The last episode of Mike Duncans Revolutions podcast is out. You know, the History of Rome guy. I'm still in the middle of the Russian revolution (Rasputin, WW I), but took a break to listen to that last one, to find out what he does next. After a break, it will be a podcast with a historian about History books. So, something very different. Just thought I would mention that here, it sounds interesting, but not enough for me, as I have too many other podcasts.
Anyway, I simply wanted to use that chance to tell people who liked History of Rome, but gave up on Revolutions early on, to give it another chance. Yes, the first series about the English Revolution (is that the name? The one with Oliver Cromwell) is really dense, and I didn't find it that great, even if it was interesting. And the second one, the American Revolution, is the weakest of the series. He talked about that, his plans were different at the beginning, to make each subseries 15 episodes long, or so. Which resulted in a very condensed narrative.
With the third series (I think that's already the French Revolution), the podcast gets really good. It's not only my opinion, but also the one from the host, that this is the place to start. If you had a hard time getting into Revolutions, give it a second chance, and start with the French Revolution. It's a really good series. And I think all the following ones are equally good. To me, the Haitian or the Mexican Revolution were completely new stuff, and very interesting, whereas I knew some stuff about the French Revolution, but it was still very interesting, and I learned a lot.
Anyway, if you gave up early, despite liking Duncan as a host, give it another shot. It's worth it, I think. You will learn a lot about 19th century Europe, plus a ton about Russia, especially in the 19th and early 20th century.
