Review - Tore C. Olsson. Red Dead’s History- A Video Game, and Obsession, and America’s Violent Past.

Abstract

In the Preface of Red Dead’s History, Tore Olssen notes, “one thing a History PhD can do is ruin a great deal of
historically themed pop culture” (x). As a historian who is often guilty of ruining pop culture but who is (at best)
a hesitant gamer, I approached Olsson’s book with curiosity and a bit of uncertainty about how to engage a book
about a wildly popular video game. Fortunately, one of the great strengths of Olsson’s work is in how he invites in
all kinds of readers to the virtual historical world of Red Dead Redemption II, including “diehard gamers,” students
who have not previously found history classes engaging, and history instructors who have not yet considered
video games as pedagogical tools (6).