Teaching Paradox: Hearts of Iron IV, Part IIIb: The Opposite of Love

This is the second half of the third part (I, II IIIa) of our long-delayed series looking at the theory of history advanced by Paradox Interactive's Hearts of Iron IV, one of the most popular strategy games today. This part (both halves together) is fundamentally about politics and policy and the implications that HoI4's choices … Continue reading Teaching Paradox: Hearts of Iron IV, Part IIIb: The Opposite of Love →

Teaching Paradox: Hearts of Iron IV, Part II: Divisions, Designers and Doctrines

This is the second part (I) of our long-delayed series looking at Hearts of Iron IV, Paradox Interactive's World War II grand strategy game and also one of the most popular strategy games currently on the market. Last week, we looked at how HoI4 simulates combat, particularly its focus on operations (rather than tactics or, … Continue reading Teaching Paradox: Hearts of Iron IV, Part II: Divisions, Designers and Doctrines →

Teaching Paradox: Hearts of Iron IV, Part I: Operational Art

This week, at long last, we begin our long-delayed but always expected something that we blog for: the Hearts of Iron IV Teaching Paradox series! This has been a long requested series that I put off for a long time because I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to tackle it. But my thoughts here … Continue reading Teaching Paradox: Hearts of Iron IV, Part I: Operational Art →

Michael Taylor on The Development of the M1 Garand and its Implications

This week, Michael Taylor, Associate Professor of History at SUNY Albany, returns to offer an interesting argument about the longterm impact of the M1 Garand, the US army's extremely successful World War II and Korean era battle rifle, introduced in 1936. A fantastically successful design, Taylor argues here that it cast a baleful shadow over … Continue reading Michael Taylor on The Development of the M1 Garand and its Implications →