I've been listening to some episodes of The Rest is History which is quite entertaining but the presenters are obviously right-wing. Sandbrook is a fairly straight-down-the-middle Tory, Holland is maybe slightly more liberal but also a Christian apologist to a weird extent. They're basically anti-woke, which I don't have a problem with, in fact I am prefer, except that they are annoying about it - their entire conception of the culture wars is a sort of twitter ontology where being 'cancelled' (i.e. dragged on twitter) is taken to be a foundational precept of our moral universe.
Also they are obviously popular historians, and their nationalistic bias, their poncey chivalric ethical code, and their preference for the famous anecdote and the melodramatic narrative over a critical view of history are not entirely excused by good-humoured self awareness.
Basically I want a podcast that covers interesting and major historical events, without the self-flagellating and anti-historical aspects of liberal identity politics and woke critical theory, but nonetheless with a view of history that is essentially materialistic and critically minded.
If any of you are in the habit of reading the LRB that is the sort of stance I would like any suggested podcasts to take. Mike Duncan I've already listened to a lot but he's a good example of the sort of thing I'm looking for.
Also they are obviously popular historians, and their nationalistic bias, their poncey chivalric ethical code, and their preference for the famous anecdote and the melodramatic narrative over a critical view of history are not entirely excused by good-humoured self awareness.
Basically I want a podcast that covers interesting and major historical events, without the self-flagellating and anti-historical aspects of liberal identity politics and woke critical theory, but nonetheless with a view of history that is essentially materialistic and critically minded.
If any of you are in the habit of reading the LRB that is the sort of stance I would like any suggested podcasts to take. Mike Duncan I've already listened to a lot but he's a good example of the sort of thing I'm looking for.