A look at history and popular culture
This is the third part of our [I, II, I don't know, a few more?] part series looking at Rings of Power's Siege of Eregion from a military history perspective. Last week, we discussed the remarkably bad siege preparation of both sides: Adar's complete lack of a fortified siege camp and Eregion's complete lack of … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Eregion, Part III: What Catapults?
For this week, I want to take a step back (we'll be back to our series on Rings of Power next week!) and talk about the craft of history: we've talked about "How Your History Gets Made" from the perspective of the different people who do it - research historians, public historians, educators and so … Continue reading Collections: What Do Historians Do?
This is the second part of our [your guess is as good as mine] part series looking at the Siege of Eregion from the second season of Amazon's Rings of Power. Last week, we saw how the logistics of this sequence absolutely do not work: Adar's army has to cover an absurd amount of territory … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Eregion, Part II: What Siege Camp?
This is the first part of our [I don't know; a few?] part series looking at the Siege of Eregion sequence from the second season of Amazon's Rings of Power and what we can learn by pointing out its missteps. And I'm not going to bury the lede here: this entire sequence is a mess. … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Eregion, Part I: What Logistics?
Hey folks! Happy Valentine's Day. Fireside this week and then hopefully next week we'll start into our look at the Siege of Eregion in Season 2 of Rings of Power and also the larger Tolkien legendarium. I confess, watching the show, my suspension of disbelief fell much faster than the city did. But in the … Continue reading Fireside Friday, February 14, 2025 (On Grant Funding)
This week we're going to have a bit of fun looking at some of the interesting armor choices for the recent Dragon Age: The Veilguard. In a way, this is an extension of the post on "The Problem with Sci-Fi Body Armor," because I think Veilguard provides a pretty exceptional example of visual character-design armor … Continue reading Collections: The Strange Armor of Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Last time, we started our retrospective on the Gracchi looking at the elder brother Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and his term as tribune of the plebs in 133 BCE; this week, we'll wrap up this look by discussing Tiberius' younger brother Gaius Sempronius Gracchus and his terms as tribune of the plebs in 123 and 122 … Continue reading Collections: On the Gracchi, Part II: Gaius Gracchus
Hey, folks. As much as I hate doing it, I have to pull a 'gap week' this week, as the second part of the Gracchi series (on the younger brother, Gaius Gracchus) isn't done yet and I have some academic travel that I need to prepare for which is going to demand most of my … Continue reading Gap Week (January 24, 2025)
This week, we're going to talk a bit about the brothers Tiberius (trib. 133) and Gaius (trib. 123-2) Gracchus, the famous Roman reformers of the late second century. There's actually a fair bit to say about both of them, so we're going to split this treatment over two weeks, talking about Tiberius this week and … Continue reading Collections: On the Gracchi, Part I: Tiberius Gracchus
Hey folks, Fireside this week! I'm currently working on a post "On the Gracchi" taking a somewhat darker look at everyone's favorite Roman reformers (though hardly the same black takedowns Alexander and Cleopatra got) , which will hopefully be ready for next week. Trustworthy Librarian Ollie helping me work on my book sorting solution, also … Continue reading Fireside Friday, January 10, 2025