I got a BA in history entirely by accident.
My college had “flat rate” tuition, so you paid about the same no matter how many classes you took. I’d throw in classes that seemed fun or interesting, and my college career was a mess too.
On the way to getting the degree I actually intended to pursue, I just took so many 3000/4000 history classes that at some point it was like “oh, I can do the survey classes as an inter session and actually get the degree.”
I think the most important thing - the thing you lack from things like Assassins Creeds or Civ or Age of Empires - reading primary sources. Especially when so much is online and translated into English. It is so much more enlightening to go direct to the source.
My college had “flat rate” tuition, so you paid about the same no matter how many classes you took.
Wow. I would’ve abused that and dropped my GPA even lower than it was. XD
I had a couple of 21 hour semesters, 18 hours during the main semester, 3 for intercessions.
I took a two week course on the Vietnam war that kinda “peaked” me. I had done a project in high school and learned about My Lai on my own, but then learning that the Gulf of Tonkin was a false flag and how fucked it was that the US was like “yah no, we aren’t going to let you have the sovereignty you won” - it eroded any faith I had in the government.
Another fave was a course on Byzantine art. The iconography was gorgeous - I was blessed to visit the Louvre a few years later and goddamn was it amazing to see those ikons.
I personally learned a LOT about history from civilization games
Unironically, the civilopedia entries from Civ 2 were one of my introductions to just how vast and different the past really was.
Exactly what I was thinking of lol
I still remember being about 9 years old and reading up on what that hell a phalanx was in the Civ 1 civilopedia. I was slow rolling into the game and they’re great defensive units. Didn’t learn how to pronounce the word for quite a few more years.
For god knows what reason, I pronounced it as ‘phanalix’ for the longest time.
And the winged hussars arrived!!!
killer song and video:
Poltava is pretty good too:
Your in the snipers siigghhttt, the first kill tonight. Saayy goodbyyeee
@PugJesus Polandball. It’s all Polandball.
Age of Empires 2 campaigns
For me, this was the Total War series, particularly the first Rome Total War. I remember my history teacher asking if anyone could point to Carthage on a map and I was the only one in the class who had any idea.
Lots to be learned out there from non-traditional sources if you pay attention!
Except the history channel, that ain’t a valid place to learn history.
Hey now, some of us grew up on the History Channel.
So did I, but that was like thirty years ago.
Historia Civilis
I hate to be the party pooper, bit I don’t think video games, memes and music are valid sources of knowledge. They can be great to spark interest, but should always be validated by further research.
(Your great history teacher might have made mistakes, too.)Hence why the title is “Wherever you learned to love history”
My bad, I missed the ‘to love’ part. To be fair though, I came across just a few too many people claiming they ‘learned history from video games and Sabaton’ so maybe we can agree that my comment is meant more general and not targeted at this meme?
Once it has been validated, what would you then say the source of the knowledge gained was?
The research material you used to validate the other stuff with.
You just said it, the research validates the source where you learned the fact. In this case, it’s a video game lol. The medium doesn’t matter, only that the information is correct
Yeah, obviously. My original point however is that video games and music are not reliable sources.
You tell me obviously, but you just told otterpop that the research material used to validate the other stuff with would be the source.
I don’t necessarily disagree with the original point, I’m just pointing this part out.
Both is true though. If the fact in the video game was correct, it is how you learned about it, hence it is your source of knowledge. Also, the research material with which you confirmed the fact is a source of knowledge. And if that fact in the video game wasn’t true, then the research material is a source but not the video game.
However, I wouldn’t list a video game as a source when I talk about historical facts but only as an initial spark of interest that led me to research said historical facts.
