The Big History Thread

[Cosmic Joe]

30 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Ran across a potentially brilliant new YouTube channel, “Ghost Train: Lost Railways of Britain”. Plays side by side rail routes on old and new maps with video and photography. Really enjoyable concept, only been posting about a month. Here’s the Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth one that I stumbled across. Too bad there’s nothing really up north yet.

 

Raith wore all white with two horizontal navy blue stripes on the Jersey. East Fife wore gold shirts with black facings, black shorts, gold stockings with two black hoops. No such thing as away kits in 1971. The home team changed. 

Thank you

Edited February 23, 2023 by Cosmic Joe

[Jacksgranda]

30 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Ran across a potentially brilliant new YouTube channel, “Ghost Train: Lost Railways of Britain”. Plays side by side rail routes on old and new maps with video and photography. Really enjoyable concept, only been posting about a month. Here’s the Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth one that I stumbled across. Too bad there’s nothing really up north yet.

 

Thanks, thoroughly enjoyed that!

[TxRover]

10 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

Thanks, thoroughly enjoyed that!

I was really interested in the whole concept, it has some real potential.

[TxRover]

11 minutes ago, Cosmic Joe said:

Raith wore all white with two horizontal navy blue stripes on the Jersey. East Fife wore gold shirts with black facings, black shorts, gold stockings with two black hoops. No such thing as away kits in 1971. The home team changed. 

Thank you

Got it, thanks.

[Cosmic Joe]

12 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Got it, thanks.

 

[TxRover]

26 minutes ago, Cosmic Joe said:

 

Amusingly the twin blue stripes seals it, thanks a lot!

[Cosmic Joe]

1 minute ago, TxRover said:

Amusingly the twin blue stripes seals it, thanks a lot!

You're welcome

 

 

[Wee-Bey]

On 22/02/2023 at 21:30, Bodie said:

A thread for all history nerds and non nerds.  There's probably another one but it must have been a while back, so here's a new one. I imagine there's plenty on here that have studied History and I think there's a couple of History teachers too plus I think most will enjoy some sort of historical stuff even if it's a relatively modern post WW2 thing. So...

What's your favourite period ?

Who's your favourite historical figure ?

Who's in your hall of fame of most important (good or bad) influential figures ? Do you even believe in the Great Man of History Theory or were they products of their society ?

What's your unpopular historical opinion ?

What are the big sliding doors/hinge points/what ifs that would have seen humans and society develop differently ?

Are you reading/watching/studying anything atm ?

Any book/podcast/documentary recommendations ?

I'm currently enjoying some 30 Years War content atm which I only had a brief understanding of previously.

@The_Kincardine

[Snobot]

I too have a history degree (Scottish History) which isn’t really relevant to what I do for a living.

I’m far more engaged with it now than I ever was at University. I am particularly interested in the history of the Highlands and I’ve crossed into family tree research now which is really interesting putting my ancestors in the context of the clearances, land agitation etc.

I think I’d be far more motivated and engaged doing it now than as an 18 year old, and the resources are so much easier to hand. It was great during lockdown when the British Newspaper Archive was free to access so you had all this searchable source material at the click of a button.

[senorsoupe]

On 23/02/2023 at 14:52, TxRover said:

Ran across a potentially brilliant new YouTube channel, “Ghost Train: Lost Railways of Britain”. Plays side by side rail routes on old and new maps with video and photography. Really enjoyable concept, only been posting about a month. Here’s the Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth one that I stumbled across. Too bad there’s nothing really up north yet.

 

Whelp, there's another youtube rabbit hole for me to fall into lol

These are really cool

[TxRover]

32 minutes ago, senorsoupe said:

Whelp, there's another youtube rabbit hole for me to fall into lol

These are really cool

Ye gods, isn’t that the truth. It’s amazing what a variety of subjects can catch your attention when you poke around a bit on the web. It’s like a couple of years ago a channel called Cruising the Cut dragged me down some few hundred episodes of rabbit hole just because it was a totally different point of view of chugging around the countryside.

[tamthebam]

9 hours ago, TxRover said:

 It’s like a couple of years ago a channel called Cruising the Cut dragged me down some few hundred episodes of rabbit hole just because it was a totally different point of view of chugging around the countryside.

[SlipperyP]

I don't have a History degree!

However, as I've got older I've taken a liken to older shiite.

Someone posted on the YouTube thread, I think, maybe wrong a link to 

The Great War - I've made my way through it and now onto Time Ghost History which then made me watch World War Two

I'm up to 21st Nov 1941 on the WW2 series 

Gid shit, if your into it!

[Satoshi]

Lifelong history nerd but haven't actually studied it since school.

Particularly enjoy broader stroke world history like Sapiens or Guns, Germs and Steel. In the latter my favourite history / anthropological fact of Madagascar being colonised from Borneo (7500km away) rather than Africa which is only 400km away. Which makes sense as the language spoken is Malagasy (related to Malay) and the people look Malay or Malay/African mix. Have never been but would like to go.

Around Asia I have discovered that every museum has a nationalistic narrative that doesn't exist in the UK (or maybe it does but I'm blind to it). Did you know how US prisoners loved being POWs in Vietnam? Sometimes it's quite blatant, other times it's omission, Singapore would cover the McDonald House bombing extensively but would omit their fairly big (and fairly recent) eugenics program.

I haven't been to museums in Scotland for a long time, anything we are omitting? Any flaky pro colonisation stuff?

In terms of documentaries, there are innumerable good ones on the BBC but you can't go wrong with Ken Burns.

[Braesoyetts]

2 hours ago, Satoshi said:

Lifelong history nerd but haven't actually studied it since school.

Particularly enjoy broader stroke world history like Sapiens or Guns, Germs and Steel. In the latter my favourite history / anthropological fact of Madagascar being colonised from Borneo (7500km away) rather than Africa which is only 400km away. Which makes sense as the language spoken is Malagasy (related to Malay) and the people look Malay or Malay/African mix. Have never been but would like to go.

Around Asia I have discovered that every museum has a nationalistic narrative that doesn't exist in the UK (or maybe it does but I'm blind to it). Did you know how US prisoners loved being POWs in Vietnam? Sometimes it's quite blatant, other times it's omission, Singapore would cover the McDonald House bombing extensively but would omit their fairly big (and fairly recent) eugenics program.

I haven't been to museums in Scotland for a long time, anything we are omitting? Any flaky pro colonisation stuff?

In terms of documentaries, there are innumerable good ones on the BBC but you can't go wrong with Ken Burns.

Ken Burns is pretty good, though his civil war documentary is not aging as well as it might.  A little too much lost cause mythology on there, and the other usual pro-confederate stuff, mostly by one or two talking heads.

His baseball series was wonderful - wish someone would make something like that for Scottish football!

[Wee-Bey]

5 hours ago, Satoshi said:

I haven't been to museums in Scotland for a long time, anything we are omitting? Any flaky pro colonisation stuff?

I noticed on my last visit to The National Museum of Scotland that it's getting better in this regard with a couple of objects now having a 'yeah we stole this shit and we're planning on giving it back' sign including the awesome totem pole which is heading back to the Nisga'a Nation in Canada shortly.

Went to the big museum in Liverpool a couple of years back and they have an excellent section on the slave trade and Liverpool's role in it.

[scottsdad]

On 26/02/2023 at 07:03, Braesoyetts said:

Ken Burns is pretty good, though his civil war documentary is not aging as well as it might.  A little too much lost cause mythology on there, and the other usual pro-confederate stuff, mostly by one or two talking heads.

His baseball series was wonderful - wish someone would make something like that for Scottish football!

I disagree to an extent. I think it has aged very well, mainly because it was so detailed. Burns was trying to portray balance in his doc, and afterwards the Lost Cause folk latched onto it a little. 

The big thing really was Shelby Foote's open admiration for Nathan Bedford Forrest. He called him one of two geniuses the war produced (the other being Lincoln). And of course, Forrest went on to be the first Grand Wizard of the KKK. So folk are taking Foote's admiration of Forrest the soldier and mixing it with the KKK stuff he did later on and have tried to use this to demonstrate some pro-slavery ideas which really were not in the documentary.

[Shannon]

On 22/02/2023 at 22:29, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Studied history at Strathclyde, Scotland’s premier university, loved learning about a wide variety of subjects, did Japanese history in second year and thought that was fantastic. Really enjoyed US history also. The witch trials in Scotland were particularly gruesome. The one part i didnt really enjoy was a class on the Spanish Armada, not for me. Think i really liked the social history, not the kings and queens etc but what life was like for the average person. 

I reckon I took a few of the same classes as yourself nearly 15-20 years ago now! I gave Japanese history a body swerve as thought I wouldn't have understood it but really wish I done it now. The Spanish Armada class I done was about the strategy of England and Spain and also found that really hard for my 20 year old self to really get into.

I always remember seeing someone skiving on Pie and Bovril on their laptop during a history lesson at Strathclyde 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Shannon

[scottsdad]

How many history graduates go on to be historians?

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

20 minutes ago, Shannon said:

I reckon I took a few of the same classes as yourself nearly 15-20 years ago now! I gave Japanese history a body swerve as thought I wouldn't have understood it but really wish I done it now. The Spanish Armada class I done was about the strategy of England and Spain and also found that really hard for my 20 year old self to really get into.

I always remember seeing someone skiving on Pie and Bovril on their laptop during a history lesson at Strathclyde 

Did you graduate in 2008? 
Agree re the Armada class, just feel like it didnt merit an entire semester long class. The japanese class was brilliant, understanding what happened to them when the west initially traded with them and why they went isolationist helps you understand their process and rationale in terms of ww2 etc too.