Israel's 10 worst errors of the decade

Can you name them? A columnist at Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, will give you a ha...

NGC 7293

The Helix Nebula and its clouds of glowing dust. Thanks to Astronomy Picture of the D...

More than a little familiar?

Has it ever occurred to anyone else that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei looks like Obi-Wan Kenobi with a longer beard and a black turb...

A medieval murder mystery begging to be written

It has been my experience that many medieval murder mysteries are set in the 14th century, often with the plague in the background. This makes them hardly medieval by my standards, but let that go. What you actually may be interested in is a free plot, which I found lurking on my...

Professor Ali Ansari explains the religious backgroun of the Iranian situation

From the Times Online:Ancient power struggle has relevance for today’s IranProfessor Ali Ansari: AnalysisAshura, the tenth day of the month of Moharram in the Muslim calendar, is a day replete with symbolism for much of the world’s Shia community. In Iran, in the run-up to the Islamic...

Big deal in Iran

From Juan Cole's Informed Comment:The BBC is reporting that clashes are continuing into Monday morning between protesters and the regime security forces in Tehran and perhaps other cities, marking the first decisive failure of the basij paramilitary to control the streets by early morning of the day of a big demonstration. The number of protesters allegedly killed by security men...

Jeff Burke as Black Santa: a phenom

It's been a mixed bag of a holiday for my family, but this holiday blog post helped push my mood towards the good side.Jeff Burke is a friend of mine whom I not only like but have always respected as an original. His steadiest musical gig is as a busker in the Toronto subway system. He's now popped up in a TTC Busker Profile at BlogTO. I must congratulate interviewer Jennifer...

Gloria in excelsis!

Thanks to Astronomy Picture of the D...

Carnivalesque #57

A fine collection of recent posts from Ancient and Medieval blogs, collected at Zenobia: Empress of the East. Re...

The end of American exceptionalism

Mark LeVine says:The awarding of the Peace Prize to Obama reads like a desperate attempt to resuscitate the discredited idea of a "Great Man" of history ushering in a new era. It is an understandable fantasy, given the magnitude of the problems the world confronts. But it distracts from the reality that it will be movements from below, however imperfect and irrational they can...

Jean Flori's site

I became aware this week that the distinguished French historian of chivalry, Jean Flori, has a website. I am sure that I am not the only person around here who might be interested in this news. Here's the li...

An old monastery serves as a window into Iraq's past

Some American soldiers learn a bit about the complexities of Iraq's religious history.As historic sites in Iraq go, St. Elijah’s has little of the significance of the ruins of the great Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations, all endangered by decay and looting. The ruins...

Outbreak of the rule of law in Pakistan?

So argues Juan Cole:The US punditocracy has never understood that the central political narrative of Pakistan in the past 2 and a half years has been the restoration of the rule of law (in the form of the Supreme Court chief justice and then the rest of the SC) and the ending of the Musharraf military dictatorship in favor of a return of the major political parties.That twin project...

Roy Prol's gift to the rest of us.

Thanks, Roy!And thanks to Melinda for the referr...

John Keane, The Life and Death of Democracy

Well, I finally finished the big new history of democracy I picked up a while ago. Here's my review, exclusive to this site.Uneven but provocative A review of John Keane, The Life and Death of Democracy John Keane ends his massive history of democracy with a chapter called New...

NGC 4921

From the Hubble Advent Calendar, 2009. Of course, you should click on this to see the much bigger version, or go to the Big Picture site. This is for December ...

Richard W. Kaeuper, Holy Warriors: the Religious Ideology of Chivalry

Here is what I wrote about Richard Kaeuper's Holy Warriors for the online Medieval Review, a valuable electronic source for up-to-date reviews. It's free and sends the reviews right to your mailbox, and because it is electronic it allows and encourages reviewers to say more than they could in a print review. Here's where you can find subscription information, and here's where...

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

That was the answer to a quiz question on CBC Radio One's comedy show The Debaters this morning. It is the title of the Philip K. Dick novel that was the inspiration for Bladerunner.I read the Dick book in a fresh hardback copy right out of the public library in 1967. I wonder...

"Security contracting"

The official US military establishment, large and expensive as it is, has a substantial shadow, organizations like the former Blackwater. If you don't think these guys have political influence, which exists beyond the rather shaky limitations of constitutional government -- think...

Dr. Michael Cramer's book, "Medieval Fantasy as Performance"

Readers of this blog who have a serious interest in popular historical re-enactment and re-creation, the history of roleplaying, or the SCA might be interested in this note from Michael Cramer. I've seen an earlier version of this work and it is worth your consideration.This is...

The Onion throws down the gauntlet to real historians

On some level you have to love this:Following 1,000 years of cultural decline and societal collapse known as the Dark Ages, the 15th century brought forth the Renaissance, an unprecedented resurgence in learning and the arts, which four or five guys pretty much just strapped onto their backs and carried the whole way. "Our research indicates that da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare,...

Rare but possible...

...a good time in Iraq, boating on the Tigris. From At War in the New York Tim...

Syme's Roman Revolution

David Meadows provided this link to a new review of a 70-year-old classic: Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution. I read this as background material early in my teaching career, because people I respected had vaguely referred to it as a classic. And it was indeed a great book, one...

Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820

British History Online has webbed a searchable version of this reference work, for serious research or serious fun.Image: Market Hill in St. Edmundsbury, 17...

No normalcy in Iran, either

Not even the generation-long "revolutionary" normalcy of the Islamic Republic.From the Guardian, a sample of person-in-the-street commentary:Meshkat Nourahmadi, 45, nurse"I have seen patients with bullets in their chests, bullets in their legs, bullets in their heads. Everybody is talking about the violence, whether you are at work, in a taxi or at a family gathering. Something...

Anyone read this book?

I am quite curious about Antony Adolf's Peace: A World History. Have any of you read th...

NGC 6302

From the Big Picture Hubble Telescope Advent Calend...

"Crazy stuff" in history

Apocalyptic belief, belief in a revelation of the end of time, usually a revelation that the end of time is just around the corner, probably qualifies for most people as "crazy stuff." Something suitable for more Terminator sequels, a graphic novel, or a heavy metal album. There...

Obama's Nobel Speech and Just War theory

Matthew Gabriele at Virginia Tech, who knows a thing or two about Crusading ideology, has a great analysis of Obama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech:It's a fascinating speech in many ways. Agree or disagree on its merits, it's a learned speech -- one that understands its subject and that subject's history. All in all, it's a speech that some might say is positively medieval. ...

The past and future of Iraq

From the New York Times blog At War. Among other things, this deeply personal account shows why it will be a very long time before Iraq will be a "normal country:" !-- — Updated: 2:44 pm --> ‘I Have No Living Friends in Iraq Now’ by RIYADH MOHAMMED In most parts of the world, the end of the year is a time to reminisce about the best of the past and look...

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine

I am fascinated by early 19th-century technological breakthroughs, so I was really pleased to be referred to this NPR piece on the Babbage Difference Engine, which includes audio, text, photo slideshow, and video. Here's an excerpt:Charles Babbage, the man whom many consider to...

Juan Cole explains the limitations of the US media

Discussing coverage of yesterday's coordinated bombings in Baghdad, he makes this worthwhile point:Aljazeera notes that some US media outlets did not bother to cover these attacks in Iraq, and wonders if the story will return. I think the answer depends on the journalistic integrity of the outlet. For many, the answer will be no. Many US media are nationalist media, and cover stories...

The dangers of academic history

Sometimes it is amazingly inaccurate. Sometimes it is amazingly corrupt in its values. I am currently reading about government in ancient India, in particular the views of Kautilya (a kind of Machiavelli figure from the third century BCE). The book I am reading, which I will...

Just seen on the Detroit River, moving downstream

The Federal Hunt...

Scary Santa Claus and the Master of Souls

The New York Times covers a celebration of something-or-other in Baghdad.Image: Read all about ...

Comet McNaught over Australia, 2007

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

Scholars, beware!

Academics young and old are laughing with various degrees of heartiness at this Simpsons cl...

Re-creation and the Olympic torch -- from The Big Picture

Top: Priestesses at Olympia light the torch.Then: Vikings keep it burning at L'Anse aux Meadows.Too cool.More here. Or click on the pi...

Squires or esquires?

Here is an experiment in polling your potential audience, expert and amateur.I am currently writing a book on 14th century military affairs. I talk a lot about "squires" or "esquires." I am not sure which word to use.The early 14th century was a period when "squire/esquire" went...

Re-creating a lost art on Facebook

A long time ago, not quite so far back as Plato's time, but before Google, there was a particular kind of conversation that intelligent people would enter into. They would be sitting around drinking coffee or beer, at a party or at work, and stumble onto some interesting subject....

"...the Premier took the Prime Minister to the woodshed."

Not a good sign (as told by the Globe and Mail):In an unprecedented diplomatic breach, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao publicly upbraided Prime Minister Stephen Harper today for failing to visit China sooner. “This is your first visit to China and this is the first meeting between the...

NGC 2818

Click on the pic, from this year's Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calend...

Foreign forces in Afghanistan

Here's a map from the BBC that would be far more useful if it didn't divide foreign troops into only two groups -- US and NATO -- which means for instance that we can't see where Canadians are or were (they've been reassigned). Even so, it is good to ha...