AskHistorians 内の RonUSMC によるリンク Historians, if you could convince the public to read one book about your particular era or field, What interesting book would it be and why?

[–]NMW 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'm afraid I haven't had the chance to read it! It looks quite pertinent to debate, however, so I'll check it out.

AskHistorians 内の RonUSMC によるリンク Historians, if you could convince the public to read one book about your particular era or field, What interesting book would it be and why?

[–]NMW 28ポイント29ポイント  (0子コメント)

It would likely be Dan Todman's The Great War: Myth and Memory (2005). This entertaining, accessible, and nevertheless rigorous book examines the contours of the war's popular memory and how it came to exist, taking a great deal of care along the way to puncture certain myths and smooth over certain inconsistencies. It is less combative and militarily-oriented than Gordon Corrigan's Mud, Blood and Poppycock or Gary Sheffield's Forgotten Victory, both of which have similar debunking missions in mind, and so far more likely to win over skeptical readers to its central thesis.

AskHistorians 内の caffarelli によるリンク How were peanuts introduced into African cuisine?

[–]NMW 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thanks for this. I'll be adding Intwilo to my list of things for which to look out.

AskHistorians 内の Agent__Macklin によるリンク [META] Could we update the Book List with a section for US Presidential Biographies?

[–]NMW 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Well, I'm not exactly ready to do it just yet -- a project for sometime in the summer, at least! Good to know it won't be a hassle for the team, anyway.

AskHistorians 内の Agent__Macklin によるリンク [META] Could we update the Book List with a section for US Presidential Biographies?

[–]NMW 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

one of the mods is currently working on migrating it from its current flat-page form to a multi-tag searchable database.

Well now, that just sounds perfect. I've been meaning to (hugely) expand the WWI section for quite some time, but maybe I should wait until after this migration? My current plans would triple its size, at the very least.

AskHistorians 内の ProudSocialist1922 によるリンク What is the oldest known propaganda poster?

[–]NMW 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

You're very welcome! If you're interested in the various campaigns that achieved such amazing things during the First World War, additionally, I'd recommend David Monger's excellent Patriotism and Propaganda in First World War Britain (2013) or Troy Paddock (ed.)'s World War I and Propaganda (2014), both of which offer excellent recent overviews of their particular subjects. Monger's in particular offers a great history of the National War Aims Committee and its various poster campaigns aimed at civilians.

For a broader view, the long-awaited second edition of Randal Marlin's Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion finally came out in 2013, and offers a solid book-length overview at the history and theory of propaganda in all its forms. It tends to lean very hard on the ideas of Jacques Ellul, another propaganda theorist of whom Marlin was once a student, but it's a decent and highly-accessible introduction to the subject.

AskHistorians 内の AutoModerator によるリンク Friday Free-for-All | May 29, 2015

[–]NMW 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Congratulations! May we ask what the paper was about?

AskHistorians 内の AutoModerator によるリンク Friday Free-for-All | May 29, 2015

[–]NMW 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'll take this as a sign that it should be the next in my rotation of infrequent pleasure reading. Once Robert Conroy's 1920: America's Great War (2013) is out of the way, I will endeavour to secure a library copy of Martin Guerre.

AskHistorians 内の caffarelli によるリンク How were peanuts introduced into African cuisine?

[–]NMW 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

It is interesting that you make note of the similarity of peanuts to African groundnuts, because groundnut oil was part of this same economic boom.

Now this is interesting. Perhaps I've lived a sheltered life, but I don't think I've ever encountered these here in Canada commercially. Are they regularly imported for sale in North America, or has this crop sort of fallen by the wayside in comparison to the peanut in modern times? I'd love to try some, if I could.

AskHistorians 内の ProudSocialist1922 によるリンク What is the oldest known propaganda poster?

[–]NMW 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

In addition to the WWI poster campaigns linked to in the other reply to your comment, you might look into the trend of placards that persisted through (at least) the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries -- here's a rather famous British one from 1802, for example.

AskHistorians 内の NMW によるリンク During the reign of Queen Victoria, did she ever appear as a character in any (specifically British) fictional works?

[–]NMW[S] 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thanks! Nevertheless, I am indeed looking more for works that treat her specifically as a real person, even if only as a fictionalized version of herself -- that is, the "Victoria" who appears in the work could be doing wildly unusual things, but would still have to be recognizably and nominally Victoria.

AskHistorians 内の NMW によるリンク During the reign of Queen Victoria, did she ever appear as a character in any (specifically British) fictional works?

[–]NMW[S] 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yes, I'll be taking the question there and to /r/Literature when the next "American East Coast is Awake" cycle begins. This isn't the most important question to have answered, but I'm curious about it all the same! At least two of the works published about Elizabeth during her own life have been republican-infused fantasia that have seen her "become a real person" only after having been stripped of the crown or willfully abandoning it -- I doubt very much that Victoria, legendarily difficult to amuse, would have been pleased with anything like that in her own time.

AskHistorians 内の AutoModerator によるリンク Friday Free-for-All | May 29, 2015

[–]NMW 7ポイント8ポイント  (0子コメント)

We were just informed this afternoon that the introductory prose/poetry/drama classes that we have to teach to the undergraduates each year may now be officially advertised with themes we have chosen. Previously they had been kept deliberately broad and survey-like, in spite of the impossibility of such a thing in a 13-week class, but now we can develop syllabi based on any set of ideas or critical concerns we want and present them as choices for students who might actually choose them out of real interest!

In all, a happy day.

AskHistorians 内の AutoModerator によるリンク Friday Free-for-All | May 29, 2015

[–]NMW 7ポイント8ポイント  (0子コメント)

I've often wondered that as well. We have (or had, at least) someone who was flaired for "Medieval Ghost Stories", which I think has to be a strong contender.

ottawa 内の tbone_21 によるリンク all hotels full...

[–]NMW 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

I don't know about FIFA, but next week will see the beginning of the 2015 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa -- it's one of the biggest academic conferences in the country each year, and will be bringing many thousands of people to town.

badhistory 内の coinsinmyrocket によるリンク Lord Kitchener invented concentration camps, therefore, he's a "Forgotten Asshole of History"

[–]NMW 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

I can't wait (edit: absolutely can) to see who their next subject will be. Probably Mother Theresa, because why not

badhistory 内の coinsinmyrocket によるリンク Lord Kitchener invented concentration camps, therefore, he's a "Forgotten Asshole of History"

[–]NMW 86ポイント87ポイント  (0子コメント)

One other bonus bit that should be a red flag for anyone well read in the history of this era, is that early on in the video, the host also mentions how Lord Kitchener led the British Army at the outbreak of WWI. She then goes on to mention that he will be remembered for "bravely and gallantly upholding the British tradition of making his men walk slowly into the gunfire of the enemy."

My God. Kitchener was the Secretary of State for War, not "the leader of the British army." He made broad policy decisions, not minute tactical ones. It's like saying that Donald Rumsfeld led the American Army in Iraq, or that he determined platoon-level combat doctrine.

What bullshit is this?