Peace at last -- officially speaking

Thanks to Paul Halsall and the Telegraph:The First World War will officially end on Sunday, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies. The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another. Germany was forced to...

Afghanada

CBC Radio has been broadcasting a series called Afghanada for about four years now.  It concerns the experiences of a Canadian forces section  fighting in the vicinity of Kandahar.  In all that time  I have caught very few episodes.  But today I was driving...

A forgotten slavery

The galleys, evoked by Dr. Beachcombing.Image:  Spanish galleys fighting the Dutch, 1602....

First assignment in Islamic Civilization, HIST 3805: countries already claimed

Countries already claimed (as of 7/10)Algeria, Bosnia, Canada,Chad,China, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE, UK, USA, Uzbekistan,  Ye...

Stephen Colbert, step aside for the Jihadi Gangster

Times may be tough in Afghanistan, but they've got comedians.  If this is comedy....

Hope?

For a story about hope in America, this is extraordinarily discouraging:Mr. Fetterman’s solace is that Braddock has likely fallen as far as it can: the town’s only remaining large employer, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, closed its hospital here earlier this year, taking more than 600 jobs with it. (One woman noted sourly that UPMC even yanked its shrubbery out...

A friend suggests the Proclaimers

Why n...

Research tips for students in HIST 3805 -- Report on an Islamic country

Some tips as to how to research your report on an Islamic country.The purpose of your report is to inform you and your readers on the basic social, economic, and political facts about a given country with an Islamic past or present. To do this assignment well, you have to become well informed on your chosen country, and present those basic facts in a comprehensible way to your...

The 10th century nun diet

A lot of intelligent people know more about diet and nutrition than I do, so I will merely comment on the following information from Jonathan Jarrett's blog.  It seems there is a forged charter that gives the total amount of food supposedly consumed by nuns in  a monastery...

Sand dune and spring temple in China

And a flood for good measu...

Dr. Beachcombing reflects on supercentenarians in Roman imperial times

So good:How reliable are these Roman figures? Well the census in question will have been made in good faith. Whether it was answered in good faith is, of course, though another question. Yes, each respondent took an oath and was expected to give age, residence, name of father or patron and a valuation of their property. But given the teeth of the Imperium a Roman Beachcombing would...

Opuscula -- an interesting experiment in scholarly publishing

My colleague Mark Crane have offices across the hall from each other and we sometimes talk face to face and voice to voice (!) .  Sometimes we talk about the present and future of scholarly publishing.  So today Mark crossed the hall and told me about the following project:Opuscula: Short Texts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance is a peer-reviewed, on-line journal/text...

Jethro Tull's "The Clasp," again

I have posted this song before, but I don't care.  Fifteenth century outfits, flute, tall ships, battle horses, the synthetic chiefs of history.  Truth spea...

More perspective -- and compassion -- needed

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Compassion, understanding, and history

Ta-Nehisi Coates (above) works towards  understanding the slave holders and  turns to compassion to do so: I've been quoting quite a bit from Drew Gilpin Faust's Mothers Of Invention, a history of women in slaveholding families during the Civil War... For an African-American...

xkcd hits it right out of the park on the "Inside Joke"

...

Natalie Zemon Davis!

The Department of History welcomes Professor Natalie Zemon Davis to campus on Friday, September 24, to speak in F210 (the Fedeli Room) at 5 p.m. Professor Davis' talk is titled Decentering History: Local Storytelling and Cultural Crossing in a Global World. Speaking partly...

Lost again!

Every time I go on sabbatical, some major changes are made to the university complex I work in.  This time, a whole new research and office wing was added and the third floor of A wing was connected to the third floor of  H wing.  Result: when trying to return from my first graduate seminar meeting, I got completely and absolutely lost.  I know more or less ...

In LL Pegasi

Thanks to Astronomy Picture of the D...

Two Americas on September 11, 2010

Anyone who reads this blog is probably aware of the outburst of Islamophobia in the USA recently, with intemperate denunciations of plans to build a Muslim community center a few blocks from the WTC site in Manhattan, threats to burn the Quran (exactly why I am not sure) and rabble-rousing...

Original mind at work

Anyone can burn a book, or threaten to.  How many can write stuff this go...

You are in danger

Why Pakistan's floods have been ignored, and why it endangers your security (yes, Canadians too).   Juan Cole at TomDispatch:Still, the submerging of a fifth of a country the size of Pakistan is -- or at least should be -- a dramatic global event and even small sums,...

Good-bye to dreams of uniqueness

For some time now, I have been thinking that the Internet is a great eroder of that sense of uniqueness that many of us have been attached to.   I have a rather odd last name, and I have never met anyone named Muhlberger who was not related to me. My father, who lived until his mid-80s, never did either. But now, thanks to the Internet, I know that there are a fair number...

Richard Kaeuper on Chivalry Today

Richard Kaeuper is one of the most influential writers on chivalry working today;  Chivalry Today is a site devoted to the study of chivalry's history and current relevance.    CT has a long list of free podcasts including an excellent interview with Kaeuper. ...

An American in Baghdad

I spend a lot of time including links and quotations to material that will give my students, one of my most important audiences, some idea of what is happening in the Middle East, and what people who live there think. But of course, I am probably wrong to assume that Canadian readers...

Some -- a little -- maybe -- better news from Iraq, thanks to McClatchy and Christian Science Monitor

Gold earrings made for an Assyrian queen, a sacred 4,000-year-old statue and 540 other looted pieces of Iraq's ancient history went on display in Iraq on Tuesday in what was billed as a triumph of justice and international cooperation. "This is a very happy day -- we...

What Iraqis think of the pullout

I am indebted to the Iraqi journalists who report for McClatchy, an American news service, from Baghdad. In recent days they have been interviewing a number of their fellow citizens about the significance of the American pullout.  Here is a part of one of those interviews, by Sahar IIS:Widad Hameed – retired high school teacher - over 70 - proud grandmother of seven:(Are the...

A medieval photograph?

Pope Pius XII and the Romans, 1944:Here is what Dr. Beachcombing sees:Pius who had a slightly messianic streak at times, stands before the crowd like a crucified Christ dressed in beatific white. Pius’s face (perhaps fortunately for the effect) is not visible, but watch the Romans...

Notes and pictures from L'anse aux Meadows, August 2010

Darrell Markewitz, the leader of the DARC Reenactment last month at L'Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland -- a re-creation of activities at the Vinland Viking landing site now commemorated by a national historical park -- Darrell, I say, has posted pictures and notes at his...

The price of imperial chest-thumping war

The Hill's Congress Blog reports on the Afghanistan Study Group's plea for the US to change course in Afghanistan, beginning the argument with these figures:At eight years and counting, the U.S. war in Afghanistan is now the longest in our history, surpassing both Vietnam and the Soviet Union’s own extended military campaign there. With the surge, it will cost the U.S. taxpayer...

Two views of grad school

Two recent posts talk about the graduate school experience.Tanya Roth, a military historian, talks about non-academic activities that have kept her fit and sharp:One of the accomplishments of the past two years that I’m most proud of – aside from my dissertation progress – is my...

Ponzi scheme government collapsing in Kabul?

That's what Juan Cole thin...

Baron's Howe -- an invitation

If any readers are going to be in the North Bay area this weekend, please know that there will be a medieval re-creation event in Bonfield on my property.  It is free, but we ask that you make some attempt at medieval costume.   The main activities will be on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.If you need more information, contact me (today, Thursday and Friday). ...

The Fight Network features modern jousting

A very nice short video piece starring other friends of mi...

What some of my friends have been up to

Iron-making at that real Viking campsite in Newfoundland.Hammered Out Bits reproduces an article and this picture from the Northern Pen.  An excerpt:Donned in traditional viking attire, re-enactors from Ontario and site interpreters from Parks Canada spent a sweaty day’s ...