Ughhh! This Podcast is Really Awful!
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“A promotional message on another History HIT podcast piqued my interest, so I subscribed to American History HIT and listened to the most recent episode Lessons from the Civil War. Though professionally produced, it was terrible for multiple reasons. First and foremost, it suffered from the facts that neither host Don Wildman nor the subject of his interview Sarah Churchwell is a historian. Wildman is apparently a stage actor by training and a TV host, an accomplished one, by experience, while Churchwell, though described by Wildman as a cultural historian, is an academic who studied English Literature as an undergraduate, masters and doctoral student. Wildman and Churchwell both seemed earnest, but they are definitely NOT historians, academic, popular or otherwise. Churchwell's thesis and the subject of the podcast and her book The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells is that the novel of 1937 and, worse, the movie of 1939 "whitewashed" the history of the American Civil War, generally, and of the pernicious institution of slavery, more specifically. Worse according to Churchwell, the success of the novel and film in the 1930s and to the present day is proof positive that America then and NOW was and IS still thoroughly racist. To all of the preceding, host Wildman basically said, "right on." Not surprisingly to me, the truth was and is a little more complicated than Churchwell contended. The novel and film were meant primarily to entertain. Both appeared late in the Great Depression when Americans, generally, and Southerners, in particular given how the Depression wrought havoc on their primarily agricultural economy, hungered for the escapist entertainment Gone with the Wind offered in spades. The movie was a love story set against big events akin in that respect to Dr. Zhivago (Did that novel and the film based upon it whitewash the horrific history of the Bolshevik Revolution? Maybe, but that wasn't their point. They were entertainment.). Though Gone with the Wind was not part of or evidence of a widespread effort to whitewash history, that's not to say that institutional racism was not widespread in the South in the 1930s as was less institutionalized racism outside the South. It was, and that fact, like the persistence of slavery in America's first century, will forever stain the American experiment. No American in 2022 is ignorant of that fact. That said, neither racism nor slavery were unique to the United States, in the 1930s or ever. Sadly, and whether or not Churchwell appreciates it, racism was still very much widespread across the globe in the 1930s. Read about the Germans and the Jews and Slavs, the Japanese and everyone who wasn't Japanese and the British and anyone who was darker (e.g., Indians and Africans). Churchwell's most egregious contention of all, without any objection from Wildman, was to draw a straight line from America in the 1930s to America in 2022. Scratch a white (whatever that is) American today according to Churchwell, and you'll find a racist. As evidence, she referred to Donald Trump asking on the campaign trail why they don't make movies like GWTW anymore. Her contention is nonsense that ignores completely the painful but very real progress made by the U.S. since the 1960s, but it's simplistic analysis shouldn't come as a surprise from someone who established her bona fides as an historian with books such as The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Other reviews have lamented that this podcast is a thinly disguised vehicle for history authors to promote their books. It may be that, but it's worse. If this episode was representative, it's also a means for those with a shallow understanding of history to foist their simplistic misunderstanding on those of good will too ill-informed to know otherwise. If Dan Snow hopes to maintain the quality of the HIT brand, he should find a more qualified host who has sufficient knowledge of the history discussed to hold guests to a higher standard that appreciates that most history is more nuanced than such cartoonish and simplistic analyses would lead one to believe.”Read full review »
Dave in Centennial via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
01/09/23
More reviews of American History Hit
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“Love Don I’ve been watching his shows for years he is so entertaining. Can’t think of anyone better for an American history hit! I love the topic selection so far and can’t wait to see what’s to come!”
vvizz@rdd via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
01/10/23
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“Too positive portrayal of LBJ domestic social programs (Great Society)”
Blchitt via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
05/15/23
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“Hosting authors selling books is not a history podcast. It is a book selling podcast.”
RogerBantley22 via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
12/18/22
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