History Today
History isn’t just about names and dates in dusty textbooks — it’s the story of how people, ideas, and events shaped the world we live in today. The lessons we pull from the past help us make sense of current challenges and prepare for what’s to come.
When we study history, we’re not only learning about wars and politics, but also about culture, art, science, and the daily lives of ordinary people. These stories reveal patterns — how societies rise and fall, how individuals push for change, and how mistakes get repeated when we forget them.
In a time when misinformation spreads quickly, history provides a compass. It trains us to weigh evidence, to ask critical questions, and to see beyond the surface of events. Whether it’s understanding the roots of modern debates, learning resilience from those who came before us, or finding inspiration in human achievement, history grounds us.
The past never really disappears — it lives on in traditions, institutions, and ideas that continue to shape our world. That’s why studying history isn’t optional; it’s essential.
The Middle Ages Weren’t Dark
Hot Take, Cold Fact: The Middle Ages Weren’t Dark:
Intro
For generations, students have been taught to think of the Middle Ages as the “Dark Ages” — a thousand-year gap between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance where Europe supposedly sank into ignorance, superstition, and decline. It’s one of the most enduring historical clichés, repeated in textbooks, movies, and even memes.
But the receipts tell a different story. Far from being “dark,” the Middle Ages were a dynamic period of innovation, cultural exchange, and intellectual growth.
Where the Myth Comes From
The phrase “dark age” goes back to the 14th-century Italian humanist Petrarch, who contrasted his own time with the “light” of classical antiquity. Later writers, especially Enlightenment figures such as Voltaire and Edward Gibbon, picked up this language. Voltaire’s Essay on Customs and the Spirit of Nations (1756) dismisses the medieval centuries as backward, while Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789) portrays them as a story of collapse and decay.
This myth stuck because it served a rhetorical purpose: the Renaissance and Enlightenment looked brighter when the centuries before were cast in shadow. As medieval historian Chris Wickham points out in The Inheritance of Rome (2009), the “Dark Ages” idea says more about the prejudices of later periods than it does about the reality of medieval life.
The Receipts: Innovation and Technology
The Middle Ages were an era of practical problem-solving. Innovations included the heavy plow, which made northern European farming vastly more productive (see Lynn White Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change, 1962). The windmill transformed agriculture and industry by harnessing natural energy. Everyday life changed too: eyeglasses appeared in 13th-century Italy, extending the careers of scribes and scholars, while mechanical clocks made timekeeping more precise than ever before.
Far from stagnant, medieval societies were inventive. They left receipts in the form of surviving devices, manuscripts describing new tools, and adoption across Europe.
The Receipts: Architecture and Art
If you’ve ever stood inside a Gothic cathedral, you know there was nothing “dark” about medieval architecture. Structures like Chartres Cathedral and Notre Dame de Paris used pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses to create buildings that soared upward and filled with light. These cathedrals were community projects, blending engineering, artistry, and faith.
Art was equally vibrant. Illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells (c. 800) display astonishing craftsmanship, blending Christian symbolism with Celtic design. As Jacques Le Goff argued in The Birth of Europe (2005), the Middle Ages forged new cultural identities rather than simply preserving old ones.
The Receipts: Universities and Thinkers
The very concept of the university is medieval. Bologna (founded 1088), Paris (c. 1150), and Oxford (1096) became centers of learning that still exist today. Their curricula mixed theology, philosophy, law, and medicine.
Intellectual figures include:
Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, 13th century), who sought to harmonize reason and faith.
Albertus Magnus, who wrote on natural science.
Roger Bacon, who experimented with optics and stressed empirical observation.
As Edward Grant explains in God and Reason in the Middle Ages (2001), these scholars laid much of the intellectual groundwork later claimed by the “scientific revolution.”
The Receipts: Trade and Global Exchange
The Middle Ages were not isolated. The Silk Road connected Europe with Asia, bringing goods and ideas. The Hanseatic League tied together northern European trade cities. Italian ports like Venice and Genoa linked Europe to the Islamic world.
This exchange brought more than goods — it carried knowledge. Works of al-Khwarizmi (algebra), Avicenna (Canon of Medicine), and Averroes (commentaries on Aristotle) reached Europe, often through translation centers in Spain and Sicily. Jewish philosopher Maimonides also bridged cultures with writings that influenced Christian and Islamic thinkers alike.
Without these receipts of global knowledge transfer, the Renaissance could not have happened.
The Receipts: Knowledge Preservation and Growth
The stereotype says classical learning was “lost” until the Renaissance. In reality, medieval scholars preserved, transmitted, and expanded upon Greek and Roman knowledge.
The House of Wisdom in Baghdad (8th–13th centuries) oversaw translations of Aristotle, Galen, and Euclid into Arabic, which later filtered back into Latin Europe. Monastic scriptoria across Europe copied classical texts, ensuring their survival. As Richard Southern noted in The Making of the Middle Ages (1953), the so-called “Dark Ages” actually produced an intellectual infrastructure that later ages depended on.
Everyday Life and Society
Towns expanded, guilds organized artisans, and markets flourished. Far from being static, society saw social mobility, urban growth, and cultural creativity. Festivals, fairs, and religious life provided structure and meaning.
The myth of a universally grim medieval life overlooks evidence of dynamic communities where people adapted, traded, and expressed themselves.
Why the Myth Still Matters
Dismissing the Middle Ages as “dark” isn’t just inaccurate — it’s dangerous. It erases contributions from Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike. It also reinforces a misleading view of history as progress suddenly “reborn” in the Renaissance, when in fact continuity and gradual innovation defined the medieval centuries.
When we look at the receipts — inventions, cathedrals, universities, trade, preserved texts — we see a thousand years of resilience and growth. As Le Goff put it, medieval Europe “gave birth” to much of what we now consider modern.
Final Thought
The Middle Ages were not a pause button on civilization. They were an era of creativity, exchange, and development. Next time someone scoffs about a “dark age,” remember the receipts: Gothic cathedrals, algebra, eyeglasses, universities, preserved classics, and vibrant trade networks.
Not dark — dynamic.
📚 Further Reading (Your Receipts)
Edward Grant, God and Reason in the Middle Ages (2001)
Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Europe (2005)
Richard Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages (1953)
Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome (2009)
Lynn White Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change (1962)
Podcast bibliography:
Cahill, Thomas, and John Lee. Mysteries of the Middle Ages. Westminster, Md: Books on Tape, 2006.
Cantor, Norman F. Medieval lives: Eight charismatic men and women of the Middle Ages. Harper Paperbacks, 2015.
Jordan, William Chester. Europe in the High Middle Ages. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.
“Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech at the March on Washington | August 28, 1963.” History.com, June 30, 2025. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-28/king-speaks-to-march-on-washington.
Rowling, Marjorie. Everyday Life in Medieval Times. New York: Dorset Press, 1987.
Viorst, Milton. The great documents of western civilization. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1994.
Why History Gets Distorted
Why History Gets Distorted: From Myths to Memes
Intro:
History isn’t just about facts. History is shaped by stories, identity, power, and human psychology. That is why myths like flat-earth and “the Vikings wore horned helmets” persist, even if the receipts say otherwise. In this post, we’ll explore four major reasons why historical distortions stick: storytelling, national identity, power dynamics, and cognitive biases.
Storytelling is Stickier Than Facts:
Humans are wired to remember narratives: simple, dramatic stories are easier to recall than nuanced complex truths. Washington chopping down a cherry tree has prevailed throughout time, despite historians debunking the myth. Narratives beat nuance, especially when they serve collective memory and learning purposes, rather than accuracy.
We have approached a time where it is far more beneficial to promote a click-bait, “rage-bait,” headline or theory than it is to come up with something original. The same can be said for sports, social media users and media outlets are guilty of this. It is to the point where it has started to contribute to the divide in this world, and that is just upsetting.
Nations Need Legends:
Historical narratives are often written or later enhanced to bolster national identity and collective pride. Myths like Romulus and Remus founding Rome or hagiographies of the Founding Fathers persist because they serve unity, not accuracy. When myths reenforce belonging and legitimization, they become difficult to shake. This results in many people having a misunderstanding of history, their country’s past, or historical figures.
Power Shapes the Past:
History is also distorted by those in power. Rulers, governments, and elites have always used history as a tool to justify their authority. Historical negationism, or historical denialism, is the falsification, trivialization, or distortion of the historical record. [1] Manipulating data or documents contributes to the ongoing conspiracy theories that run rampant on the internet. [2] Some scholars like Sherman and Grobman, as well as Lipstadt, offer insights into the differences between historical revisionism and denial. [[3]][[4]] While other historians like Berger claim that a complete denial of past events challenges the fundamental principles of historical scholarship. [5]
Take the medieval chronicles: kings paid scribes to write glowing accounts of their reigns, portraying themselves as divinely chosen while their enemies were vilified. Or look at Nazi Germany, where myths about Aryan racial origins and fabricated histories of “ancient greatness” were weaponized to support conquest and genocide. Propaganda thrives on bending history. By controlling the narrative of the past, rulers try to control the present and the future.
The Psychology of Belief:
Even if historians work hard to correct myths, people often resist letting go. That’s where psychology comes in. Humans suffer from confirmation bias — we seek out stories that fit what we already believe. [6] If a myth reinforces our worldview, we’re more likely to accept it and share it. [7] That’s why conspiracies like the “lost civilization of Atlantis” or “ancient aliens” remain popular despite decades of debunking. [8]
There’s also the backfire effect: when people are presented with evidence that contradicts their beliefs, they sometimes double down instead of changing their minds. In other words, debunking can make myths stronger. [9] Combine this with the internet’s meme culture, where catchy distortions travel faster than careful nuance, and you see how myths adapt and survive in the digital age.
Why This Matters:
At first glance, distorted history might seem harmless — who cares if kids think Vikings wore horned helmets, right? But myths aren’t just trivia. They shape how people understand the world, how nations define themselves, and how leaders justify their actions. When we buy into myths uncritically, we risk letting propaganda, bias, and distortion drive our understanding of the past. And since history informs identity and policy, the consequences are real. That’s why history needs to be handled carefully — with evidence, skepticism, and, yes, receipts.
Conclusion: Asking the Hard Questions
History gets distorted because it isn’t just about facts. It’s about stories, identity, power, and psychology. Myths will always be with us — some harmless, some dangerous. But by asking tough questions, demanding sources, and challenging comfortable legends, we can push closer to the truth.
That’s what Receipts Required is about: separating myth from fact, so we can see history not just as a story, but as reality.
🔎 Call to Action (CTA)
Thanks for reading! Receipts Required is all about separating myth from history, bringing receipts to every story.
🎙️ Podcast: Catch our next episode this Thursday: The Middle Ages Weren’t Dark. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen.
📲 Socials: Follow us on Twitter/X [@ReceiptsRequired] for daily myth-busting and odd historical facts.
💬 Get Involved: Got a favorite myth or historical “what if” you’d like us to investigate? Drop a comment or message — we’d love to hear from you.
[1] Sarah Lee, “The Philosophy behind Historical Denialism,” Number Analytics // Super Easy Data analysis tool for Research, accessed August 27, 2025, https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/philosophy-behind-historical-denialism.
[2] Fabiana Zollo and Walter Quattrociocchi, “Misinformation Spreading on Facebook,” Computational Social Sciences, 2018, 177–96, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77332-2_10, 1-3.
[3] Michael Shermer, Alex Grobman, and Arthur Hertzberg, Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? (Berkeley (CA): University of California Press, 2002), 34.
[4] Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust the Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (New York: Free Press, 1993), 21.
[5] Ronald J. Berger, Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 2002), 154.
[6] By et al., “Confirmation Bias in Psychology: Definition & Examples,” Simply Psychology, June 22, 2023, https://www.simplypsychology.org/confirmation-bias.html.
[7] Confirmation bias: Seeing what we want to believe, accessed August 27, 2025, https://positivepsychology.com/confirmation-bias/.
[8] Elizabeth Kolbert, “Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds,” The New Yorker, February 20, 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds.
[9] Research Subject Guides: Fake News/Misinformation/Disinformation: What Is Confirmation Bias?,” What is Confirmation Bias? - Fake News/Misinformation/Disinformation - Research Subject Guides at Northeastern University, accessed August 27, 2025, https://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/fakenews/bias.
Historians Hide the Truth?
History has always been more than just dates and names in a textbook. It’s how we make sense of ourselves — why societies rise and fall, how ideas spread, why human beings repeat the same mistakes generation after generation. But the way history is remembered, and the way it’s told, often gets tangled up with myth, legend, or outright misinformation.
That’s where Receipts Required comes in. This project, and now this podcast, is built on one core belief: history is only as strong as the evidence behind it.
The Problem with Pseudohistory:
Spend ten minutes on social media and you’ll see it. Claims that the pyramids were built by aliens. Theories that Hitler lived in Argentina until the 1960s. Whole invented civilizations — like the so-called Tartarian Empire — being treated as if they’ve been “covered up” by mainstream historians. These stories catch fire online because they’re dramatic, contrarian, and easy to share.
But they’re also hollow. They collapse the moment you look for actual receipts — archaeological finds, primary sources, or peer-reviewed scholarship. And yet, millions of people consume and spread them anyway.
Why? Because myths are comfortable. They make us feel like we’re in on a secret. They confirm our suspicion that the truth is being hidden. And they’re often easier to understand than the messy, complicated reality of history.
History Without Evidence Is Just Storytelling:
Now, storytelling has its place. It’s what makes history engaging, and why figures like Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, or Hammurabi still fascinate us today. But when stories replace evidence, history gets cheapened. We stop asking hard questions, and we lose the chance to understand how the past actually worked.
Take the so-called “Dark Ages.” For centuries, people imagined Europe after Rome’s fall as nothing but plague, ignorance, and squalor. But when you actually look at the evidence — the “receipts” — you find monasteries preserving knowledge, trade networks operating, towns expanding, and remarkable art and architecture being created. Was it chaotic? Yes. Was it “dark”? Not in the way the myth tells it.
This is why history needs receipts. Without them, we’re not doing history — we’re doing fanfiction.
What This Podcast Will Do:
In the pilot episode of Receipts Required, I lay out the roadmap. Each week, we’ll bust a historical myth or take apart a popular misconception. We’ll pull the receipts — archaeology, documents, inscriptions, and the work of serious historians — and show not just what the past was, but why it still matters today.
Some episodes will tackle big, dramatic claims: Was Hitler really in Argentina? Did the Vikings “discover” America? Were the Middle Ages really dark? Others will zoom in on the early civilizations that often get overlooked, like Mesopotamia — where writing, law, and cities were first born.
Along the way, we’ll also highlight recommended books, spotlight historians worth following, and give you quick “This Day in History” moments you can carry with you. The goal is simple: to make history engaging without sacrificing accuracy.
Why This Matters:
It might sound dramatic to say pseudohistory is dangerous, but it is. When people stop trusting evidence in one area, it bleeds into others. If you can convince yourself the Earth is flat because you don’t trust NASA photos, it’s not a huge leap to start distrusting medicine, elections, or institutions that hold society together.
But history can be the antidote. By showing that real evidence is not only available but also fascinating, we can remind people that truth is worth chasing. The past is full of stories — but only some of them are supported by receipts.
A Final Thought:
Launching this podcast has reminded me why I fell in love with history in the first place. It’s not just about kings and battles — it’s about questions. Who built this? Why did they do it? What evidence do we have? What does it mean for us today?
If you’ve ever rolled your eyes at another conspiracy theory, or wondered whether the history you learned in school told the full story, Receipts Required is for you. This isn’t about tearing down people’s beliefs for the sake of it. It’s about building something better: a history that respects evidence, embraces complexity, and is every bit as thrilling as the myths.
Because at the end of the day, history doesn’t need to be made up to be interesting. It just needs the receipts.