Hardcore
In the last post of the previous year I expressed that this year I’d be interspersing my usual ramblings with pieces about people who are doing helpful or useful things. This is the first of those pieces. I won’t ever be accepting payment for writing these types of pieces. I feel that by accepting payment it provides an immediate conflict of interest and lessens the power of the recommendation.
I’m doing this because I think it’s important that we all encourage those who are doing ‘a good thing’. The best way I can do that is to tell other people about the good thing so that more people can benefit from it. Perhaps even history will remember them? I certainly hope it does for this man.
I’ve always liked history. It was my strongest subject at school and I studied it at university, although I didn’t finish my degree. I’m not sure what the appeal is. I’m quite a curious individual and I think I enjoy the quest to find out just why the things that happened actually happened. At times this endless curiosity has been a source of frustration for my employers, friends and significant others.
Given how much of a history ‘nerd’ I am it’s surprising it took me so long to discover the wonderful work of Dan Carlin. Carlin comes from a background in journalism with experience in both television and radio.
Disgruntled with the partisan views consistently expressed in mainstream media outlets Carlin was an early adopter of ‘internet radio’ or podcasting as it’s more commonly known. Carlin’s original show entitled ‘Common Sense’ mirrored his earlier work in commercial radio. It’s primarily about politics and world events. Dan has described his approach as “Neoprudentist” a label he uses with his tongue firmly in cheek. He still pumps out a new Common Sense show around every three to four weeks.
After a few years of doing this with strong results he started producing a second podcast entitled Hardcore History. Initially these were thirty or forty minutes long although I think the very first one was just twenty minutes long. Each Hardcore History episode examines an event, period or aspect of history.
The result is a fascinating account of real world historical events by Dan whose prodigious knowledge of the events is delivered to the listener via wonderfully skilful story telling. It’s like sitting around the fire with the oldest member of the tribe while he regales you with tales of his youth and the tribe’s history.
Further adding to the experience Carlin often brings fresh perspectives to historical events. He draws parallels between what happened thousands of years ago and what might be happening now. He can do this, he says, because he is not a qualified historian and thus is not bound by the restraints that many historians operate under.
A good example of the interesting twists presented by Carlin is the very first Hardcore History entitled Alexander Vs Hitler. In it Dan compares the two figures. He notes they were both mass murderers in their time and both despots. Yet history remembers them very-very differently, why is that?
Now an orthodox historian generally steers clear of such things. Like many of the other social sciences, over time history has gravitated towards discussing facts which can be proven by clear physical evidence. Because of this the offerings of actual historians can often be quite dry and difficult to get through. There are no think pieces.
Carlin’s work on the other hand is mostly think pieces albeit backed up by a massive amount of research on his part. He makes the subject matter interesting and that inspires people to want to know more. To perhaps pick up one of those challenging history books which is harder to get through?
No-one else is doing work like this of such quality. The sheer amount of reading the man must be doing is hard to describe. Some other commentators have suggested that a multi-part series such as the ones on the fall of Rome or the First World War contains as much background work as a thesis.
The link to Dan Carlin’s website is below (1). Some of the content is long. Some of the content is very long. Remember that you don’t have to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. You can absolutely enjoy the story over a number of sessions. It’s well worth the investment of your time.