Reading for the Renaissance Man

jeffpowellrussell
  • 4.5 (2)
  • History

Join host Jeff Russell as he reads and comments on classic works of the Western tradition. A great way to finally get around to engaging with all of those books you've been "meaning to get to" for years now.

Episodes

  1. 3d ago

    Reading for the Renaissance Man Episode 3 - Thucydides Book I, Part 2

    In this episode, we continue with Book I, the first "chapter" of Thucydides's account of the Peloponnesian War. Here, we find out the Athenian's decision about whether to help the city-state of Corcyra against Corinth, hear the reasons given by Corinth and the Athenians as to why the Spartans and their allies should (or should not) move against the Athenians, and how the Spartans decided.   If you prefer video, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/SNcGsfc-ABY   As always, if you want to dig into the practical application of the lessons we want to draw from these books, check out https://rhetoricfortherenaissanceman.com.

  2. Sep 3

    Episode 2 - Thucydides Book 1 - Part 1

    In this episode, we begin actually reading Thucydides, covering the first large chunk of Book I. We cover the pre-history of Greece in broad strokes, how Greece came to be relatively wealthy and powerful, how some of it poleis came to be richer and more powerful than others, a brief overview of the Persian Wars and what happened between them and the Pelopennesian War, and then begin a detailed overview of the inciting incidents for the war that serves as the subject for this book.   If you prefer video, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/0we0L4bK-7s   As always, if you want to dig into the practical application of the lessons we want to draw from these books, check out https://rhetoricfortherenaissanceman.com

  3. Aug 26

    Episode 1 - Introduction to Thucydides

    In this short episode, our first "real" episode, I lay out some background and context for understanding who Thucydides was, why he wrote his history, and why we still care about it today.   As always, if you want to dig into the practical application of the lessons we want to draw from these books, check out https://rhetoricfortherenaissanceman.com

  4. Aug 19

    Reading for the Renaissance Man Introduction

    With this short introductory episode, we start our journey with Reading for the Renaissance Man, an effort to read and think about old books. I hope you'll join us! To learn more about how to take the broad knowledge we explore in this podcast into more practical terms, check out https://rhetoricfortherenaissanceman.com for all of the best ancient wisdom on how to craft what you have to say, whether spoken or written, to be as persuasive as possible.

  • 4 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

4.5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Join host Jeff Russell as he reads and comments on classic works of the Western tradition. A great way to finally get around to engaging with all of those books you've been "meaning to get to" for years now.

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