1K Q&A | Talking My Degree, Career, and History

[@MyGrannyEra]

Much love to Jennifer's family. She will be so much missed. This video is a fantastic example of the inspiration she was to all of us!

[@dissidentfairy4264]

She's beautiful and exceedingly brilliant. I say this in present tense because we are in her past and she is in our future! 🧚

[@mariaruiz8820]

May you rest in peace. I hope you were greeted by loved ones and your favorite historical figures. My condolences to her family and friends. A loss in the community. 💔

[@ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace]

I fully support making life decisions based on National Treasure and The Mummy.

[@jenniferbrooks]

I’m glad I’m not the only one 😂

[@rebeccabsomanybooks3558]

Enjoyed your video. Hated history until college when one professor changed my perspective. He believed that history is best told in a story rather than memorizing facts, Transforming. You should pursue your doctorate later and teach. You could transform others with your love of history.

[@maslina4567]

You have my dream job! If I were to go to university days as my adult self things would be different. Thank you for an utterly fascinating video! I always enjoy hearing about people passionately pursuing what they love.

[@CoynieReads]

I'm definitely with you on how TV and film really shapes where my life and interests go. I think this is why I'm very slow to pick up historical TV shows and often put them off, because I know that once I get into them I'll be stuck in a rabbit holes for months to come 😂

[@sarahel19]

I'm an archivist myself and really enjoyed learning more about your background and your love of history, thank you. Interestingly, in France we have one university course for Archives and another one for Libraries. We have to specialize in one or in the other but can't study both. I also tend to get interested in particular periods of history through movies or TV series. For example I was never much interested in WWII at school but watching the TV series A French Village made me keen to read more about this very difficult period. My historical tastes are quite different from yours because generally they start after 1500. I'm really a modern history person. I would love absolutely love to go to Versailles too, especially at the beginning of the personal reign of Louis XIV around 1660, ever since I read The Viscount of Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas. In fact Dumas got me into modern history thanks to the Three Musketeers! I'm also not very interested in the Napoleonic period although I do find the rise of Bonaparte fascinating.

[@TinnekeVDE]

It is the same about study archives or library studies in Belgium at university but nobody says you can’t start the other one again at a later time

[@ConnorStompanato]

your university course sounds super interesting, such a completely different subject from me (marketing) so really cool to hear about. being a rare books archivist seems so fun. i used to be obsessed with the titanic, i would watch the second half of the movie every night for months when i was younger

[@teanlit2949]

So glad to hear your feelings on Dante. I’ll be hitting the Divine Comedy before the end of the year.

[@elcintodeorion]

I just discovered your channel, binging atm

[@elenathegreat]

Congrats on 1k!!! I found this so interesting to hear about your current job and how you got there. Omg national treasure!!! I love that so much. archiving and working in that sounds so cool.

[@elenathegreat]

I got to go to the rare books section at the national gallery of art in dc and seeing all the rare books was so so amazing. I loved hearing the curator talk about the books and explain them to us. I was mostly looking at copies of Greek and Roman myths - I love the art in old books

[@BookishTexan]

Thanks for answering my question. I would love to make archivist my retirement job. If so its back to school.

[@josmith5992]

This was so fascinating Jennifer. I loved hearing about your journey with history and your studies as well as where you would want to go and who you would want to meet in history- you’re probably one of the few people who were concerned if their imaginary guests would get along 😉

[@bellbottomblues131]

Hi Jennifer. Really enjoy hearing about history from you! I would love for you to do a video on the Titanic..your thoughts etc.

[@AmandaJHMorton]

My favorite class in library school was History of Libraries. It was such a delight. While in my masters program I worked at the rare book library on campus as a page. It was really fun to see all the things people requested. The Mummy is such a great movie. If you ever want to buddy read something about Napoleon in Egypt that would be fun.

[@shannon4521]

Great video as always and I loved your response for 4 historical figures at a dinner party, imagining all of those people at a dinner party - I would love to see that as a play or movie!

[@jenniferbrooks]

Thank you! I would too-that would be a pretty wild movie.

[@tomlabooks3263]

I just caught up with this cool video - so many interesting things you touched on. About modern history writings, Yale’s Paul Freedman said “Every historian writes AGAINST someone or something” which could be an exaggeration but maybe not so much. As for meeting Dante in person, I’ve often fantasized - rather than talking to him, which of course I’d love to do - about seeing him work on the Comedy, all by himself, surrounded by books, no one around, in the large library rooms in whatever court or castle he would find himself between 1304 and 1315 or so. Being a fly on the wall and hear the sound of his pen on the paper, see which words he was changing and correcting, look at his expressions. Then follow him around: how much did he pray during a day? How did people see him? Etc.

[@BernasBookishAdventures]

It was great to know more about you 🤗

[@keeley_reads]

This is literally years overdue lol but thank you so much for validating my brain lololol. Making decisions based off movies, reading like you're still in school and have to report on something. Legit just so much validation from this video lol

[@bartoncottagebooks5438]

A Savonarola sermon! Following Michelangelo around for a day! I'm with you. I love Florence and the Renaissance. (Who doesn't? Seriously????) I'm currently reading Lent, by Jo Walton. :) Interesting book that takes Savonarola as its protagonist. Not yet sure how I feel about the book, but the cast of historical characters is fun! Thanks for sharing about your education and career. Cheers!

[@resa_reads]

This was so interesting! I love how passionate you are about educating yourself :) Knowing that there's so much more to learn and acquaint oneself with in life really fills me with joy! :D And I would alos never want to meet Oscar Wilde, my favourite author...

[@chucknelson1079]

History fascinates me but so do the great legends Atlantis King Arthur etc

[@angelaluz405]

I saw Skid Row back then. They were on tour with Bon Jovi and they were incredible. Their first album had just come out and it was one of my favorites. My friend we there to see Bon Jovi and I was there to see Skid Row. Neither disappointed. I applaud your choice! I would go back to see Cinderella again.

[@Kimromero1219]

We got obsessed with the Vikings show and Ragnar too, so much so we named our dog Ragnar. 🙂

[@eveningprimrose3088]

Wish I could ask Jennifer if she ever read The Rule of Four. It touched on Savonarola, the bonfire of the vanities, and a mysterious work of fiction from that time called Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. The novel was published in 2004 and was quite good, I thought.

[@GlacialRidgeHomestead]

I actually saw Skid Row open for Bon Jovi in Phoenix in the 80s. :).

[@meiliu9689]

I particularly admire your lasting passion for humanity sciences! I was a history student at university. BUt I changed to sociology for a master's degree. Now I m going to pursue a doctoral degree in marketing... I also love renaissance history! I still remembered the lecturer, telling us very interesting stories. I m a bit jealous of your courses sounds not that burdening. As a Chinese student, I had to learn countless Chinese history courses, including some hell difficult ancient Chinese character courses... also American history, European history, numerous history courses about other countries..Even more trying is, they are obligatory courses! That's literally a lot!!! Also even advanced mathematics is obligatory! Thats a pretty weird setting...I just cant figure out the logic of Chinese education..Too many courses and memorizing tasks did kill my motivation.

[@limwenredleaf]

I want to be like you

[@MyCozyLittleLibrary]

A fellow librarian... Yay, metadata!

[@danielionh3386]

Time Travel buddies. Its where I would go too. Just wanted to say hello, WW1 history buff here however it sent me backwards through a rabbit hole to 1860. In that rabbit hole I found a map that led be to study 1919-1920 that links us to 2001. Rabbit holes are fun. Weird question and this is a newer project to me and I know its not Rome related or etc but do you know any research or links for exploration of Alaska from Russia. Thank you. P.S. my dinner party is Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence, Lady Gertrude Bell. Just wanted to say great video and sorry to ramble not to often I find other rabbit hole travellers.

[@beautifulboulevards]

Great video! Titanic!! I just saw on IMDB a new Viking Iceland saga in production. You might know. Called Northman. Directed by Robert Eggers, the guy who directed The Witch and The Lighthouse. We really liked The Lighthouse. So unique. The new Vikings will star Ethan Hawk, Nicole Kidman, William Defoe, Björk, Kate Dickie, Alexander Skarsgard and many others. Wow! Our family is looking forward to this. Thought it sounded up your alley. I still have to watch Vikings. On my list. We have a Vikings in our family actually. Since my older son has a Swedish younger brother who lives in Sweden. They both look Latino actually because their dad is mostly Latino. So, his brother doesn’t look like a Viking...yet he is partly.:) I did watch a Gordon Ramsey’s Uncharted where he went to Norway’s Viking country. One of the main guys he met looked like a Viking. Really cool.... Happy reading and watching movies/shows.

[@Gagging4Lit]

I want to try a Q&A livestream for when I hit 1k. My parents dragged me to see National Treasure and I cried coz I thought it was going to be a boring 'man's' film. It was okay actually lol. Why was the Italian Renaissance so bad?? That class on hell sounds wonderful haha. I love accumulating knowledge!!! And I adore Titanic - listen to that Celine Dion all the time ha. The Mummy is good too! I fancied Imotep.

[@jorgegaytan6788]

Sorry, what was the message board url?