I am getting a BA in History. I have already taken most of my advanced courses, but my university recently added a sophomore level writing class in historical writing and historiography. A discussion popped up this week about why people should care about history. This led to a short discussion about other majors not caring about history. The exact quotation was, "Engineers don't care about history. They only care about math and theory." I had an idea! I work in the School of Engineering at my University. I consulted with the department head and found that in the Fundamentals of Engineering class, students are not taught about the beginnings or history (this is where it gets good) of their major.

Today, I was able to convince the department head to allow at least two to three days of lecture in the Fundamentals of Engineering class specifically about the history of Engineering. :) I was also asked to write the lectures and potentially give them!

I thought I would share this short story with the community. I have made a small step in helping others to enjoy history as much as I do!

Not to brag toooo much, but I'm quite happy to say that my History Blog hit 4,000 followers yesterday :)

So I've been kinda waiting for this thread all week because this is funny, but embarrassing.

I'm taking a class on the history of Arab revolts, uprisings, etc. and we were discussing the Ottoman Libya in the 19th century. The prof. asked what prompted the Ottomans to send troops into Libya in 1830, and for whatever reasons, I blurted out Napoleans invasion of Egypt.

I have never felt more ashamed and embarrassed in a classroom setting in my entire life. Fuck that was awful.

Asked a question yesterday, but it failed to catch an expert's eye. Thought I might give it another shot here.

If you have time, can someone give me a ELI5 breakdown of the differences between English royal, proprietor, and charter colonies in the early colonial period in the U.S.? I'm specifically interested in governance, and the enacting and enforcing of law in each colony.

Thanks a bunch. Happy Friday.

My illustration requests are going well. So far only one is asking for money. With 45 maps and illustrations that is great. Now I just have to draw the last 4 maps, and do the historiographical part of the revision... Then the MS will be ready. Amandla!

Just put up a new blog post on the first Soviet H-bomb test. Highlights: Siberian beauty juxtaposed with technical bravado; two innocents die accidentally as a result of the overly-powerful blast; Sakharov realizes, after a crude joke made at his expense, that the Soviet military cannot be trusted with the bomb...

Librarian tip of the day:

Do you like to do advanced searches in WorldCat? Of course you do, who doesn't. WELL, instead of visiting this page, you can build simplier advanced searches directly in the search bar like so:

ti: title
au: author
su: subject (as per Library of Congress authorities) 
se: series
no: OCLC number (an internal identifier)
bn: ISBN

So you can build complex searches like "au:rowling ti:prisoner" (brings you copies of Prisoner of Azkaban) or "su:slavery history" (shows you books on the history of slavery) directly from the WorldCat homepage or the top search bar. If you've stumbled on a book you like, click one of the hotlinks for the LoC subjects it's cataloged under and see what else is cataloged under that subject.

I just read a pamphlet during lunchbreak which dealt with the fact that Robert Service is going to give a lecture on his Trotsky biography at a nearby univerity soon. I know that this is a very controversial book – nevertheless, I always thought the main problem was that it is tainted with a right wing agenda. However, this pamphlet (released by a trotskyist group) states that the book is subject to deliberately altered facts, thus a case of distortion of history. Well, as this assessment is again probably tainted with a left wing agenda, I'd like to know your oppinion on how bad this book really is. What are its main issues, and are there other aspects you like about it? And finally: Should I visit said lecture?

My $40,000 piece of paper came in the mail today, confirming that I did, indeed, earn a BA in history, with a minor in political science.

I didn't receive it at the convocation, which was yesterday, because I was anticipating to be in Georgia (the country, not the state) teaching English. However that had a slight delay, and I now leave on February 5 for six months.

What are you supposed to do when you come across a source that isn't translated? Tried to work with what I could in Google Translate but it's not even able to identify the language, jumping from French to Galician to Italian to Catalan. What's the suggestion you all have to working on it?

So, I am working on a presentation on North American bat species. I have decided to expand on it to discuss cultural influences and elements by bats.

Do any of you have any interesting history on how bats have influenced cultures, or were used symbolically, metaphorically, or what have you? I realize it's a broad question, but I figure this would be the safest place to post it.

How many people alive today are or will become historically significant?

I realise that the parameters of this question aren't particularly well defined please feel free to interpret as you will.

I tried to ask this and thought I would give it a go here. Any recommendations for books about Fredrick the Great?

What NHL team has won the most Stanley Cups? It is important for me to know because that is obviously the greatest hockey team of all time.

I've read a bit about what the Romans considered virtues, like pietas, auctoritas, etc. and that these were sort of middle grounds on continuums of specific traits. Did the Romans have any concept of sins, especially as opposed to these virtues?

Does anyone have any recommendations on good non-specialist books on the High Middle Ages, roughly from about the mid 10th Century to the Black Death?

Edit: Additionally, any recommendations for books about the Renaissance of the 12th Century would be greatly appreciated.