In which John Green teaches you about the conflict in Israel and Palestine. This conflict is often cast as a long-term beef going back thousands of years, rooted in a clash between religions. Well, that's not quite true. What is true is that the conflict is immensely complicated, and just about everyone in the world has an opinion about it. John is going to try to get the facts across in under 13 minutes.
In which John Green teaches you about World War II, and some of the causes behind the war. In a lot of ways, WWII was about resources, especially food. The expansionist aggression of both Germany and Japan was in a lot of ways about resources. There were other reasons, to be sure, but the idea that the Axis needed more food can't be ignored.
In which John Green teaches you about the Holy Roman Empire by teaching you about Charles V.
In which John Green talks about the methods of writing history by looking at some of the ways that history has been written about the rise of the West. But first, he has to tell you what the West is. And then he has to explain the Rise of the West. And then he gets down to talking about the different ways that historians and other academics have explained how the West became dominant in the world. He'll look at explanations from Acemoglu and Robinson's "Why Nations Fail," Francis Fukuyama's "The Origins of Political Order," and Ian Morris's "Why the West Rules, for Now."
In which John Green investigates war, and what exactly it may or may not be good for. Was war a result of human beings organizing into larger and more complex agricultural social orders, or did war maybe create agriculture and "civilization?" It's hard to know for sure, but it's sure fun to think about.