While not being the book many fans wanted (and still haven’t gotten…), George R.R. Martin’s 2018 “Fire and Blood”, a fictional history prequel to "A Game of Thrones" is worthy of historical examination in its own right. Aside from being a lesson to historians in how to write entertaining, captivating history, it also offers insight into some of the bigger themes and ideas related to the study of history and the historical process. Why does history focus on war so much? Who determines which events are important in history and how they should be remembered? What happens if there are different perspectives on the same event? At what point do the "positives" of empire like infrastructure and commerce negate the negatives of conquest, brutality, and oppression? "Fire and Blood" is a fun standalone fantasy history book, but it's also more relevant to the real world than you might think.
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Episode 105: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Episode 104: Education in Nazi Germany
Episode 103: The Man Who Ended History
Episode 102: On Fantasy
BONUS: History as a Process
Episode 101: Is the Human Element of History Exploitative?
Episode 100: Cast Away
Episode 99: Humanistic Psychology Part II
Episode 98: Humanistic Psychology Part I
Episode 97: Mono No Aware
Episode 96: Running From Bondage with Karen Cook Bell
Episode 95: Sprinting Through No Man's Land with Adin Dobkin
Episode 94: The Cambodian Genocide Part V-Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields
Episode 93: The Cambodian Genocide Part IV- First They Killed My Father
Episode 92: The Cambodian Genocide Part III: Reverberations of a Nightmare
BONUS: The Paper Menagerie
Episode 91: The Cambodian Genocide Part II-Endure and Survive
Episode 90: The Cambodian Genocide Part I-The Dark Years Begin
Episode 89: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
Episode 88: The Fate of Rome Part IV-The Justinianic Plague and the End of Rome
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