Hey guys! I was traveling to give an invited talk at Western Michigan University this week, so I don’t have a blog post ready for you. They will. too Maybe next week (where I’ll be at the annual meeting of the Society for Military History) will be the case, though at least I’ll have a summary there for you to look at.
Now I’m always hesitant to post the text of talks that are intended to be delivered directly, because the genres are different, they rely on different types of delivery and they’re often not footnotes and to a written publication. But in this case, I might do something different, because the main parts of my talk for Western Michigan University were based on things I’ve written (and in one case, someone else has written) that you can do Read on, this is, in a sense, an opportunity to plumb the archives. And in doing so, essentially ‘read’ a version of what I had to say that was far more ‘fun’ than what I had said in the 45 or so minutes..
Central to my talk was the concept of ‘historical realism’ which I have described here: Using the appearance of historical accuracy, or claiming historical accuracy In the absence of the real thing To market or promote somethingWhether it’s a movie or a show or a game or what I call a ‘history influencer’ who creates social media content based on history.
My earliest example of this at work was disconnection. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla Between the emphasis on visual accuracy and the disastrous muddle of other forms of historical accuracy, which you can read about in my “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and the Unfortunate Implications.” I then extended this example with a broader example from the 2000 film Gladiator and his opening battle scene, arguing that once again that was the preferred item. Visual Accuracy because it viewers – wrong! – The assumption that ‘research was done’ on the rest, which you can read about in our series. GladiatorThe grand opening battle of
I then jumped into his example. Rhetoric Strategy Deployed by Marketing, George RR Martin (and for the marketing team Game of Thrones) have developed historical accuracy, using the Dothraki as an example of how it can go horribly wrong and perpetuate some pretty nasty stereotypes about it. real Depicting people as supposedly ‘realistic’ (in fact, deeply flawed) is an imaginary stand-in for them. You can read about that In our series on the Dothraki, “That Dothraki Horde.”
From there I discuss the strategy used by the aforementioned ‘history influencers’, in contrast to how the differences in platforms between YouTube and Twitter created a very different environment: where YouTube’s long-form video nature pushed many content creators to more carefully researched historical content that was often actually quite valuable (I focused specifically, and focused again on Very short(on the arms and armor and historical clothing channels), Twitter’s emphasis on ultra-short microblogging created a very different atmosphere.
For the section focusing on Twitter, I leaned heavily on T. Trezevant’s “The Antiquity to Alt-Right Pipeline.” Working classics In 2024, what I think is one of the most revealing investigations into this particular space and the privileges that the post-Musk Twitter algorithm, which appears to openly and quite clearly favor biased or xenophobic content, has been made. From my own observations, while some accounts that push this particular, usually horribly historically misinformed, archaic version of Twitter emerged in the pre-Musk era, classic Twitter largely held its own until the algorithm was skewed against them, making it all but impossible for many. good Classic accounts to match the eyeballs.
And then I close with a plea for greater engagement by historians in these online spaces, albeit with the caveat that you must choose your platform. The fact that historical confirmation, the show off Historical accuracy, or knowledge, is often used as a marketing tool to express the public’s desire for accurate knowledge of the past. people want To know what the past was. Really As, but of course the general public often does not have the tools to tell what is reliable, rigorous and careful history versus what is not. So as historians, we need to be more present in these kinds of places (though we must choose our platforms; there’s no point in ‘competing’ on Twitter if the deck is stacked against you) to help people get the accurate historical knowledge they’re looking for.
And that, in short form (or in long form if you read all the links as you go!) was the point! I am very grateful to WMU for inviting me to give it. Until next week!
