This. "Blueprint for Armageddon" [0] is amazing. He spends a good bit of time talking about what trench warfare was really like. The horror people there experienced is just nearly unimaginable.
The entire length of the series is nearly 24 hours, but it is so worth it. Even if you're not a fan of history, check it out because Dan weaves a masterful true story that keeps you on the edge of your seat for the entire 24 hours.
Absolutely 100% agree. Carlin, doesn't describe himself as a historian, but he is an amazing story teller.
I'm finishing the last episode right now. Among the topics he covered so far:
- The murder of Franz Ferdinand and the mentality of the Serbian assassins. Carlin has a way of explaining how terribly coincidental everything was: the first assassin failing, the couple escaping and complaining at the police station about their treatment, the driver taking the wrong turn out of the city, the car backfiring near where a second assassin happened to be standing...
- Carlin does a great job explaining the new German nationalism and the status quo before the war. He explains how carefully Bismarck made a web of diplomatic relations to protect Germany against a two-front war that his successors immediately tore down.
- Stories of German efficiency in the initial invasion of Belgium and the exact moments when people realized that this was a different type of war. The French were still wearing white gloves and the Germans issued everyone gray khakis.
- Descriptions of how naval warfare was changing and how most battleships, even those made just ten years ago, became obsolete. One great story is how the British original planned to use these now obsolete ships against the Turks in Gallipolli but the admirals were too hesitant to move quickly and risk the ships because they had an emotional connection to them! Most of those admirals served as junior officers on those ships!
- How unspeakably terrible Verdun, the Somme, the Marne and Ypres were. Ypres, for example, Carlingoes into detail about men falling off of duckboards and drowning in the mud. Most of the time, the mud was so thick and the equipment so heavy that their platoon members couldn't help them or they'd risk drowning themselves. So they'd stay up at night, hearing the survivors slowly sink...
There's so many other stories I can't remember. It's a 24 hour series. Can't recommend it enough.
Carlin is what I recommend to people who don't like history, before I get them into The Great Courses (which are amazing, if pricey when you're not on Audible). I have a catalogue of minor beefs with the way he presents some stuff, but he's always up-front that he's not a historian (and I appreciate that acknowledgement) and they haven't stopped me from happily paying for everything he's done for Hardcore History.
It's a good listen, and it's worth your time if you haven't tried his stuff.
I've never heard of Great Courses before, thanks for the recommendation. Do you have any recommendations for other audio entertainment/learning while you're here?
Great series as always, though I have to say I feel like it felt somewhat rushed at the end. i suspect that he did not want to do another 5-hour last part, like his series on the roman republic ended up having.
If you want more have you listened to some of his catalog? There's over 50 episodes. If you liked the WWI one check out the Ghosts of the Ostfront on the Eastern Front of the second world war, it's thematically similar.
The entire length of the series is nearly 24 hours, but it is so worth it. Even if you're not a fan of history, check it out because Dan weaves a masterful true story that keeps you on the edge of your seat for the entire 24 hours.
[0] http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-bluepri...