On today’s episode of Off-Campus History, we get strategic.
We’re playing Hearts of Iron IV, an incredibly detailed grand strategy video game set during the Second World War. In particular, we’re playing as the British Raj—a colony that in the mid-1930s included present-day India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, among other places—to see how the game depicts the history of South and Southeast Asia during this period.
The period of the Second World War was a tumultuous one in the region. As the British Raj fought to repel Japanese incursions, it also saw an accelerating movement for Indian independence from Britain, and was devastated by the Bengal Famine beginning in 1943. To discuss how the game depicts all this history, how strategy games can interpret the past, and much more, I’m joined by Sid Sridhar, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto who is an expert in themes of capitalism and imperialism in South Asia during the 1930s and 40s.
For those who want to learn more about this episode’s topic, check out Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper’s book Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).
--
Podcast logo is made by Instagram.com/nethkaria; intro and outro music by Instagram.com/nelamusica.
New Podcast Announcement and Trailer - Listening T.O. History!
Episode 29 - Suburbia’s Past, Present, and Future with Hana Suckstorff
Episode 28 - Chatting about Historical Movies with Kevin Winterhalt
Episode 27 - Nitro and Heritage Minutes with Melanie Ng
Episode 26 - Kimathi at War with Julie MacArthur
Episode 25 - The Founder with Steve Penfold
Episode 24 - Hester Street with Miriam Borden
Episode 23 - The Last of the Mohicans with Jonathan Bayer
Episode 22 - Historical Board Games with Benjamin Hoy
Episode 21 - ’71 with Nick Baker
Episode 20 - Dallas Buyers Club with Elio Colavito
Episode 19 - Making History Podcasts with Sean Graham
Episode 18 - Our Flag Means Death with Chris Baldwin
Episode 17 - Ken Burns’s The National Parks with Jessica DeWitt
Episode 16 - The Revenant with Sam Derksen
Episode 15 - Wonder Woman with Melissa Wing
Episode 14 - The Lighthouse with Kate Bauer
Episode 13 - The Last Dance with Kevin Winterhalt
Episode 12 - Stand! with Nick Fast
Episode 11 - The Green Knight with Morgan Moore
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Everything Everywhere Daily