Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

[AL the Inconspicuous]

I thought it was one of his weaker shows.  I already knew 90% of what that show covered, and he didn't explore the idea of recognition of Property Rights in dealings between very different cultures in sufficient depth.

He even failed to mention the #1 most interesting thing about this era: that some of the best sailors in the world in the early 1400s (employed by both Chinese and Europeans) were Muslims, and there's a chance they had more to do with the discovery of the Americas than the post-Reconquista historical revision will lead you to believe.  They probably also visited Australia before the Europeans as well.

[Alex Libman]

• April 28, 2010 - "Show 33 - (BLITZ) Old School Toughness" - Does the toughness of peoples play any role in history? How can historians deal with such an amorphous human quality? Historiography, boxing, barbarians, philosophy and wisdom are among the subjects touched upon.

Now that's one of his better shows!

[Alex Libman]

• June 28, 2010 - "Show 34 - Death Throes of the Republic I" - The wars which elevate Rome to superpower status also sow the seed for the downfall of its political system. Money, slaves, ambition, political stalemate and class warfare prove to be a toxic, bloody mix.

[Alex Libman]

According to the dates in the RSS feed, the last three episodes of Hardcore History came out on the 27th day of the month, two months apart - February, April, and June.  (My pasting of the 28th day twice above must be a one-off error, and I guess "February 7" was a typo for 27.)  So, if the pattern holds, we should see a new episode later this week.  

[Alex Libman]

• August 29, 2010 - "Show 35 - Death Throes of the Republic II" - Disaster threatens the Republic, but the cure might be worse than the disease. "The Dan Carlin version" of this story continues with ambition-addict Marius dominating the story and Plutarch dominating the sources.

[Stoker]

• June 28, 2010 - "Show 34 - Death Throes of the Republic I" - The wars which elevate Rome to superpower status also sow the seed for the downfall of its political system. Money, slaves, ambition, political stalemate and class warfare prove to be a toxic, bloody mix.

Unfortunately, that describes quite exactly the position America is in right now. The outcome is going to be different however (IMO). In ancient Rome's cases, these things caused a total breakdown of the empire, shattering it into small pieces, in our current case, America will remain as an entity (considerably weakened and defanged), but will be absorbed into a larger global empire, currently referred to as the New World Order.

[Ecolitan]

Well... He promised he'd wrap Rome up in the 6th and final segment no matter how long it took.  It's 5.5 hours!

[alaric89]

Very riveting. I usually don't find history all that interesting.

[Fred]

Very riveting. I usually don't find history all that interesting.

I think you'd like Ghosts of the Ostfront -

[mikehz]

I like his history podcast, but he's beating the Rome thing to death. Time to move on.

But, maybe it's because I get enough Roman history from The History of Rome podcast.

[Ecolitan]

I tried to listen to that and found it far too dry.

[Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)]

I tried to listen to that and found it far too dry.

I haven't listened to the latest podcasts but I found him very engaging.

[Ecolitan]

Dan Carlin is.  That Rome podcast guy is not.