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Comment by vondur | Hacker News Reader

If anyone here wants more info regarding the French Revolution, I heartily recommend listening to the Revolutions podcast by Mike Duncan. He really goes into detail into the French Revolution and of course covers the period Of Napoléon.

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For that matter, the Napoleon podcast itself is also really good - although at 60 hours, it’s perhaps too in-depth for anyone other than true fans.

https://napoleonbonapartepodcast.com/

The Age of Napoleon is another good one: https://recordedhistory.net/the-age-of-napoleon/

I tried listening to that, but found it incredibly dull. I much prefer Hardcore History, and it's a pity Dan Carlin hasn't yet done a series on the French Revolution.

I love Carlin, especially his series about the Persian empire, but for my taste he gets too caught up in military history. You can tell he’s a tabletop wargamer. Mike Duncan isn’t nearly as gripping a storyteller (practically no one is), but he covers events from a more holistic point of view.

If you started Revolutions from the beginning and gave up, maybe give it another try with a later episode. IMO the first series, on the English civil war, is the weakest one I’ve listened to.

Yeah, I agree that Carlin is primarily a fan of the military side of things, and that's really what he focuses on. I do enjoy a wider view than one merely focusing on the military side, and for that I've found a pretty good podcast called Literature and History, hosted by Doug Metzger. It's no Hardcore History, but, as you point out, nothing is.

By the way, my favorite Hardcore History series was Wrath of the Khans, and I can heartily recommend it to anyone who hasn't tasted Hardcore History before. Last time I looked it was still free on his site, so get it while you still can.

I'm loving the Revolutions series. The first season is a little unpolished, but it gets better by the French Revolution.

On the other hand I really didn't enjoy the Dan Carlin episodes about WW1. His overly dramatic and histrionic delivery becomes tiresome. After about twelve hours of scenery chewing about how awful trench warfare was and all the grisly suffering, I decided he was enjoying it too much and gave up.

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