The British History Podcast

This is a combination episode covering medicine in the Dark Ages! Support the Show

This is a combination episode covering medicine in the Dark Ages!

Ok, it's time for another Project History Cage match! For centuries scholars have looked to Rome as a shining beacon of antiquity. This point of view has become so prevalent that even in pop culture Rome is treated as the pinnacle of the ancient world. But was it? That will be the subject for today's cage match. Rome: Overrated? Roifield Brown of How Jamaica Conquered the World Zack Twamley of When Diplomacy Fails Jordan Harbour of Twilight Histories Jamie Redfern of a History of Hannibal and a History of Alexander Ray Harris of A History of World War Two And me, Jamie Jeffers (aka Attila the Bum, aka Brennus the Menace, aka Alaric the something that rhymes with Alaric), of The British History Podcast.

Ok, we’ve been getting pretty deep into the weeds and have been getting farther and farther from a coherent story. On the one hand, the culture is the story, but on the other hand it’s hard to get attached to a story if you forget who we are talking about and the people involved. So I thought that now would be a good time to tell a story about a community that was living in the early post-Roman era. After all, I’ve been spending a lot of time telling you how things weren’t as bad as you imagine so I might have given you the impression things were fine. They weren’t. Especially in the early parts, people were sickly, their lives were bleak, and it was a scary and violent time to be alive. That isn’t to say that people in the Roman era, especially the poor, were healthy and happy... it looks like they were also in pretty dire straights when compared to their Iron Age kin. But I think it’s important to put some of this stuff into context and remember that, while things weren’t necessarily as awful and culturally devoid as people might imagine, things were still pretty rough. Especially in the early parts. Also, you can nominate us for Best Educational Podcast at www.podcastawards.com.

57 – A Tale of Three Cities (sort of)

Ok, we’ve been getting pretty deep into the weeds and have been getting farther and farther from a coherent story. On the one hand, the culture is the story, but on the other hand it’s hard to get attached to a story if you forget who we are talking about and the people involved. So I thought that now would be a good time to tell a story about a community that was living in the early post-Roman era. After all, I’ve been spending a lot of time telling you how things weren’t as bad as you imagine so I might have given you the impression things were fine. They weren’t. Especially in the early parts, people were sickly, their lives were bleak, and it was a scary and violent time to be alive. That isn’t to say that people in the Roman era, especially the poor, were healthy and happy... it looks like they were also in pretty dire straights when compared to their Iron Age kin. But I think it’s important to put some of this stuff into context and remember that, while things weren’t necessarily as awful and culturally devoid as people might imagine, things were still pretty rough. Especially in the early parts. Support the Show

There's a really good chance that I'll be in the UK in November to interview experts on the Staffordshire Hoard! If it happens, I'd love to meet up with you. We're currently looking at setting up meet and greets in London and Birmingham (and maybe York) as well as a group viewing of the Hoard. So if you're interested, could you please contact me and let me know so I can gauge interest? Thanks!

So I’m doing a short midweek episode because something’s been irking me. I’ve heard repeatedly from a variety of people that history is a guy thing. And that’s f#*king stupid. I mean, you could say that just on sheer mathematics, 51% of history is a female thing. But that’s not the truth of it. The truth is that history is a human thing. These are everyone’s stories and while there were a ridiculous number of biased primary sources who focused on almost exclusively on men, it is our job to rise above those sources because if you are ignoring over half of the population you are ignoring the majority of our shared history. But unfortunately, many historians and narrators don’t rise above it. The easy path is to just speak about the men of society because the great man approach has been a historical trope since at least the Roman era. But it’s incomplete. Besides, everyone listening to this episode has female ancestors. Aren’t you curious about them? Don’t you wonder how they lived? Even if it’s during the periods of history where women were relegated to the domestic sphere, doesn’t it pique your interest? I mean, even if you only want to know about kings... those powerful kings were involved in a homelife when they came home. So how can you truly understand them as people if you cut out all this other material? And the worst part about ignoring women in history, whether they are powerful war leaders like Boudicca, politically savvy manipulators like Eleanor, or just the simple crofter’s wife, when you ignore these people, you are disenfranchising an entire segment of the population. When you say history is a guy thing, people hear it. People read it. And maybe the next Gibbon or the next Salway is hearing those comments, and maybe she’ll decide that she’s unwelcome in the field and seek out another area of study instead. So this stuff does damage to us all. But it doesn’t need the be so blatant, simply telling these stories and acting like men are the only people who did anything and their stories are the only ones that matter has the effect of isolating people from history. And we can see its effect play out in front of us... on Facebook we have thousands of listeners, but there’s a 20% split between men and women. That’s crazy! There might be mitigating factors that lead to this split, but it might also be the result of this bias of history being just for men. So we need to tell the whole story. It’s not the easy thing to do, these stories are buried and hidden and in many cases just outright lost. But we need to do what we can to find them, because to do anything else it is, at best, lazy, and at worst dangerous. And besides, these stories are great! And with that in mind, here is an early episode I did on a few prominent women in Celtic history for the members.

56 – Telling the Full Story (a Bonus Episode)

So I’m doing a short midweek episode because something’s been irking me. I’ve heard repeatedly from a variety of people that history is a guy thing. And that’s f#*king stupid. I mean, you could say that just on sheer mathematics, 51% of history is a female thing. But that’s not the truth of it. The truth is that history is a human thing. These are everyone’s stories and while there were a ridiculous number of biased primary sources who focused on almost exclusively on men, it is our job to rise above those sources because if you are ignoring over half of the population you are ignoring the majority of our shared history. But unfortunately, many historians and narrators don’t rise above it. The easy path is to just speak about the men of society because the great man approach has been a historical trope since at least the Roman era. But it’s incomplete. Support the Show

OK, So I had requests for an episode on construction. I actually had a surprising number of requests for it, actually. So we're going to do a single episode on how things were built, and since we've been talking about feasts, we'll talk about... of course... feasting halls. Now as I've said with much of this material, it's really hard to study. This is because of the materials they used, of course. Timber doesn't keep too well unless it's in a bog or something along those lines. And while it would have been handy if Cerdic decreed that everything had to be built in stone, he didn't, so here we are. And adding to our troubles is the fact that the sites for the Anglo Saxon buildings didn't change over time too much. Which means that the sites end up being tough to analyze because other medieval buildings have been built on the same site. Not to mention modern buildings, such as Car Parks. You know, like in the case with the possible grave of Richard III. ...

55 – Anglo Saxon Construction

OK, So I had requests for an episode on construction. I actually had a surprising number of requests for it, actually. So we're going to do a single episode on how things were built, and since we've been talking about feasts, we'll talk about... of course... feasting halls. Support the Show

Ok, so we are basically done with feasting and food in general. I could go into the construction of the feasting hall, and I might do that at a later date if it I get in a carpenter mood (or if there is a big hew and cry for that sort of information) but in general, I think we're done with that aspect of the Dark Ages. So what did you think? Looking back on what you thought about the Anglo Saxons and the Dark Ages, did your view change? I'm genuinely interested in what you thought about it before these episodes and what you think now. So if you are so inclined, please tell me about it on Facebook, Twitter, or the Forums. Or if you don't want the world to see your comments, you can also email me directly at thebritishhistorypodcast@gmail.com But seriously, let me know. Maybe I'll put together a short midweek episode where I read what you thought before and after if I get enough responses. It could be fun, and it's another way that we can all interact together as a community. So please consider it. And next up we are going to have a short discussion on another area of the Dark Ages that is rather misunderstood, or just ignored in general. Clothing.

54 – What Not To Wear: In The Dark Ages