Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II, set in 1911 and 1899, are the most-played American history video games since The Oregon Trail. Beloved by millions, they’ve been widely acclaimed for their realism and attention to detail. But how do they fare as re-creations of history?
In Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent P ... Show More
Mar 2025
Tom Lynch, "Outback and Out West: The Settler-Colonial Environmental Imaginary" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)
People make sense of the world through stories, and stories about places inevitably shape how we treat, live on, and use those places. In Outback and Out West: The Settler Colonial Environmental Imaginary (U Nebraska Press, 2022), emeritus professor of English at the University o ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 17
Paul Stangl, "San Francisco Seafood: A History from Ocean to Table" (Bloomsbury, 2026)
For early San Franciscans, seafood was an important source of nutrition and a feature of social life, inspiring culinary developments that remain components in California cuisine more than a century later. Consumers interested in flavorful alternatives to meat and associated heal ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 11
Mary E. Mendoza, "Deadly Divide: How Insects, Pathogens, and People Defied the US-Mexico Border" (UNC Press, 2026)
As many as ten thousand people attempt to illegally cross the border between the US and Mexico each month, braving deserts, rivers, and other environmental hazards in the process. But the very illegality of that crossing has an environmental history, writes Penn State University ... Show More
53m 59s
Sep 2024
The Real Red Dead Redemption
October 5, 1871. In what some call the wildest town in the Wild West, bad blood has been building for a long time. Wild Bill Hickok, the sheriff of Abilene, Kansas, is facing down Phil Coe, a saloon owner with a history of antagonizing the law. Then, the guns come out. This kind ... Show More
24m 26s
Sep 2024
Tore Olsson With What's History on Red Dead Redemption 2 | Episode 359
Can games like "Red Dead Redemption 2" help overcome stereotypes around subjects like history, making them more immersive and relatable? In this episode, we delve deep into the transformative role of video games in education. Our guest, an expert in integrating existing video gam ... Show More
34m 4s
Dec 2022
The Existential in Red Dead Redemption 2
People sometimes ask me what I think of video games. I think that, in moderation, they're a fine source of the kind of passive entertainment we all need little doses of in our lives. But for me personally, I rarely play video games because there's just too much other stuff I'd ra ... Show More
55m 5s
