AGreatDivorce

ACOUP - Is the United States Exceptional?

I wanted to break from summer break real quick to fast track this one. Not because the subject is as pressing as the Ukrainian posts earlier this year; mainly, I just wanted to get it up while the timing was still relevant. And to put up a little something until the next big batch! In this post, Bret examines the idea of the United States as exceptional among countries. Is this true, in what qualities does the United States excel and how, and what is the difference between a country being “great” and a country being “good”?
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/07/08/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU-XtC6dJaQ
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part IVb: Cloth Money

We’ve reached the end of the chain of production for our clothes, and you know what means: time to hit the market! Here, in the concluding post of the Clothing series, Bret examines the market structure and trade forces of clothing production and the pre-modern world and the people involved.
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2021/04/09/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_16tXT-Knc
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part IVa: Dyed in the Wool

Now comes the moment when we add some color to our fabrics, because, as Bret so often repeats: people in the past liked to look nice! In this post, Bret covers the processes of fulling, dyeing, and bleaching fabrics and the social structure around these areas of cloth production.
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2021/04/02/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApCp4499Ykc
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part III: Spin Me Right Round...

With our fibers processed, now we can first spin them into threads and then weave those threads into fabrics. Here, Bret covers the two tasks that take up the bulk of textile production labor time and, specifically, examines how that labor time impacted gender norms and household economies of the pre-modern world.
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2021/03/19/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3L9zWo4_r4
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part II: Scouring in the Shire

We have our raw wool and flax, but that won’t do us much good in such an unprocessed state. How do we get that raw material reading for spinning and weaving? In this post, Bret covers the process of preparing the flax and wool, including such fun words as retting, scutching, hackling, and scouring.
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2021/03/12/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkwlbk5s4a4
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Clothing, How Did They Make It? Part I: High Fiber

In this last (as of recording) set of posts in his How Did They Make It series, Bret covers the production of clothing textiles, specifically linen and wool. How did these materials make their way from the stalks of plants and the bodies of sheep into the colorful threads that made up the fancy and not-so-fancy clothing people have worn for millenia? To start answering that question, Bret begins by introducing the basics of where flax and wool come from and how they are produced for textile purposes.
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2021/03/05/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U1RCuJPPMk
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Iron, How Did They Make It? Addendum: Crucible Steel and Cast Iron

In this addendum to his iron series, Bret covers two historical iron production variations to the general process he outlined before: Chinese cast iron and Indian crucible steel. He examines both how these processes differed from the general outline covered before, the sort of products they created, and the cultural, historical, and technological contexts into which these processes fit. 
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2020/11/06/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AaJeu9ATLA
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Iron, How Did They Make It? Part IVb: Work Hardening, or Hardly Working?

At last our iron reaches the end of its journey (though not the actual end of this series). Here, Bret finishes polishing off the topic with a look at the processes of controlling the qualities of steel through work hardening and tempering.
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2020/10/16/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LSTKh2-kVk
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Iron, How Did They Make It? Part IVa: Steel Yourself

We’ve learned the basics of iron working. Now, Bret moves into the realm of steel. How does one get steel from iron, chemically, and how was steel used in the pre-modern forging processes? Here, he outlines the processes, limitations, and the typical use cases where steel was employed to give those weapons and tools that needed it the right edge.
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2020/10/09/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsQD5hI4AD0
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

ACOUP - Iron, How Did They Make It? Part III, Hammer Time

We’ve mined our ore, we’ve gotten our iron bloom from it. Now, it’s time for Bret to guide us through the process of how we take that spongy bloom first to an iron bar and then, at last, into an iron tool. The process involves a lot of heat and a lot of tools.
The text for this recording is from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, the blog of history professor, Bret Devereaux, whose work you should absolutely support with your eyes, your clicks, and, if you are able, your bucks.
Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:
Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2020/10/02/collect...
Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of UnmitigatedPedantry - https://acoup.blog
Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux
Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096
Video demonstrating forging a nail - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPdvi...
Video demonstrating first method of forging an ax head - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEkDs...
Video demonstrating second method of forging an ax head - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehQWX...
Episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDooX6BCJJQ
 
And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!