A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
Hey folks! I am working on finishing up some things this week, so I thought I would post the text of the keynote I gave at the Prancing Pony Podcast Moot earlier this December. I've made some minor edits to conform a bit more to the form of a blog post, but this remains very … Continue reading New Acquisitions: Tolkien and Éowyn Between Two Wars (PPP Moot Keynote)
Today we're going to look at definitions of fascism and ask the question - you may have guessed - if Donald Trump is running for President as a fascist. Worry not, this isn't me shifting to full-time political pundit, nor is this the formal end of the hiatus (which will happen on Nov 1, when … Continue reading New Acquisitions: 1933 and the Definition of Fascism
I generally try to avoid having Twitter disputes spill on to the blog. Generally what happens on Twitter is best left on Twitter and in some cases not even that. However this past week I was pulled into a Twitter debate with Noah Smith about the validity of the way that historians offer our knowledge … Continue reading New Acquisitions: On the Wisdom of Noah Smith
This is going to be a bit of an unusual post, but with things moving so rapidly, it didn't seem to make sense to wait for a break in the normal schedule. Don't worry, this Friday's normal post (a Collections on chemical warfare and doctrine) will appear on Friday as scheduled. But it felt irresponsible … Continue reading New Acquisitions: Hoplite-Style Disease Control (March 17, 2020)
This post is now available in audio format here. Hey guys, this is just a really quick post to address a question I've seen lurking around thinking about my previous post on the logistics of the loot-train battle. No pictures today, just some quick text on the topic. A lot of readers were throwing up … Continue reading New Acquisitions: How Fast Do Armies Move?
This short essay is responding to a (mis)characterization made - in passing, perhaps, but unchallenged - about the sort of people in the early Christian Church in the context of a high profile political discussion between two notable thinkers on the right, David French (writes for NRO) and Sohrab Ahmari (writes for Catholic Herald/NYPost) (moderated … Continue reading New Acquisitions: Class, Status and the Early Church
This series is now available in an audio format; the entire playlist can be listened to here. The following is the third part of a three part series where we look at the question "how medieval is Game of Thrones?" and - if not the Middle Ages - what period of European history does Game … Continue reading New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part III
This series is now available in an audio format; the entire playlist can be listened to here. This is the second post in a three-part series where we look at the question "how accurate is Game of Thrones to the European Middle Ages" - and if not the Middle Ages, what periods of history does … Continue reading New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part II
This series is now available in an audio format; the entire playlist can be listened to here. The following post is the first part of a three part series where we look at the question "how medieval is Game of Thrones?" and - if not the European Middle Ages - what period of history does … Continue reading New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part I
Fair warning: this post will contain spoilers for all of Game of Thrones and likely for all of A Song of Ice and Fire (assuming they share an ending). Proceed at your own risk. This post is now available in audio format here. So the Game of Thrones is supposedly over, with the major Lords … Continue reading New Acquisitions: Elective Monarchy and the Future of Westeros