tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312990272011-04-24T05:00:29.824ZBlogging on the history of war.fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.comBlogger1771100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-5964642785652892532008-10-24T13:42:00.002Z2008-10-24T14:18:01.953Z

I'm finding this M.A. course enjoyable, but a bit overwhelming. There's always something needing to be done, and it's going to get worse before it gets better - rather like the economy, it seems. To my surprise, I'm finding my US History 1877-1920 seminars and my teaching assistant duties more stimulating than my two war-related courses. I do wonder, though, whether I've reached a high-water-mark

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-12581469237713959822008-09-28T00:38:00.003Z2008-09-28T00:41:05.583Z

The Canadian War Museum has unveiled an excellent set of web pages related to Canada's experience of the First World War. However, there's an absence on this page among the exhibits that begs a question - could they find nothing about opposition to conscription among French speakers?

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-64744138159563137082008-09-20T16:07:00.000Z2008-09-20T16:07:16.273Z

Mannie Gentile, who works at the Antietam battlefield park, assembled a diorama on his lawn depicting events that occurred in the fighting over Bloody Lane on 17 September 1862. He used unpainted toy soldiers, with some very detailed flags, and in between the photos taken at various stages of the project he has inserted excerpts from the Official Records or from other books about the American

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-28388082433742127602008-09-18T13:20:00.003Z2008-09-18T13:33:45.384Z

For a seminar today, I've had to read an article that appeared in The Historical Journal in 2007, 'The Current State of Military History', by Mark Moyar of the USMC University. Mostly it is a refutation of points made by the British military historian Jeremy Black, in his book Rethinking Military History. However, there's an interesting nugget about the American problems in fighting the war in

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-44570227196809773452008-09-15T12:19:00.002Z2008-09-15T12:28:29.170Z

This cropped up on my daily rounds. It's interesting that the blog's author regards the crimes against the 'Comfort Women' as having gone largely unacknowledged. I'm not sure I'd agree with that. However, traditional (and bestselling) military history often focuses too much on campaigns and not enough on the other aspects of war, and I can see how in that context one might sense it had gone

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-55920147454831079452008-09-15T11:55:00.003Z2008-09-15T12:19:24.285Z

Ian Buruma is a thoughtful writer, whom I used to read regularly in the New York Review of Books. He's written an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times on the 'lessons' of Munich. The role of the Munich Agreement in American political discourse is, of course, fascinating. Yet one rarely hears Europeans using its example, unless they are arguing about how their country should be supporting

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-85877855578947064552008-09-15T11:39:00.002Z2008-09-15T11:55:11.138Z

A site named the European Center for Military History has posted an after-action report of the 7th Armored Division (US) during the battle of St Vith, part of the Battle of the Bulge. If, like me, you have no experience of military operations yet are interested in how a modern battle is managed, you'll find little nuggets. For example, what do you think divisional HQ sent first to the

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-34624321117044251972008-09-10T17:36:00.002Z2008-09-10T18:01:04.965Z

In the news, we find assertions that the United States is secretly hunting opponents in the Global War on Terror in Iraq and assassinating them. Famed journalist Bob Woodward implies that there is some kind of technological trickery involved here, as his parallel is the Second World War's Manhattan Project. Well, time will eventually reveal whether his is the right parallel.In the mean time, we

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-82746533705789555032008-09-09T12:36:00.003Z2008-09-09T12:39:00.699Z

I've arrived in Waterloo, Ontario, and have settled into a small bachelor apartment as I begin my academic year at Wilfrid Laurier University. I hope the hiatus in postings on this blog will be at an end, but I still have to get into a routine, so although posting frequency may increase, it might remain erratic for a little longer.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-91223061720443791172008-08-28T15:05:00.003Z2008-08-28T15:24:23.685Z

Apologies to those visiting here in the hope of finding some new content for the past two months. I've had all sorts of problems, worst of all the double mastectomy that my wife has suffered. Thankfully she is on the mend, and all the cancer was excised so will not require further cancer treatment. I've also been preparing to go to Canada, to begin an MA in History, with an intent on focusing on

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-69295397308251865452008-07-07T10:56:00.003Z2008-07-07T11:22:08.554Z

Paul Kennedy's influential book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers came out in 1987 and captured the spirit of the age. As the Soviet Union crumbled, the cost to the United States of winning the Cold War would act as a millstone, and the gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) decline that affected Imperial Spain, Napoleonic France, and nautical Britain would claim, inexorably, another victim.Not

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-59894332733355411492008-07-01T09:17:00.002Z2008-07-01T09:20:56.321Z

Apologies for not being around for almost a month. I have been preoccupied with my impending move to Canada and also with another blogging project, not yet ready for public viewing, called De civitate sabermetricarum. I hope to resume posts here in the next day or two, addressing a key future issue for military history tangentially inspired by Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-11510553869255084192008-06-04T13:59:00.003Z2008-06-04T14:22:20.854Z

I've been reading the manuscript of a book about baseball managers by a friend of mine, due to be published by McFarland. It occurs to me that, with all the anxiety over the future of military history in the University, that there are some issues that relate to an historical examination of baseball in particular and sports in general that parallel what has happened over the decades with military

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-86029840507554708202008-05-23T12:31:00.003Z2008-05-23T18:42:32.595Z

One of the great tensions of the British war effort during the First World War was the struggle between "Easterners" and "Westerners" as to the overall strategic direction of the war. (You'll find one man's view of the struggle both during and after the war in this pdf.) The Germans more or less enforced the victory of the latter, through their success in the field over Russia, leading to a

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-16428473930198023492008-05-10T11:23:00.002Z2008-05-10T12:02:47.259Z

Here are a couple of links that I left unposted while working on my Nicholson Baker series. - The Duke of Wellington reportedly referred in 1809 to some troops of his being able to "terrify me". The fact is, the British Army in the 18th and 19th century, like most professional armies of the time, relied on recruits from the poorer sections of society, and probably with a higher number of

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-46980744971468163322008-05-08T14:05:00.002Z2008-05-08T15:30:41.556Z

It makes sense to end this long and tortuous exploration of the issues raised by the publication of Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke today, the 63d anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, because one would think, given the response to Baker's work, that the war had not ended.I like to think of Baker's work in the same way as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The GULAG Archipelago is

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-59706621666554767752008-05-06T12:59:00.000Z2008-05-06T13:56:49.297Z

The concept of a "Whig interpretation" of history is well established, but one could equally identify what might be called an Atlanticist Interpretation that is at work on the popular understanding of events leading up to the Second World War. Let us review some of the tenets of the Atlanticist Interpretation.(1) The Treaty of Versailles in 1919, ending the war between the Allies and Germany, was

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-58456684189261342752008-05-02T11:00:00.000Z2008-05-02T11:21:47.274Z

Reviewers (especially British ones) of Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke seem to have lost sight of an important fact. In 1938, London ruled over something like a quarter of the world. This wasn't any federal system, but more of a hodgepodge of regimes that had a direct relationship to the British monarchy. (Like the Trinity, the British monarchy is actually made up of multiple persons, in this case

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-89912230592529470212008-05-01T09:06:00.002Z2008-05-01T13:03:46.980Z

Foreigners seeking to comment on American phenomena neglect the history of the United States at their peril. Much of the historical criticism about Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke seems oblivious of American history outside of the tropes presented by Hollywood and television. The "American History Highlight Show" usually leaps directly from the Revolution to the Civil War with, if we're lucky, a

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-72859726949080702092008-04-30T08:19:00.003Z2008-04-30T11:52:13.721Z

To understand Baker's own mentality in writing this book, one could do a lot worse than look at the interview he gave to the Barnes & Noble Review. It is long, and his interlocutor sympathetic - thus successfully teases out what was going on in Baker's head. (A shorter, but almost as effective alternative is here.)We find that, as I suggested yesterday, he does indeed attempt to present the story

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-65426742822440709162008-04-29T21:20:00.002Z2008-04-29T21:30:04.219Z

I've been meaning to mention that the J W Dafoe Foundation awarded its book prize to Tim Cook, a researcher at the Canadian War Museum, for his book At the Sharp End. It certainly seems a boom time in Canadian military history.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-86167848555274899832008-04-29T09:28:00.004Z2008-04-30T11:55:09.194Z

Nicholson Baker, a novelist, has written a book about the Second World War, Human Smoke. A significant clue as to the book's faults is found in this interview. Baker has produced a book largely based on his reading of newspapers. Not researching newspapers in a library, but actual copies of the papers themselves, which he acquired. Baker is also a novelist. The implications of these two facts, I

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-49468734994851682502008-04-28T12:33:00.002Z2008-04-28T12:52:47.652Z

I've been working my way through the twelve points in this article about the War in Iraq. The last three points aren't really amenable to the kind of historical approach I've limited myself to. However, when one looks at Iraq, the parallels with the 1970s conflict in the Lebanon are striking. A regime dominated by a minority has collapsed into civil war (Saddam + Sunnis = Lebanon's Christians;

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-6214363529712224492008-04-24T10:40:00.004Z2008-04-24T11:45:04.189Z

I'm working my way through the twelve points in this article, applying an historical perspective to the assertions made. (Click on the War in Iraq label to see the other blog entries in this series.)Points (7) and (8) are, if the Vietnam War is any guideline, related. If the U.S. intends to replace its troops on the ground with Iraqi troops, the American military has a tradition of using air

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-28370453222768999992008-04-24T08:43:00.002Z2008-04-24T10:16:10.824Z

Rob Citino, who has featured in this blog not so long ago, has had an address he gave to a meeting of the Society for Military History published on Mark Grimsley's blog. (It includes a link to an article he wrote about the current state of literature in military history.)Both the blog entry and the article are of interest, in part because they tell us about Citino's world view. In the article, he

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-26715841165257192872008-04-23T15:02:00.001Z2008-04-23T15:13:41.269Z

It seems historians can influence our decision-makers. It seems both President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur had the Civil War on their minds when they had their confrontation over whether to expand the Korean War.Hat-tip to Dmitri at Civil War Bookshelf.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-80177547428006067822008-04-23T09:40:00.004Z2008-04-24T11:46:18.857Z

I expect this to be a busy posting day, as there's loads of stuff that has caught my eye. Yesterday, I started looking at the list of reasons in this article for withdrawing from Iraq. I'm more interested in providing an historical perspective on its statements than in engaging with its polemical points. I got up to point (2) before I decided the entry was long enough for a blog. Point (3) raises

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-22825429184985730192008-04-22T09:02:00.004Z2008-04-22T10:14:19.451Z

The United States show little sign of being a country at war. (Not so Britain, which has turned into a national version of The Village in the cult TV show The Prisoner.) Security arrangements at the airports are by now familiarly strict, but travel on the bus or subway seems relaxed. (New York City bus drivers are extremely helpful, I should say. Bus is an altogether more comfortable experience

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-76997452959603295382008-04-21T12:08:00.002Z2008-04-21T12:39:50.199Z

I'm back from 10 days in the United States, plus a few more days of school holidays that made working from home rather difficult. Reading the Guardian newspaper's book review section over the weekend, I noted that Patrick Bishop's book was riding high in the paperback non-fiction best sellers. I've not read the book, so I can't comment directly. Britain's bombing of Germany during the Second

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-67482817439760694962008-04-05T09:21:00.002Z2008-04-05T09:34:25.801Z

U.S News & World Report, the American newsweekly, has an article about whether military history is in decline on American campuses. Ostensibly, the statistics show that this is indeed the case. However, life is always more complicated than bare statistics, and the article acknowledges this, so it's worth reading. I was touched by the quote at the end of the article, from Robert Citino, professor

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-60578623934192205382008-04-04T07:47:00.002Z2008-04-04T08:01:09.812Z

Somewhere, in one of the boxes containing my books packed away for the impending move, I have a reprinted U.S. Army manual that describes 1960s thinking about psychological warfare. The army has now issued a document about its strategy in the Internet age, which you can get on pdf from a link published here. (This is really old news. I have questions about why the site publishing this article has

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-76987448717604598802008-03-28T15:45:00.002Z2008-03-28T16:45:28.223Z

RealMilitaryFlix.com is a place to go to watch real films of soldiers in training or during operations. Beware, though, if you're at work. The video starts up automatically.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-9277358385843817252008-03-27T17:43:00.003Z2008-03-27T18:10:22.685Z

The Gallipoli campaign threw together men from Germany, France, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, among others, which suggests that tourists from them all might find a trip to the Dardanelles of interest. The growth of tourism in Turkey (which during my brief phase of employment in the tourism industry in 1982-4 amounted to 'small potatoes') means that people are more likely to want to

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-82977121524379695562008-03-26T14:22:00.002Z2008-03-26T14:49:02.768Z

A visitor to this blog, Charles, draws my attention to this article that appeared in The Times, written by Field Marshal Lord Bramall, even before I wrote my entry on Gough. The article can be placed in the "John Terraine School" of Western Front history, which is kind of what I grew up with. Terraine challenged the predominant view of Haig from when I was a boy which is basically that the

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-77756470376434098832008-03-26T14:03:00.002Z2008-03-26T14:20:06.991Z

A map, used in conjunction with a lecture, to describe the events of the American Civil War battle of Gettysburg, has become the subject of a minor controversy.My father and I made at least two visits to the battlefield, so there's a good possibility I've seen it. Even if I haven't, I can well imagine what it's like. The map will show the terrain contours and key buildings, and small electric

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-90397697677709842862008-03-17T17:05:00.003Z2008-03-18T14:50:27.819Z

Hmm, a month away. I've been involved in selling a house, which has meant going through my books, finding some to discard. While looking at some of them, I came across an account of General Sir Hubert Gough's activities on the first day of the German Operation Michael, March 21, 1918. It appeared in Martin Middlebrook's The Kaiser's Battle, published in 1978 by Allen Lane. Since we are so close

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-20442439668544651012008-02-18T16:38:00.003Z2008-02-18T18:09:30.894Z

Lieutenant-Colonel John Nagl, who wrote the U.S. Army's combat manual on counterinsurgency operations, appeared last week on All Things Considered, having become newsworthy through deciding to leave the Army. Nagl is the sort of guy whose books are embraced enthusiastically by any publisher. Last week's appearance wasn't the first on NPR this year. He appeared on Fresh Air last month. He's also

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-990000126606063542008-02-11T23:05:00.001Z2008-03-18T14:51:37.284Z

Some years ago I got a few people together to write some notes about what generals in ancient and medieval battles did. Partly it was inspired by John Keegan's book The Mask of Command. However, I was more interested in my own agenda, which was to figure out how a general spent his (or her, in those days) time during a battle. Of course, writing about the ancients means entering a difficult world

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-42169010751549070702008-02-07T17:10:00.000Z2008-02-07T17:40:51.527Z

Well, we've looked at the casualty rates of George Washington's battles, and those of the armies that faced him. Now, let's look at his greatest rival across the battlefield, General Sir William Howe.First, I'll do the battles, then some off-the-cuff analysis.Bunker Hill (1775) 36 percentLong Island (1776) 2 percentHarlem Heights (1776) 8 percentWhite Plains (1776) 2 percentFort Washington (

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-74933976365628269572008-02-06T22:30:00.000Z2008-02-06T22:35:43.279Z

Historian Brian McAllister Linn was on Book TV last weekend talking about how the United States Army has analysed the way it approaches its mission. He gave a talk describing the three schools of thought he identified in the army, focusing on the period between 1952 and 1962, when the army was coming to grips with its apparent marginalization in a world of Mutually-Assured Destruction. It's

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-45830827037841479772008-02-04T15:15:00.000Z2008-02-07T17:20:20.430Z

Having established some data about Washington's casualty rates in battle, one now needs to put some perspective on those figures by looking at his contemporaries. Let's start with his opponents in his battles.Long Island (1776) 2 percentHarlem Heights (1776) 1 percentTrenton (1776) 8 percentPrinceton (1777) 2 percentBrandywine (1777) 6 percentGermantown (1777) 4 percentMonmouth (1778

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-77914084168120891982008-01-29T09:45:00.000Z2008-01-29T10:18:09.528Z

Many baseball fans, largely thanks to the impact of Fantasy Baseball, have picked up the banner of sabermetrics, originally unfurled by Bill James back in the 1970s. For those of you who don't follow such dismal sciences, sabermetrics has been defined by Bill James as "the search for objective truth about baseball". In its original form, sabermetrics was used to answer questions that occurred to

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-76793228615075989822008-01-28T12:04:00.000Z2008-01-28T13:16:44.072Z

Ten days without a post, as I wrote my book for young readers on the American Revolution. However, I got some ideas for a series of posts, so perhaps it was worth it.Meanwhile, a scan of recent news revealed that Benito Mussolini's Italian Social Republic is to get its own museum. The Daily Telegraph of London based a short piece on press agency bulletins. Through the magic of Google translation,

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-1525057919073630592008-01-18T13:06:00.001Z2008-01-18T13:10:37.635Z

While working on my book, I came across this passage in Piers Mackesy's The War for America: 1775-1783. Mackesy's book takes a decidedly British point of view, and I can't help but hear a note of anguish at the lost opportunity in the aftermath of the Battle of Brandywine, in September 1777.A cavalry force properly proportioned to Howe's army and fit for duty might have prevented the enemy from

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-13026037892418410842008-01-09T11:48:00.000Z2008-01-09T12:11:20.979Z

The Tenth Military History Carnival went up at Walking the Berkshires earlier this week. (I missed the Ninth.) There's a theme to this one, as George MacDonald Fraser's death was announced during its preparation, so military historical fiction takes center stage. What caught my eye this time? A note about submersibles in the American Revolution, a military geography of the American Civil War, and

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-7514122673654462952008-01-08T14:39:00.000Z2008-01-08T14:53:20.245Z

To my delighted surprise, NPR ran an item on Morning Edition today about the effects of the Surge, and the debate in the armed forces over what is happening. If you've listened to Biddle's lecture, it's worth following it up with this. (Alternatively, listen to Biddle after hearing this to get more background.)The item mentioned a consequence of the US policy that I haven't mentioned, although I

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-16400041188092058882008-01-07T09:51:00.000Z2008-01-07T11:14:41.840Z

If you are at all interested in the U.S. war in Iraq during the last two or three years, and have an hour and a half to spare, go right now to view Stephen Biddle's lecture at the University of California Berkeley in November of last year. You will need to scroll down the list on the page I've linked to, in order to find Biddle's entry. (I clicked on the left-most of the three icons, but you

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-11702141698669745212008-01-05T12:18:00.000Z2008-01-05T12:46:35.401Z

It's very hard for digitally published books to be especially successful. Digital publishing offers an avenue for books that have problems with traditional publishers. These are, probably in order of importance - 1) Name recognition - Publishers have trouble marketing someone who has nothing to commend them, either in past experience (ex-soldier/sailor/airman in the case of books about war), or

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-57972220579864380672008-01-03T12:59:00.001Z2008-01-03T13:50:40.457Z

I've set up a couple of Google Alerts as part of writing my book on the American Revolution. Via this, I was informed that there is an art exhibit in Washington, DC, on the theme of Spanish support for the American Revolution. This is one of those episodes of a Latin American military history that needs to be made more prominent.Spain's participation in the war focused on retrieving the Gulf

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-2005055241674814232008-01-02T10:53:00.000Z2008-01-02T12:42:37.263Z

During the autumn, the Christmas present season, I started to keep an eye on the best-sellers in military history on various Amazon sites - the American, British, French and Canadian ones. It proved an interesting exercise, if only because it highlighted how different the markets are. The British list offered the greatest insight, if only because it captured what might be called the fundamental

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-29432426761580375012007-12-31T13:10:00.000Z2007-12-31T14:35:22.346Z

Over the holidays, watching an episode of The World At War being broadcast on on UKTV History, I was reminded of an incident in my publishing career from twenty years ago. I was working on what was my favorite of all my partwork projects ever, a flop called "Battlefield". Only three issues saw publication, but we got up to about eight or nine in some form of preparation. The idea behind

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-88682283289523936502007-12-28T22:08:00.000Z2007-12-28T23:16:53.329Z

I like to look at events from different angles, and yesterday's assassination of Benazir Bhutto made me think about assassination as a military operation. My memory cannot come up with a single assassination attempt sponsored by a government at war with its target prior to 1942 (with the possible exception of some events during the American Civil War). While those fighting a propaganda war may

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-28513682133825009142007-12-23T17:17:00.000Z2007-12-23T17:22:08.737Z

My silence has been imposed in part by my computers, all of which decided to give me headaches during the past ten days. (I've also been working on my other blog, a rather more primitive affair.) I managed to sort all my problems out myself, thanks to one of the two always being able to connect to the Internet, save for one day when my broadband connection went down for some reason. It's amazing

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-22777927414960899732007-12-01T12:17:00.001Z2007-12-01T13:26:45.482Z

An anonymous commentator on this blog post about John Mosier's old book The Myth of the Great War sent me back to the library to check out a copy. Mr Anonymous basically rehashes the criticisms deployed by what he describes as ‘The "BEF Party Line"…the John Terraine/Gary Sheffield school’. The key points he makes are(a) The book is riddled with serious errors.(b) ‘He can't seem to resist passing

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-28218236972419653822007-11-27T09:19:00.000Z2007-11-27T09:30:58.641Z

We've recently passed an important anniversary in the military history of South America, probably the most significant such event in all its history. It certainly is a top choice of Jared Diamond, whose book Guns, Germs & Steel is still popular on Amazon.com's military bestseller list. I write of the Capture of an Inca King at the Ambush at Cajamarca on 16 November 1532. (The word "Battle",

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-78490908416570376492007-11-23T10:00:00.000Z2007-11-23T11:50:04.396Z

I'd known about "British North America's" oblique involvement in the American Civil War since I was very young, thanks to some comic book history of the conflict that I was given when I was about 6 or 7 years old. Some of the panels covered Confederates scheming sabotage north of the border in the loyal states. Then, some years later, I discovered that Clement Vallandigham, the notorious

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-79208252949569626022007-11-23T09:36:00.000Z2007-11-23T09:39:43.889Z

I'm not at all surprised.Your Inner European is French!Smart and sophisticated.You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.Who's Your Inner European?Hat-tip to Chone.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-49206076129930819382007-11-19T17:27:00.000Z2007-11-19T18:42:56.399Z

Richmond P. Hobson, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, is not a name people of my generation can be expected to know, but it has been familiar to me since I was a little boy. For some reason, I've always been attracted to more obscure conflicts than the Big Three of the American Civil War, the First World War and the Second World War. One of my early favourites was the Spanish-American

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-43616964072448852512007-11-15T15:07:00.000Z2007-11-15T15:52:47.736Z

Today is the 100th birthday of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the German colonel who planted the bomb that nearly killed Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944. Von Stauffenberg (apologies if I spoil the end of Tom Cruise's next big film) was shot that night in Berlin, effectively on the orders of a general who wanted to conceal his own sympathies for the plotters.Von Stauffenberg's reputation remains

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-71036676341787961192007-11-14T13:27:00.000Z2007-11-14T13:42:19.559Z

The newest Military History Carnival is up at Gary Smailes' blog. It went up about a week ago. The Australian War Memorial item on pillboxes around Passchendaele 1917 is of considerable interest, if only for the accompanying photographs. The existence of such fortifications in the First World War tends to be forgotten in mainstream imagery. However, I'd also recommend the five-part series on

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-43745035028619277082007-11-13T14:53:00.001Z2007-11-13T16:36:40.986Z

Today is the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. The architect/designer, Maya Lin, expressed the view that the politics of the war had 'eclipsed' the sacrifice of those who fought it. Yet how often does the politics of a war eclipse the sacrifice of those who are fighting it? More frequently than we might think, perhaps.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-59199491046268228252007-11-08T22:35:00.000Z2007-11-08T23:18:10.079Z

Continuing a somewhat accidental Hispanic theme, I was watching the film Alatriste on DVD last night, when I was struck by the events of the battle of Rocroi portrayed there not quite fitting my admittedly sketchy memory of the action. A quick search to confirm my memory uncovered this detailed site about the Tercios, infantry units of the Spanish army of the 16th and 17th centuries. It includes

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-90811683872495067912007-11-07T17:48:00.000Z2007-11-07T18:41:13.748Z

The War of the Pacific is a little-known conflict in the English-speaking world. However, it made the headlines today when Chile returned 3,778 books to Peru, books that had been seized during the Chilean occupation of the capital Lima during the war. The books include the works of Homer, Bibles, and the 16th-century poet Garcilaso de la Vega. The comments to this 2006 blog entry reveals a list

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-22496684968139826102007-11-06T15:02:00.000Z2007-11-06T15:18:55.063Z

The weekend before last, the Catholic Church beatified 498 clergy killed during the Spanish Civil War for refusing to deny their. That this was a political act is proven as much by the headlines accompanying the news stories describing the occasion. Are you a liberal? Then you'll want to read this article, where the word martyrs appears in quotation marks in the headline. If you are an

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-33420548237356480342007-11-01T08:02:00.000Z2007-11-01T08:32:34.429Z

BBC History Magazine has devoted two articles to the Spitfire and the battle of Britain. They don't appear to have much online content, so you'll have to look in your local supplier if you want to have an idea of whether it is worth reading. Here's the article where I first came across the story. At this stage I don't know what to make of it. You'll find some discussion of the matter at this

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-73476980875739755272007-10-28T21:26:00.000Z2007-10-28T22:12:11.921Z

After missing my flight and gaining an extra day in beautiful northwestern Spain, I came home to London and did a little digging about a statue I spotted all too briefly in Gijón. We were visiting a friend, who took us to eat at one of those little places that locals know but never get in guidebooks. It turned out the statue was of Pelagius, or Pelayo, the first king of Asturias.I've tried to

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-50255107547217892462007-10-19T22:11:00.000Z2007-10-19T22:16:27.275Z

I missed the posting of the latest Military History Carnival, at Airminded. I've looked at some of the posts, but I've nothing to add to what you can find by going to Brett Holman's blog. I'm off to Spain for a few days, so I'll definitely be silent until next Thursday.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-51322289494099923062007-10-08T07:57:00.000Z2007-10-08T08:17:11.668Z

Two links that caught my eye during the past couple of weeks, today from what one might characterize as The Fringe of writing about war:-- The sometimes worrying preoccupation with what one might call the 'sensationalist' side of the occult long predates The X-Files. In this case, it's not the first time that I've seen a reference to the use of paranormal methods during the Cold War. I'm fairly

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-39193731784292279292007-10-05T08:08:00.000Z2007-10-05T08:22:27.608Z

With everybody quiet about what had happened in northern Syria, apart from the dropping of "fuel tanks", journalist-analysts were able to get into gear and engage in speculation. A Syrian writer produced an interesting article giving a wider background to Syrian-Israeli friction, and offered three scenarios, none of which has proven to be correct. (Avid readers of such columns should take heed.)

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-49024695526886660832007-10-04T08:02:00.000Z2007-10-04T08:18:45.712Z

Baseball playoffs, and my elder daughter's school experience, have been absorbing my spare time at the moment, but I have had a chance to look at this excellent blog entry about the western New York frontier during the American Revolution that appeared as part of the Military Carnival. The quote from Sherman appears the product of a mind of a man who has a prophet's sense of faith in the

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-38695792720040179622007-09-28T07:45:00.000Z2007-09-28T08:10:13.885Z

I've been looking at some of the blog entries presented in Military History Carnival VI. My favourite at the moment is a review of the book The Wages of Destruction found at A Fistful of Euros. A Fistful of Euros is not a military history blog, so it doesn't feature on my blogroll, and I hadn't been aware of it before. The review has certainly stimulated me to look for the book, and rather than

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-91842535627159117222007-09-27T08:05:00.000Z2007-09-27T08:13:39.850Z

Speculation did not exactly take off rapidly in the days after the alleged Israeli raid. A reference to "a mysterious strategic operation" was about as far as anyone cared to go. An article at the same time from the same source, perhaps was an attempt to draw out some more concrete details. Other wild speculation about other peculiar events could be found elsewhere.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-43446656089222246952007-09-26T07:48:00.000Z2007-09-26T07:59:16.656Z

It didn't take long for the diplomats to raise a sterner fuss over what the Syrians had initially tried to shrug off as a minor incident. The Russians weighed in quite heavily, as did Iran (in the same article). (Although, I must say Ha'aretz's sub-editor did work up the stress quotient inserting 'slammed' to characterize the Iranian response.) Syria, meanwhile, invited the United States to make

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-15103460685418617782007-09-25T07:52:00.000Z2007-09-26T07:59:47.738Z

The mysterious affair in Syria sent me back to my archive, where I found this article from Guardian Unlimited. It's very clear that the Syrians were doing all they could to avoid whatever happened becoming a significant international incident, at least straightaway. The official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted a military official as saying Israeli jets broke the sound barrier flying over northern

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-39517362511247086792007-09-21T07:55:00.000Z2007-09-21T08:09:30.656Z

I'd been saving a number of links for future posts, but the backlog has gotten such that I must deal with some more swiftly. So, here's some things that have caught my eye in the last two weeks.- To start on a personal note, my brother occasionally alludes to his US Navy experiences in the late 1960s, tracking Soviet submarines. This book and podcast offer a view that one US submarine sinking may

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-79845553812883393692007-09-20T13:16:00.000Z2007-09-20T13:23:33.620Z

A quote from an Op-Ed piece in Newsday, a suburban New York city paper, probably puts the American predicament in Iraq better in the wake of General Petraeus's comments better than anything else I have seen. When popular resistance to the incursion first appeared, one U.S. general was heard to say this was not what he and his troops had planned for. Indeed. None of our war plans envisioned

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-63762643111827919712007-09-18T21:29:00.000Z2007-09-18T22:03:29.121Z

I've allowed my comments on the Petraeus Report to slip to the backburner, so let me return to that theme.Historians all normally tackle a mass of inchoate facts that they must shape into narrative. General Petraeus basically had the same job in writing his report. It was very clear from his testimony to the House committee that he had constructed his narrative and stuck to it like a catechism.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-83850699664536839022007-09-18T08:00:00.000Z2007-09-18T08:17:24.947Z

I mark my 100th post by mentioning the existence of the Military History Carnival, which is having its sixth showinig. You'll find a very comprehensive overview of its contents at Armchair General. I'm somewhat surprised to find the Carnival leading off with continuing rumblings in the Military History blogosphere about why one should study military history. One could easily point that question

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-23563977235541799052007-09-17T21:27:00.000Z2007-09-17T21:35:42.226Z

Guerrilla wars are difficult to construct any kind of intelligible narrative. It helps to be mindful of the experience of war in the trenches on the Western Front during World War I. Although one focuses on the Big Push - with its traditional sequence of barrage, offensive, and counterattack - there are also both before and during the battle trench raids, quiet sectors, and individual sniping

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-73357871653056114562007-09-17T09:30:00.001Z2007-09-17T10:11:17.063Z

Columbus, Kentucky, has a park where you can see not only some guns deployed to block the navigation of the Mississippi, but also part of a chain erected across the river. The pictures also show how easy it was to control navigation on the Mississippi by observing from the heights. Interestingly, it appears the park was a product of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's WPA, a make-work scheme to inject

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-42762743501993953122007-09-16T19:57:00.000Z2007-09-16T20:02:47.196Z

I wrote back in May about bombsites in London. It seems I was premature in suggesting that they were out of out of the news. The History News Network has found a note saying they are causing problems for the 2012 London Olympics.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-29418057344016119222007-09-16T08:21:00.001Z2007-09-16T08:28:04.518Z

The Combined Arms Reference Library offers a variety of e-books on various aspects of military affairs. You can now search it with a customized search engine. It seems to work better if you use large subject areas rather than small ones, as the comparison of this one with that one reveals.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-6163746433127081392007-09-15T19:07:00.000Z2007-09-15T19:19:45.376Z

Listening to BBC Radio 4 this morning I heard someone talking about an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum of the work of Lee Miller, the Vogue photographer who accompanied US forces during the Liberation of Northwestern Europe in 1944-5. There is a selection of her war photographs on display at the site I've linked to. Notice the white camouflage worn by American troops in Alsace. One

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-20711926405002065652007-09-14T08:02:00.000Z2007-09-14T08:10:15.337Z

Japan's road to Pearl Harbor has interested me since someone got a hold of the hardback second volume of John Toland's The Rising Sun for me shortly after its first publication. It very rarely surfaces in the western world, although I did once see a Japanese movie that was a sort of drama-documentary about one aspect of it, the 2/26 Incident. (I should try to track that down for a post.)However,

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-15523812094681958992007-09-13T07:44:00.000Z2007-09-13T08:11:10.337Z

I've been watching the Petraeus Report hearings via C-Span's web site. For some reason it wasn't working on my PC last night, so I couldn't finish the Senate portion, but I have watched all of the Joint House committee hearings. I'll make some comments over the next few days about some of what was said.I'd like to start with something that bothered me about some of the House members. One or two

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-4159355055943892602007-09-11T20:34:00.000Z2007-09-11T20:36:45.843Z

I've had an article published in History Today, a monthly magazine that has been around a very long time. You can read it online here, or go out and buy a copy.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-77897598558341305082007-09-05T17:10:00.000Z2007-09-05T17:22:57.930Z

I only found out today that Charles Whiting, a prolific writer of 'trashy' novels and mass-market military history, in spite of being a trained academic, had died in July, while I was in the United States. There's a good memory of him by Steve Newman. Whiting was very much a product of his time. It's difficult to imagine today the amount of war books one could find in the 1970s, and every other

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-40794370813011455232007-09-05T13:09:00.000Z2007-09-05T13:24:17.842Z

The Colombian press is reporting the death in action of a guerrilla commander of the communist Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) named Tomás Medina Caracas, more familiarly known as 'El Negro Acacio'. (All FARC guerrilla leaders have these romantic noms de guerre, among them my personal favourite, El Tirofijo.) From the article (which is in Spanish) it appears that the site of

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-55106196000571265942007-09-04T08:09:00.000Z2007-09-04T08:20:00.459Z

This article is actually about the police finding it more expensive to buy bullets nowadays. It cites the 1 billion used by the U.S. Army in Iraq. However, I was interested in the costs cited, as they give us some clue as to how to make a profit in a war, thus explaining why for arms manufacturers, war is something desirable, which is a dangerous situation when government appears to be corrupt,

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-72357453225197261052007-09-03T12:38:00.000Z2007-09-03T13:20:13.273Z

Yesterday was my birthday. We're in the midst of anniversaries connected with the Second World War, including the invasion of Poland in 1939, the British declaration of war, and the signing of the treaty in Tokyo Harbour in 1945. However, I notice that today is the anniversary of the battle of Ain Jalut, fought between the Islamic military regime of Mameluke Egypt, and the invading Mongols. The

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-25213674543840739752007-08-29T20:25:00.000Z2007-08-29T21:25:12.677Z

The news is that the controversial Bomber Command panel at the Canadian War Museum is to be changed after a long campaign against it by the Bomber Command Association. I had planned to return to the subject, but my lethargy and events have made my original plans moot. Here's a quote from Cliff Chadderton, chairman of the National Council of Veterans' Associations, published in the Ottawa Citizen:

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-28983163576101791312007-08-26T12:50:00.000Z2007-08-26T13:12:39.265Z

A long article in The Guardian, a British newspaper that editorially positions itself on the liberal left, attempts to illustrate the thesis that Hollywood has been unable to tackle the War in Iraq until the 2006 Congressional elections gave a green light to release some nervously pessimistic films. The key passage appears over halfway through the article: Since the onset of war in Iraq, many

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-76701797166333419072007-08-20T13:00:00.000Z2007-08-20T13:36:23.211Z

Today is the 213th anniversary of the Battle of Fallen Timbers, part of a conflict between the United States and a confederacy of American Indians who lived in the Great Lakes region. My home town, Detroit, was still at that time occupied by the British, who exploited the opposition of the sovereign Indian peoples of the region, such as the Wyandot or the Shawnee, to accepting American control of

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-69338393364425396552007-08-14T12:39:00.000Z2007-08-14T12:59:02.371Z

The partwork The Elite effectively became the official publishing house of Falklands' War British officers during 1985-6. One of the more obscure (at that time) who emerged at this time was Hugh McManners, a Royal Marine who’d written a book entitled Falklands Commando about his experience in the conflict. (The editorial staff on The Elite valued this book quite highly for conveying the

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-5477843005843870432007-08-13T08:13:00.000Z2007-08-13T08:19:51.792Z

I've been away from my blog for quite a while during the summer. There were two causes, both related to my love for baseball. Mainly, I spent two weeks in the Midwest, combining a trip to the Society for American Baseball Research's annual meeting with a visit to my family in Michigan. You can see photographic evidence here (scroll down to the July 31 entry), taken during a game at new Busch

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-9611165099422612172007-06-16T10:14:00.000Z2007-06-16T10:39:01.384Z

For a brief time in 1986, I worked on a partwork that at the time was notorious in the UK, The Elite. However, I had been working in the publisher's offices for about two years before that, including the time of its launch in 1985. At this stage, the first wave of books about the Falkands War had already been released. The non-official "official" history, by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, had

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-83004804325600631032007-06-12T13:06:00.000Z2007-06-12T13:23:01.601Z

The Global Terrorism Database, funded by the American government, is kept by the University of Maryland. I'm adding it to my resources links on the right. Something like this would have been handy when I was in charge of an encyclopedia of terrorism, although maybe not as much as one might expect. Terrorism is a loaded word, and one must always bear in mind that terrorists believe they are

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-9009943227200020362007-06-07T07:08:00.000Z2007-06-07T07:38:36.340Z

If the Iranians had to attack American warships in the Gulf, they seem likely to go about it by swarming attacks using 20 or 30 small motor boats. The article references the damaging of the USS Samuel Roberts in 1987, which is also mentioned in this analysis from 1999, although not much detail is added. The damage to the Samuel Roberts reflected the neglect of such unglamorous work as mine

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-90254288397607932007-06-06T08:11:00.001Z2007-06-06T08:13:51.312Z

Occasionally one hears about a museum one hadn't heard of before. This one is in Indiana. It appears to have a collection of vehicles, in addition to some general exhibits, and big expansion plans.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31299027.post-29783228329409101872007-06-06T08:09:00.001Z2007-06-06T08:15:19.331Z

I've been busy writing an article for a magazine these past couple of weeks, linked to my theme on "Wilson's War", which is why it mysteriously ceased appearing on this site in mid flow. Normal service is now resuming.

fra paolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00053159287108115958noreply@blogger.com0