fedoramation:

I love this series.

Aww, thanks! Here’s the new Crash Course video. It’s about the revolutions in Latin America. We should’ve devoted three or four videos to these fascinating independence movements, but unfortunately I am attempting to introduce you to the history of humans on this planet in about 420 minutes, so…yeah.

THE BIGGEST POSSIBLE BALL OF SUCK: The story of Atlantic slavery.

You probably think you know the history of slavery from, like, Roots or whatever. I know that I did. But I learned a lot while researching this episode, and the most important thing I learned is a recurring theme on Crash Course World History: No one is exempt from either the triumphs or the abominations of human history. 

I hope you enjoy today’s episode. Let me know. Thanks.

The traditional study of world history tells us that history is made primarily by people wearing funny hats. In today’s episode of Crash Course, I argue that history is actually made by people like us.

Thanks for watching and sharing Crash Course. I hate encouraging people to share stuff they like—I mean, obviously if you like something you will share it—but…yeah. If you like Crash Course, and you want it to continue to be a thing, sharing is the most efficient way to make that happen.

miscellaneousandsundry:

“We’re taught that ‘our’ history is the history of Christianity in Europe, when in fact, ‘our’ history is the story of people on the planet.”

I made this video for people who don’t know much about early Islamic history. I made it because I find it weird and disconcerting that we in the so-called West spend so much time thinking and worrying about the Islamic world—but by and large we don’t spend very much time delving into the history of Islam and understanding the world from which it emerged. 

So…yeah. I really think you’re going to learn something this week.

The new episode of Crash Course, in which I compare Kim Kardashian to The Situation.

I want Crash Course to be a video series where we all learn interesting and important stuff about world history and how historical events and trends created the world in which we live, but I also want it to be—as I think the study of history ought to be—an opportunity to think about what matters to us, and how we might best organize our lives and our communities.

I hope you’re liking this new project, and I hope that you’ll continue to share it with your own communities, because honestly I’ve never enjoyed making something as much as I’m enjoying working with the talented people who make CC possible, and I really want to keep making them for years and years.

Kim Kardashian’s perfume really does smell like cat pee, by the way.

suchasap:

What’s the point of being alive?

“Perhaps lives are supposed to be lived in pursuit of some great ideal worth sacrificing endlessly for…”

I read about history, and make these videos, in part because I am genuinely uncertain about how humans are best off organizing their lives: What we should prioritize, how important stability is relative to freedom, whether the rights of the individual trump the interest of the collective, etc.

And one of the most interesting and fun things to come out of crash course so far is to see people’s perspectives on these questions, some as uncertain as I am and others with their values set, and the thoughtfulness with which they use the stories of those who came before us to think about what should matter to us.

All of which is to say, more or less, thanks. Thanks for watching Crash Course. Thanks for taking it seriously. And thanks for helping to clarify my own questions about how history should guide our values for the time that we are here.