A Very Square Peg: A Podcast about Robert Eisler

My biography of Robert Eisler, art thief, art historian, aristocrat, concentration camp prisoner, economist, historian of religions, philosopher, and agnostic Jewish Catholic, is now available from Palgrave. palgrave.com/us/book/978303…

Great article on the podcast by Scott McLemee.

New bonus episode out today where I speak with Marshall Poe about the podcast! Plus the whole thing now has its own page. Thanks to @NewBooksNetwork for helping promote the series this week! newbooksnetwork.com/category/nbn-s…

In this episode, we finish the story of Robert Eisler with his last days in London, when he was denied his job at Oxford, interned at the Isle of Man, refused UK citizenship, and wrote on astrology, folklore, and lycanthropy. @NewBooksNetwork newbooksnetwork.com/category/nbn-s…

@NewBooksNetwork In this episode, we talk about the 15 months Eisler spent in Dachau and Buchenwald, which inspired Man into Wolf. We also learn about an SS Officer who, in a bit of poetic justice, was expelled for plagiarizing Eisler's work on Jesus. newbooksnetwork.com/a-very-square-…

I just uploaded 'A Very Square Peg #7: The Christ Vision' to @academia! academia.edu/43681623/Episo…

A great book! And Assan was kind enough to give several guest lectures on Djinn traditions to my Global Occult class.

In this week's episode, Eisler attempts a psychoanalytic interpretation of a vision of Jesus experienced by a very unusual man (whom he never even meets). This is where the story gets really strange. @NewBooksNetwork newbooksnetwork.com/a-very-square-…

I just uploaded 'A Very Square Peg #6: Negative Interest' to @academia! academia.edu/43616891/Episo…

In this week's episode, "Negative Interest," I discuss Eisler's ingenious dual currency monetary system with @mileskimball, his connection to Eranos + Carl Jung, his theory that heretic wrote John's Gospel, and a poem he wrote in a dream. @NewBooksNetwork newbooksnetwork.com/a-very-square-…

@noah_nonsense @NewBooksNetwork Right again! The Leeming book is in the show notes (though I never could work out an interview with Kate, try as I might). But Eisler is the subject of the podcast, not Josephus, and his writings on the manuscripts in the 20s and 30s are a big part of his intellectual biography.

@averysquarepeg @NewBooksNetwork Also Eisler is very old now. Nobody really had access to the manuscripts until the iron curtain fell. The book to point ppl to is this: #v=onepage&q=old%20slavonic%20josephus&f=false" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">books.google.co.uk/books?id=SqOOD…

Out today, episode #5: The Slavonic Josephus, in which I tackle the complicated philological arguments about a 15th century manuscript believed to be a Slavonic translation of a poor Greek translation of an Aramaic description of Jesus. 😬 @NewBooksNetwork

@noah_nonsense @NewBooksNetwork Very true! I said "believed to be," but not by me- By Robert Eisler & Alexander Berendts. It's a fascinating story. But you're correct, the philology (as I understand it) does not support an Aramaic source text or even a Greek-poorly-translated-from-Aramaic one as Eisler thought.

@averysquarepeg @NewBooksNetwork No. The old slavonic "Josephus" is a medieval composition, "The three captures of Jerusalem", which draws on the bible, Josephus, John Malalas, etc.

New blog post! The next instalment of our 'Warburg Institute Recommends' series is now live. From podcasts to an online planetarium, take a look at what @Warburg_Library colleagues are recommending warburg.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2020/07/01/war…

Ep. 4: "Women's Coats and Beach Cabanas in Light of the History of Religions; or, The Nebbish Philologist" is out now! Learn about Eisler's strained relationships with Aby Warburg, Gershom Scholem, and Walter Benjamin. newbooksnetwork.com/a-very-square-… @NewBooksNetwork @Warburg_Library

"Divination systems are sensemaking tools". This is from @ferdinando_MED 's fine @BoingBoing review of a new book from a data scientist and classicist that compares astrology to our reliance on unreliable statistical forecasts in economics, medicine, etc. bit.ly/2NBPQ87

In tomorrow's episode of A VERY SQUARE PEG we look at Robert Eisler's tense relationships w/art historian Aby Warburg and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem and reassess his infamous 1926 meeting w/ Scholem and Walter Benjamin @NewBooksNetwork @Warburg_Library

@AARWeb aarweb.org/AARMBR/Publica…

I just uploaded 'A Very Square Peg #3: Robert Eisler Versus the Flat Earth' to @academia! academia.edu/43419064/Episo…