Saw a post on preddit about the Civil War and slavery etc… and seeing all the annoying responses screeching about we wuz kangz and completely ignoring the context of the time period has made me hungry for non-twisted historic content. I’d like to get more educated on all the nuance of historic events without it being coated in whiny progressive goo. Are there any good history content creators on Rumble, YouTube, whatever, that you all can recommend?
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ToldInStone on YT makes some good content covering the Roman and Greek period.
Drachinifel makes fantastic videos covering naval history, from sailing ships to battleships.
Metatron also makes some quality videos covering more of the martial aspects of the Roman Imperial period. Very not woke and has pushed back on many of the revisionist history theories that are popular at the moment.
Townsends. Does 17th/18th century historical cooking videos in period dress and gives good first person accounts of the times.
For something different: Dave's Garage, does historical videos about Windows and the PC era from the early 80s onward. Worked at Microsoft himself and wrote core programs for the OS like Task Manager.
Metatron
Second this.
Razorfist isn't exactly a history channel but since you mentioned the Civil War and slavery, here ya go. (he's explicitly not siding with Lost Causers or saying the South was right - just that Lincoln was wrong)
I'll take the Lost Cause over the Righteous Cause everyday of the week.
Thanks. Enjoyed this. I’ve visited civil war sites in the past but this really makes me want to go back and see what the plaques around the places like Fredericksburg say.
second this. the format is kind of all over the place, but it really does put the civil war in perspective.
Purely history and what type as some of the creators I watch like Razorfist can do one big historical video or like Sargon and his big one on the history of slavery.
A few of the few of the more 'normie' ones aren't actually too bad like Simple History or Biographics, the do have some biases especially the latter but it's more on the lines of 'Russia is in the wrong for invading and Israel going too far' than the 'we Wuz kangs' crap which is actually stupider than Ancient Aliens. Could include Count Dankula's mad lad's if you enjoy biographies with dark humour.
You could also look at the Podcast of the Lotus eaters website as they have A LOT of historical articles and videos there to watch. Basically anywhere not Reddit or Facebook is good to get nuanced take on History, Youtube still has the only pre 2010 documentaries available when mainstream documentaries were still good.
Love the Epochs series by Lotus Eaters. Beau might still be making history videos for his HistoryBro channel, but I haven't checked. Either of them have a significant library of content.
Some good youtube guys are Leather Apron Club and Asha Logos. Not everything they do is history but they do have good history content.
Asha Logos has a great series about the French Revolution and Leather Apron Club debunks modern nonsense like Thomas Jefferson fathering black children and Greeks being flaming gay.
I like Brion McClanahan. He is a Southern Libertarian and is a proponent of "think locally, act locally." He has a thirty minute show on YouTube most weekdays.
Reddit is a shit show when it comes to history.
Edit: If you curate through his collection Blacked Pill, Devon Stack will have some history stuff. I watch him on Odysee.
I’ll check him out. Thanks. At this point if a history book would be seen a so problematic I check it out. Sowell has some good history although I don’t think he has ever written a straight up history book. He made me want to look into non western slavery more. I remember I got a hold of a history book from the 40s once. Fascinating
I love history. It's basically sci-fi except it happened in the past instead of the future.
https://youtu.be/4FKTRNYXfew?si=x4NQfc5RKWnthpBi
I know I did some history about videogames and Columbus on Native Videogamer.
C'mon dude this is your playground, tell him which toys to play on.
Comanche Empire by Hemalainan. An incredibly well researched paper on an empire that existed without being noticed. The Comanche used western expansion to defeat their rivals and own most of the midwest.
Devil in the White City. I think this is one of the most popular history books out there.
Lord of the Rings. It's not history, but it's written by someone who knows how to write it. Even the names have meanings in old English. Frodo isn't actually named that, but his name means wise one, so Tolkien wrote it in old English.
The Columbus trials have several books and are a lot of fun to read. Especially true if you can read old Spanish and Latin.
Demonology by King James. Dry read, but a scientific look at how to dispel demons by the guy who paid for the Bible everyone reads.
Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker. It's about the man made famine by Mao's agricultural policy. It's not perfect, and you have to know there is a bit of sensationalism. The death count isn't high enough though. We now think 100 Million died from it.
The Great Courses series is perfect for anyone wanting an introduction into a series.
If the YouTube channel can talk about books like these, watch them.
I love Erik Larson's style of connecting large global phenomenons connected to tragic events.
I loved that book more than anything I read about the Seattle worlds fair, and I worked near the space needle. I can tell where a friend lives now based on the bend the monorail makes in videos.
There is a book connecting HH Holmes to Jack the Ripper, but I haven't read it yet.
Isn't Devil in the White City the H.H. Holmes/World's Fair one?
Yes, that's the one. His house of death is in contrast to the world's fair in the same city.
Roger Crowley, Stephen Bown, Nigel Cliff. I know it's not what you asked for, but I'm guessing that since you're looking for video content you might as well enjoy some entertaining literature.
Those are all authors but their style is very accessible and narrative driven. If you don't have the patience for dry and dense history books, narrative non fiction might just do the trick.
Drachinifel if you're into naval history, start with the Russian Voyage of the Damned and go from there.
Townsends does some decent American history on food mostly from a American perspective. The cheese soup is actually really good rib sticking stuff.
History Bro is pretty good but he works for Sargons Lotus Eaters now and his Epoch series are brilliant, but you have to sub for 5 bucks a month (I think). Not completely sure if they are premium or not.
Oh and if you like sandwichs, then Sandwiches of history.
Townsends is the only history YouTuber I follow. Nowadays there's a lot of reenactment and "experimental archeology" stuff, but back in the day it was only him.
I've been into older and alt-history. Dan Davis, Asha Logos, Robert Sepehr, Survive the Jive, Static in the Attic, Wise Up, for a few.
https://www.youtube.com/@PaxTubeChannel
https://www.youtube.com/@LeatherApronClubChannel
https://www.youtube.com/@metatronyt
https://www.youtube.com/@norsemagicandbeliefs8134
https://www.youtube.com/@FortressofLugh
https://www.youtube.com/@wol.im.hiut.und.immer.wol.
"The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered" on YouTube