Her photographic work often includes panels of text of her own writing.
Since 2005 Sophie Calle has taught as a professor of film and photography at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. She has lectured at the University of California, San Diego in the Visual Arts Department. She has also taught at Mills College in Oakland, California. Exhibitions featuring the work of Sophie Calle took place at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, at Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris, at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium; Videobrasil, SESC Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil; Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK; and the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
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Karl Marx | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Karl Marx
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
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Karl Marx (German: [ˈkaɐ̯l ˈmaɐ̯ks]; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary.
Born in Trier, Germany, to a Jewish middle-class family, Marx studied law and philosophy at university. Due to his political publications, Marx became stateless and lived in exile in London for decades, where he continued to develop his thought in collaboration with German thinker Friedrich Engels and publish his writings, researching in the reading room of the British Museum. His best-known titles are the 1848 pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto, and the three-volume Das Kapital. His political and philosophical thought had enormous influence on subsequent intellectual, economic and political history and his name has been used as an adjective, a noun and a school of social theory.
Marx's theories about society, economics and politics—collectively understood as Marxism—hold that human societies develop through class struggle. In capitalism, this manifests itself in the conflict between the ruling classes (known as the bourgeoisie) that control the means of production and the working classes (known as the proletariat) that enable these means by selling their labour power in return for wages. Employing a critical approach known as historical materialism, Marx predicted that, like previous socio-economic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system: socialism. For Marx, class antagonisms under capitalism, owing in part to its instability and crisis-prone nature, would eventuate the working class' development of class consciousness, leading to their conquest of political power and eventually the establishment of a classless, communist society constituted by a free association of producers. Marx actively pressed for its implementation, arguing that the working class should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic emancipation.Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and his work has been both lauded and criticised. His work in economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and subsequent economic thought. Many intellectuals, labour unions, artists and political parties worldwide have been influenced by Marx's work, with many modifying or adapting his ideas. Marx is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science.
Pyotr Illiych Tchaikovsky Documentary
Wasco Productions 2018 Presents Pyotr Illiych Tchaikovsky Documentary
This video was made for Education. Not for Profit!
The Sixty-Fourth A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts: Restoration as Event and Idea: Art in Europe
The Sixty-Fourth A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts: Restoration as Event and Idea: Art in Europe, 1814-1820: Part 5: The Laboratory of Brussels, 1816-1819: The Apprentice Navez and the Master David Redraw the Language of Art
Emily Bronte - Stars
Emily Jane Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848)was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She wrote under the pen name Ellis Bell.
Emily Brontë was born in the village of Thornton, West Riding of Yorkshire, in Northern England, to Maria Branwell and an Irish father, Patrick Brontë.She was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë and the fifth of six children, though the two oldest girls, Maria and Elizabeth, died in childhood. In 1820, shortly after the birth of Emily's younger sister Anne, the family moved eight miles away to Haworth, where Patrick was employed as perpetual curate; here the children developed their literary talents.
Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in Halifax beginning in September 1838, when she was twenty. Her health broke under the stress of the 17 hour work day and she returned home in April 1839. Thereafter she became the stay-at-home daughter, doing most of the cooking, ironing, and cleaning and teaching Sunday school. She taught herself German out of books and also practised piano.
In 1842, Emily accompanied Charlotte to the Héger Pensionnat in Brussels, Belgium, where they attended the girls' academy run by Constantin Héger. They planned to perfect their French and German in anticipation of opening their school. Nine of Emily's French essays survive from this period.
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights was first published in London in 1847, appearing as the first two volumes of a three-volume set that included Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey. The authors were printed as being Ellis and Acton Bell; Emily's real name did not appear until 1850, when it was printed on the title page of an edited commercial edition. The novel's innovative structure somewhat puzzled critics.
Wuthering Heights's violence and passion led the Victorian public and many early reviewers to think that it had been written by a man. According to Juliet Gardiner, the vivid sexual passion and power of its language and imagery impressed, bewildered and appalled reviewers. Even though it received mixed reviews when it first came out, and was often condemned for its portrayal of amoral passion, the book subsequently became an English literary classic.
Although a letter from her publisher indicates that Emily had begun to write a second novel, the manuscript has never been found. Perhaps Emily, or a member of her family, eventually destroyed the manuscript, if it existed, when she was prevented by illness from completing it. It has also been suggested that, though less likely, the letter could have been intended for Anne Brontë, who was already writing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, her second novel. In any case, no manuscript of a second novel by Emily has survived.
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Dublin and Mystical Side Trips
Rick Steves' Europe Travel Guide | Dublin's story is of feast and famine — from its 18th-century Golden Age to its 20th-century struggles for independence to its boomtime today. We explore the town's foreboding castle and patriotic jail, plus Trinity College with its Book of Kells. Later we party in Temple Bar, awash in Celtic music and Guinness. We side-trip to the prehistoric necropolis of Newgrange and the medieval monastery at Glendalough, deep in the scenic Wicklow Mountains. © 2002 Rick Steves' Europe
Father of Europe - Discussing Charlemagne. [English Subtitles]
Professor Alessandro Barbero narrates a bit of what happened in the European continent after the weakening and virtual disappearance of the Roman Empire in the West.
Karl der Große, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, Carlo Magno. No matter by which name we call him, the title of Rex Pater Europae is indeed well deserved.
Charles found a crumbling continent, and brought it back to life, reshaping it under the authority of the Franks, and uniting it under the Catholic Church.
Jose Rizal | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Jose Rizal
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written
language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
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SUMMARY
=======
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Realonda, widely known as José Rizal
(Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse riˈsal]; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), was a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the tail end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement which advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.
He was executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime of rebellion after the Philippine Revolution, inspired in part by his writings, broke out. Though he was not actively involved in its planning or conduct, he ultimately approved of its goals which eventually led to Philippine independence.
He is widely considered one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines and has been recommended to be so honored by an officially empaneled National Heroes Committee. However, no law, executive order or proclamation has been enacted or issued officially proclaiming any Filipino historical figure as a national hero. He was the author of the novels Noli Me Tángere and El filibusterismo, and a number of poems and essays.
Werken bij Port of Antwerp? U warm aanbevolen!
Onze collega's tonen zich van hun sportiefste en warmste kant. Kom jij ons vervoegen? Kijk op
History of science and technology in Africa | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:00:29 1 Early humans
00:02:28 2 Education
00:02:37 2.1 Nile Valley
00:03:17 2.2 The Sahel
00:04:14 3 Astronomy
00:04:47 3.1 Western desert of Egypt
00:05:12 3.2 Nile Valley
00:06:08 3.3 The Sahel
00:06:58 3.4 Turkana Basin
00:07:30 3.5 South Africa
00:08:03 4 Mathematics
00:08:12 4.1 Central and Southern Africa
00:09:25 4.2 Nile Valley
00:11:28 4.3 The Sahel
00:12:09 5 Metallurgy
00:12:18 5.1 West Africa
00:12:32 5.2 The Sahara
00:13:54 5.3 The Sahel
00:15:23 5.4 Nile Valley
00:15:50 5.5 Aksum
00:16:56 5.6 East Africa
00:17:28 6 Medicine
00:17:47 6.1 West Africa
00:19:21 6.2 The Sahel
00:19:30 6.3 Nile Valley
00:20:02 6.4 East Africa
00:20:28 6.5 South Africa
00:22:48 7 Agriculture
00:23:52 7.1 Northern Africa and the Nile Valley
00:24:42 7.2 Ethiopia
00:24:51 7.3 The Sahel and West Africa
00:26:02 7.4 East Africa
00:27:31 7.5 Southern Africa
00:29:19 8 Textiles
00:29:55 8.1 Nile Valley
00:31:11 8.2 Ethiopia
00:31:20 8.3 Northern Africa
00:31:39 8.4 The Sahel and West Africa
00:32:15 8.5 Central Africa
00:32:29 8.6 East Africa
00:33:31 8.7 Southern Africa
00:33:50 9 Maritime technology
00:34:40 9.1 North Africa
00:35:28 9.2 The Sahel and West Africa
00:35:55 9.3 Nile Valley
00:36:38 9.4 Horn of Africa and the Swahili Coast
00:38:30 10 Architecture
00:39:50 10.1 West Africa
00:41:09 10.2 North Africa and the Sahel
00:41:18 10.3 Nile Valley
00:42:33 10.4 Ethiopia
00:43:14 10.5 Southern Africa
00:43:59 11 Communication systems
00:44:21 11.1 Nile Valley
00:45:17 11.2 The Sahel
00:45:50 11.3 West Africa
00:47:04 11.4 Central Africa
00:47:37 11.5 East Africa and Madagascar
00:49:18 12 Warfare
00:49:39 12.1 Nile Valley
00:49:57 12.2 North Africa and the Sahel
00:52:46 12.3 Southern Africa
00:54:30 13 Commerce
00:55:35 13.1 North Africa
00:56:19 13.2 West Africa and the Sahel
00:57:03 13.3 Nile Valley
00:58:01 13.4 Horn of Africa
01:01:13 13.5 East Africa
01:01:36 14 Current scientific research in Africa
01:02:05 15 See also
01:02:50 16 References
01:04:29 17 External links
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
Listen on Google Assistant through Extra Audio:
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Upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Africa has the world's oldest record of human technological achievement: the oldest stone tools in the world have been found in eastern Africa, and later evidence for tool production by our hominin ancestors has been found across Sub-Saharan Africa. The history of science and technology in Africa since then has, however, received relatively little attention compared to other regions of the world, despite notable African developments in mathematics, metallurgy, architecture, and other fields.
Alexander Graham Bell | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Alexander Graham Bell
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone. He also founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Although Bell was not one of the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society, he had a strong influence on the magazine while serving as the second president from January 7, 1898, until 1903.
Napoleon III
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the first President of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I. He was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. However, when he was blocked by the Constitution and Parliament from running for a second term, he organized a coup d'état in 1851, and then took the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation.
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Crucial Instances Audiobook by Edith Wharton | Short Stories with Subtitles
0:07 - story 1.The Duchess at Prayer
42:45 - story 2.The Angel at the Grave
1:19:50 - story 3.The Recovery
2:02:09 - story 4.Copy (play )
2:28:30 - story 5.The Rembrandt
3:05:25 - story 6.The Moving Finger
3:41:28 - story 7.The Confessional
Crucial Instances by Edith WHARTON
This is Edith Wharton's second published collection of short stories (1901). One of these seven stories, Copy: A Dialogue, is written as a short play. The role of Hilda is read by Arielle Lipshaw, and the role of Ventnor by Mark F. Smith. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)
Genre(s): General Fiction, Short Stories Audio Book Audiobooks All Rights Reserved. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer visit librivox.org.