A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
Fireside this week! Next week we'll be diving into a series (I am imagining four parts) on pre-modern generalship (with a particular emphasis on the broader Mediterranean world in classical antiquity and the middle ages) and the ways that it was shaped by key constraints which are often removed in modern imaginings of command (particularly … Continue reading Fireside Friday, May 20, 2022
Fireside this week! We're in the last few weeks of the semester, but semesters tend to 'crescendo' rather than 'wind down' so there has been a lot going on. I'll probably be posting a gap week for next week (Friday, April 29) because I'll be at the annual meeting of the Society for Military History … Continue reading Fireside Friday, April 22, 2022
Fireside this week! It's been a while, eight weeks in a row without a fireside. For what's coming up in future weeks, I'm working on a longer discussion of Expeditions: Rome and how it treats Roman history. After that, we'll have a look at the art of pre-modern generalship as compared to the remarkably 'frictionless' … Continue reading Fireside Friday, April 8, 2022
Fireside this week! I am still working on "Decline and Fall?" Part III and should have that ready for you all next week. Part III is going to deal with economics and demographics (and also briefly, the question of non-elite literacy), which will hopefully make a lot of you happy since questions about those issues … Continue reading Fireside Friday, February 4, 2022
Fireside this week! The Spring semester is now in full swing and - knock on wood - so far seems to be proceeding without too much in the way of disruption. I'm hoping to have part II of "Decline and Fall?" for you all next week but in the meantime I wanted to take a … Continue reading Fireside Friday, January 21, 2022 (On Public Scholarship)
First fireside of the new year! Percy (right) had been fully hidden under the tree-skirt, but Ollie's continued investigations found him out. For this week's musing, I'm in a mind to talk about the tension between preparing for different kinds of war, in particular between counter-insurgency (COIN) and large-scale combat operations (LSCO), in part because … Continue reading Fireside Friday: January 7, 2022
Fireside this week! I had hoped to have the next part of the fortification series done by now (its coming along), but between the ends of semester crunch, a few unexpected time-sensitive projects and it being the week of Thanksgiving, that will have to wait. Home Librarian Oliver helping me organize my books. For this … Continue reading Fireside Friday: November 26, 2021
Fireside this week! We're in that mid-semester crunch time with students turning in papers and exams which need grading, but fortunately Ollie is getting into the fall season: The pumpkin spice cat-toy was a gift from a friend. For this week's musing, I want to discuss in a fairly brief way, my views of 'megahistory' … Continue reading Fireside Friday: October 15, 2021
Fireside this week! This week was the first full week of class, so the chaos that implies has delayed the last part of our look at Victoria II, hopefully just until next week. I also wanted to note that if you have sent me a guest-post pitch, I have not forgotten it but haven't had … Continue reading Fireside Friday: August 27, 2021
Fireside this week, but also some announcements! First, I have added an additional tier to the ACOUP Patreon for the patres et matres conscripti. The phrase patres conscripti was a somewhat fancy way to refer to the members of the Roman senate, literally the 'conscript fathers.' They were conscript in the sense that they were … Continue reading Fireside Friday: July 9, 2021