Red Dead Redemption and America's Violent Past - Dr. Tore Olsson

Dr. Lynn Price Robbins and Isaac S. Loftus are joined by Dr. Tore Olsson to explore the wildly popular video game Red Dead Redemption 2. How does it reflect the history of the West, a world of the first megacorporations, the labor movement, and infamous characters like Jesse James? And what can we learn from it today?
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TRANSCRIPT: coming soon 

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
3:10 - How Historically Accurate is Red Dead Redemption?
8:45 - Biggest Inaccuracies
14:44 - Disputes Over Capitalism
17:06 - Defining the American West
18:43 - How Did This Become a College Course?
30:44 - Was the Course Effective?
32:51 - History Has a Lot of Lore and Crafting a Book
34:40 - 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
41:37 - The Anxiety of a Changing System and Losing Masculinity
45:56 - TR’s Obsession with American Masculinity
47:40 - The Role of the Transcontinental Railroad
51:15 - Who Were the Pinkertons?
55:41 - The Southern Stories 
01:00:35 - The Fictionalization of the Time Period
01:03:01 - Audiobook Version!
01:04:46 - Historic Sites to Visit and Where you can find Tore

EPISODE LINKS:
Tore Olsson – https://history.utk.edu/person/olsson-tore/
Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past – https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250287700/reddeadshistory
Audiobook - https://www.audible.com/pd/Red-Deads-History-Audiobook/B0CKM6FB83
Red Dead Redemption 2 – https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/red-dead-redemption-2
Pinkerton Detective Agency – https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pinkerton-National-Detective-Agency
Labor Movement – https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-federation-of-labor-records/articles-and-essays/timeline/
Jesse James – https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesse-James-and-Frank-James
Wild Bill Hickok – https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wild-Bill-Hickok
John D. Rockefeller – https://www.britannica.com/money/John-D-Rockefeller
Dr. Olsson’s class - https://history.utk.edu/tore-olsson-in-the-conversation-why-i-turned-the-red-dead-redemption-ii-video-game-into-a-history-class-on-americas-violent-past/
Oregon Trail – https://oregontrail.ws
Chicago World’s Fair – https://www.britannica.com/event/Worlds-Columbian-Exposition
Frederick Jackson Turner – https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Jackson-Turner
Theodore Roosevelt – https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodore-Roosevelt
History of “Dude” – https://blog.oup.com/2022/12/dude-a-long-history-of-a-short-word/
Allen Pinkerton – https://www.britannica.com/biography/Allan-Pinkerton
Lynching of Sicilians in New Orleans – https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1148&context=hon_thesis
Deadwood, South Dakota – https://www.deadwood.com/ 

PODCAST INFO:
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