Premodernist

What if Canada had joined the American Revolution?

When the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence in 1776, some British colonies to the north refused to join and 90 years later they formed the country of Canada. How would things have played out differently if they had been part of the U.S. War of Independence?

Does trick-or-treating have American origins?

Fun followup to my video here about the origins of Halloween – another channel on YouTube, Chris Spargo, recently posted a video looking specifically at the origins of trick-or-treating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR61HYVWYPs

Does Halloween have pagan origins?

I might eventually turn this question into a YouTube video someday. This represents where I stand on the question after just beginning my research. It is not as simple to answer as I had at first imagined.

New second channel

I've started a side channel to put content that doesn't fit on the main channel. Sometimes I want to answer someone's question really quick without spending a lot of time producing something that's algorithm-friendly. And sometimes I have educational content that is more "boring" in style, like an extract from a livestream.

I had this problem last year when I did a long series of livestreams on Twitch on the Federalist Papers. Since it was educational I wanted to post them on YouTube, b...

Myths of Scottish identity

People of Scottish descent enjoy learning about the history and culture of their ancestral home, but some aspects of "traditional" Scottish heritage turn out to be largely a modern fabrication.

Review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Continuing the series on Indiana Jones

These are the main sources I used for the making of the movie:

• Douglas Brode, The Films of Steven Spielberg (New York: Citadel, 1995)

• Frank Sanello, Spielberg: The Man, the Movies, the Mythology (Dallas: Taylor, 1996)

• Brian Jay Jones, George Lucas: A Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016)

Could the Chinese have colonized Europe?

China was a powerful empire for most of its history, and had the largest and most capable ships in the late Middle Ages. Was colonization of Europe possible?

India and Pakistan

This month I'm giving general background for understanding the tensions between India and Pakistan.

What if the Schism of 1054 had not happened?

The split between Rome and Constantinople is considered one of the most significant events in the history of Christianity, and it has defined the contours of the Christian communities in Eastern Europe and the Middle East ever since. What if it hadn't happened?

Review of Les Visiteurs

Les Visiteurs is a French comedy from 1993 about two people from the Middle Ages transported to the modern world.

CORRECTION: In the video I say they visit 1993, but they actually arrive in 1992.

What should I podcast about?

I've been wanting to do a lecture course in podcast form. It'll be a limited run podcast, a few dozen episodes long, and will be more or less equivalent to the lectures one would get in a university course. It will be freely available on all the typical podcast apps.

In the past I was hesitant to start this because I had heard that you have to release podcast episodes on a regular and frequent schedule or else no one will want to listen to them. But I've decided I can't wait for my life...

Could there have been an industrial revolution in Ancient Rome?

The more I thought I about this question, the more philosophical I got…

Why I don't believe in "golden ages"

It's common in popular discourse to talk about one period or another as being a Golden Age, but I don't think it's a useful or interesting concept.

Quick update on the Patreon content

I was going to record and post the Patreon video this week, but I've been sick with a cold since last weekend. So it's going to be in the latter part of month. Sorry for the wait. I hope everyone's having a good February.

Rename the $3 tier?

I've been wondering lately if the name of the $3 tier should be changed.

When I set up the tiers, one name that I considered was "Hardcore Alaska Purchase Fans." I didn't end up using it because I didn't want to draw attention to my Alaska Purchase video. I decided instead to try to reference Changchun somehow, and came up with "Changchun's traveling companions," but that was only because simply "Changchuns" would be too strange. But I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with that name.

Why didn't the Ottomans colonize the Americas?

The Ottomans were one of the most powerful empires in the world during Europe's Age of Exploration. So why weren't they also involved in colonizing the Western Hemisphere?

Raiders of the Lost Ark: historical accuracy

Wait, you mean it isn't an archaeology documentary??

My main sources for the background and making of the movie are

• Brian Jay Jones, George Lucas: A Life (New York: Back Bay Books, 2016)

• Joseph McBride, Steven Spielberg: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997)

For Nazi interest in archaeology I used Bernard Mees, “Hitler and Germanentum,” Journal of Contemporary History 39, no. 2 (2004)...

A brief history of Islamic expansion

Summary of when, where, and how Islam expanded from its beginning to the present day.

There were three main factors in the spread of Islam:
1) Military conquest followed by the population slowly converting
2) Cultural contact by means of merchants and Sufi holy men
3) Migration

Human-animal relations in history

Human societies have always depended on animals in their economies and warfare. I discuss some of the ways that relationships between humans and animals have affected history.

Ranking the historical significance of different crusades

My first tier list video! I rank ten different crusades based on how historically significant I think each one was.

Comparing the Mongol Empire and the British Empire

It's often said that the Mongol Empire of the 13th century and the British Empire of the 20th century were the largest empires in world history. How do they compare to each other?

Race in the European Middle Ages

I mentioned in one of my videos that modern anti-Black racism did not exist in medieval Europe in the form we know it today. But what sorts of racism/prejudice did they have?

Did the U.S. political parties switch sides?

It is sometimes claimed that the two major political parties in U.S. politics, the Democrats and the Republicans, used to be on opposite ends of the political spectrum. It's actually more complicated than that.

Video late this month

The Patreon video is running late this month (and also the extra video for presidential electors). The last couple of weeks I was rushing to finish a video for YouTube. That will be up later this month. This week we're having some much-needed house repairs done which has made things a bit chaotic.

I'm sorry for the delay. I'll get it posted as soon as I can.

Other empires to think about besides the Romans

This is in reference to the trend that was going around last year about how men apparently always think about the Roman empire. I give five suggestions of other empires that are also worth thinking about.

All images came from Wikimedia Commons.

Review of the Bill & Ted movies

I review the three Bill & Ted movies: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), and Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020).

How would a medieval European react to the present?

As a followup to the videos I posted on YouTube about a modern person time traveling to medieval Europe, in this video I talk about a medieval European time traveling to the present.

This is not an advice video, for reasons I explain, but I do talk about what the medieval visitor would notice and find strange, and good, about modernity.

At one point in the video I mention that there are YouTube channels that are good for learning about medieval European clothing. Here are my recom...

Starting to livestream

I've been afraid to livestream, so as a sort of exposure therapy I've started streaming on Twitch. This week I'm starting a regular schedule and you're welcome to join me. My Twitch channel is https://www.twitch.tv/premodernist_history

For those unfamiliar, in a livestream you can see and hear me but no one see or hear you or other viewers. You can interact with me and other viewers in real time via a tex...

Comparing the Swiss and the Iroquois to the old U.S.

I compare the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation (1781–89) to the old Swiss Confederacy (1291–1798) and the Iroquois Confederacy (1600s–1700s).  Each of these was a loose federation of semi-autonomous polities  (states/cantons/nations, respectively). I look at similarities and  differences in how they were set up constitutionally.

What if the U.S. had never had immigration restrictions?

This is an alternate history scenario speculating on how history would have been different if there had been a constitutional provision preventing any immigration and naturalization restrictions.