History is popculture

[warpus]

I just finished watching a very interesting video that I thought would be worthwhile sharing here.

Before anyone clicks the link, I'd like to warn you that there is a bit of foul language..

It's basically a very entertaining (and funny) lecture by .. well, I'm not really sure who the guy is, but I'm assuming he's a professor (he is one in the video).

The part that I found the most interesting is right at the beginning.. and deals with how history is basically pop-culture.. and how a lot of the things we learn as fact never actually happened.. such as Columbus' audience at the Spanish royal court, where he attempts to convince the Spanish Queen that the world is round..

Now.. in the video, it is claimed that this didn't actually happen - because it was apparently a well-known fact at the time... So Columbus couldn't have possibly attempted to convince the Queen of this, since she already knew and accepted it.

The above point itself is a great discussion point for a thread - but there is a lot of other material in the video we can talk about as well.. not to mention the incredibly entertaining presentation style of the speaker.. (also not to mention the cute girls in the audience)

So yeah, I just wanted to share this with you guys. Enjoy!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6731102750245618218

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I just finished watching a very interesting video that I thought would be worthwhile sharing here.

Before anyone clicks the link, I'd like to warn you that there is a bit of foul language..

It's basically a very entertaining (and funny) lecture by .. well, I'm not really sure who the guy is, but I'm assuming he's a professor (he is one in the video).

The part that I found the most interesting is right at the beginning.. and deals with how history is basically pop-culture.. and how a lot of the things we learn as fact never actually happened.. such as Columbus' audience at the Spanish royal court, where he attempts to convince the Spanish Queen that the world is round..

Now.. in the video, it is claimed that this didn't actually happen - because it was apparently a well-known fact at the time... So Columbus couldn't have possibly attempted to convince the Queen of this, since she already knew and accepted it.

This is abosolutely true. Only a few fools still believed the world was flat (kinda like how there are a few people in the far reaches of civilization [read: Arkansas] who think the Sun goes around the Earth); the problem was that people believed the world was a third smaller than it really was, figuratively speaking. What I mean is that no one knew the Americas were there, they thought it was just a really big ocean all the way to China. Naturally sailing across what would have been what, 9000 miles of ocean (?) is stupid, especially in the tiny boats they had in the 15 Century. That's why the Italians wanted nothing to do with Columbus' madness, they were making plenty of money trading with the Arabs to be bothered by such nonsense.

The idea that people thought the world was flat before 1492 comes from a book of fiction published in the early 19th Century called "The Fantastic Adventures of Christopher Columbus," which is, of course, a heavily romanticized story, and thus full of complete bull[crap].

To stray a bit off topic, another myth that arises from literature of that time is that of knights being very slow moving, having unwiedly armor, and being unable to mount their own horses. Fact is, even a knight in full plate mail could, given a decent level of physical fitness, run quite fast and, as they proved on the History Channel, even run down an unarmored archer show he so desire. It was also possible to swim in full plate mail, again contrary to "popular" belief. The reason for both of these capabilities is that, while the armor can weigh up to 50 lbs. extra, that weight is spread out over your entire body, so it's all proportional; hell, our regular army grunts carry that weight, sometimes more, on their body, and operate quite effectively in it.

/history rant

The above point itself is a great discussion point for a thread - but there is a lot of other material in the video we can talk about as well.. not to mention the incredibly entertaining presentation style of the speaker.. (also not to mention the cute girls in the audience)

Absolutely. This is one of the reasons I want to be a History teacher so badly; so I can help stop perpetuating these retarted myths, hyperboles, and romanticisms of history.

 

[Tee Kay]

This is one of the reasons I want to be a History teacher so badly; so I can help stop perpetuating these retarted myths, hyperboles, and romanticisms of history.

Not much good if the person correcting the exams believes in those myths.

 

[Naskra]

Mr. Wuhl does some myth-spreading himself with that bogus Upset/Man-O-war story.

 

[Sharwood]

My goal is to become a history teacher so I can spread bs myths. There's nothing better than convincing a group of gullible children that Australia was colonised by the Sumerian, who came from Rand McNally.

In all seriousness though, there are a lot of bs misconceptions about history. I actually think the main problem with Columbus' voyage was that he did his measurements in Italian miles, when everyone else used Arabian miles, which is how the smaller size of the world came to be imagined. Of course, if he really did have a copy of the Piri Reis map, he may well have done that intentionally.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Not much good if the person correcting the exams believes in those myths.

Are you referring to me?

 

[warpus]

This is abosolutely true. Only a few fools still believed the world was flat (kinda like how there are a few people in the far reaches of civilization [read: Arkansas] who think the Sun goes around the Earth); the problem was that people believed the world was a third smaller than it really was

Didn't the ancient greeks figure out the circumference of the Earth?

Maybe it was one of those "We're not sure if they were right until we actually sail around the world" kinda thing?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Didn't the ancient greeks figure out the circumference of the Earth?

Maybe it was one of those "We're not sure if they were right until we actually sail around the world" kinda thing?

Yup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes.

There are other ways of telling the Earth is round. Anyone who's ever sat on a dock and watched a ship come in can tell you the world isn't flat.

Though you may be right, no one had ever actually BEEN all the way around the world before.

 

[West 36]

I've considered teaching history too. Especially when my friends told me this little head-exploder:
"Machiavelli wrote the Communist Manifesto"
...no words...
sad thing? Even after I showed them multiple sources on the internet they weren't fully convinced. The world is a crazy [stupid] place.

 

[Sharwood]

I've considered teaching history too. Especially when my friends told me this little head-exploder:
"Machiavelli wrote the Communist Manifesto"
...no words...
sad thing? Even after I showed them multiple sources on the internet they weren't fully convinced. The world is a crazy [stupid] place.

Ha! I was just reading Il Principe last night. You really can't say anything to that, can you? I've met people that point blank refuse to believe that any Europeans discovered Australia before James Cook, despite the fact that Tasmania and the Tasman Sea are named after one such man, and the WHOLE FRIGGING COUNTRY used to called New Holland.

I think I have an example that will beat yours though, even though it isn't historical: I once met a man who, when I told him my step-father was an electrician, proceeded to inform me that electricity wasn't real. He then demonstated this, to my horror, by touching high voltage wires with his bare hands. He survived, and when I saw him later was still convinced there was no such thing as electricity. And he wasn't mentally ill or anything either, he was actually an otherwise intelligent, articulate person. WTH?!

 

[Imrahil91]

Why can't I have teachers like that!?

 

[Tee Kay]

Are you referring to me?

I was saying, even if the teacher gets the facts right, if the person correcting the exams is a different person, and if he or she believes in those myths, then it will, ironically, be bad for the students.

It's a horrible dilemma.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Tasmania and the Tasman Sea are named after one such man, and the WHOLE FRIGGING COUNTRY used to called New Holland.

Silly European Explorer's Naming Conventions! How can you have New Holland in one place and New Amsterdam all the way around the world.

 

[Sofista]

Ha! I was just reading Il Principe last night.

Fixed for you.

(Sorry, just the whole accuracy thing that inspired this thread...).

 

[Sharwood]

Fixed for you.

(Sorry, just the whole accuracy thing that inspired this thread...).

Don't worry, I'll go edit it myself. Obviously not much of a translation I have.

 

[Batgurl]

I find it quite sad how the recording of history works.

People think we have all this undeniable proof about the ancient past, but the truth is we often times have very little evidence of what a lot of these societies were like!

All it takes is one guy finding a tiny piece of a clay pot and erecting a whole theory about it, then teaching that theory to the next set of students and whalla, theory becomes fact and history is written.