EH Topic Vote!
Added 2016-09-24 22:17:18 +0000 UTCWhat topic would you like EC to cover next? Vote for as many of the options as you like, and whichever gets the most votes wins!
Link: http://freeonlinesurveys.com/p/iV23lnRS?qid=870999
Deadline: Before midnight (PST) September 27
Current Schedule: History of Paper Money --> Simon Bolivar --> Catherine the Great --> Your Vote!
Note from Soraya: I am still traveling abroad on vacation (yes, still!) so please send any urgent questions to us by Patreon Direct Message where the team is more likely to catch them. Cheers!
Comments
Damn random dice rolls, as much as I would love to cover Rasputin, back-to-back topics in the same regions, time periods, or similar subject, doesn't sit well with me. I think Ned Kelly would be a good topic, rather obscure and since this would be the first series set in Australia. Attila the Hun is the second choice for me. US history topics never win and always lose badly like 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 10th votes. Then again, we had the Battle of First Manassas twice, Run-Up to the American Civil War, and Benedict Arnold twice. While I have faith that the EC crew would make any topic interesting and show the topic new perspective, you guys would have to choose quite an obscure topic to get people to vote for US History. While wouldn't want to restrict people's choices when submitting a topic suggestion, we should have more themed votes like the Science and Economics theme poll in April, which the History of Paper Money won.
Marco Honrade
2016-09-25 14:54:45 +0000 UTCWhile I normally leave the comments alone, and my team will come after me if they catch me checking them from vacation, these misconceptions are exactly why I put the Underground Railroad on the list. Rather, I specifically wanted to highlight the role of Vigilance Committees (which originated in black communities to end kidnapping and aid fugitives) in forcing an often reluctant coalition of hands-off abolitionists to follow their lead and take action, dispel the ideas of the Underground Railroad as a formally organized system rather than a hodgepodge of people roughing it the best they could, and discuss not only the harrowing journeys fugitives endured but the heartbreaking choices many were forced to make when they could escape but their families couldn't. Activity in the South is hard to trace, but not impossible since we have recorded stories from fugitives who made it out; also many abolitionist groups in the North were surprisingly bold and not only published their records for the year (including some cases with details so specific that other abolitionist groups got upset with them for it) but actually hosted public fundraisers on the basis of how many fugitives they helped over the course of the year. So, in sum: what you're expecting is not what I would be writing, in the evidently unlikely event that this topic wins. -Soraya
Extra History
2016-09-25 14:18:06 +0000 UTCThree things that just about everyone in the First World has at least heard of and one which is a good bit more obscure. Which is winning (at this moment)? The obscure one. I love this community.
Timothy McLean
2016-09-25 12:59:45 +0000 UTCWith Catherine the Great already on the schedule and Atilla, Ned Kelly and the details of the Underground Railroad less well known, I feel fans of Rasputin and Tsar Nicholas II may miss out this round. We shall see!
Kieran Elliott
2016-09-25 09:54:47 +0000 UTCOnce again I can't decide what *not* to vote for! Damn you, Extra Credits! Hashtag first world problems and all that...
Antti Björklund
2016-09-25 07:18:18 +0000 UTCI'm not an expert but the Underground Railroad represents a problematic portrayal of African American history. It often lends far too much importance to the white abolitionist quakers involved when African American heroes took the lead, and often displaces reporting of historical events where African American are incontrovertible the champions. Another is that the vast majority of escaping slaves were young men, which is usually ignored and replaced with imagery and suggestions that it was families escaping due to its unfortunate connection to stereotype. The story paints black flight positively as a story of the free states and Canada welcoming refugees in rather than slave states driving people out, but fugitive slave laws showed the whites of the era were even unfriendlier to refugees than even today, it's not a good message with modern refugee crises and gentrification going on. The exoticism and exaggeration of the story with misrepresentation of the scale and inclusion of myths of freedom quilts and complex codes undermines the validity of story, especially given so many records of the events had to be destroyed to protect the identity of the escapees due to persecution resulting from laws such as mentioned before.
GooGhoul
2016-09-25 06:58:45 +0000 UTCIf you going to cover a real life robin hood it should be Juraj Jánošík. A veteran turned highwaymen that never took a life from the rich merchants his gang robbed, even saving the life of a priest. There's even evidence of their unambiguous generosity.
GooGhoul
2016-09-25 05:28:07 +0000 UTCI have my fingers crossed for Underground Railroad, especially since many brave black men and women were a strong force in this part of history.
Zoe Alleyne
2016-09-24 23:59:55 +0000 UTC
