Being in the process of earning a bachelors in History, I’m often surprised by how much certain works of fiction make it easier to remember facts and situations.
So I’ve decided to try and make list of fictional history. The rules are:
No documentaries, atleast not real documentaries.
There is absolutely no need for the history represented to be accurate, just that the reference makes it easier to remember the actual history.
If this is work of fiction is the sole reason you know anything about an event/time, bonus points.
The “scale” is irrelevant. “Easier to remember the name of a musical instrument popular under Lous XIV” is a legitimate entry, as is “Easier to remember the political background of the fall of the fall of the iron curtain”.
Is the conection completely silly? All the better.
Basically, what I’m looking for is works of fiction that makes you able to join in conversation about an historical topic, even if that’s your only source of information.
I’ll start:
World War I: Blackadder III, the last episode in particular
The Norse Middle Ages and The Crusades: The Crusader Trillogy by Jan Guillou
I know there is alot of loosely interpreted facts in that movie, but it did spur me to do my own research and reading as to what parts are “more true than others” shall we say. I did learn alot about that time in U.S. history from that movie.
Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle. Set in 17th and 18th century Europe and America (with a few jaunts to the East thrown in for good measure), it is a tapestry of historical fiction. The man did his homework and then some. Reading it, you get an equally good idea of the history of the governmental powers and of the common man, plus scientists like Newton and Leibniz. Yes, he took creative license, but a lot of it is very much in the style of what actually happened or could have happened.
HBO’s Deadwood taught me all I need to know about life in mining camps in the 1870’s. They covered everything – medicine, business practices (hardware and whoring), education, law enforcement, real estate, mining, employee relations. What a treasure.
Historical romance readers are well familiar with the sort of of phenomena you describe. A surprising number of the authors have a degree or background in history, and most of the rest do a fair amount of research. And the settings and time periods come and go in popularity, so if you’re browsing in used bookstores you might find out more about, say, Scotland in the dark ages then you’d ever dream. For instance, I’ve learned more about the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 than I’ve really ever needed (wanted) to know, though I can’t recall titles right now. I can look up some of them when I get home.
The Kents, a graphic novel by John Ostrander, is quite informative as to the history of Bleeding Kansas.
The story concerns the ancestors of Clark Kent’s Earth parents, Ma and Pa Kent (naturally, there is no blood link between Clark and the Kent family), who continue to run a farm near Smallville, Kansas. These ancestors are the fictional characters, but their doings take place against the events of real Kansan and American history: the sack of Lawrence, the caning of Senator Sumner, the Topeka Constitution, and so on. Real people from history figure into the story as necessary: Governor Jim Lane, President Franklin Pierce, and William Quantrill are just a few examples.
I ran across this book when I was researching the history of Bleeding Kansas, and I must say, it was a lot more interesting than some of the secondary historical sources I reviewed. And just as accurate historically.
Thackeray’s Vanity Fair tells you a lot about early 19th century history, including the Battle of Waterloo from the sidelines. (And there’s considerably more in the book than in the movie – though the movie is good).
And pretty well everything I know about English history in the 15th century is from Shakespeare’s plays – I think they count as fiction, even if drama based on historical sources.
George Macdonald Fraser’s Flashman series. Pretty much everything I know about the Victorian Age is colored by Flashy. Not to mention the US Civil War, the various Afgan Wars, the Sepoy Mutiny, the Opium Wars, cricket, the Battle of Greasy Grass, the Chisholm Trail, Kit Carson, etc. etc. etc.
And to the OP: If you managed to learn anything about World War One from Blackadder 3, you are a better historian than I am, seeing as how Series 3 dealt with the Regency Period!
The Ridley Scott film Gladiator. One film that’s not historical, but does make reference to an important, but little known historical event (at least when the film was made) is Jaws and the discussion of what happened to the crew of the USS Indianpolis after the delivered the atomic bombs.
Gone with the Wind is a great source of tid-bitty information about the antebellum south. I learned a lot about gender relations, the history of Atlanta, what clothes people wore, architecture, what it’s like to grow cotton, and so on and so on. It’s just fantastic that way. Of course, I also learned that the slaves were happy and stupid and that the north was dead wrong to interfere with the whole system, so maybe it’s a wash.
My current reading for the commute (via bus & light rail) is Flashman & the Redskins–Flashie’s memoirs of Western adventures in 1849 & 1876. (I’ve got a bad feeling about General Custer.)
George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman books are thorougly researched & referenced. They are also hilarious accounts of an unapologetic cad, bounder & lecher–who fled from danger throughout most of the 19th century’s historical events. Highly recommended.
“Serious” reading is *The Fall of Rome * by R A Lafferty. Except it’s not fiction. Or maybe it is. This seriously out of print work by a master of absurdity is beautifully written–I find myself slowing down to savor the style. No references. No bibliography. Could it all be true?
(I see someone beat me to Flashman while I was writing this!)
Did you learn anything about birthing babies?
There was a book I read a number of years ago called Circle of Pearls. I learned a lot about the Cromwell era and the restoration in England.
