History Men

History Men
Alias	Word Burgers
Occupation	Living Archive Teacher
Weapon(s)	N/A
Vehicle(s)	N/A
Affiliations	Dementus' Biker Horde The Citadel
Relationships	Unknown
Portrayed By	George Shevtsov
Voiced By	N/A
Appearances	Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

“	When the world fell they burned the books, leaving nothing but a random collection of Wordburgers. We History Men and Women preserve these stories.	”
– History Man

The History Men are a group of historians who chronicle the events that occurred after "The Fall." They exist in the distant future, long after Imperator Furiosa's road war.

Description

A Historyman tells the story of Nux.

History Men and History Women act as both collectors and teachers of lost knowledge and help to disseminate it amongst the inhabitants of The Wasteland. There are many means by which a History Man might display this knowledge, though the most noticeable is by tattooing historical words onto their skin. In doing so, they become "Word Burgers." They claim that all other knowledge was lost during The Fall, during a mass burning of the books.

The History Men operate from The Citadel, which following Immortan Joe's fall, acts as a bastion of hope and learning within the Wasteland. It is possible that by issuing out their knowledge, they helped The Wretched to build the Town at the foot of The Citadel.

Mad Max: Fury Road

A precursor to the guild of the History Men was Miss Giddy who taught Immortan Joe's Wives about the past. She too tattooed knowledge upon her skin.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

At least one History Man appears in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, portrayed by George Shevtsov. He is the narrator of the film.

“	As the world falls around us . . . how must we brave its cruelties?	”
– The History Man

The History Man is considered the one point of contact with a world that has vanished. He is part of Dementus's Biker Horde, having been captured by them. Dementus refers to him on several occasions for definitions and clarity, asking him to provide poetic "wordburgers" to describe situations. He is valued for being the one person there who is not a killer or a fighter, but rather a storyteller. He sees the young Furiosa as a possible candidate to pass on the knowledge he has and encourages her to make herself "indispensable."

At some point during the The Forty-Day Wasteland War, the History Man escapes from Dementus and his Biker Horde and apparently joins Immortan Joe's forces of the Citadel. Still on the battlefield, he witnesses Furiosa's ride to take revenge upon Dementus and, when Scabrous Scrotus asked who she is, describes her as being "the darkest of angels" and "the fifth rider of the apocalypse." After she returns, he narrates that there are those who were dissatisfied with the idea of her simply having killed Dementus by shooting him once after he had talked himself out. He states that they claim that she ended him in other more fitting ways, such as the manner in which he killed her mother, Mary Jabassa, or her lover, Praetorian Jack. He, however, states that she personally told him that she brought his body back to the Citadel and planted the peach seed from the Green Place given to her by her mother within him, growing a peach tree from his flesh.

Trivia

• During the assault against Dementus and his army, the History Man mentioned the various real-life conflicts that had occurred throughout history, these included:
  • War of the Roses:
    • The War of the Roses was a civil war fought between the House of Lancaster and the House of York from the 22nd May 1455 to the 16th June 1487 for control of the Throne of England. The name came from the houses' heraldic badges, (the red rose for the House of Lancaster and the white rose for the House of York) who were the two rival cadet branches of ruling monarch, House of Plantagenet.
      • While the War of the Roses had resulted in a victory for the House of Lancaster, it had also resulted in the end of House of Plantagenet's 300-year rule of the English throne with the defeat and death of the last Plantagenet king of England, Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field on the 22th August 1485 and resulted in the House of Lancaster's supporters, the House of Tudor taking control of the throne and starting their reign first under Henry VII who ruled the throne from 1485 to his death on the 21st April 1509 and ended with the rule of last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I who ruled from 1558 to her death on the 24th March 1603.
  • War of the Oranges:
    • The War of the Oranges was a brief battle fought between the armed forces of both France and Spain against Portugal from the 20th May to the 9th June 1801, following the invasion of Portugal by both the French and Spanish in response for Portugal's refusal to cede their territory to the Spanish and breaking off ties with Great Britain in 1800. The War of the Oranges had resulted in a victory for both France and Spain in Europe and resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Badajoz on the 6th June 1801 that saw Portugal ceding control of the town of Olivenza near the Portuguese Spanish border to the Spanish and the closure of all Portuguese ports to British ships. A second treaty known as the Treaty of Madrid signed with the French on the 29th September 1801 had saw the French gaining the northern areas of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, establishing the independent nation of French Guiana, the closure of all ports to British shipping and the Portuguese agreeing to pay 20 million francs to France.
      • While both treaties resulted in a victory for the French and the Spanish, both treaties saw the loss of Spanish territory in South America.
        • The War of the Oranges is considered to be part of the War of the Second Coalition lasting from the 29th November 1799 to the 25th March 1802 as well as a precursor to the European Peninsular War that lasted from the 27th October 1807 to the 17th April 1814.
  • Opium Wars:
    • The Opium Wars referred to two conflicts fought between the Western powers and the Chinese Qing Dynasty during the 19th Century:
      • The First Opium War was fought between the naval and armed forces of Great Britain and the Qing Dynasty from the 4th September 1839 to the 29th August 1842 over the Chinese restricting the trade of opium between China and Europe, resulting in the increase of British opium sold to Chinese smugglers.
        • The First Opium War resulted in the British victory over the Qing Dynasty and resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, resulting in the establishment of Hong Kong as a British territory and the allowing the five Chinese ports to be open for British trade.
      • The Second Opium War was fought between the combined forces of Britain, France, Russia and the United States against the Qing Dynasty from the 8th October 1856 to the 24th October 1860 over both the Western powers' expansion into China and the control of the opium trade.
        • Like in the First Opium War, the second war resulted in the second victory for the Western powers and the signing of the Treaty of Tientsin and the Convention of Peking, resulting in the British gaining control of Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island as part of Hong Kong and the Russians gaining control of Outer Manchuria.
  • Six-Day War:
    • The Six-Day War was a conflict fought between Israel and the Arab Coalition states, consisting of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the Middle East from the 5th June to the 10th June 1967. The result of the Six-Day War was a victory for Israel and resulted in the Israeli seizures of the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.
  • Thousand Days' War:
    • The Thousand Days' War was a civil war fought in Columbia between the Columbian National Government under the control of the National Party and Columbian Liberal Party from the 17th October 1899 to the 21st November 1902.
      • While the war was a victory for the National Government, it had also resulted in the dissolution of the National Party and the full establishment of the Republic of Panama as an independent nation on the 3rd November 1903.
• In the same scene, the History Man had also mentioned other historical wars through references:
  • Sumerians and Elamites:
    • Refers to Sumer-Elam War that occurred in modern-day Iran and Iraq around 2,600 BC. While the information on the war is limited, the Sumer-Elam War is considered as the first historical case of warfare.
  • Saxons and Vikings:
    • Refers to the Battle of Stamford Bridge that was fought between the forces of the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson and the Viking forces of Harald Hardrada with the aid of King Harold's brother, the Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria, Tostig Godwinson at Stamford Bridge in the East Riding of Yorkshire on the 25th September 1066. Not only the Battle of Stamford Bridge resulted in the Anglo-Saxon victory over the Vikings but resulted in the end of the Viking presence in Great Britain and Ireland that had been the case since the Viking invasion of Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumberland in 793.
      • While the Anglo-Saxon victory had ended the Viking presence in Britain and Ireland, the victory was short lived. Three weeks after the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the Anglo-Saxons were defeated by the forces of the French Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings on the 14th October 1066, resulting in the death of Harold Godwinson and the end of Anglo-Saxon era in England and the crowning of William the Conqueror as William I, the first Norman King of England and in turn, unifying the different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into the Kingdom of England.
  • North and South:
    • Refers to the American Civil War that was fought between the Northern United States Unionist forces and the Southern Confederate Forces from 12th April 1861 to the 26th May 1865. To this day it is debated among American politicians and scholars that the cause of the American Civil War was to end slavery in the South where it had been part of the Southern economy.
      • It was during this conflict that the Command-in-Chief of the Unionist Forces and the 16th US President, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech at Gettysburg on the 19th November 1863. A month before the conflict ended, Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by Southern confederate supporter, John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre on the evening of the 14th April 1865. Following an extensive manhunt, Booth was eventually tracked down to a barn in Port Royal, Virginia where he was shot and killed by English-born US Army Sergeant Thomas "Boston" Corbett on the 26th April 1865.
        • Lincoln's speech that he gave at Gettysburg would later play a significant part in the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in which civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr had made a reference to Lincoln's speech in his I Have a Dream speech given at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington rally on the 28th August 1963.
  • Oil War:
    • Refers to the 1973 Oil Crisis, brought on by an oil embargo by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) against countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War between Israel and the Arab States from the 6th to the 25th October 1973.
  • Water War:
    • Refers to the War over Water fought between Israel and the Arab nations of Syria, Jordan and Lebanon at the Jordan River Drainage Basin and Golan Heights in the Middle East from November 1964 to May 1967 for control over the Jordan River's water sources.
      • The War over Water is considered as the basis for the Six-Day War.
  • First, Second, and Third World Wars:
    • Refers to the:
      • First World War fought between Western Powers and the Central Powers from the 28th July 1914 to the 11th November 1918.
      • Second World War fought between the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers from the 1st September 1939 to the 2nd September 1945.
      • Third World War, A hypothetical global conflict where nuclear weapons would be deployed, resulting in a possible nuclear holocaust.
  • East and West:
    • Refers to the Cold War, a series of geopolitical tensions between two rival superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union that emerged after the conclusion of the Second World War from 1947 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on the 26th December 1991.
  • Religion and Righteous Belief:
    • Refers to various conflicts where the clash of religion ideologies were a factor, these include:
      • Soga–Mononobe Conflict - Fought between pro-Buddhist Sogo clan and the pro-Shinto Mononobe clan in Japan from 552 to 587. The conflict not only resulted in a victory for the Buddhists but resulted in the dissolution of the ruling Mononobe clan.
      • The Crusades - Fought between the European Christians and the Middle Eastern Muslims in the Holy Lands from 1096 to 1291.
      • Hussite Wars - Fought between the Protestant Czech Hussite Movement and the Catholic forces of Pope Sigismund of Luxembourg in Central Europe from the 30th July 1419 to the 30th May 1434. It was during the war that the Hussite movement had become fractured with the moderate Hussites siding with the forces of Sigismund against the radical Hussites known as the Taborites. The war resulted in a victory for the Catholic forces and established Sigismund as King of Bohemia and had allowed the moderate Hussites to practice their belief.
      • Ethiopian–Adal War - Fought between the pro-Christian Ethiopian Empire and the Portuguese Empire against the Islamic Adal Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire in Ethiopia and Eritrea from the 9th March 1529 to the 21st February 1543.
      • English Civil War - Fought between King Charles I's Royalist forces, known as the Cavaliers and the Parliamentarians forces, known as the Roundheads from August 1642 to September 1651. Not only the war resulted the victory for the Parliamentarians forces but had resulted in the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the temporary establishment of the Commonwealth of England with Oliver Cromwell named as Lord Protector.
        • The English Civil War is considered by historians and scholars as part of a series of wars in Britain and Ireland known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
      • Greek War of Independence - Fought between the Greek revolutionaries and the Ottoman Empire from the 21st February 1821 to the 12th September 1829. The conflict not only resulted in the victory for the Greeks but had resulted in the establishment of Greece as an independent nation.
      • Irish War of Independence - Fought between the Catholic nationalist members of the Irish republican movement, the Irish Republican Army and the Protestant forces of Great Britain, consisting of the British Army, the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Ulster Special Constabulary across Ireland from the 21st January 1919 to the 11th July 1921. While the result of conflict was considered as inconclusive, it had resulted in the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on the 6th December 1921, that saw Ireland being partitioned into two separate entities, the Irish Free State (later renamed as the Republic of Ireland), consisting of 26 counties in the south being established as an independent nation and the six remaining counties in Ireland's northeast region remaining under the control of the British Crown, establishing the British Crown State of Northern Ireland.
        • The signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty had resulted in a split in the Irish Republican Army leadership with the establishment of the Anti-Treaty IRA and resulting in the Irish Civil War between the pro-Treaty Irish Government forces and the Anti-Treaty IRA forces from the 28th June 1922 to the 24th May 1923.
      • The Troubles - A series of sectarian conflicts that took place across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England between the Catholic nationalist groups and the Protestant loyalist groups from 1969 to 1998.

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