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A review by omnivorous
The Hidden History of the Holidays by Hannah Harvey
2.0
While the author/narrator is certainly entertaining, I am left suspecting the veracity of everything she says.
So here's my issue: I only listened to the first three chapters. I listened to those chapters at 2.25x speed and while halfway absorbed in something else. Despite this, I still noticed two factual inaccuracies.
1) Julius Caesar did not name the month of August after himself. It was named after Augustus in 8 BC (well after Julius Caesar's death). I realize she was telling a joke, but this is a lecture series. Her jokes still need to be accurate.
2) "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was not written as a mnemonic device meant to help persecuted Catholic children learn their catechism. Hannah Harvey says, "there are several Catholic connections for the song. The one you may be most familiar with is that, because at this time in history Catholics were under persecution in England, the song served as a symbolic catechism for remembering your faith. God is the true love and the symbols are as follows." She then goes on to list the supposed symbols in the rest of the song. Snopes says she's wrong: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/twelve-days-christmas/
This second error is far more egregious than the first since it is a key topic in her lesson: Christmas Carols and Traditions. Yet she spouts it off as fact alongside everything else. This audiobook is a lecture in the Great Courses series. The listener expects Hannah Harvey's information to be accurate. They expect her to be an authority on the subject; she obviously isn't.
Finding two errors while casually listening to this audiobook left me certain there were more. Sure enough, another reviewer noted a third error. Hannah Harvey says, "there's a famous story about how during World War I there was a time of truce at Christmas. And American soldiers heard German carols wafting over the cold night air." Problem? The Christmas truce was in 1914. The United States didn't enter the war until 1917. Perhaps British soldiers heard these carols; it's exceedingly unlikely that American ones did.
So there's three errors in the first 3 of 19 lessons. I'm certain there are many more.
So here's my issue: I only listened to the first three chapters. I listened to those chapters at 2.25x speed and while halfway absorbed in something else. Despite this, I still noticed two factual inaccuracies.
1) Julius Caesar did not name the month of August after himself. It was named after Augustus in 8 BC (well after Julius Caesar's death). I realize she was telling a joke, but this is a lecture series. Her jokes still need to be accurate.
2) "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was not written as a mnemonic device meant to help persecuted Catholic children learn their catechism. Hannah Harvey says, "there are several Catholic connections for the song. The one you may be most familiar with is that, because at this time in history Catholics were under persecution in England, the song served as a symbolic catechism for remembering your faith. God is the true love and the symbols are as follows." She then goes on to list the supposed symbols in the rest of the song. Snopes says she's wrong: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/twelve-days-christmas/
This second error is far more egregious than the first since it is a key topic in her lesson: Christmas Carols and Traditions. Yet she spouts it off as fact alongside everything else. This audiobook is a lecture in the Great Courses series. The listener expects Hannah Harvey's information to be accurate. They expect her to be an authority on the subject; she obviously isn't.
Finding two errors while casually listening to this audiobook left me certain there were more. Sure enough, another reviewer noted a third error. Hannah Harvey says, "there's a famous story about how during World War I there was a time of truce at Christmas. And American soldiers heard German carols wafting over the cold night air." Problem? The Christmas truce was in 1914. The United States didn't enter the war until 1917. Perhaps British soldiers heard these carols; it's exceedingly unlikely that American ones did.
So there's three errors in the first 3 of 19 lessons. I'm certain there are many more.