YouTube success for Chichester history student after launching channel during lockdown

A Chichester student has found success on YouTube after racking up thousands of views on a history channel he started during lockdown at the start of the year.
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University of Chichester undergraduate Jackson van Uden began recording himself speaking about significant historical moments and people in the downtime between studying.

The 22-year-old, who is in the final year of a BA (Hons) in history, has been overwhelmed by the reaction to his videos.

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He said: “In the new year, my home town was put into tier four, so I decided to use my spare time to develop myself.

“I wanted to talk about and teach people the things I’ve learnt on my degree, and am passionate about – and history has many amazing topics that are relevant to us all, particularly now.”

His History with Jackson channel on YouTube has already received thousands of views from people across the world, while Jackson himself has amassed a strong following on Facebook and Instagram thanks to his novel approach to discussing some of the biggest moments in humanity.

The channel explores history through the centuries – and in recent videos, he explores Henry VIII’s legacy through to 20th century dictators and autocracy.

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Jackson, who is specialising in totalitarianism on his course, said: “I look at past essays of mine and convert them into easy-to-understand video pieces.

Jackson van Uden's YouTube channel has been a hit since its launch in lockdownJackson van Uden's YouTube channel has been a hit since its launch in lockdown
Jackson van Uden's YouTube channel has been a hit since its launch in lockdown

“I take a subject that I’m passionate about and turn it into a video – or series – like my dictator series, and sometimes I take subjects from the news and make a historically related video, such as my video on one-term presidents.

“For all my videos I use books to research the topic, and I usually recommend a book after the video for my viewers to check out for themselves.

“I’ve also launched a podcast where I’m interviewing historians on areas that I’m not knowledgeable about – such as French history and cinema.”

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Professor Hugo Frey, director of the university’s institute of arts and humanities, said: “I am really excited to be invited on to Jackson’s channel. When I found out about all that he had done it made me so proud of his achievement.

“These individual self-starting acts from our students are so powerful. Congratulations to Jackson and I am sure that his success as a social media historian will only grow and grow.”

For more information www.historywithjackson.co.uk

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