h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You mentioned adventure and heroism, but only in passing. As shown in Beowulf, these were extrememely important values in medieval Scandinavian society. Combine that with the lure of plunder, and you have a winning equation for risking your life to live a life of violence.

Yes, good point Zarquon. There is a bit of a tendency to play down these factors in early Scandinavian society at the moment. The historiography has moved to a point where people are questioning the "heroic" designation; it is argued, for instance, that the heroic appellation only described a small section of the society. BUT, these are probably the very people who went a-viking, so ... who knows.

There is a great collection on Viking studies edited by R.T. Farrell called (predictably) "The Vikings", I think published by Phillimore. Worth a read (especially the chapter by Patrick Wormald) if you are into this sort of stuff.

See ya
Bran.

Hiya Zarq
Just found your flattering comment on the More History thread. Cheers! I'm not sure where this sort of thing might be publishable. It is a bit low-brow for a hardcore academic journal, but might it be suitable elsewhere? Any suggestions?
You are certainly pupming the articles out. Well done.
All best
Bran.

Hmm, I dunno. The Merovingian to Carolingian one seems quite academic to me. I guess I'm just impressed by big words.

Seriously though, you have an amazing knowledge of history. You can't write articles like yours in such a short time unless you really know your stuff. I want to be a historian some day, but sometimes I'm afraid that I'm not good enough to make it. It would be tragic if I wasted the better part of a decade and tens of thousands of dollars earning my PhD, and then either not make it all the way, or make it but not get a job. I don't know about where you live, but in the U.S. there is very little demand for historians, and most of the positions are taken by old fogies who don't know what retirement means. Maybe I should be an "unofficial" historian like William Shirer. I want to get regular everyday people interested in history. I know lots of people who have read and loved "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and never touched another history book in their life. That's the kind of person I want to be. Analyzing the reasons for things on a personal and emotional level, without taking away from the purely factual nature of a respectable history. This viking article really interested me much more than the M to C one, because it's the kind of article I just described, to a degree.

I wish I knew what the best course to take was. I have a tendency to go after safe, stable things, while at the same time wishing I was one of those innovative, daring people whose lives seem so romantic to me. You may notice that all of the articles I have written on historic personalities are examples of those passionate, challenging, and often controversial people. Brian Boru, Dante Alighieri, even Adam Clayton Powell Jr. I didn't do that conciously. I just picked people that caught my interest. I want to be one of those people, but I never will be, because I am obsessed with what could go wrong. But even though Brian Boru was killed in battle, Dante was exiled from the city he loved, and Powell died a broken man, would they have done anything different if they had the chance? I seriously doubt it.

Very sorry to get so off topic, but sometimes (read usually) get carried away and start rambling.

Hiya Zarq

Well … a lot of interesting questions you raise. I know what you mean about following history as a career. The jobs are not a great deal better here (and are probably worse!). I am doing a PhD in history, as you probably know, which I am doing not because I expect to get a job but because it is what I love doing (though a job would be nice). To give you a bit of background – I actually used to be a psychologist (!@), and used to lecture in psychology at one of the universities here (I guess in your parlance I would have been a professor). BUT I became sick of doing it … it was not what I really enjoyed doing. So I quit. I came to history after that as it struck me that this is what I really get into.

So … my advice, for what it is worth, is to follow your joy. If history is what you love doing, then go out and do it. If you are following what you really enjoy, then you can’t but be doing the right thing. Also, I would say that you don’t need to have all the answers ahead of time. You don’t or indeed can’t know how it will all turn out. The main thing is that you are doing something that you can be happy with. My recommendation then is to go for it!

I also have to ‘fess up to my article writing. Most of the ones I have put up are pieces that I have already written, or at least mostly written, for other avenues, like essays, or seminars or from my PhD, etc. So, I’m not really that quick … actually, I am a terribly slow writer. This is one of the great things about studying history though. You get to write about groovy stuff!

Cheers
Bran.

Well, I don't think I would spend the time and money to get a PhD if I didn't expect to get a job. I can study the parts of history I want to, on my own time, for much, much, much less money. You really think it's that bad that you might not get a job as a historian even if you had a PhD? Geez, I better seiously reconsider. I could be a history professor instead, but speaking in front of crowds makes me nervous. And high school is out of the question, teaching in the US is a crappy career to get into these days, between the stupid courses you're required to take, the poor pay, the things they make you do, and the danger of getting killed by some crazy kid with a gun. Plus most kids just don't appreciate history, and it's written on such a low level, loaded with propaganda, I don't think I could handle it. So what other options are there for a career in history? I can't think of any off hand, but then again I am still shaking off this damn hangover. That's the last time I ever get wasted on a Sunday night. (Not that I think it's a sin or anything, it's just not a pleasant thing to start off the school week feeling like the cafeteria food looks.)

I understand about not having to have it all figured out ahead of time, but the college I plan to attend is very expensive, and I can't afford to pay for an education that won't get me a career.

Good point about the fees for tuition. We theoretically have a "free" education system, but what it is in reality is a do it now and pay later scheme. So, a semester for an arts degree costs about $2500(I think ... I have a scholarship so don't have to pay thankfully). When I did my undergrad (first degree), it was completely free! But, this does put a damper on expectations for a job.

What one does as a medieval historian over here (which essentially is what I am angling towards) is work at a university as a lecturer and above. This means teaching uni students, as well as doing your own research and publishing. In order to get this type of job (even at the bottom rung of the career ladder), you basically have to have a PhD. There is no way I would teach in a high school, so I conpletely agree with you here (we don't call university school over here). So, unless one is independently wealthy or a successively book author, uni is the only place in Australia for a medievalist to work. Modern historians work in a greater range of places, as do medievalists in the UK.

I reckon that the speaking in front of crowds thing can be overcome. I was petrified of doing it when at high school. But now, after 12 or so years of teaching at uni (in psych) I don't even think about it.

Is there a way that you can do history but not as a major, so that your major gives you a better range of employment options, but the history can still be studied, e.g. in an arts degree combined with law/commerce/info.systems/whatever?

Cheers
Bran.

I think you can take dual majors. I could major in history and journalism, or history and sociology, something like that, I think.

You only had to pay $2,500 a year for college? I guess there's some colleges in the US that are that cheap, but they sure aren't in Ohio. Kent State University, the school I plan to attend, is about $6,000 a year tuition, but there's a catch. They require you to live on campus for the first two years, and room and board averages about $4,000 a year. So I'll really be paying about $10,000 and that's cheap compared to private colleges in Ohio.

Scholarships? I'm have a 3.1 cumalative Grade Point Average (on a 4.0 scale) , which is good, but to get a general scholarship you usually have to have a 3.5 just to APPLY. I applied for a Federal Pell Grant, which is government aid based on income, but even though my father died of cancer a few years ago and my mom can't get a good job because she was has no training, I still didn't qualify. (If you sense a little hostility there, you're right.) So I'm stuck with only $500 for getting honors on my Proficiency test... oh the bell rang, I gotta go, more later....

Where was I? Oh yeah, $500 for scoring honors on the citizenship (which is basically social studies) portion of the Ohio senior proficiency test. I guess that's not bad, because that test was piss easy. What really annoyed me was how every history question lead to the conclusion that some unpopular government activities were right. (Here I go again with my propaganda theory.) Like for example, What happened when US troops withdrew from Vietnam? And the answer was "South Vietnam was forcibly united with North Vietnam." They're using the damn proficiency tests as a way to try to brainwash the more empty minded young people before they develop opinions of their own. They're stupid anyways. I don't want to go into the way they screwed my high school out of money for a desperately needed new building right now, because I'm starting to get mad, and I'm rambling again.

Annnnnyways....

I'll have to take out a student loan, and pay it back over most of my adult life. The US is way to sports oriented. As a result, athletes often get full scholarships, while you have to be near genius level to get a significant academic scholarship. I am terrible at sports, and haven't even tried out for any in high school, but I'm smart, passionate, creative, and dedicated. Why should an airhead that needs to get enrolled in "special" college courses like Basketweaving 101 (they really do that for star atheletes) get an affordable education, and not me? I'll tell you why--it's called capitalism, and it's not always as romantic of a notion as the commiephobics always made it to be. I respect the rights of privately funded colleges to do whatever the hell they want, but when you agree to submit to government standards in exchange for funding (State schools), those standards should reward intelligence and vision before atheletic excellence.

Sorry to rant on like that. I had to get that out of my system. Maybe the Vikings did it because they were pissed off at bureaucratic slimeballs and greedy swindlers who pretend they're do-gooders. Say Bran, fancy raiding a certain city on the Potomac with me?

Sorry for the long delay in replying ... much to my horror I have been somewhat busy this last week. But, on to your message ...

Wow! Have you ever considered politics (not necessarily mainstream repub or demo) as a career? You certainly have the drive and the eloquence. I know what you mean about wanting to rail against the system at times. Raiding the town on the Potomac would the great ... now where have I left my broadsword?

Actually, we pay about $2500 a semester for arts degrees (thus about $5000 a year) ... but the cost of the degree varies depending upon what you are doing. The more resource intensive ones attract a higher fee (eg medicine, engineering, science). There is also a big push by our current conservative government to introduce full-fee-paying options, but the unions and the student bodies are dead against it ... as are the majority of the senate who have to ratify any legislation from the lower house (the government does not have a majority in the senate at the moment thank goodness). All going well, we'll have a shift to the left in the next election and return Labour. We can but hope.

I am horrified that sports is placed above academic scholarship for college entry. We don't have sports scholarships here as there is no real inter-university sports arena that anyone cares about. Something of a relief, Ic an tell you!

Interesting what you said about how history is taught in your schools. We of course get a different picture here, not being much of an imperialist power. We have some chips on our collective shoulders but they are more internal matters than ones of foreign policy.

Anyhoo ... must get back to Charlemagne. I am teaching a short course on early medieval Europe at the moment. Wot fun!
Cheers
Bran.

I think I went a little over the top in that last post. High school (and grade school) history does tend to empasize the "triumph of democracy over the forces of evil (anything other than democracy)" and minimalize the bad things our government did, but it's not as bad as I made it sound. Our books cover the persecution of the Indians and slavery, although in somewhat watered-down form. I was just in one of those "Our Government is a hypocritical facist propaganda-based beauracracy where partisan politics and corruption dominate the law" moods I get every now and then.

And atheletes just get all the scholarships; if you're smart enough to have a reasonable chance of passing your courses in college, you're smart enough to be admitting. You have no idea how important sports are to Americans. Being a football player insures you instant popularity in high school, and if you make it big in the pros you make millions of dollars every year. Right now is March Madness Tournament Season. That's National College Athletics Association (NCAA) basketball finals. We're down to the Final Four (they have silly melodramatic names for all the levels of advancement: Sweet Sixteen, Awesome Eight, etc.) Every one in America is on these teams, and that means immense merchandising, as well as sold out stadiums with extortionate prices. And these are college students and therefore "ameuter" until they get drafted for the NBA, which means that the billions of dollars pouring in will all go to the "gentlemen" who own the colleges. And that's nothing compared to football season...

I enjoy watching sports now and then, but this national obsession sometimes gets on my nerves.

Politics? Yeah, I've got a lot of opinions. But you see, you don't succeed in politics by having opinions. You make friends with the right people, kiss a lot of ass, waffle on controversial issues, and make get the financial support of the special interests. By the time you're in office your leash is so short you can't turn your head without breaking your neck. As for third parties, forget about it. There was an episode of the Simpsons where alien invaders ran for President in both parties and one man said "I'll vote for a third party candidate!" And the one alien laughed and said "Go ahead! Throw your vote away!" And it's true...

Um, bell again. Later.

Hmmm, I guess I was in the aforementioned mood right then. Anyways, enough of that. Yeah, I've considered politics but not seriously. I'm too idealistic. I wouldn't be willing to compromise my principles. Besides, I'm too impatient to run for a bunch of worthless offices while I wait for enough experience to run for something that really counts. I could do a lot more as a writer. As a matter of fact, when I was younger I wanted to be a novelist when I "grew up" but although I have a good deal of talent in creativity and writing style (or so I'm told) I get bored too quickly, and give up on a project. Even if I really tried, I don't think I'd have the patience and discipline to finish full length novels. Besides, do you know how hard it is to get published for the first time? My aunt writes children's books and it took her years to get published. Patience is a virtue, but not one that I have a particular aptitude for.
Anyways, I guess I'm gonna go for the history degree. On Tuesday I went through the registration process at Kent State. It's gonna be awesome. I made sure all my classes are in the afternoon. (I'm a definitely not a morning person.) I'll start class after lunch and finish before supper. That'll let me stay up moderately late and sleep in till at least 9 or 10. I don't know how it is where you live, but in America high school (and grade school) start around 8 in the morning. It's terrible. College will be different. (Thank God!) And the Kent Campus is really cool. Also, it'll be neat being a history major at the place where the tragedy of May 4, 1970 took place. They even have a special mini-course you can take on that topic to count towards your history credits.

By the way, we keep mentioning "here" and "there" but I'm not really sure where you live. Something clicks with Australia or New Zealand. I remember some kind of mention to that effect. Am I right? And the money issue, were the statistics you sited earlier in US currency (you did use the $ sign) or in your own country's currency? Hope I'm not boring you to death with my rambling. Sometimes (always) I get a little (a lot) carried away.

Not boring at all Zarq. To your questions. I live in Hobart, the capital city of the state of Tasmania, in Australia. So all the figures have been in Australian dollars. If you want to know more about where I live, have a look at my entry on Hobart, which was one of the articles used as a basis for the approved entry:

http://www/h2g2.com/A129601

Great to hear that you are following history in college! I haven't regretted it (yet!), and it is a great deal of fun. University is a tremendous place, or at least can be, so I reckon you'll enjoy it. I have basically not left since I finished high school in 1981. That of course could just be a reflection on me and my lack of desire to get a "real" job (as people call them outside of universities). But, as they say, if you are doing something you love, then you'll never have to work a day in your life! (or something similarly shmaltzy).

Oh, what did you mean by "the place where the tragedy of May 4, 1970 took place". Don't know what that is over in Aussie.

Anyway, must keep on with Charlemagne. I might think about turning some of this lecture material into an article for the HistSoc at some point.

Cheers
Bran.

http://www.kent.edu/ksuMay4/welcome.htm

(May 4th, 1970 info)

Thanks ... I actually knew of this event, as it turns out, though not the details of where and when. What the hell were the National Guard doing?! Was there an inquiry or any official (or unofficial) investigation of the incident? It sounds atrocious.
Bran.

Well, it wasn't exactly Tienamen Square. The crowd was getting angry, and it looked like a full fleged riot was about to break out. One of the Guard guys panicked, and fired his gun, and in the confusion several others followed suit. It was a terrible tragedy, but everyone understands what happened. No investigations were needed. After this incident the Vietnam protests reached their strongest stage ever, and people carried signs with pictures of the Kent victims. "Kent State" was a rallying cry for everyone who wanted the government to "bring our boys back home". Now when anyone outside of the Ohio area hears the words "Kent State" they immediately think of the incident. On the campus there is a Memorial to the students who died, and there is a special course you can take to learn all about it. Feel free to look around the site for more information.