This So-Called History Book is Insultingly Inaccurate 

"When facing the soldiers of the British army, the worst fear of the Colonial infantry soldier was the mg-42."

Between their musket rifles, 5 shots every minute, and their dual pistol loadouts, someone please nerf the British Army.

the whole "red coats to hide blood" misconception has always puzzled me, like why would you not want to see where the blood is. sure makes it easier to treat a wound if you know where it is

"American pirates" No, no, we called them privateers so that made all the piracy ok.

Imagine if 500 years from now, a historian/archeologist digs up something from our era and it's Brandon roasting even earlier historians.

Guess who gave him the book, guys. Glad you all enjoyed it, lol

"trained to load and fire 5 rounds a minute." *Sharpe nuts on his splatter gaiters in the distance*

I have never seen such an articulate and passionate hatred for a children's book.

*british soldiers had the finest doctors to treat them* British doctor: well old boy, I see you’ve got a stubbed toe GONNA HAVE TO TAKE THE LEG

"The british are coming!" Me: *pulls out Musket Rifle and starts to shoot 5 bullets per minute*

Reminds me of a time I was doing thesis research in the UK. I commented on a mural in a museum depicting Anglo-Saxon warriors in a phalanx-like formation and asked the curator how the museum had settled on depicting Anglo-Saxons fighting with over-lapping shields instead of a more open order formation. He just looked at me and told me that the museum considered itself to have done a good job if visitors left knowing who the Anglo-Saxons were.

An American who wears a poppy in November? As a British veteran, I salute and thank you.

18th Century British Soldier: * get's in close and drops his "rifle" * * Pulls out pistols * "So anyway, I started blasting"

Someone writes a historically inaccurate children's book. Brandon F: *I'm about to end this man's whole career*

This book might as well have been saying that there were Panzer IV tanks in the American Revolutionary War.

Something's that really grind my gears about the whole "against the greatest empire in the world" thing. 1. We were very much a naval power, our power came from our ships. While only maintaining a professional but small army compared to other European powers. 2. It makes it sound like we poured absolutely everything we had, sent every army we had to stop the revolution. Yeah no we still had an empire to maintain and other enemies to contend with.

When you’re so angry at bad history that you slip into German.

Two pistols, is every single British soldier John Wick!?

When I was a kid in elementary school our “hands on” American Revolution books contained muskets and step-by-step instructions for how to find a British person and blow their ribcage out of their back. *EDIT- Man, you weren’t kidding about this book. It reads exactly like a 4th grade school project. Abysmal.

"Machineguns at that point" As a former machinegunner I must defend my honor and state that I am capable of greater than 5 rounds a minute.

"The Finest Army in the world" means "My ENEMY was the best in the world .... and I BEAT HIM"

The cherry on top would be: “Both armies, even by 18th century standards, were barbaric compared to that of Prussia. An army known for its kind officers, semi formal atmosphere, and ice cream socials whether they won or lost the battle.”

American: “The British are coming!” Americans: *Equips machine gun and calls an airstrike*

"But son War is dangerous!" Jimmy "I want to go contribute to something that will get me into history books about my brave actions" 22th Century book: "A soldier called Jimmy was tragically wounded by an M1A2 Abrams, whilst shooting his Bazooka at the terrifying tiger 1, he was then rescued by a chinook and then died due to his helicopter being shot down by SAM Wielding Communist Russians"

But Brandon, surely Mel Gibson’s Patriot was a stirring example of historical accuracy. XD

RU-vid: Wanna watch half an hour of a guy roasting a history book? Me: yes, please and thank you

I think I can explain the 5 shots a minute thing, actually! The English LONGBOW is often cited as a weapon that a trained English archer could fire roughly once every 10 seconds. Someone writing this book probably got confused and mentally mixed up the longbow and the musket's fire rates. That's terrible.

I remember my history teacher in high school calling the head gear of the British troops at Lexington and Concord shako. I objected, and said that the British troops at Lexington were light troops, and would not have worn the "bearskin caps" of grenadiers. I was told I didn't know anything.

In this episode: “Brandon gets Mad at a Children’s Book”

Book:”British foot soldiers where given supplies” Brandon: 🤔🤔”yes”

Ngl when he read the crossbelt was for carrying wounded soldiers I pictured a dude strapping the casualty to his chest and it made me die laughing

I remember being a little boy and going to the library and renting a lot of books about medieval history, especially on medieval arms, armor & castles. There were a lot of illustrations in them. I totally loved those books. But I wonder how much disinformation was in those ;)

Brandon: pulls out *THAT* book Me: Oh God

British general: we need to arm our soldiers, what should we use? Everyone else: give em all 2 pistols and a musket rifle

everybody gangsta until the British Lobster Back arrives with his two pistols, a bayonet and a rifle while charging at you firing five shots per minutes out of his musket rifle

The idea that every British soldier had two pistols and a rifle is ridiculous. I mean, they'd literally be better equipped than most armies of the time, let alone onwards...

Giving soldiers freedom would be a terrible idea. "Where's the sentry?" "pub" "sergeant?" "pub" "why hasn't the latrine pit been dug yet?" "FREEDOM!"

No wonder they needed to rise taxes to pay for all the pistols.

"Soldiers were harshly punished for breaking the most minor rules" yes, that is how being in the military works if you don't believe me, ask your local veteran about when they were allowed to actually load their service weapon

I couldn’t stop laughing through out your entire production 😂🤣 I hate historically inaccurate books with a passion too. If an author/ publisher is marketing material as historical then it should be, not an “interpretation”. From across the pond, I salute you sir 💂‍♂️

Muskets : *Exist* Rifles : *Exist* Author : It’s free real estate

"Musket rifles" got me. I managed to hold it in up until that point...

I always find it annoying when people act like Germany was a united nation before 1871 After the holy roman empire lost most of its control of course

Im gonna go out on a limb and say that Monica, on the day she "reviewed" this atrocity of a book, she was having one of those "i don't want to even wear pants" days.

How on earth did we lose? We had nineteenth century technology, the best land army in the world, we could conscript our population, and magic uniforms that soak up blood.

Dragging a wounded soldier from their cross belts off the battlefield sounds so funny

“The British stood no chance against the average American gunslingers from the west”

I had this book as a kid, I loved it! I feel so betrayed. I may never recover from this.

I could just imagine how a battle during the Revolution must've looked like: Droves of undisciplined militiamen running from professional British soldiers dual wielding pistols.

See, the soldier charges, bayonets the first man they encounter, hurls their rifle like a spear at the next guy then expertly guns down two more with their dual pistols. Do they teach you nothing in American schools?

Polish Winged Hussars actually had two pistols. During a charge, after the pike was already broken, they fired them in the enemy croud before they started using their sabers and hammers. This was mainly possible because hussars paid for their (insanely expensive) gear themselves, so equipping them with two throw away pistols came with no cost for the state. And since all hussars were recruited from the richest gentry, they could afford it - compared to their armours, horses or skins from exotic animals a pair of pistols was quite inexpensive

There was one British Soldier - John Moore - later (Napoleonic war era) General Sir John Moore - who could indeed load and fire the Brown Bess 5 times in one minute, but he was exceptional, and had to practice this skill constantly. John Moore introduced a number of badly needed reforms in the British Army before he was killed in action, leading his troops at the Battle of Corunna in Spain. Google the Poem "The Death of Sir John Moore at Corunna". Lieutenant John Moore did fight during the Revolutionary war, indeed he was part of the British Victory at the Battle of Penobscot Bay in what is now Maine, where a force of some 750 British troops held off, then defeated, a colonial land and sea expedition from Boston massing over 2000 men. At sea the Americans suffered their worst Naval defeat until Pearl Harbor almost 170 years later. (Weirdly one of the American soldiers was one Colonel Paul Revere...and he was later on almost court-martialed...for theft of the expedition's payroll! (It was last seen in his custody, as he was rowed ashore, away from the impending naval defeat...) Oh, and that same Paul Revere's famous ride? He was one of 20 riders that night, he was the ONLY rider captured by the British.. and, with a fine sense of his actual worth, they kept his horse and sent him on his way!

British corporal explains the uniform: "This is the crossbelt! It is used for carrying you off if you've decided to lie down and die on the battlefield! Oh, and it also carries equipment."

As someone who is teaching a US History class for the first time and combing through various sources, the book under discussion is a classic example of the poor (i.e., lack of) research common in curriculum for children. I'm amazed at how often I find incorrect dates and wild assumptions made and simply stated as facts. Thanks for calling one source out for such foolishness! I thoroughly enjoyed this video.

They can fire 5 times a minute after Sharpe taught them to spit the musket ball in

American education can be really bias if you look in the bad textbooks

18th century punishment for mistakes: *lenient* Modern day, a US soldier in Leavenworth: "what're ya in fer?" I missed a dentist appointment.

I see what you mean about the difference between a "Historian" (general) vs. the "Military Historian."

"Lobsters" is also used in Horatio Hornblower in an episode/story set during 1795. I'd suspect that the origin is indeed from the RN when referring to the army.

As a 2A and constitutional activist I was literally internally screaming the moment with the “to hide the blood” bit. At that moment I knew this was going to be a travesty! 😨

Love how the camera zooms in for emphasis *TWO* *PISTOLS!*

I love how they completely ignored the contributions of the Tories fighting for the British who were fighting for their homes. The Patriot cause was hardly Universal.

Soldiers have built in handles for dragging them when wounded. They're called appendages. They're far sturdier than straps.

ill never get over the idea of British soldiers having the colonial equivalent of a cod loadout

I can't wait to see how he reacts when he gets the history (text) book that says "The first Atomic Bomb, was dropped on Vietnam...".

Well, talking with modern US "patriots", belittling the contributions of the French seems to be sort of the gold standard when telling tales of the revolution...

As much as I am proud of being an American and my family's multiple generations of service to her, I have a keen interest in objectivity. Even if that means, painting the tactics of her enemies, in a favorable light.

I'm shocked that they didn't mention the fact that the 'Imperial Army' also had musket assault rifles as well as flamethrowers.

dual wielding flintlock pistols charging in to battle.

The same crap happens in high school books, too, Brandon. Professors MIGHT do a cursory examination of the materials, and they get their payout from the booksellers. James Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me" goes into great detail all the fallacies taught in history books. Texas has a huge influence on these books, and many have rightfully criticized the politicization of the textbooks to changing words like "slaves" to "workers," as if by removing the word, they can slowly eliminate the institution of slavery altogether and thus the reason for all those "worker" rebellions and that little dustup of Northern Aggression in the War Between the States (vs the Civil War). Loewen calls many of his colleagues to task for their rubberstamping of high school texts, which they do for the money, which they use to research and publish in their field; some unis still have the publish or perish rule. Professor Loewen was quite right in his complaint -- history is the ONLY profession that cannot count on building on what a student learns from elementary school onward. Rather, the teacher often must spend time disabusing them of myths and outright inventions (lies) when it comes to history. Too, politicians and school administration focus on using history to indoctrinate, to instill obedience, and to squash any notion that history had anything to do with discontent, blood, and that word espoused by heretics and terrorists -- revolution. Notice how some now call it the War for Independence? They were patriots and Founding Fathers, not revolutionaries. Loewen said his first judge of any high school history text was how it treated two persons that were equally famous and contemporary figures: Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller. Loewen does much better justice, but here's the summary for those who haven't read the book: Keller became a founding member of the NAACP and an ardent critic of corporations, robber barons, and social injustice; the newspapers that once remarked on her intelligence went to great lengths to remind their readers to ignore her words because she was born deaf, blind, and dumb, and being a woman could not make reasoned judgments in any event. Keller bitterly remarked that once she began expressing political opinions that it was remarkable how pundits and the press accused her of idiocy, ignoring their own previous accolades of her brilliance. Wilson was an ardent racist, and his attitudes forced thousands of black workers in the federal civil service to leave by his presidential policies; a once nearly 25% black representation in the workforce dropped to less than 10% at the end of his administration, impoverishing those families and helping set back race relations a hundred years. He snubbed Ho Chi Minh at the end of WW1, forcing him to turn to the Soviets for aid in the 1930s; peace and justice were for whites like America and the European Powers, and the Vietnamese needed the French to teach them civilization. Wilson publicly called "Birth of a Nation" -- Griffiths' romanticization of the Klan's acts of terrorism as the "God's honest truth;" thus helping undo one of Grant's truly admirable legacies following the Civil War -- that of ending that noxious group's bid for political power based on violent racism. Nativism -- and the Klan -- resurged openly in the 1920s because of Wilson's endorsements of racist policies of the decade before. The passing of the Sedition Act of 1918 whereby it became a federal crime to criticize the government in any way or manner during wartime -- with the odd exception that financial advisors were immune (have to protect the bankers!). George Creel and his censors arrested over 2,000 citizens in violation of the 1st Amendment, and socialist candidate Eugene Debs spent the 1918 presidential election in prison. Wilson had previously been president of a college that during his tenure, continued to exclude blacks. Wilson's anglophile bias made his anti-German policies unpopular; there were many large sectors of German immigrants in New York, Chicago, and surrounding areas, and many still had family in "the old country." It was part of Creel's work through films and posters and adverts that Germans were vilified as "Huns" who it was implied committed war crimes against civilians. Creel's office encouraged people to watch their neighbors for suspicious activity or for criticizing the government. The 1917 Sedition Act allowed the Post Office to refuse to carry publications not government approved. Many current history texts barely mention Keller at all, and if they do mention her, it's all about the "miracle" of Anne Sullivan's work to educate Keller, and no mention at all of her life after adolescence. Back to the Revolution: Revere was one of three riders going to Lexington, yet most don't know of Dawes or Prescott, or that Revere was caught; Revere had a good PR man in Longfellow, the man who wrote that poem that influenced so many schoolchildren in days long past. Washington had Parson "I cannot tell a lie" Weems. Jefferson idealized as an advocate of rights and law, yet only frees slave and lover Sally Hemmings and her children by him after his death. Washington, at the start of the Revolution, once Martha's holdings were folded into his, was the third-largest slaveholder in the colonies. He also grew and liked to smoke hemp. Benjamin Franklin loved running around without clothes on -- his "nude air" baths. History is important. When we lose our history, we lose our past. Its purpose is not to make us feel guilty for the actions of the past nor should it be used to aggrandize us above others; rather, we need to acknowledge the past and embrace it before we can move forward. Historian Patricia Limerick observed that two great dilemmas mar the US psyche -- slavery, which we've admitted to but have yet to fully reconcile, and the genocide and conquest of the native nations that were here first -- which we have yet to fully admit to. In a way, you are absolutely correct. History must be taken seriously (though you can certainly have fun with it), and the sooner you start with the young readers, the sooner it will become second nature to becoming discerning and critical readers and thinkers and not ideologues. Politicians and plutocrats, however, prefer obedience to reason; after all, if you can fool all the people once, it's good for four years. Santayana's comment remains as true today as ever.

The extra 2 shots a minute is what the pistols are for!

This is my first exposure to you. Going to check the rest of your videos in hope they're all so passionate. We may all have different areas of focus, but nerds are nerds, and it warms the soul to see another distant relative speak from their heart.

"Yankee Doodle" was the song of the Revolution. "Yankee Doodle Dandy" was written by George M. Cohan for the musical Little Johnny Jones in the early 20th century.

3:55 To hide blood? By that logic, even members of the Royal Artillery would be clothed in red uniforms.

In this episode of "Britaboo yells at book"

If yall haven't watched his video on the British and don't know, the actual reason why the British uniforms were red was because red dye was relatively cheap so it wouldn't cost very much to provide the entire British army with the same colored uniform

Omg I was taught the “to hide the blood” thing in school.

Christ, if one of His Majesty's soldiers could fire 5 rounds in a minute, they probably wouldn't have lost the war!

I have a hypothesis that they got the "five rounds a minute" from the TV show Sharpe, where simmerson, to show up Sharpe, questioned him on what makes a good soldier, Sharpe replied "to be able to fire 3 shots in any terrain " he challenged him to demonstrate it as his soldiers (simmerson) could only muster two. Sharpe fired four but it was referenced that he cheated as he counted his preloaded shot. Now. This was in the books, in the TV series they upped that to five, I'm guessing for dramatic reasons, but interestingly enough it was in this same episode that we meet a loyalist American officer. Simmerson makes the reference "some Americans know their place" . It's that "some" that perked my ears when referencing the amount of them. Additionally the episode was about how simmerson was a tyrannical abusive officer that punished his men for tiny infractions. It should also be noted that the rifle company Sharpe is part of did have additional weapons and pistols . From what you described it really seams that they got all their information from this TV show...as well as Hornblower , a naval BBC drama that referenced lobsters when talking about their soldiers. Now the books were slot better then the TV shows but it's just uncanny that all your issues have parrellels to the over simplification s of the TV shows....

I can feel the indignant rage from my screen!

you know Brandon is mad when he skips the intro.

.."yankee" should be a derogatory term for a dentist....

“You see what you made me do?” “I’m done” He would be amazing in these clips as like memes.

Nearly choked on my tea watching this

Also R.I.P the british "ROYAL" army being crushed by that book

I love watching Brandon rant about innacuracies in media about the 18th century. Love the passion.

Oh Brandon, you're so cute when you're angry. This was an extremely entertaining video, and long overdue. Popular history is rarely history at all, it's just yesterday's fake news.

17:16 German here: The map completely cuts out all the bits of Germany that were outside of the modern day borders (you know, borders shaped by outside powers during the 20th century) which is just insulting considering how much of the German Reich (as in the "Realm" that a German state-like entity/entities, in form of the Austro-dominated HRE and Prussia, occupied which was later on referred to as the "First Reich" by Nazi Germany) that cuts out, especially Prussia since that was right after the Golden age of Fredrick the Great, you know little things like the Silesian War, The seven years war, the First Partition of Poland, you know, little and historically totally insignificant things like that, *wink* *wink* TL;DR Fuck that Map. I don't know if it was in the book or if that one's on you, but fuck that map.

“some”…?…entire Canadian nation (including the Québécois) start getting Angry in an incredibly polite way.

I feel your pain so much, Brandon. Try being a technological or industrial historian and reading any book, including some scholarly monographs, that talks about trains and railways. Few things make me scream internally more.

honestly impressed that i was entertained enough by a yank criticising a childrens book about a war (that i refuse to name, as i may or may not still be salty about it) to give him a bloody subscription, keep up the good work man.

“Splatter Gaiters” I’M DYING!

Everyone knows that british soldiers travelled back in time to the AWI with future flags and camouflaged themselves by making themselves look like blood (after all, why would u shoot something that is already covered in blood and thus dead?). During com,bat, they would strap wounded men to themselves within their cross belt sachets. This allowed for both transport of crippled colleagues and use of corpses as body armour. They brought with them the future technology of musket rifles, a weapon uncomprehendable for most common people. Trust me. I am an expert.

This is the biggest on screen meltdown since Joker (2019)

“British fired 5 balls a minute” Sharpe: Ha!

A good example of how the winners choose to write their own history!

24:56 to 24:49 No one gonna talk about his rapping skills? I mean c’mon. “...example *citation* for that *information.* Where they got the *inspiration* ...”

Perhaps the waist-belt was needed to hold the two pistols?

On the tin canteens: David Preston's book on the Battle of the Monongahela mentions that the two under strength regiments from the activated for the expedition, the ill fated 44th East Essex among them. had wooden canteens. Disease was an issue, clean water was a contributing factor, and the author attributes some of that to said canteens. Were wood canteens issued, and for how long? When did canteens become standard kit? When did the tin canteen emerge? Who invented it? Did the British Army test them? I love all the weird little details. Just curious, would appreciate any sources you can throw my way.

Kudos to you for this, and for wearing a remembrance poppy!