Crash Course World History

[Gen.Mannerheim]

Though granted 14-year-olds (or at least high schoolers) are the main target audience of this series.

And High Schoolers need half baked philosophical backgrounds to these topics or just the basic outline in a crash course world history? Which is more useful to a kid who probably doesn't care that much anyway. If you put half the stuff he says on a test you will fail.

 

[JohannaK]

Hmm, yes about the American Revolution one, I must say I've never known much about the US, and I was interested and I thought "Here I'll learn something, even if little", but I got the feeling there was actually nothing I could learn.

 

[Crezth]

irritatingly superior style of discussion

This is what gets me.

 

[Traitorfish]

Yes, because if there's one thing that we at CFC can't stand, it's talking in a superior tone.

(edit: Not a swipe at Dachs, btw; his tone is more "weary obligation" than anything else. Just at, y'know, almost everyone else.)

 

[Crezth]

the irony descended on me scant moments after first posting that.

 

[nerdfighter13]

I'll admit I fall into the target demographics, but I like the show. I know some of the facts are inaccurate because I learned about the events in history class. I agree that he shouldn't be doing the history, but his history teacher writes part of the show. However, when he did a mini-series on literature, I feel he was qualified for that job, what with his best selling novel and an English degree. I think the problem is that he doesn't provide any source material, so we don't know if his facts are true unless we have read from reliable sources that they are untrue. He should put a list of sources at the end of each episode, but regardless, I will continue to watch.

 

[Zack]

He posts a Wikipedia link in the description box for every episode I've looked.

I also like the show, despite my criticisms and its flaws.

 

[nerdfighter13]

Wikipedia? There should be a more direct way of posting sources than linking to Wikipedia and then going to all the links at the bottom of the page.

 

[_random_]

depending on the episode:

misinformation
irritatingly superior style of discussion
infantile "jokes"
annoyingly cutesy graphics
the "please punch me in the face" vibe that the presenter gives off

The misinformation is kind of annoying. I haven't caught anything directly counter-factual, so as far as I know it's better than a lot of high school history textbooks, but the way he describes things is pretty misleading. He pushes the whole "feudalism" thing, and significantly overstates the importance of calendar controversies between Eastern and Western Christendom and understates conflicts between Pope and Patriarch that did occur in the Byzantine Empire, and he mispronounces "Hagia Sophia" and he acknowledges that the term "Dark Ages" originated in Eurocentric thought without explaining that it didn't really apply to Europe, and he seems to indicate that the Sadducees were strongly anti-Hellenistic and okay yeah there is quite a bit of misinformation in all the videos where he addresses something I know anything about. But then again, it's written by a high school history teacher, who presumably uses a lot of high school history texts. None of this is terribly egregiously wrong, keeping that in mind.

I do find his delivery style entertaining though. It's possible I might find him annoying if I learned of him through different circumstances. A cute girl I know is a big fan of his and I may have been seeking common interests with her at some point and the interplay between my dick and my brain may have created focus on the positive elements of John Green. I can deal with a little positivity I guess. And as edutainment, it works. It's meant to be an engaging overview, and if jokes and cartoons and some oversimplified narratives can help get people into history, I'm willing to see this all as a good thing.

 

[JohannaK]

You forgot there, mispronouncing things is his thing.

 

[Dachs]

I do find his delivery style entertaining though. It's possible I might find him annoying if I learned of him through different circumstances. A cute girl I know is a big fan of his and I may have been seeking common interests with her at some point and the interplay between my dick and my brain may have created focus on the positive elements of John Green. I can deal with a little positivity I guess. And as edutainment, it works. It's meant to be an engaging overview, and if jokes and cartoons and some oversimplified narratives can help get people into history, I'm willing to see this all as a good thing.

When I find cute girls who are fans of history, I don't try to find the positive aspects of their favorite presenters to establish common ground, I supplant them.

 

[Leoreth]

the interplay between my dick and my brain may have created focus on the positive elements of John Green.

Sorry, but this statement was just too good to not quote mine it

 

[Joecoolyo]

I was annoyed too much by John Green to get farther than 5 minutes into the Mongol episode.

Though from what I saw, I didn't see very much wrong, just really simplified. There were some strange claims though, like the idea that the Mongols just kind of sat around doing nothing until Temujin showed up. Or that use of the lower classes is what lead Genghis Khan to defeat his blood brother (who Green terms the "rich" for some reason) and unite the tribes in some sort of weird Robin Hood like way.

 

[_random_]

When I find cute girls who are fans of history, I don't try to find the positive aspects of their favorite presenters to establish common ground, I supplant them.

That... that's really not a bad idea.

Sorry, but this statement was just too good to not quote mine it

Use it as you will.

 

[Zack]

There's simply not enough time, and that's before you account for the third of each episode spent on things completely irrelevant (lengthy pop culture references, open letter gimmick, dumb jokes, etc.). At the end of each episode, I'm sitting there thinking that I didn't learn much of anything, it's so simplified and short. It's like reading an abridged version of my world history textbook, if my world history textbook was written by an obnoxious man-child.

That said, I still keep watching the videos, so they're doing something right.

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

When I find cute girls who are fans of history, I don't try to find the positive aspects of their favorite presenters to establish common ground, I supplant them.

And hows that working out for ya buddy

 

[Integral]

I've only watched the first video.

1. He's not funny enough to pull of the cutesy style he's going for.

2. He throws a lot of claims out very quickly. It's hard to evaluate them all in real-time, but I'm not entirely happy with most of them. On the bright side, his discussion of foragers and agriculture was non-terrible. He gets a lot of claims right, in broad swaths.

3. Still, it's mildly entertaining.

 

[Zack]

^ Totally agree with all three points.

Also, this is a more entertainment-oriented alternative.

 

[Dachs]

And hows that working out for ya buddy

Extremely well, now that I'm not wasting my time teaching people who already know about history.

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

Extremely well, now that I'm not wasting my time teaching people who already know about history.

That was cold!!! You're just jealous of my Super Saiyan swagger... And for the record, us disagreeing does not equal teaching lol. Because I am usually right.