Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture 2018: Stephen Kotkin

The 10th Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture in Riga "Turning Points: Yesterday’s World, and Tomorrow’s" by Professor Stephen Kotkin, American historian, author and professor in history and international affairs at Princeton University. / December 13, 2018/
Desmitā Jesajas Berlina piemiņai veltītā lekcija “Pagrieziena punkti: vakardienas un rītdienas pasaule”
Prof. Stīvens Kotkins (Stephen Kotkin), amerikāņu vēsturnieks, vairāku grāmatu autors un Prinstonas Universitātes profesors.
2018. gada 13. decembrī
www.isaiahberlin.org

[@jeannettejordan7104]

I always learn so much from Stephen Kotkin. His lectures are so on point and force a reality that we all should be aware of.

[@thesparrow3902]

AGREE.

[@OziBlokeTimG]

Fantastic, pure genius and also a sense of humour. I love him.

[@sbaumgartner9848]

It's also how I feel about him. He's also very generous with his time and always polite and respectful of others.

[@OziBlokeTimG]

@S Baumgartner Agreed, very inspirational personality.

[@patriley1026]

Professor Kotkin speaks like Joe Pesci's character in "My Cousin Vinny" with his tonal sounds and diction. He is very well thought out and logical.

[@davidchou1675]

Dat's Brooklyn fer ya!

[@ElaineMLove]

Your right !! Nailed it!!

[@nonz3r0]

Exaaactly hahaha I been saying this since I listened to him for the first time years ago. What an incredible wealth of knowledge and brilliant way of delivery! It’s a privilege to have access to people like him via technology…

[@bn2870]

He just addresses that on an episode of The Goodfellows 😂

[@witoldnapiorkowski2631]

You are right! And not only to New Yorkers - perhaps all the more mesmerizing, homey Brooklyn-Joisey style of imparting spot-on knowledge and wisdom. Gotta be grateful for him.🙌

[@commiegobbledygook3138]

History Majors of the world, unite! Kotkin is a major prophet of world history!

[@cyruscohan9453]

We love professor Pesci!

[@johnsmith1474]

Tedious ref to a pop movie is dismaying and pitiful.

[@svendbosanvovski4241]

Silly comment.

[@dmonarredmonarre3076]

Whoa whoa whoa. You tryin to be funny? Funny how?

[@erc9468]

No kidding. He turned off Pesci and instead turned on the Bond Villain accent. Weird.

[@Johnconno]

@@erc9468 Actors Studio.

[@federicozimerman8167]

Great lecture, this man is the definition of intelligence and knowledge.

[@lnpsych1]

always been an idiot since I remember him in the 90s in Oxford

[@taehwanpeter]

Thank you for this amazing lecture. Professor Kotkin is one of the most brilliant minds of our age.

[@alo1692]

He is terrible. Stephen Cohen is much better.

[@williameadie8550]

@@alo1692 I think both are incredible scholars and lecturers.

[@drinidracini2013]

Xs88s8sI

[@nicks3350]

He’s my favorite lecturer by a mile.

[@georgecherian6520]

Excellent talk on history and fascism. This is the best talk that I have heard the real things in history without blaming anyone.

[@kingsugulleh]

micheal parenti is much better

[@andrewthornber7783]

I could listen to Kotkin 24/7. So interesting and thought provoking. Even when I don’t agree he is amazing to listen to.

[@ned900]

he thinks he has a place in world, he has a sense of importance, and he is correct, he is a master storyteller.

[@dandiacal]

He's also very funny. bringing a sense of humor to a field not always known for that.

[@VladTokarev]

He is an amazing speaker, intellectual and historian. He needs to be an adviser for all US Presidents.

[@davidbuda]

@@VladTokarev You are so correct!

[@Ynotnow9900]

Indeed. So important for a historian to be listenable. No notes, just big brass balls

[@botinface53]

This guy feeds my mind...

[@uhoh007]

This is the best Kotkin I've heard yet. What I miss is the enviromental downside of "the American Story".

[@acommon1]

Superb Historian!!!! Professor Stephen Kotkin shares relevant detains in such an tone, tenor, and tempo easily consumed by a Commoner as I. Thanks for sharing. I love statesmen like Prof. Kotkin that allows us to connect the dots.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

At one point during WWII, Irving Berlin, the composer, was invited to a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street. At one point, as they went around the table, PM Churchill asked "And Professor Berlin, what do you think?" at which point he gave his view -- and added that he thought they had the wrong Berlin there. :-)

[@Floxflow]

This guy is brilliant

[@TheJojoaruba52]

"What else would you do at Princeton with a laptop during my lecture when you are paying $70000 a year for tuition than buy clothes?" 😂😂😂

[@yogi1kenobi]

True

[@UTubeISphere]

35:25 lol !

[@chuckmartin935]

This dude is a skilled and awesome lecturer.

[@moosehead4497]

brilliant clear speaker, thank you stephen kotkin

[@margaritaisakova1909]

a brilianr lecture by a great scholar..

[@Acut3000]

Always on point Mr. Kotkin. Great analysis and comparisons. Listen to the message people not the accent, he delivers it in.

[@harryaarrestad583]

Mr . Kotkin style of delivery is mesmerizing to me , hopefully I’m not the only one .

[@robbie_]

Fascinating analysis. Thank you for sharing.

[@Alex88148]

My favourite speaker of all

[@jjforcebreaker]

Great talk!

[@gsilcoful]

Great lecture.

[@richardhausig9493]

My WWI and Treaty of Versailles go to is usually Margret MacMillan but Prof Kotkin is as good a lecturer as has ever lived.

[@chuckmartin935]

Professor kotlin- dont worry about talking a little over alotted time- people would still stay and listen.

[@Renuars]

Damn, had I known he was in my city... But I didnt know him back then at all.

[@dimitri1946]

This guy presents history the way he and his kind choose to.

[@Trinitypater]

Omg he is brilliant!

[@erpthompsonqueen9130]

Thank you.

[@seanmellows1348]

Excellent, start to finish.

[@mishacknthane1060]

He is the greatest historian I'm greatful to have met

[@jamesyanchek779]

This is the "realest" Realpolitik I've ever heard. As a military force in WWII, the Soviet Russian Empire was something of a Thanksgiving turkey. It was a hollow, gutted dead bird stuffed full of British & American weapons, food & other goods. W/o this Western substantiation of Russia, it could not have survived any better then the czar's empire had.

[@yogi1kenobi]

Czars would not havelost its command structure a few years earlier

[@user-wv9cu4ct6d]

Soviet Russian Empire was the one that defeated Germany while US and UK were pretending they will open western front and only did it when German armies back was broken by USSR...only thing US army was superior compared to USSR was killing civilians, US ratio of killed civilains vs US soldiers was only close to the Nazi Germans...

[@richardcory5024]

Brilliant.

[@Athenaikos]

Kotkin is a good story-teller with a Joe Pesci accent. Meaning, a great success.

[@montagueedwards4268]

Clear and concise he is without peer

[@maxheadrom3088]

Wow! This must be awesome!

[@alison6321]

It's exactly time to watch this amazing lecture today this year. We are living together with Chinese meddle class who give market, threat or wisdom etc at the same time. I cannot admire Professor Kotkin too much. And yes train comes just by seconds here.

[@suzettejansen9808]

So you are going

[@dengchengshan3527]

To him China is an illusion. Bet is China is just distraction.

[@vijay-1]

Insightful

[@Mocoso7]

ty steven!

[@oO-_-_-_-Oo]

Kotkin was a great find.

[@ahahaha3505]

The Q&A at the end is very interesting.

[@mikhailfranco]

Tremendous - a great insight in every paragraph. Kotkin is patient and nuanced in his analysis. His turning points share the dates given by others but his reasons have so much more insight from the archives all reinforced by deep understanding and eloquent explanation. It is good that Hitler was destroyed so completely and so relatively quickly (however, at great cost) but such a shame for humanity that Stalin and Mao perpetuated their cruel dystopian nightmares for so long. I would prefer that all three were quickly dispatched to the 10th circle of Hell beyond all others in the depth of their psychopathic indifference to suffering (with Pol Pot and King Leopold II following close behind into the inferno). We are faced with the fact that individuals really do affect history and we should hope for a once and future Churchill or Roosevelt to combat the totalitarian destruction of our freedoms. Be brave so that civilization does not fall. We will all be called to defend what we love. We will stand.

[@peterhogberg]

Att

[@colaturkalures]

Doing a kotkin marathon hbu

[@inappropriatern8060]

For the last month.

[@beaudweiser]

Same

[@drunkenlizard2]

terrific

[@svendbosanvovski4241]

This is what real scholarship is about. Getting to the truth of the matter. Professor Kotkin makes no bones about his moral perspective , but doesn't allow that to cloud his analysis of the empirical sources. It seems to me that like all great actors, he doesn't inject himself into the subject: it is not about him, but about these earth shattering events he describes with astonishing objectivity. I don't agree with some of his observations ("not in the USA's DNA to be globally engaged", for example, when it has over 1,000 bases around the globe), but that's knit-picking. The force of his exposition is extremely powerful and with the right balance of sympathy.

[@crazymulgogi]

Actual the point where you disagree is a crucial one. (I disagree there too.) But it's true, his perspective is very enlightening indeed.

[@dimitriosfromgreece4227]

BRAVO LOVE YOU ❤😍❤

[@rachelshengjie7847]

The excellent end!

[@doctorwoohoo1152]

Great to see Kotkin defend the much-maligned Neville Chamberlain, he did the best he could with what miniscule resources he had available. It's easy for the rest of us to talk. And he was right about the Cold War. Once a pact with Stalin had been struck, the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe & the heinous tragedies that followed it were all but inevitable, despite Churchill's most desperate efforts (Operation: Unthinkable) to prevent the occupation. The Western Allies could not possibly have gotten to Austria, or Poland, or the Baltic states and the rest of Eastern Europe, before Stalin did. Hitler really did start the Cold War. Of course, the rest of the lecture is amazing too. Brilliant as usual.

[@murrayaronson3753]

Could Isaiah Berlin speak Latvian? What about Yiddish?

[@davidanderson9664]

Kotkin brilliant as ever. D.A. J.D. NYC

[@histarchus]

Highly educational

[@darrellroberson4401]

PLEASE CONSULT WITH MR. GERALD HOME

[@joedellaselva1251]

46:24 This happened because American manufacturers wanted to make in China (low cost) and ship back to the American Market.

[@richardouvrier3078]

Small point, apologies, I think Russia was on its back during Bismarck because it lost the Crimean War near Persia fighting the great game.

[@JJAngleton]

Brilliant lecture. Just as footnote, the progress of (west) Germany after 1945 could only occur by the support of the US. The example of a republic, not just democracy that eventually might again turn into tyranny (Ben Franklin), was important as role model and education. Freedom of press, checks and balances, all these institutions that are mandatory for a relative democracy require protection until they are enough strongly anchored in the fundament of the society. I’m even not convinced that in eastern Germany this has occurred, at least not in all layers of the society. I believe, democracy requires several generations until enough trust and confidence is established. During the initial phase this very likely requires support from outside in order to prevent the malignant forces in a society to take over the process and eventually turn it into fascism.

[@AndreAndFriends]

Haha. So true my friend. .... I would guess you are from the place that used to be called the West Germany? However, let's give these ddr's a break (people from there, the ruling elite is mostly bunch of criminals.) They suffered a lot. Trust me.

[@JJAngleton]

I‘m a hybrid (US/German) but I also lived in many different places including Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine... So I agree with you entirely, people there suffered a lot. But I’m afraid, the transition from communism into democracy seems much more difficult than into fascism. That’s a serious danger, especially if people loose their trust into the western liberal democracy. There are forces who want to turn back time in order to conserve their power. And nationalism seems to work well especially on places where people lost their previous (socialistic) identity. They get confused and tend to regress into an imaginative state of nationalism. In search for a lost paradise that never existed...

[@johnsmith1474]

Germany had a long history of advanced liberal institutions and good government before Hitler and would have them on their own after Hitler with or without the US. What the US provided was loans.

[@k.k.c8670]

Small twist. Deng Xiaoping's trip to some Asian countries with large Chinese diaspora, specifically Singapore in 1978, and seeing how they had been developing (he was suitably impressed, even stunned) that paved the way for China to become more capitalistic with the US, of course, the obvious target market.

[@lejeffrey229]

Singapore is an artificial village created by the US, so forget it

[@k.k.c8670]

@@lejeffrey229 dumbest thing I heave heard in a long time. Singapore created by the US? Lol. A village? Get a passport and travel around, dim/wit

[@TheWhitehiker]

Speed to 1.25 for easier listening--he's slowing for non-native speakers.

[@eleonoraformatoneeszczepan8807]

29:57 min ... 30:50 min ... 31:33 min ...

[@tubeslorg]

1:59: "I'm from New York, so craziness is normal." Małpa can confirm this wisdom. Also, Vedmyd is cackling in a three-years-until-the-end-of-the-West-Asian-autocracies sort of way.

[@McIntyreBible]

2:04, Kotkin's belief of what the 4 turning points in history were.

[@adamrihak]

Any idea what movie (about Berlin) is prof. Kotkin referring to?

[@etucker82]

Did he just call Timothy Snyder an idiot savant????

[@peteristevski3681]

I was thinking that too.

[@jamesmurphy2828]

Mr Kotkin could you explain did wall street create the Soviet Union or just used labor for profit

[@johnsmith1474]

Look at the stupid vids in your collection, then you illiterate nonsense question without punctuation ... so many weird people here.

[@heraldgrajdanin2581]

If Stalin had been born and raised in a small, impoverished, isolated country, without connections to a teetering empire, for example, Bhutan, or Crete, in the 18th century, he could cause relatively little harm to the world. However, if Stalin becomes a prophetic figure in the ages to come, humanity has worse barbarity ahead.

[@beatlessteve1010]

I do not think the treaty was an anomaly..as Kotkin claims that both Russia and Germany were flat on their back ...that this was they only time since Bismarcks unification..in the 1870..but this was only 50 years in the great span of time so I wouldn't consider it an anomaly...I think both sides are correct ...I think the rise of bolshevism..had more to do with the rise of Hitler.

[@rachelshengjie7847]

Very good point of China & America relationship

[@januszmlynarcz3348]

I love u

[@AnEnemy100]

Universalism in one country.

[@rachelshengjie7847]

The time line should draw from 1972 that President Nixon visited Beijing then

[@jackbov]

I was surprised at hearing Kotkin endorse the European Union. He has not had to live under this cut rate version of the Soviet Union. Yet he thought well of the UK referendum. Is he commuting the error laid bare by the book “What is history” by E H Carr? I refer to the comparison of Butterfield and Rank.

[@januszmlynarcz3348]

So few men of this kind.

[@p.d.stanhope7088]

As of 2023, Germany's Green Party is doing an outstanding job keeping Center Left sane.

[@mattholsen7060]

The analysis of Russian power holds up pretty well in April of 2024.

[@MOZAMUSIC2011]

Just out of respect, and for information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Berlin Another great man, from Latvia.

[@andrewdeen1]

do you know what film they screened here.. was it 'prophet of freedom'?

[@cjm081]

I'd like to hear his opinion about the US regime destroying the middle class in America today....

[@eleonoraformatoneeszczepan8807]

Is Stephen Kotkin, Stephen Kotkin, when not in public?

[@eleonoraformatoneeszczepan8807]

Norm ... ?

[@supplehons4662]

Why would a traditional power like Russia which has never disappeared in the past disappear? That does not make much sense.

[@brianfleming8561]

A good development "the Green Party in Germany"?????

[@roc7880]

so far China had success in building a hybrid political system with authoritarianism, nationalism, private economy and mass education. the thing we need to remember now is that China has now more freedom for individuals and minorities (except Uighurs) than in any moment in its history. this does not mean it cannot get better, on the contrary, but the perspective is needed. a democracy with Chinese characteristics is indeed the solution for them and not a foreign mandated change. my biggest hope is a Chinese prime minister who is educated in US or UK and who comes back to do reforms

[@ter2710]

What kind of accent Kotkin has got?

[@terrymaki4928]

🎉8te

[@pavlovsworld9122]

I wonder if Xi's China honoring Mao and not Ping today tells us the direction the regime wants to go.

[@McIntyreBible]

20:08, the 2nd Turning point.

[@henrykim9063]

1:19:01 This fucking Joe Pesci has tears in his eyes.

[@elioxman8496]

one thing prof kotkin does not understand is that ussr or any ideologically similar state can only maintain itself from civil war by an endless militarist regime. there is no real potential for such country to strive to peace as it will become devastating, as it happened when gorbachev opened up just a bit. therefore, kotkin's term "losing peace" is inapplicable for a communist dictatorship system. "smart" communist leaders like like our beloved leader of north korea knows it very well and acts accordingly. see how strong he stands! ...overall kotkin's lectures are very interesting thanks to the abandonce of great factual material - this is the real treasure in his works not his theories .

[@jackominty3633]

Interesting to see that Kotkin is not a fan of Hungary having an independent idea of how it wants to conduct it's affairs, and keep its identity intact. I'm genuinely disappointed.

[@pdd60absorbed12]

Kotkin Brent Satter.....!

[@maritaalexandersen8298]

Oiå

[@dougcane4059]

What is the difference between Western style 'democracy' and fascism? .... I don't know either.

[@TheVietnameseDevil]

😎

[@tbordona]

The difference between comunism and fascism? ...

[@Booblickoff]

Оху е нно!

[@brianfleming8561]

I don't see how he can take present-day Russia as an example of Communism.

[@gregvalentine2173]

I don't think it would be possible for Prof. Kotkin to talk "too long." I suspect his voice would fail before he ran out of people's focused attention.

[@k.u.5798]

Stalin low key history's Lelouch.

[@rachelshengjie7847]

I think Stalin maybe right about Chinese Communist:they are rather nationalist more than are communist

[@yp77738yp77739]

We should take note of Kotkin. With Russia at war with Ukraine and the various supporting powers we are on the cusp of a great power war once again. History tells us that this is when fascism will likely raise its head again, I see the Kyiv or Warsaw regimes and it’s not so hard to see this happening, according to ample (non Russian) documentation, Kyiv was already some way down that path at the time of the invasion. It’s an unpopular conclusion but the pre invasion reports in UK and EC parliaments confirm I am correct.

[@kkpenney444]

you're insane.

[@Frip36]

Thought-provoking little man.

[@kocyszemaitis2310]

Kotkin is the best, but why is he speaking broken English?

[@unktheunk1428]

The only issue I take with this is the dismissal of the facist tendancies of trumpism. Might not have been as bad at the time of filming but you don't need to have gone all the way to be a fascist force

[@Hilaire_Balrog]

Do you even understand what fascism is? Only a person ignorant of real fascism or one with TDS would equate trump with fascism.