This is part 1 you have to use the title to find part 2, 3.
Cole outlines a series of modern historical phases from colonialism to nationalist, land reform, and nationally own industrialization, then a neoliberal phase where state own industry is sold off to the cronies of the regimes, as the background to the movements in Tunisia and Egypt.
The opening starts off as a short discussion of the idea that history used to be thought to start fifty to sixty years ago, when the documentation and records would become available for in depth look and you could prove what you wrote. Then the period got shorter, but states and institutions resisted this shortened period and finally he argues history should start with yesterday---which is the subject of his talk
Lots of interesting stuff to reflect on.
CG