![\"\"](\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Wappers_belgian_revolution.jpg\" "\\"Wapperss")
<\/a>At Bethel University<\/a>, history professor Chris Gehrz<\/a> produced a podcast<\/a> called Radio Modern Europe for his course, HIS354 Modern Europe. The format is clever, using multiple means of presenting the material: short lectures, of course, but also breaking news bits, simulated interviews with historical figures, and even recipes.<\/p>\nThe easiest way to access Gehrz’s podcasts is through iTunes, by looking up “Modern Europe History” in the iTunes U section of the iTunes Store and finding the Bethel University option. (Or simply clicking here<\/a>, which hopefully will launch iTunes and send it directly to the correct place.) Don’t worry, the series doesn’t cost anything: Just click on “Subscribe” or “Get Tracks”.<\/p>\n If you don’t want to use iTunes, you may be able to get the tracks from a sort of RSS feed, linked here<\/a>. But using that link may take some hacking around. <\/p>\n I just finished the third of 11 tracks, “Liberalism and Socialism”, so I can’t write a proper review of the entire series. But it’s good enough to recommend that you follow along with me. Gehrz presents what I would consider the mainstream version<\/a> of European history. In some sections, Gehrz refers to slideshow presentations available through Blackboard, which is a kind of private Lotus Notes (or bulletin board) for colleges. It’s too bad we can’t follow along with his students, but the podcast lessons work pretty well by themselves, if you’d just like an idea of how Europe became the place we know today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Was your New Year’s Resolution to become familiar with European history? If so, you’re going to love our recommendation for an entertaining way to survey European history from the French Revolution to the present day. If you have a long commute, you’ll especially like the medium: hour-long audio tracks, produced by a history professor. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1130,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions\/1130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"iTunesU_MEurope500\"](\"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/apps\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/iTunesU_MEurope500.jpg\" "\\"iTunesU_MEurope500\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/6\/6e\/Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_023.jpg\" "\\"Goyas")
<\/a>That’s no defect in the podcast, given its assumption that the listener knows little about Europe. (And I should mention that the audio tracks are not the only source of information for the intended audience: students who spend much more time on a full college course.) A novice like myself should start with the orthodox view, after all.<\/p>\n