We've been learning about history, and seeing a lot of the Plantagenets

[andrewducker]

Julie picked up a book about the historical influences on Game Of Thrones. It was shit. But it got her looking into actual history books, and wanting to share that with me*, so we picked up Simon Schama's TV series "A History of Britain" to give us a decent overview**, starting in 3100BCE (at Skara Brae) and working its way forward to the 1960s

Comments

[steer]

The Story Of The Jews

Which I can never even think about without thinking of the Mitchell and Webb sketch (sadly doesn't appear to be online anywhere).

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-11-20/david-mitchell-takes-a-sideswipe-at-david-starkey-after-he-was-rude-to-his-wife-victoria-coren

[andrewducker]

I'd not encountered that! I remembered Starkey coming out with some awful stuff after the rioting. And I'm sure I've got him confused with Schama before as well.

[steer]

The sketch proceeds along the lines of "well, if Schama can do 'history of the Jews' should we let him?" "But he isn't black." "Could we have him black up?" "That seems a bit insensitive and unlikely." "No, I just spoke to him, he's keen."

(May be misremembered). But yes, inspired by a certain lack of sensitivity he showed after the riots.

[iainjcoleman]

about every third one is actually competent, making up the ground lost by the utter idiocy that occurs between them

Machiavelli's argument against hereditary rule in a nutshell.

[randomdreams]

I wonder if there wasn't some source of toxic material in their food we don't know about. That sounds like they were all eating mercury compounds.
Or they were all syphilis babies, which is also entirely possible.

[danieldwilliam]

I was wondering along those lines myself.

Large parts of history became much clearer to me when I read some interesting discussion on the effects of malnutrition, childhood disease, parasites and post traumatic stress on people’s cognitive functions. Unsurprisingly it has a The article was looking at sub-Saharan Africa in the present day but I think must apply to medival Europe.

I think that and a good chance of having a head injury would explain some of the poor management.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, starvation, inequality, and general poverty will cause all sorts of unpleasant effects.

I've tried explaining to people that if you grow up in an area that's full of violence, where you get resources through intimidation and unpleasantness, then that's going to have a knock-on effect on how you think/behave for a very long time.

[cmcmck]

Schama writes way too much.

Saints preserve us from generalists!

[erindubitably]

I have a friend in Canada who is teaching a GoT/medieval history course - if you like I can try to get some of her recommended readings!

[erindubitably]

The 'trailer' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBMy-88Urn8

(Classes have trailers now?!)

[andrewducker]

That would be awesome!

(I'll check out the trailer from home)

[naath]

Top Tip from history - when your first wife dies marry another woman with the same name! (also, make sure your mistress has the same name as your wife!).

(really it was just that there were only a few names that everyone used. I expect in everyday use people had nicknames so you'd not always be calling everyone Matilda (or maybe Maud) and getting enormously confused)

[cybik]

So my dad totally married a woman (my mum) with the same name as his first wife. His first wife kept her married name (dad's surname) when they got divorced. I always thought that was a bit weird.

Edited to add: my mum goes by a short form, dad's first wife by the full name. So yeah, nicknames are useful.