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Comment by Brajeshwar | Hacker News Reader

For some reason, the website is down for me. I have always been fascinated by the Mongols after reading “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford.

Recently, I stumbled upon the 6:40+ hour YouTube video, “The Mongols - Terror of the Steppe.” You might like it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFwMDuAnS4

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I guess you already found the hardcore history podcast episodes.

EDIT: Didn't pay attention to what channel you linked, didn't know they made videos for their podcasts.

I still get weird looks when I rave about 8 hours of podcasts on the Mongols. Hard to appreciate without having heard it. Dan Carlin is exceptional.

Here’s the first episode on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wuQ7JPneMRJTU9UJrJRNs?si=6...

And link to buy for those who prefer that over streaming https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-wrath-of-...

I have turned at least one friend onto history podcasts using Mike Duncan's work. Now our wives look at us like we're a bunch of two headed goats whenever we meet and talk referncing revolutionary figures and events, raving about how much more "you feel the history" when visiting Rome and Paris and know some of the history. It's great!

I just finished carlins kings of kings episodes before visiting the british museum. Carlin mentioned the contrast between what was depicted in the Assyrian and Achaemenid empires palace/throne and being able to see it in the museum with the added context made me appreciate it so much more.

Visited Rome/Pompeii with my GF and she said it was like having a private tour guide. I just felt like I knew so little and could only add sparse bits of context.

Dan Carlin has a great radio voice, and is an entertaining presenter. Hardcore history is really only okay on the history front though. Plus they are relatively shallow with how short they are.

I think this is a fair take but it works great as a gateway drug!

I am curious what are your recommendations though. Always eager for expanding my horizon.

Revolutions Podcast is good and well researched (Especially later seasons).

The History of the Germans Podcast is really great (100+ episodes from Ottonians just to Habsburgs, so its pretty well in depth).

History of France Podcast is good, its from a University professor, but not overly academic but well researched.

History of England Podcast is good as well, starting with Anglo Saxon and Post Roman England. He uses a lot of high quality and primary sources.

A History of Italy podcast starts with the end of Rome and is 200 episodes to get to 1500.

I like in depth, single topic podcasts as you can tell as opposed to the podcasts that jump around topics.

Revolutions is my go-to. I also listened to History of Rome from Duncan. And because of this History of Byzantium is on my to check out list as well. I will try the others you mentioned. I'm very eager to find others as in depth as revolutions. Thanks!

I think Carlin himself would be the first to admit that, even does so in the intro to many episodes. I think he already suffers from the length of some of his series.

Goodreads reviews don't instill confidence in the book.

As a rule, "pop history" is full of shit and is probably better considered misinformation than anything else. I probably don't I know of a single general-audience history/anthropology book that doesn't horrify scholars of the field.

As unfortunate as it is, studying cause-and-effect is extremely complex. If it's even theoretically possible to distill it down to easily digestible ideas, that's well outside our current technical capabilities.

There's usually going to be some true and interesting information in these books, but it will be too deeply embedded in a narrative that is misleading.

By general audience, do you mean any book that's not intended for academics?

Yes

I'm an avid reader of history books (antiquity, middle ages), and I'd say I'm very picky, trawling through reviews and recommendations from trusted sources before deciding on a book.

I have already come across books that were a slog to read because of the author's simplistic worldview or obvious contrarian agenda (so I can definitely relate), but I've also read some masterpieces (for example, Kaldellis I believe is solid).

Unfortunately I don't count any historians among my friends, so I'd welcome any recs from you for authors that are the least bad, or a teardown of main antiquity/middle ages historians.

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