1/ We have no extant letters written by pre-1789 enlisted French soldiers, so it's very difficult to ascertain their motivations or thoughts. We can only do so obliquely through interesting vignettes like this one from Richelieu on Menorca: "In a country where wine was sold at the lowest price...

This was fun open.spotify.com/episode/5fzQ...

🚨New episode🚨- Napoleon's strategies have arrived on the battlefields of Europe! Special guest Jonathan Abel @HistorianAbel discusses how Napoleon approached his campaigns and how Napoleon's system has influenced future generations of military planners. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...

In the flesh and it's fantastic. Great resource from @historianabel.bsky.social with beautiful set of figures

The father of American independence and the individual who probably did the most to secure it.

I will post nothing about Waterloo today, because I don’t celebrate defeats #skystorians

Teaching Race to Rabaul this morning to @historianabel.bsky.social #Wargaming History class. RTR is a logistics focused game from @volko.bsky.social and @phalanxgames.bsky.social coming soon. Our students Army University are getting first crack at this #wargaming prototype!!!

What is/are the best books on Gálvez’s campaigns in the AWI? #skystorians @herreramilhist.bsky.social @kabinettskriege.bsky.social

Today with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC we played @phalanxgames.bsky.social Race to the Rhine. Operational WW2 with a heavy focus on logistics!

Princeton University Press sale 🤝my money

Today with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC we played @volko.bsky.social @gmtgames.bsky.social Nevsky. Operational Medieval warfare with a heavy focus on logistics!

Today with @historianabel.bsky.social Army University playing @sebastianbae.bsky.social favorite Friedrich #wargaming #simulations #army an accessible #wargame that explores the Seven Years War.

Practicing the Operational Arts with Napoleon 1807 from Shakos for History through #wargaming with @historianabel.bsky.social Army University.

Using a WW1 #Wargaming Drive on Paris with @historianabel.bsky.social Supply rules and reconstitution does a good job of representing operations. Army University elective on using wargames to explore decision making in history.

Battle for Moscow!! Frank Chadwick’s excellent introduction to #wargames used here at Army University with @armeedeterre.bsky.social @abrgll.bsky.social present for #Wargaming through History elective with @historianabel.bsky.social

Battle for Moscow!! Frank Chadwick’s excellent introduction to #wargaming with @historianabel.bsky.social for History through #Wargames elective

As I approach 40, I’m finally starting to understand Gerard Manley Hopkins

Jomini in 1805: "There is doubtlessly merit in designing a campaign plan well, but it is rare that one of these plans is able to be executed to the letter in all of its parts; an unforeseen event like that of the loss of a battle may require the complete change of the direction

FWIW, history academia Twitter/X was a useful, and even cheerful, place. So far, history academia Bluesky is largely a navel-gazing mess of pseudo-group therapy and toxic politics…

Job Opportunity! The University of Texas at Dallas invites applications for a 1-year Visiting Assistant Professor of History to begin in Aug. 2025 (renewable for up to 1 year). Seeks specialist in Early Modern Europe, any subfield or methodological approach. www.h-net.org/jobs/job_dis...

There was a big kerfuffle a few months ago about physical vs. digital archives. Reminder that physical archives are not safe either. #skystorians www.bbc.com/news/article...

Every element of this argument is absolutely correct: the US is not materially prepared for war. What it ignores is that materially preparing for war, based on the example of the World Wars, requires three main components: 1/

Check out the open-access intro I wrote to my translation of Guibert’s General Essay on Tactics, in which I provide a summary of the French army and its issues from c1700-1770 #skystorians brill.com/display/book...

Had a blast talking Austerlitz with Generals and Napoleon podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Check out my discussion with my colleague Dr. Bill Nance on what professionalism meant in the eighteenth-century French and twentieth-century American armies #skystorians open.spotify.com/episode/7Auo...

Check out the podcast episode I did on the French Revolution and its military aspects (available on all major platforms): podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c... #skystorians

Out in print/digits: my contribution to a volume on 1805, covering the campaign between Ulm and Austerlitz www.despertaferro-ediciones.com/revistas/num...

Me: “I just got the most esoteric book I’ve ever bought” Wife: “More esoteric than your book on Paris bakers in the eighteenth century?” Me: “Yeah. Civil War field artillery” Wife: “…you win”

Check out the podcast I did with Dr. John Hosler about Vegetius’s Epitome, the only surviving, comprehensive Roman military manual (available on all major platforms): podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Hey #skystorians, I’ve created a Napoleonic history starter pack. It’s very nascent; please let me know who else should be added to it: go.bsky.app/JYvzqJr

Fellow historians, what’s the hashtag equivalent of twitterstorians on here? Last time I was here, it didn’t have hashtags yet

Really good article on information management in Napoleon’s military www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I haven’t posted on here in a bit, but it seems like there’s an irony developing: all the Twitter refugees are turning it into the toxic hellscape echo chamber they decry Twitter as being

LTC Nate Jennings discussing joint warfare, 1840s edition at the Dole Institute at KU

AND SENT today! 🥳 🙌 🗃️

DMH’s two podcasts, A Confused Heap of Facts and Broad-Gauge Gossips, have finished their server migration and should now be available on all major platforms, including Apple, Google, and Spotify. Join me on both for great discussions with top military historians

An important read www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

This week on the blog: the Macedonian sarisa-phalanx! We start our look at the triumph and twilight of the phalanx with a discussion of what this formation is: how are they equipped, organized, formed up for battle and who exactly makes up the formation? acoup.blog/2024/01/19/c...

Huge news: the new edition of Napoleon’s correspondence is now online thanks to the folks at the Fondation Napoléon napoleonica.org

Joyeux Noël www.napoleon.org/wp-content/t...

Part 2 of my conversation with the folks at SAMS about Napoleon and operational warfare. I forgot how much fun I had at the end podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Latest podcast episode, talking with LTC Nate Jennings of DJIMO about the 1973 War open.spotify.com/episode/4OD0...

If you’re upset with Ridley Scott for his depiction of Austerlitz, this might be more to your taste, from the fine folks at AUP m.youtube.com/watch?v=LLav...

Had a fun time talking with the folks at SAMS about Napoleon and operational warfare open.spotify.com/episode/7Bez...

A thought, inspired by an article written by @herreramilhist.bsky.social : perhaps it’s time for milhist to reduce Prussia/Germany from being the example of military adaptation to just one such example, decentering without dispensing with them altogether, as the new MMS does

Natalie Zemon Davis challenged our fundamental assumptions about how history is done, its nuances, and who is centered in it. RIP