Little Venice, London

Easy walking distance from the hotel (near Paddington Station) and even more interesting than this picture...

Guess what, again

From an illustration to a Foreign Policy article on "strong horses," what must be a buzkashi mat...

News from Iran

Sitting in a London hotel I read The Fear Factor: a piece in the Independent on a profoundly divided socie...

I'm off!

If things work out and the volcano don't rise, I'll be flying today to the UK for another Cornish walking holiday. Wish us safe travel and good weather, and no inconvenient vulcanism.In the meantime I have left a few posts timed for various points in the next two weeks. I've...

Destruction of sites associated with early Islam

Brad DeLong suggests we have a look at this Wikipedia article, which gives a hint of the many divisions among Muslims, even on what would seem to be really important issues. It also says something about the unusual position of Saudi Arabia and its official Wahhabi form of Isl...

Breaking news for once -- Canadian government (can be held) in contempt of Parliament

Update: Title changed to reflect the somewhat ambiguous ruling of Speaker Milliken.As per the ruling of the Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, who gives the Government (the PM, his cabinet, and the Conservative caucus) and Parliament (the other parties in the Commons) two weeks to solve their conflict. And then? Doesn't exactly say!Rough(?) quote from Milliken via the...

Ship report: Quebecois

Ships have been moving on the river for quite a while, but I'm seldom in the right place to see them, and sometimes I can't read their names. A few days ago, however, I caught this one -- Quebeco...

Unleashed upon a waiting world -- Carnivalesque!

Bloggers with a particular interest in ancient, medieval or early modern history occasionally get together at the grand carnival called Carnivalesque. A carnival is one of those "Internet traditions" you sometimes hear about. Some hapless volunteer is dragooned into looking over recent contributions by her or his peers, and choosing the ones to recommend to everybody else. Carnivalesque...

The comparative present

Thanks to Brad DeLong, from whom many good things come, I have just been alerted to the existence of the publication called Business Insider, which seems to have a real predilection for charts and lists illustrating current trends. This kind of thing can be either very useful or very deceptive, but I love it, even if a given example doesn't hold up very well under strict examination....

Applying a classic political idea to a current controversy

Every so often on the Internet, someone uses a well-known historical incident or classic argument well enough to shed light on what was interesting about the original situation or controversy, better perhaps (perhaps!?) than the usual textbook explanation. Or a blog post will open up a subject worthy of wider thought (again).Thus in a frankly partisan but hardly outrageous piece...

Dead Kennedys’ Plastic Surgery Disasters and Christian-Muslim relations in Early Medieval Spain

If you are one of those people who comes here looking for insights into obscure medieval topics, I am afraid I've got nothing for you today -- except, of course, something from Jonathan Jarrett, who is trying to interpret a ninth-century theological treatise written in Muslim -ruled...

Madison Square Park, New York, c. 1900

From the blog Ephemeral New York. Check it out for images and stories.Painting "After the Rain" by Paul Cornoyer. Click to see a much larger versi...

Coffee shops: Iran's aboveground underground

Trying to find some psychic elbowroom in Tehran's 'Islands Of Forgetfulness:' While making an espresso Mehrdad [the shop owner] continues: “The present culture of drinking coffee came from university students wanting to stay up for exams, although drinking Turkish coffee was not uncommon in households, especially if it was followed by fortune telling.”I hear a giggling sound from...

The (American) Middle East Peace Religion

This Foreign Policy article by Aaron David Miller is about official American priorities, policies and assumptions. These are important things to know about, but not to be mistaken for an overall analysis. Still, some readers may find this useful. I liked it for illustrating how perspective changes over time, since I can remember every event mentioned here.An excerpt: On October...

Venus, Mercury and Luna

Several nights over Portsmouth, England, from Astronomy Picture of the D...

Student blog competition at Nipissing University

Nipissing University sponsored a student blog competition this past term, and the winners have just been announced. If you want to see life at NU from other perspectives, go here for links to the top thr...

That volcano's name

Jeff Sypeck illustrates the rather large distance between Old English (and its cognates in Old Norse) and English n...

Sabbatical score so far -- update 2

I have not updated my sabbatical score since early November. That's about the time a lot of things went out the window. Nevertheless, I have got a lot done since November. You can add this to the earlier list.I have -- some time ago actually -- finished a first draft of my translation...

Medieval soldiers' profiles

Once upon a time the scholarly site The Soldier in Later Medieval England had a feature called Medieval Soldier of the Month. It's now called Soldier Profiles. Highly recommended, especially to students who take my 2010 fourth-year seminar on chivalry and medieval men-at-ar...

More volcano pictures

From the Big Pictu...

Guess what this is?

Thanks to the photographer; to Brad DeLong; and to Sean Garrison, who always knew we should fear volcano...

Source criticism and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Just part of a fun, continuing feature: Common Errors (in ancient histor...

Tips for amateur scholars

Do you have some serious intellectual interests but not much scholarly training? Do you live in the United States or Canada? Medieval History Geek has a few tips that may help you get at the good stuff...

Volcano photos via TalkingPointsMemo

More he...

Pattern welding

For all you Viking sword fans, Darrell Markewitz at Hammered Out Bits explains the mythology and the reality of the pattern-welded blade. Lots more down-to-earth metalworking lore where that came from!Image: 205 layers of twisted and hammered iron. DM sez: "Expect to see some...

Reflections on an Icelandic volcano

Since I am scheduled to go to Britain at the end of the month, I am watching the Icelandic volcano and the disruption of air travel with more than a little interest.I have gathered from news reports that this is not a Krakatoa; it's just special geological circumstances and the location...

Imperial profits/imperial losses

Keep this story (from McClatchy referred by Juan Cole) in mind when you are thinking about the dynamics of imperialism. It means different things to different people:For several years, Afghan police recruits under the tutelage of private U.S. government contractors couldn't understand why their marksmanship never improved. The answer became...

Libertarianism and feudalism

If you haven't had enough of theories and critiques of libertarianism, have fun with this.If you are a medievalist, there is some danger your head will explode. On the other hand, that danger may be only marginally greater than it is for anyone el...

Animals as witnesses in medieval English courts

Over at the medieval studies blog In the Middle, Karl Steel has a great post on the legal standing of animals in English courts. I will just quote one of his citations and send you off to see his learned commentary:If a ship is broken and no living soul escapes from it [de qua...

Total human population

There's a blog out there called Barking Up the Wrong Tree, and someone (Brad DeLong, probably) cited it for a chart showing How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?Here it is:Year Population Births per 1,000 Births Between Benchmarks 50,000 B.C. 2 - - 8000 B.C. 5,000,000 80...

American political debates and (world) history

I often have trouble restraining myself from commenting on US politics in this blog. The USA is a big, important country and no matter what definition of "world history" you adhere to, just ignoring it would wildly distort my commentary. On the other hand, we have so much American...

Natalie Zemon Davis will be at Nipissing University in September

Mark your calendars: the exact date is September 24.Davis is one of the most eminent historians in Canada, or even North America as a whole today. She is famous for taking difficult sources and putting flesh on them dry bones. Perhaps her most well-known project was interpreting...

Orion nebula as it appears in the infrared

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

Two telling reports from Inside Iraq

Inside Iraq is a blog written by Iraqi employees of the fine American news service, McClatchy.Here are two recent and telling posts:Seven Years after ....Occupation or Liberation??Raid and Sea...

I am reminded

I have lived in Ontario's Near North for almost 20 years, but you only have to be away from it for a little while to forget how different it is from the places where most people live.My stay in SW Ontario has been in a merely medium-sized city, in a pretty quiet neighborhood, and...

The future of the past of anthropology

Or was it the other way around?Yesterday I crossed the Detroit River to see Stephen Christomalis talk about issues in anthropology raised by his recent book, Numerical Notation: A Comparative History. The talk was mainly before colleagues and students of his department At Wayne...

NGC 602 near the Smaller Magellanic Cloud

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

Oligarchy, democracy, and conciliar government

Jonathan Jarrett read this earlier post, suggesting that he go to Phil Paine's site and read these posts, and did so. He left a comment here and Phil responded here as well. I thought this conversation good enough to promote all the comments. And here they are:Jonathan Jarrett said:I...

You just never know how things are going to go

When I was a kid growing up in Ohio, I was a big fan of American history. (I know you are astonished by this.) I loved mastering the basic facts of history, what are often inaccurately called trivia. Knowing all the states, all the capitals, all the presidents, I loved it. Knowing...

Another treat from Phil Paine

It's only appropriate that my first substantial post in the renamed blog should be about Phil Paine. I have known Phil about as long as I've known anybody and we've always shared a great enthusiasm for a rather expansive view of history. We have bounced many an idea off the other,...