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Absolute History
Dec. 28th, 2021 09:52 pmI've been watching too much some of Absolute History's living history series, like where the team live as Edwardian Farmers for a year. It's good, but the YT channel is a mess. I am currently watching the Victorian Farm series and it doesn't even have it's own playlist. Also, they have a lot of weird, click-baity shorts on the same YT channel among the really well done living history stuff. So, yeah, playlists and maybe episode numbers would help?
I know that living history does not mean 'high level overview accounting for everything', it's sort of the opposite. But sometimes they seem to paint too rosy of a picture. I love their Full Steam Aheadtrain series but ... no mention of spinal injuries? That was a major problem and people were being gaslit about it. But also these videos are uploads of a ten year old TV series aimed at people from the British education system and might be just assuming the audience knows certain things. The episodes are really cool and I like the team, but the Tudor series left me headscratching a bit that they didn't even mention the possible downsides of that level of church control of people's lives.
Also, the folklorist they consult with is someone who've I've referenced in research papers in college! I really loved Ronald Hutton's bits on the series so I looked him and and realized I had a book by him on my shelf. I think I bought it in England when I was studying abroad.
Anyway, highly recommended, especially the train series, Wartime Farm and Edwardian Farm. It's exactly the sort of details good for writing period stuff. But it does occasionally make me wish they'd go 'but the other side to all this is ...' a bit more often.
( A few random observations )
I know that living history does not mean 'high level overview accounting for everything', it's sort of the opposite. But sometimes they seem to paint too rosy of a picture. I love their Full Steam Aheadtrain series but ... no mention of spinal injuries? That was a major problem and people were being gaslit about it. But also these videos are uploads of a ten year old TV series aimed at people from the British education system and might be just assuming the audience knows certain things. The episodes are really cool and I like the team, but the Tudor series left me headscratching a bit that they didn't even mention the possible downsides of that level of church control of people's lives.
Also, the folklorist they consult with is someone who've I've referenced in research papers in college! I really loved Ronald Hutton's bits on the series so I looked him and and realized I had a book by him on my shelf. I think I bought it in England when I was studying abroad.
Anyway, highly recommended, especially the train series, Wartime Farm and Edwardian Farm. It's exactly the sort of details good for writing period stuff. But it does occasionally make me wish they'd go 'but the other side to all this is ...' a bit more often.
( A few random observations )
