The Invention of History: Herodotus and Thucydides

I’ve just found this channel and have been binge watching it. ITS WONDERFUL! John Hamer is a great scholar/presenter/teacher.. keep it up 👍

Great job. Cleared up some timeline issues I've had with both conflicts. The graphic presentation of the timeline was really good. Glad he did not throw Herodotus under the bus. Gave a very balanced view of oligarchy versus democracy.

The idea of historical writing is really a modern phenomenon.I think it’s a mistake to think that these commentaries or accounts are what we now consider histories

I love that your lectures are interactive, but is it possible to save questions and comments from the audience for the very end?

Hilarious someone actually said in all earnestness "His-story" as if that actually had anything to do with the actual word. "A FUN folk etymology." - well handled.

42:37 Thucydides concept of history as a representation of a single, external objective reality that we all share (that is to say, a record of the events that actually occurred) is a very important concept that ought to form the foundation of shared belief. Tragically, we are presently living in an era when relativism, rooted in postmodernism, has gained sway. Expertise and knowledge are mocked and derided, and truth has become merely a matter of unsubstantiated opinion.

The combining form histo- is used like a prefix meaning “tissue.” It is often used in medical terms, especially in anatomy and pathology. The form histo- comes from Greek histós, meaning “web (of a loom)” or “tissue.”

It's SO much better when the questions are saved until the end. I can barely get myself to pay attention for fear of another interruption, uh, I mean question.

The subsequent remarks of the audience show that they are by far more intelligent than was thought of in the preliminary utterances

What a great lecture! Thank you!

Excellently presented.

Thank you for the amazing lectures

Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, compiled around 239 BC, went over 100000 words. It came from a long line of Chinese historians and compliers of encyclopedias. The earliest known written history in China: circa 1250 BC, Shang Dynasty, and well before Herodotus, The "Invention of Western History" would have been a more appropriate title.

Macaulay had an interesting quasi - Thucydidean approach to reconstructing the thinking of the people of the seventeenth century. He gave them Parliamentary - style speeches but always used indirect speech to indicate that this was not what they actually said, but what they were probably thinking.

4:14 popular false etymologi of explaining history = his story never had any gender bias for me, since words are all neutral (in Finnish). And my neutral understanding of his story as refering to every man and woman and the story of humans encompassing everyone is correct. And the discussion here is complitely anachronistic and requires misunderstanding meanings of words.

Oh she just haaaaad to make that little asinine remark about "his story"

Excellent

research into Fomenko's "New Chronology" brought me here, very good lecture, thorough.

That first question was dump

Growing up in America, our history lessons about Sparta are very brief and quite negative. We're told they were a simplistic warmongering culture that had the first professional military thanks to having an enormous number of slaves. Thucydides gives the most detailed account of Sparta. He describes the shock and awe he experienced when first entering the capitol city and seeing nothing but women. They were running the city, doing the jobs men should do. This didn't sit well with most Greeks because the worldwide view at the time made women out to be mentally and physically incapable of doing the jobs of men. Some scholars believe the stories of Amazons were created by first time visitors to Sparta. It turns out the Spartans had no more slaves than Athens and their slaves, or helots, were more like tenant farmers than traditional slaves. He also said the Spartans were the best dancers and musicians in Greece. Again, it was appalling that the Spartan women could attend and perform in public performances. 1/3 of Spartan land was owned by women. The fact that our historic account of the Spartans "covers up" these facts goes to show how misogynist our society still is. I believe Sparta was considered bizarre by other city-states and historians over time because of their progressive attitudes toward their women, who had rights some women still don't have today.