I know I've
whinged about this before but the myopia of history education in this
country really annoys me. As a child, I hated history lessons because
there were only ever four topics: vikings, Tudors and the two world
wars. As an adult, I found I actually loved history through shows
like The Mark Steel Lecture,
which introduced me to a much wider field of history.
Which
brings me to Extra History, definitely my favourite series on Youtube
and maybe my favourite thing on the internet.
This
is a series on the Extra Credits channel which tackles historical
subjects voted for by Patreon supporters. The videos are about six to ten
minutes long each with main series of four to six episodes plus one-
or two-part specials. Obviously, they're only brief discussions to a
subject but that makes them absolutely perfect for someone who wants
to experience a great breadth of subject matter, which I do.
 |
| It was Walpole... |
There
are so many series that have been about people and things I've heard
the names of but had no idea what they actually. I'd heard of the
South Sea Bubble and knew it was something about economics but was
completely unprepared for a) the startling reality of this mad
confidence trick or b) the existence of Robert Walpole, a man so
corrupt and yet so brilliant you can't help but like him. In fact, in
future series, the running gag of how Walpole was connected to
everything has lead to the writers of this series playing “Six
Degrees of Walpole” to see how many different subjects they could
connect him to (and that they managed it with the First Crusade and
the Japanese Warring States Period tells you something about the
guy).
All
I knew about Catherine The Great was the (totally untrue) horse story
but not only did I find her fascinating but also her (supposed)
husband General Potemkin, who turns up in episode five of her series.
The same holds true for Ned Kelly, Hiawatha or Justinian and
Theodora. Even more fun, at least for me, are the series on subjects
I'd never even heard of like the Brothers Gracchi, Kamehameha the
Great, Admiral Yi (especially interesting, that series) or Suleiman
the Magnificent (who had the most petty way of addressing the Holy
Roman Emperor you can imagine).
The
series that has just started is about The Bronze Age Collapse, an
event I had never even heard of or even imagined that something on
this sort of international scale would be part of the Bronze Age
world.
My
favourite thing about the series, though, is that each main series
ends with an episode called Lies. Whilst the main episodes are
narrated with still art, Lies is presented to camera by the writers.
These are the episodes where the writers confess to all the places
they editorialised, skipped details for time, or just plain screwed
up and got told so by the comments section (there is a downright
parodic history in the series of not getting the British flag right,
not that I blame them as the history of our flag is a mess where
every change is heralded by a law that always has the same
name), and, of course, this is
also where you get Six Degrees Of Walpole. The reason I love these
episodes (aside from Walpole) is that they're not only a fantastic
way to introduce extra context that would be a distraction in the
main series but also that they demonstrate how important it is not to
take any one source as gospel. They even point that out in the show,
that no source should be trusted absolutely.
So,
if you have an interest in history, go to the Extra Credits channel,
examine the Extra History playlist and jump in on the first series
that interests you. You won't be disappointed.
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