Podcast: Temujin Rising; How a Slave Would Change World History By Donald Carrick

In June 2015, Donald Carrick gave his talk ‘Temujin Rising: How a Slave Would Change World History’ at The Counting House. Almost everyone has heard of Genghis Khan, but what do you really know about him? In all likelihood if you know anything you know about his conquests and wars, about the huge numbers of people he killed, or about the huge numbers he fathered. None of this is wrong but it isn’t the whole story, life is never this simple.
He was a slave, his mother was kidnapped when he was a child. Later his first wife would be kidnapped. He would forge a deep friendship with the man he would eventually face in battle. He would through a combination of determination, genius and ruthlessness rise to power but he wasn’t a man driven by a lust to conquer alone. He was driven by a desire to change the world, not simply to rule it. He was also a monster who slaughtered his enemies without mercy. Read more…

29th Oct 2015: A Memory of Blood; Livestreaming and the Fall of the Mongolian Empire by Donald Carrick

Mongol Empire

Come along to The Counting House at 7pm to listen to Donald, share some food, and learn about the Mongolian Empire…

 

Title of Talk:

A Memory of Blood: Livestreaming and the Fall of the Mongolian Empire

Bullet Points of What You Would Like to Talk About:

  • The myriad narratives that could describe the aftermath of the rule of Genghis Khan
  • The conflict between those narratives, as real life does not conform to narrative and thus to the way we understand life. The inherent contradictions this illuminates in the human mind and our conceptions of the reality.
  • The fall of the Mongolian Empire after the death of Genghis Khan and the conflict between his children.
  • The conflict between our ingrained narrative thinking and the shape of the modern world. The dangers this poses to our sense of self and reality if not addressed.
  • The question of how history can be made use of in our conception of the current and future stories of reality we inhabit.

Read more…

1980 Review of Edinburgh Settlement’s Policy and Activities

This is a transcription of the 1980 review of Edinburgh Settlement’s Policy and Activities, which is a part of the historical archive held in trust.

Acknowledgements

The thanks of the staff team are due to those people who contributed, formally or informally – and whether knowingly or not – to the Policy Review: members of Council, Executive Committee and sub-committees; workers in the voluntary and statutory welfare sectors; and University personnel. Special thanks are due to Rodney Noble and Charles Stewart, who produced earlier discussion papers.
The staff team wishes to note its particular debt of gratitude to Isobel Lister, their colleague, who typed the first draft and Caroline O’Kelly, who typed the final version. Christine Dickson, Tony Graham, Sally Griffiths, Mairi Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Isobel Lister, Lis McHardy, Peter Ritchie, Frances Sturrock, Bill Wallace, Edith Wood. Read more…

Marc Bloch

Educational History: Marc Bloch and the Historians Craft

Marc Bloch was born at Lyon on July 6th 1886 and died 1944.  He was educated at the Ecole Normale Superieure where he specialized in history and geography. He later taught these subjects at the Lycees of Montpellier and Agen. In 1919 he was appointed Professor of Medieval History at the University of Strasbourg until 1937 when he became Professor of Economic History at the University of Paris. His early carrier was interrupted by service in the French Army in World War I. Read more…