A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This is the first part of a planned five-part series (I, II, III, IV, V) covering some of the basics of fortifications, from city walls to castles and field fortifications! We are going to discuss what fortifications were for and how their design changed in response both to different strategic and operational conditions and also … Continue reading Collections: Fortification, Part I: The Besieger’s Playbook
Hey all! This week is going to be a gap week; I have quite a bit of teaching related work along with several projects all coming together at once and something had to give. With luck, next week we'll start a series on the principles of fortifications. In the meantime, of course, I wouldn't leave … Continue reading Gap Week: October 22
Fireside this week! We're in that mid-semester crunch time with students turning in papers and exams which need grading, but fortunately Ollie is getting into the fall season: The pumpkin spice cat-toy was a gift from a friend. For this week's musing, I want to discuss in a fairly brief way, my views of 'megahistory' … Continue reading Fireside Friday: October 15, 2021
This week we're going to break from our normal fare and take a bit of a lark. I thought I ought to substantiate the nearly endless shade towards Luigi Cadorna, Italian Army Chief of Staff from 1914-1917 (though I realize after writing this that what I actually ought to have done is just told the … Continue reading Collections: Luigi Cadorna Was The Worst
Graduate school application season is upon us and so I wanted to take this as an opportunity to talk about it. Every year, I talk with undergraduate students who are considering pursuing a graduate degree in the humanities, who mostly come to me because they know that my graduate school experience was relatively more recent … Continue reading Collections: So You Want To Go To Grad School (in the Academic Humanities)?