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Amockdfw89 t1_ja3n0nz wrote

What are some good YouTube channels for history that are neither:

A. Too dry

B. Too childish

I am a US history teacher so I am surrounded by dry text and childish videos. Just something clever or interesting I can listen to on my long commute to work.

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LaoBa t1_ja92sdn wrote

Defragged history has an excellent series about the 80 years war, they're on YouTube. She goes into great detail, is more or less impartial and she knows how to pronounce Dutch and Spanish names. She also has excellent shorter series about the Batavia shipwreck and the Kursk disaster.

3

GSilky t1_ja447du wrote

Good question. I can't handle YouTube videos, they do tend to be childish and focused more on being witty and graphically interesting than informative (for example, false Smerdis doesn't have enough sources to make a five minute video, and can be covered with "rival power centers propped up options"). I was drawn into history by good authors like Voltaire, Gibbon, and Will Durant who know how to write, text books and academic historians don't seem to have that prejudice. If doing Rome, check out Mary Beard, she gives a vibrant and factual narrative.

2

elmonoenano t1_ja5k5va wrote

Various state historical societies video tape their events. You can look for their youtube channels. My local societies is here: https://www.youtube.com/@oregonhistory/videos

There's similar ones for groups focused on more defined areas, like Gilder Lehrman has a channel for US Civil War stuff. https://www.youtube.com/@gilderlehrman

Gilder Lehrman recently had an event at Yale specifically for teachers. I they had a big wig there too. I can't remember if it was Eric Foner or David Blight

Also, CSPAN's author talks are fun. Or you can just search for authors and books you like to find talks by those people. Lots of bookstores started putting up their author events during the pandemic.

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