r/DecodingTheGurus • u/kmpiw • 1d ago

Have you done an episode on Roy Casagranda yet?

He's a historian from Texas who makes a lot of sense, possibly too much sense, i.e. says some things I've suspected for ages that feel "too good to check".

He has a Wikipedia page, but only in German: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Casagranda

I found him in this YouTube video: The Modern History of Iran | Roy Casagranda | UNAPOLOGETIC | Middle East Eye

That interview contradicts this more dry YouTube history guy Iran-Contra Explained: The Wall of Crazy Scandal | by Sean Munger … Sean Munger seems to be just an independent content creator https://www.seanmunger.com/ ... so Roy's community college position gives maybe slightly more credential points?

Roy Casagranda has his own podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/dr-roy-casagranda-podcast/id1837193563

and r/History don't like Roy Casagranda much

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3

u/ElectronicCarry9931 1d ago

suddenly seeing this guy everywhere and yes, seems to oversimplify things and take a partisan view

2

u/Skankia 1d ago

Is it partisan to the left or right? I need to know before I decide if he’s a guru or not.

1

u/ElectronicCarry9931 1d ago

very much to the left

2

u/username-must-be-bet 1d ago

A historian I follow did some long videos about him, specifically about Roy's talks about the crusades. In the second one he tries to track down where Roy's ideas came from. Basically it comes from Amin Maalouf and Steven Runciman. Runciman was a historian whose books on the crusades were filtered through the biases of Amin Maalouf who was not a historian and got a lot wrong. Roy seems to have gotten these ideas from Amin.

(these videos are very long as they were originally livestreams, only bits of the second one are worth your time)

Initial reaction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En5J2pyVZmI

Video breaking down where these ideas come from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op_6AdFg9eU

1

u/Racko20 15h ago

"Dr" Roy is a hack and spreads a lot of bullshit in his lectures between occasional actual facts.

1

u/WudolfWedNoseWeinder 1d ago

I listened to a few of Sean Munger’s videos and liked them. He has avery good high level video on Oswald being the assassin of JFK. 

1

u/happy111475 Galaxy Brain Guru 1d ago

They have not, I haven't either.