Delong Economic History 113

From Zanecorpwiki

Decent content though frequent tangents and personal asides slow it down. Some episodes rendered nearly unlistenable by technical foibles. iTunes link, course blog.

Summary

I'm a huge fan of putting the development of policy into a historical context so was very excited to find this podcast. I thoroughly enjoyed the podcast. It is, however, my strong my bias for the subject that allows me to look over the significant problems in this podcast.

First off, the audio quality is perhaps the worst of any podcast I've heard. Some episodes are nearly unlistenable due to frequent rustling and rubbing of the mike. The levels can change dramatically in the middle of a lecture. You can frequently hear hums and pops of electronic interference. There were places where I was concerned about my speakers and eardrums. Normally this kind of thing would go in my 'Details and Notes' section, but in this case it's so egregious as to be front and center in the character of the podcast.

Second, DeLong indulges himself a bit too much by engaging in tangents and asides. The content of these meanderings is fine in-and-of-itself (he's clearly an advocate for the Left, but he's upfront about it), the problem is that it breaks the flow of the larger narrative. This makes it more difficult to grok the progression of history that the course is all about.

Still, if you have an interest in economics or history, a very worthwhile listen, though there are some episodes that you're better off simply skipping.