In April, The Camden County College Department of History and political Science Hosted a Community Lecture on the Situation in Ukraine in 2022.

We discussed Russian and Soviet History,
We discussed Ukrainian History since 1991,
We discussed International Relations and International Institutions,
and then I had the last topic "What Might Happen Next."

This vid is that part of the lecture evening (expanded from its 18m original form). Unfortunately, the evening in its entirety was not recorded.
​So I made this special video just for you. I hope you like it.

Baltic Wars: Scandinavia from 1520 - 1809 (and before and beyond) is a new season of Great Big History Podcast.  In Baltic Wars we are going to talk about the Murders, the Wars, the Heroes, the Villains of North and Eastern Europe.  

In this episode we look at how a revolt in the South Eastern Ukraine sparked a larger war and then a Russian Invasion which set off Western intervention in the Baltic. We Look at the Time of Troubles, Poland-Lithuania's army, a genocide of Jewish settlers which was a precursor to ethnic violence for the next 400 years. We look at battles won and lost and treaties signed but never carried out. And we set up the wars to come in the 1650s and beyond.

you can find my book on Sweden in the 1650s in the link at the top of the webpage or through the link here (Invasions, Insurgency and Interventions: Sweden's wars in the 1650s)

We Cover All the Great and Terrible things that happened in the modern world
from the mass death of the New World
to the Mass death of the World Wars

we cover the importance of Disney World in excplaining America
and Disney Princesses in explaining Feminism

We cover World Art
World Cinema (why are the Swedes so Dark yet Intellectual?)

We Cover Europeans conquering the world
and then Indigenous Peoples kicking Europeans Out
and then we cover what intellectuals thought of all of this
in philosophy and poetry,

We have lots of topics, 45 hours of material and lots to discover!


Subscribe here

Thank you for checking out Christophergennari.com
and Great Big History Podcast


Im doing a massive updating of the website and the materials.

So here is the schedule.

AudioPodcast subscription link is up and active.  Seasons 1 and 2 are published.

Season 1: Ancient World to 1491 - video lectures are up and live.


May 6 2020: Season 2: The World from 1491 - 2000 videos will go up


May 7 2020:  Episode 00 of Season 3: Murder, War, and Heroes: Scandinavia from 1520-1809 will begin to go up both on the subscription audio feed and on the website.

​

you can follow along at @profgennari on twitter (for general retweets)
and @greatbighistory on twitter for the podcast-vids alone.


May 6,7 and afterwards the Twitter will be populated with videos and audio episode links.

thank you for understanding, thank you for your support.  thank you for your interest.  thank you for being at the start of something cool!

be safe, stay healthy

Hello! Welcome to Season 1 of Great Big History Podcast.  

Click Here for Season 1: HIS 101: Ancient World to 1491 videos

If you would like to subscribe to the audio only podcast here: subscribe
this will get you to the entire podcast subscription.

If you would like to see the videos on Youtube please check out the playlists below.

First Third (Nomads to Ancient Hebrews)
​
Second Third (Greeks, Romans, Ancient China and Ancient India)
​
Final Third (Africa, Byzantines, Arab Caliphate, the Indigenous Americans, Europe of the Renaissance) 

​Hello!  Thank you for stopping by.  I hope I can be informative and entertaining.

it is May 5 - I am updating this page as we speak. 

to subscribe please follow this link - subscribe

Season 3: Murder, War and Heroes will begin this week with

episode 00 (intro) and episode 01:  The Bloodbath
so right from the start we have MURDER, WAR and HEROES (and VILLAINS!)

The podcast page is being updated to have episodes in first->last order
(being updated May 5)

We will also have a section for extra lectures/episodes which dont fit into the standard Seasons including Middle Eastern, East Asian, and Economic History episodes 

thank you for coming by, thank you for subscribing, thank you for listening.

I think we are going to have good times, interesting interviews, and informative shows.

Sorry I have not been updating this page lately.  Coronavirus news has just knoecked my schedule apart.  I've got a lot of things bookmarked, we're starting a new season of "GREAT BIG HISTORY PODCAST"  and we're going to be updating a whole bunch of lectures.

We are going to try to be awesome.

So we start, as always, with Moose and Zee.

Ok, here's an update.

Today was the first (and only) day professors have been allowed to return to their offices since we closed two fridays ago,  We had a brief window and so It interrupted my early morning grading (hopefully you were sleeping at 5.32am - but I was knee deep in tests).  it took a few hours to get everything I needed for the next six months. And now I'm back to grading

(also within a half hour: the president's staff released info they wanted to fire Dr. Fauci - the leading doctor on the pandemic - that the Senate was not going to be voting on an aid package before the markets opened - and that the Federal Reserve (the USA central bank) was going to open the vaults and turn on the presses and supply an "unlimited amount" of cash to the financial system - basically telling everyone capitalism had died and the economy was no longer functioning - essentially making us 1931.


So thats a lot.  So here's the update on the State of the Classes.



​7wk Classes
7wk classes have begun today.  they are up.  they have all videos, all quizzes, all tests, all study guides currently up.  7wk classes may have a problem with acquiring the textbook.  go to the "READ ME FIRST" module at the top of your canvas class page.  

if theres no money to buy the textbook because the economy has crashed.  call the number in the "READ ME FIRST" module to discuss options and then let me know about the options and what you would like to do.


Always Online Classes.

ok. things should be running fairly smoothly.  quizzes should be fixed for the 102s this past weekend (like friday or saturday).  we are now officially back from spring break.  we have until 12 April to hand in quizzes and tests.  things should be working pretty well.  there may be some housekeeping in the gradebook and whatnot in the backend of canvas - but you should be hitting the videos and the textbook.




Face to Face Classes which are forced to be online
*NOTE* - they do not officially start to Monday - 30 March.  These classes are *technically* still on spring break.  but almost all of the materials for the rest of the semester is up and usable.  So we are essentially a week to ten days ahead of requirements - and 8 weeks ahead in materials (with a few holes needing to be plugged - more on that below)


101 11am Madison 210 Class

Not much has changed as time and resources were directed to other classes after the initial tsunami of material went up.  The China videos went up this past weekend.
that leaves two roman videos (Republic Punic Wars + Collapse of Republic) to get up.  
We are looking at Tuesday creation, editing, burning, posting and linking.


102 9.30 + 12.30 classes

Part 3 of the course is up.  thats 13 April - 10 May.

All quizzes are up and ready to be taken.  They went up this weekend,

9.30 tests were emailed back last week.

12.30 tests have begun going back.  they will all be returned by end of the day MONDAY - 23 March.  

there remains the "End of World War 1" video to post.  which was going into production before the coronavirus shut everything down.  this should be recorded, edited, burned, uploaded and linked on Tuesday - 24 March.

------------------------------------------------

Wednesday will be a run through to make sure everything is working as intended and the final fixes on any missing parts or inefficiencies.  we will see if there any additional materials needed.


Stay safe.
Stay Healthy
Dont go out - flatten the curve
be careful
DONT DROP THE CLASS!
(do the tests and quizzes, even if you do terribly, just do them - our goal is to get you the credit for the class you paid for this semester.)

The Economy in Free fall.

capitalism dead (the FED promising unlimited money means capitalism like 1929 just died - there is no functioning supply/demand economy.)

everything going slowly,

emptied my office - not expecting to return till July - maybe september

so when someone askes: "Man, you ok?"


My response is 1994 Gen-X honesty:

7wk Part 2 - 102 Online Class up.  Still needs to have an intro - coronavirus - written.  school/campus completely closed.  textbooks need to be mailed to the students.


101 class 7wk part 2 - Canvas is soooooo slammed, its just uploading my course content now - 2 hours later.


102 12.30 tests finalized, organized, scanned and emailed back w/. explanation.

102 9.30 still needs to be done - expectation Sunday morning.

updated all the 102 quizzes.  the test banks didnt transfer when the course was created.  Stupid Canvas error.  Why? who knows?  but its fixed.  quizzes now live and question banks secured.  

101 china videos completed and uploaded

102 Face to face class needs a hole plug video on end of ww1 because of updated questions.

101 (face/face) classes also still need roman plugins on end of roman republic.


First confirmed Rowan case of coronavirus.  Dr. Elizabeth received an email.

ASAIK Blackwood has not yet begun doing drive up testing though its been ready for days.  no tests


Everything is terrible and moving sooooo slowly while the news is a like an avalanche of information all day and every day is worse than yesterday.  Cuomo - gov of NY - said we are 45 days away from peak virus contagion.  Hospitals already running out of supplies.

102's coming along
will finish tomorrow (saturday), scan and send.

The State of new jersey is going to be on lockdown like Cali and NYC.  Probably Saturday, certainly by monday.  With no where else to run to and locked in my facilities.  There's only grading and work.

Yeah! Spring Break!

Then the Quiz 03/4 for 102 will be fixed.
Then the China 101 videos will go up, 
then the 2nd 7wk classes will be created.

Sunday means the creation of the remaining videos for the 101 face to faced course.
editing, uploading and posting them.

Grades for Test 1 face to face classes will be put up into the canvas gradebook at some point soon.  but as long as you have the test returned, thats not a terrible worry.  


So Monday.  Will be Everything Complete
All Online Classes
All Face to Face Classes
2nd 7wk Classes

will all be done for the rest of the semester.  You just need to hand in the materials and go about your life.

I'm sorry I'm not one of those "Lets have class on Twitch at the same time every day!" types.  I'm a "you have stuff to do, let me get out of your way" type.  Its not the most immersive college experience - but it respects your time.


Be safe.

Remember to respect the women who fought over toilet paper - they knew the lockdown was coming

love your family and your friends.

stay tight with your community - dont be alone.


email me if you need anything.

​*hearts*

Grading

+

Got attacked by A Goose while on a walk
fought off angry goose

+

went to Wegman's to witness a man made disaster.
no social distancing
no changing of gloves
no wiping down of machines

old people coughing on other old people.

no paper products. no canned tuna, no pb or J. 
no cheese, butter, or bacon


but, plenty of SPAM - condensed meat!

Thursday

102 tests graded, collated, scanned, emailed.

101 - china videos edited, uploaded to youtube, added to Test 4 video section.


Friday

101 - Missing roman videos recorded, edited, uploaded, added to test 3 section

101-102 - tests created

​Final check that 101-102 completely finalized for rest of semester.


Saturday

​Second 7wk classes created online for their Monday Start.




This is a hopeful schedule.  but the correct order of things.  If you need anythign email me on canvas.

Both 102 classes have been updated.
New modules
New calendar
new office hours
all test guides up (Tests 5,6,7 - to come)
new instructions for class - see announcements
all videos for the semester posted.


10 classes updated, 3 classes changed over from face to face to online,
2 7wk classes completed invented
Online classes updated to reflect coronavirus scheduling.

​be safe. 

102 9.30 am is pretty much done (need to create the quizzes)
test study guides are up + videos for Test 2,3,4. due in april.

102 12.30 is getting started.

​Need a break.

Max von Sydow died recently - best best swedish actor of the 20th century
this is his most iconic role and his most iconic scene
The Seventh Seal - by Igmar Bergman

Ok,
got a lot done.


1. Cleaned up the Module Page

​2.  study guides for rest of the year are up.
         
*NOTE* it was decided in class to break up Test 2 into Three smaller parts
So Test 2 is now Test 2 (Greeks), Test 3 (Romans), Test 4 (China and India)
the effect of this is to have smaller tests on more concentrated elements of study guide.
It also means, we will drop the lowest test grade from tests 2-9 (test 1 can not be dropped as it is the test taken under normal circumstances and incorporated the entire first five weeks of material.           

(this is in addition to the already stated policy of dropping the lowest quiz grade)


​3. Due dates for quizzes and tests have been updated.
12 April is now the due date for Quizzes 03, Quiz 04, Test 2, Test 3, Test 4

Quizzes are available to take now.
tests become available the thursday before they are due
All tests  are now due on a Sunday.


4. Quizzes 05, 06 will be available on 13 April and due 10 May
Tests 5, 6, 7, 8 will all be due Sunday May 10.


5. Videos are now up, mostly.

Videos for tests 5-9 (due 5/10) are all up.

Videos for greeks are all up

Videos for romans are mostly up - 2 videos need to be made

videos for india are up

videos for china have to be edited and posted.



6. Tests:
Tests will be 25 questions per test for the rest of the year.
The answers are taken from the video lectures.


7. studying

you need to organize your notes in ways that HELP you when the test arrives.  if you just have paragraph after paragraph or have taken no notes - you will fail.  if your study guide is not arranged in a searchable way - it will not help you.

this is your time to PROFESSIONALIZE your notes, your knowledge.  you either need to review the notes so much that you know the answers blindfolded or you need to create notes that are easily viewable and searchable at t glance.

open note sounds easy.  ITS NOT.  it is far too easy to be lulled into a false sense of

"i take good notes" (no he doesnt),

"i know the stuff" (she says flipping through pages not knowing the sections on the persian wars from the punic wars),

"I wrote everything down" in exactly the same shade of blue, the same bubble script, the same line length, the same full pages, the same, the same, the same so that the whole thing is an indecipherable totem of time wasted.

BE CAREFUL!


​Remaining videos to come during Spring Break Week.

Up First HIS 101-06.

Start with the linking of the videos
then the updating of quizzes.
​then the test study guide