BRITAIN AD.

I have just finished watching the most horrible history program I have ever known.

As you may guess from the title it's Pryor's BRITAIN AD. His attempt to destroy the credibility of Dark Age historians and set up the dominance of his brand of archeology. That is part time and of the pick'n'choose type.
I mean, I couldn't stop myself laughing at some points, he is hilarious. Seems like another airport book kind of guy.
A lot of people I know take his word for truth because he so damned sure of himself ( at least thats how he sounds). He speaks in absolute terms.
Must is his favourite word.
He attacks antiquated Victorian views which not even those in opposition of his idiocy stand by, he never gives other views much of a chance either. It's all a bit of an ego trip.
Anyway I'll linky some amazon and other reviews for you.

http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/10/reviews.html
down at the bottom, last review.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Britain-AD-A.../dp/0007181868

http://www.amazon.com/Britain-AD-Art.../dp/0007181876

I concur!

Most of these books coming fresh off some BBC series usually fail, and hard. The same goes for Terry Jones' Barbarians, talking in the same absolute, sensationalist terms.

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Originally Posted by Baba Ga'on

Most of these books coming fresh off some BBC series usually fail, and hard. The same goes for Terry Jones' Barbarians, talking in the same absolute, sensationalist terms.

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Really?
I had never heard of that one, what was it's amazing truth?

Initially I thought the book would be a balanced argument about how what the Greeks and Romans saw as dirty, savage "barbarians" were actually quite cultured and advanced themselves, with advanced social and political structures that many Greco-Roman authors never gave them credit for.

Instead, it turned into an all-out, ill-argumented, selectively supported anti-Roman rant, in which the authors tried to completely discredit everything about the Romans. So: instead of making the attempt to put both the Romans as well as the "barbarians" in their proper contexts, it ends up becoming just as ill-concieved a one-sided (not to mention badly sourced) harangue as seeing the Romans as the only lights of "civilization" and "progress" in the ancient world.

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Originally Posted by Baba Ga'on

Initially I thought the book would be a balanced argument about how what the Greeks and Romans saw as dirty, savage "barbarians" were actually quite cultured and advanced themselves, with advanced social and political structured that many Greco-Roman authors never gave them credit for.

Instead, it turned into an all-out, ill-argumented, selectively supported anti-Roman rant, in which the authors tried to completely discredit everything about the Romans. So: instead of making the attempt to put both the Romans as well as the "barbarians" in their proper contexts, it ends up becoming just as ill-concieved a one-sided (not to mention badly sourced) harangue as seeing the Romans as the only lights of "civilization" and "progress" in the ancient world.

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Oh dear:no:
That does sound rather bad, but he's not a proper historian is he?
Pryor is considered by those whom read his book as a proper Dark age archaeologist, which he is not.

I think I watched that, what a wind bag. Still as a TV host he's no where near as bad as that stuntman (who did a medieval weapons show) who never lets anyone else finish a sentence, ever.

Wait - this guy claims the Migrations didn't happen ? :inquisitive: Now that's pretty heavy. Reminds me of that one curse mentioned in Planescape: Torment which made its victim speak out of his arse and defecate from his mouth...

Reading the Amazon reviews makes panda sad. :embarassed:

They swallowed all that sensationalism down hook, line and sinker.

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Originally Posted by Watchman

Reminds me of that one curse mentioned in Planescape: Torment which made its victim speak out of his arse and defecate from his mouth...

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:laugh4:

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Originally Posted by Watchman

Wait - this guy claims the Migrations didn't happen ? :inquisitive: Now that's pretty heavy. Reminds me of that one curse mentioned in Planescape: Torment which made its victim speak out of his arse and defecate from his mouth...

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Oh yes, he finds it incredible to believe that people would move around in search of decent land, wealth and plunder. None of those things seem worth while, do they?:inquisitive:
You should have heard his assumption about how the English came to speak a dominantly Germanic language and evolve into a Germanic culture. Oh dear:dizzy2:

...or how Lombardy and France got their names, or why there was a Visigoth ruling class in Iberia when the Muslims got there, or why a bunch who ruled the old Roman province of Africa for a while went by a name likely tracing back to South-Eastern Baltic...

Damn, but he'd need to write a pretty thick book just to get that premise done away with.

Thick would be the appropriate word, yes.

:laugh4: In more than one way, indeed.

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Originally Posted by Watchman

:laugh4: In more than one way, indeed.

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:laugh4: :laugh4: :laugh4:
I lol'd pretty hard at that.
Oh deary me.:no: