David Perry - The "Dark Ages"
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- Опубліковано 18 січ 2025
- My guest today is Dr David M. Perry . David is a medieval historian and author of several books, including The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe and the forthcoming Oathbreakers, both co-authored with Matthew Gabriele. He has taught medieval history at Dominican University and is currently the Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Minnesota. The Bright Ages sought to refute common misconceptions about the Middle Ages and counter the misconception that this period was a “dark age” of unrelieved brutality, ignorance, oppression and backwardness. So today David and I will be talking about the concept of the Medieval Period as “a dark age”, the origins of this idea and why it’s a poor way of understanding a complex 1000 year period of history.
www.davidmperr...
www.davidmperr...
www.davidmperr...
27:50 There is a german history channel on youtube called "Geschichtsfenster" ("History Window"). The guy running it, Andrej Pfeiffer-Perkuhn, is a self-professed Atheist... and he also constantly has to defend the (medieval) catholic church against all the crap levelled against it. "The all powerful church did that blabla". And, naturally, when he does it, he also gets accused of being a christian apologist by anti-theists or wannabe neo-pagans.
Language barriers aside, the channel is generally held up to be pretty good, even some historians and university professors have referred to him at points. He also is in contact with mutliple Dr. of history who also stream/make youtube videos, also german speaking, in a twitch group called "Kulturkollektiv", "Culture collective". Geschichtsfenster and another one of those (Copeylius, Dr. thesis on the medieval defenses of Vienna) also are advisors for the indie video game Manor Lords.
Otherwise, I stumbled on a WIRED Video on witches today, and the comments were, to a large extent, the usual shlock...
Strange that when you just give facts, you're "accused" of being an apologist.
Maybe there are more facts given by apologists than they are given credit for, haha
Excellent conversation! I love the middle ages
Yeah. For all their greatness, ancient Rome and ancient Greece were rather brutal places. And look at modern history - WW I and WW II, communist regimes, and so on. So it goes. We need more of this kind of discussion.
(But still, I do love Monty Python's take on it. 😁😁😁 )
Aha! A few more people leave my tveeter feed... Well done!
Tim O'Neill's website is a gold mine. He is a true scholar in that he simply follows the evidence wherever that may lead him. He has a very no-nonsense approach.
Thank you.
Great interview!
Have you ever considered writig an article on the myth that the medieval church forbade or discouraged bathing and cleanlyness in general?
There is this pervasive myth in atheist circles and outside of them that medieval people didn't bathe, didn't wash themselves and just dumped waste into the streets out of their windows.
This is widely blamed on the church supposedly considering bathing sinfull and of course destroying the ancient knowledge that keeping yourself clean is good for you.
There are already good debunkings on this myth out there, but it would be very interesting to have an article specifically on the church's stance towards bathing and cleanlyness.
Maybe. But there are already plenty of articles debunking those claims.
I still prefer the blog, but want to get into the interviews.
Please dont miss the The Crappy Golden Orrery Award this year!
That must he a regular and consistent staple on this channel.
Do you personally consider Christianity to better than the other religions, Tim?
@@whitecat6254 No.
It sounds as if 'dark' is a substitute for a whole range of sub-textual meanings - some identify 'light' with 'secular'; others with 'access to scientific attitudes'; others 'clarity of available records'; others with technical achievements, or literary developments. .. everyone at cross-purposes. Frankly, as far as civilised, tolerant and inclusive attitudes, I think the so-called 'Enlightment' is 'darker' in Europe than the 7th.C. On the other hand, you compare what happened to representatives of the Caliph of Baghdad in Europe when they came to see Charlemagne, with the reciprocal and there's no doubt Europe was a less enlightened place, though both sides were equally religious. I consider western Europe a benighted place, in the sense of actively intolerant and unreasonably self-satisfied, for most of its history.
The title of your channel did provoke a laugh, but not a view.
@@Tregrense I’m an atheist presenting history for my fellow atheists. What’s funny about this?
@@historyforatheists9363could you do a response to IP’s response to you on Jesus’ failed return.
@@reeseexplains8935 No, I don't think I'll bother. It was weak, predictable and wouldn't convince anyone who wasn't already convinced. My audience is people who are capable of changing their minds or thinking critically. His consists of people who start with their minds made up and are looking for excuses to keep them that way. I counter apologists for sceptics, not to get into a endless, fruitless spiral of replies and replies to replies with tedious apologists like Jones. So, no thanks.
@@historyforatheists9363 understandable. IP is a joke. Kipp and Josh just thoroughly refuted him on the conquest. What was the worst point IP made in his response to you?
I don't know if people accusing Jesus of failed prophecy have taken the time to read Mark 13 - Jesus is talking about the destruction of the Temple that happened in AD 70 in verses 1 - 31, and he says that the generation listening would not pass away. They would see the Son of Man coming judgement when the Temple was destroyed.
Then he pivots focus, talking about His return, saying that noone knows the hour - difficult to accuse someone of failing a prophecy when Jesus explicitly says that noone knows when it will happen. So, did you know when it would happen for it to fail, even though Jesus said noone would know when it would happen?