# Everything I know about history, I learned from fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 9, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266 "2007-03-09T16:37:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![fuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuffle)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/21 "2007-03-09T18:43:19Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > Did you learn anything about birthing babies? Birthing babies! I totally forgot. Yes, all you need is boiling water and clean linen. Just don’t drop the baby or spill water on it. Honestly, I don’t know why you need a license to do this stuff nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/22 "2007-03-09T18:58:14Z")
Colleen McCullough’s **Masters of Rome** series tells you all you need to know about the late Republic period. No need to read any actual history after you’ve read these books. > **[Masters of Rome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Rome)** > > Masters of Rome is a series of historical novels by Australian author Colleen McCullough, set in ancient Rome during the last days of the old Roman Republic; it primarily chronicles the lives and careers of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey the Great, Gaius Julius Caesar, and the early career of Caesar Augustus. It spans from January 1, 110 BC through to January 16, 27 BC. > Other major historical figures who appear and play prominent parts in the series include Mithridates VI of Pontus... ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/23 "2007-03-09T18:59:37Z")
**The Stress of Her Regard** by Tim Powers is a fairly accurate history of the lives of the romantic poets (e.g., Byron, Keats, Shelley) if you ignore the part about the psychic vampires. Similarly, Power’s **On Stranger Tides** is a good historical account of pirates of the Caribbean. And **The Anubis Gates** is good for life in 19th century London. **Moby Dick** is an excellent historical account of life on a whaling ship. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/24 "2007-03-09T19:02:53Z")
Everything I know about life in the Middle Ages I learned from **The Doomsday Book**. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/25 "2007-03-09T19:09:38Z")
[QUOTE=ENugent] Everything I know about life in the Middle Ages I learned from **The Doomsday Book**. [/QUOTE] Jesus, what a horrible, horrible book. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Nothing but death, black plague, incompetent bureacrats, death, more black plague, even more black plague, then throw in some more black plague. It’s like a fucking Monty Python sketch. “I’ll have the black plague, black plague, black plague, baked beans, black plague, sausage and spam.” ---
**Author:** ![Alistair\_McCello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Alistair\_McCello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alistair_McCello)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/26 "2007-03-09T19:15:48Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > World War I: Blackadder III, the last episode in particular I can’t believe that I am the first to point this out, but that would have been Blackadder IV. I learned much of what I know about 19[sup]th[/sup] century Russia from the novels of **Fyodor Dostoevsky**. I’ll also second the mention of **I, Claudius** for learning about Imperial Rome. While I have studied it further I initially got most of my knowledge about the Napoleonic Era from books like **Vanity Fair** and **The Count of Monte Cristo**. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/27 "2007-03-09T19:16:58Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] Colleen McCullough’s **Masters of Rome** series tells you all you need to know about the late Republic period. No need to read any actual history after you’ve read these books. > **[Masters of Rome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Rome)** > > Masters of Rome is a series of historical novels by Australian author Colleen McCullough, set in ancient Rome during the last days of the old Roman Republic; it primarily chronicles the lives and careers of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey the Great, Gaius Julius Caesar, and the early career of Caesar Augustus. It spans from January 1, 110 BC through to January 16, 27 BC. Other major historical figures who appear and play prominent parts in the series include Mithridates VI of Pontus... [/QUOTE] Oh, I love those books. She did 12 years of research before she started writing. John Jakes’ \*The Kent Family Chronicles \* is rather fun…from just before the Revolutionary War to right before the turn of the 20th century. His _North and South_ trilogy is good too, but I’ve found Jakes has a tendency to make his female characters either angels or sluts…no middle ground. And in his eight series _Kent Family Chronicles_…every single major female character gets raped. Every one. James Clavell is excellent for history on Asia, from feudal Japan to 1960s Hong Kong. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/28 "2007-03-09T19:20:36Z")
For Greece during the “Heroic” age, see: Mary Renault: _The King Must Die Bull From the Sea_ Robert Graves: _Hercules My Shipmate, or The Golden Fleece_ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/29 "2007-03-09T19:21:38Z")
I think you can learn most of modern UK history from plays about its royalty. Besides Shakespeare’s many plays – \*\* Henry IV\*\* (in parts), **Henry V** , **King John** , etc. But then you’ve got **Anne of a Thousand Days** , **Becket** , **The Lion in Winter** , **a Man for All Seasons** , **Vivat, Vivat Regina** (and a whole slew of movies about Elizabeth – **Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots,** , the Masterpiece Theater series **Elizabeth R** ), the Masterpiece Theater **Six Wives of Henry VIII**. You’ve got **The Madness of George III** and its film version, and **The Queen** ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/30 "2007-03-09T19:26:52Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] **Moby Dick** is an excellent historical account of life on a whaling ship. [/QUOTE] And if Moby Dick is too intimidating, there’s **Batavia’s Graveyard** by Mike Dash. It’s not about whaling, but about the Dutch East India Company and the spice trade, with a shipwreck and island survival. I’ve learned from many books that bugs are okay to eat when you’re starving. I haven’t decided whether I’d eat them whole or mash them up and pretend they’re beans. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/31 "2007-03-09T19:42:00Z")
[QUOTE=Alistair McCello] I can’t believe that I am the first to point this out, but that would have been Blackadder IV. [/QUOTE] See Post #14. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/32 "2007-03-09T20:03:54Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] John Jakes’ \*The Kent Family Chronicles \* is rather fun…from just before the Revolutionary War to right before the turn of the 20th century. His _North and South_ trilogy is good too, but I’ve found Jakes has a tendency to make his female characters either angels or sluts…no middle ground. And in his eight series _Kent Family Chronicles_…every single major female character gets raped. Every one. [/QUOTE] Oh, you noticed that, too, did you? Got very tiresome after a while. I don’t know that I’ve learned any actual facts, but I feel like I’ve gotten a sense of the life and the time from Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael books. Also from Margaret Frazer’s Dame Frevisse mysteries, although those are a bit later. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/33 "2007-03-09T20:17:33Z")
[QUOTE=thirdwarning] Oh, you noticed that, too, did you? Got very tiresome after a while. [/QUOTE] And it’s not like there’s huge ton of Kent women either…I think it was maybe one per generation. But whether it was kidnapping and rape or date rape or gang rape, every one suffered the same fate. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/34 "2007-03-09T20:19:57Z")
This is great! Keep it coming folks. _The Name of the Rose_ by Umberto Eco is an interesting introduction to the medieval religious life. And a cracking good whodunnit too. [QUOTE=Lemur866] Jesus, what a horrible, horrible book. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Nothing but death, black plague, incompetent bureacrats, death, more black plague, even more black plague, then throw in some more black plague. It’s like a fucking Monty Python sketch. “I’ll have the black plague, black plague, black plague, baked beans, black plague, sausage and spam.” [/QUOTE] I need a new sig. Might I trouble you for this one? [QUOTE=silenus] 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! [/QUOTE] Exuse me for a moment. I’ll be over here in the corner, quietly hanging myself. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/35 "2007-03-09T20:25:51Z")
Sure, go ahead. Oh, one more. Harry Turtledove’s alternate history novel “The Guns of the South” is a great way to learn about the Civil War era, as long as you don’t count the pro-slavery time-traveling white South Africans. ---
**Author:** ![dawvee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@dawvee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dawvee)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/36 "2007-03-09T20:57:53Z")
I learned that, for many, Indira Ghandi’s ‘emergency’ term was a disaster from Rohinton Mistry’s _A Fine Balance_. Before reading that book, my knowledge of Indian life and politics between independence and and say about five years ago was pretty close to nil. I learned a great deal about post-civil war Spain from the film _El espiritu de la colmena_. For that matter, I first learned about the Spanish Civil War at all from Hemingway’s _For Whom the Bell Tolls_. I learned about the French Revolution for the first time when I read _A Tale of Two Cities_ in junior high school. Going back even further, my first knowledge of WWII came from _Raiders of the Lost Ark_. I think that’s what got me interested in Archaeology, too. Man, was I disappointed when I found out that isn’t how it really works. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/37 "2007-03-09T21:31:52Z")
[QUOTE=Septima] This is great! Keep it coming folks. _The Name of the Rose_ by Umberto Eco is an interesting introduction to the medieval religious life. And a cracking good whodunnit too. [/QUOTE] That book defeated me, but **Morality Play** by Barry Unsworth is an excellent portrayal of life ruled by the church in medieval times. The main characters are part of a traveling actors troupe (troop? troup?) so there’s good stuff about early theater as well. I know a few people who consider themselves to be “religious”, but I doubt they have any idea of the importance of religion and the church to medieval folks. You go to church every Sunday? Try living every minute of your life as if the local priest was watching and judging and reporting you to the authorities if they didn’t like your attitude. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/38 "2007-03-09T21:55:57Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] Jesus, what a horrible, horrible book. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Nothing but death, black plague, incompetent bureacrats, death, more black plague, even more black plague, then throw in some more black plague. It’s like a fucking Monty Python sketch. “I’ll have the black plague, black plague, black plague, baked beans, black plague, sausage and spam.” [/QUOTE] Nah, it’s black plague, black plague, influenza, black plague, influenza, and spam. But I love it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/39 "2007-03-09T22:07:22Z")
Frank Yerby wrote some great historical fiction. Judas, My Brother covers the events described in the New Testament. Goat Song is the story of Athens just after the war with Sparta, and Odor of Sanctity is about Medieval Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266/40 "2007-03-09T22:36:58Z")
James Michener’s historical novels were good for learning about the periods in which they were set. My favorite was Centennial. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-i-know-about-history-i-learned-from-fiction/395266.md?page=3)