Turning Points in Modern History - Great Courses

The Great Courses offering of Turning Points in Modern History by Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, Ph.D. covers historical events from the 1433 voyages of Chinese Admiral Zheng He up to the development of Facebook and the internet in the 2000's. The Chinese chose to pull back from exploration allowing the Europeans to begin the Columbian Exchange with its negative consequences for the people who had arrived earlier in the Americas.

The course is not centered on the American perspective. I appreciated learning about the dawn of the women's movement that started first in New Zealand and gradually spread around the world. The lessons from the temperance movement about organizing were used to move forward women's right to vote. The abolition of Slavery started in the UK and then spread to the Americas.

The first modern war between the Japanese and the Russians was resolved by a peace treaty brokered by Teddy Roosevelt. Japan learned the wrong lessons from that war and attempted to apply it at the start of World War II. 

The professor contrasts peaceful accidents of history such as the fall of the Berlin Wall with the violent crushing of the Chinese student protests around the same time. Do leaders have the will to kill their own people? The leaders of the Soviet coup attempt against Gorbachev did not. The Chinese leaders did.

Summary of Turning points - 2 min. 

HG Wells and table top war games - 41 seconds

Nuke the moon - 30 seconds

Customs of the world: Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherevever You are

I enjoyed the lectures in Professor David Livermore's Customs of the World: Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherever You Are. I don't do the extensive world traveling that the instructor does, but I do encounter people from all over the world as part of my job. Getting a basic understanding of the cultural archetypes provides a good starting point for attempting to understand how to relate to other people.

The first part of the course describes cultural dichotomies such as universal vs particular. In a universal culture treating everyone the same is valued over making exceptions for individual circumstances.  As an example a public school may have specific guidelines for a student who will qualify for assistance with a learning disability following the universal guideline. A private school may have more latitude to respond to the particular needs of a student.  Cultures will also differ on the value they place on being prompt and how much forgiveness they will have for being late.

In the second part of the course he examines some of the major large cultural groups and how they fit on all the dichotomy scales.  Some groups are closely related including the Nordic and Germanic cultures. Middle Asia incorporating Russia, the Baltic countries and Mongolia is a more diverse grouping with individuals at least historically adapted to a nomadic cultural lifestyle. He recommends doing extensive research prior to traveling to another country and using the knowledge of cultural norms as a starting point but not a strict guideline as for interacting with people from other countries.

Introduction the Cultural Intelligence - 2 min.