I love historical reconstructions, they are one thing that I really wish would get more focus. There is a modern trend towards creating 3D computer generated reconstructions, which is great and I really wish more people would jump on Assassin's Creed's train and commercialize it, but for me nothing will ever beat a good informed drawing or painting. For example the still lamented Peter Connolly, aside from being a published scholar on ancient military history, was a brilliant reconstructive artist. He is probably most famous today for his battle scenes which combine an impeccable attention to equipment with a real flair for dramatic action, but his scenes from daily life are just as compelling and his depiction of Athena Parthenos is still the one I see most often. If you haven't read his collaboration with Hazel Dodge, The Ancient City it is a must. The scholarship is still solid and his imagination and ability in bringing scenes to life are unparalleled.

This is all a way of saying I want pretty pictures! Of historical reconstruction, that is. Are there any artists or works that you feel do a really good job in bringing their topic to life?

Required reading for today is a piece in The Toast about the history of Toll House Cookies, and how they totally weren't invented by an inept cook who dumped chocolate bits in her cookies expecting them to melt evenly though the batter like an idiot, but instead an extremely cunning recipe invented by a highly educated home economist, restaurateur, and registered dietitian.

On Nestlé’s Toll House page they essentially make light of her amazing achievement by calling the cookie creation “an accident.” As if the most amazing breakthrough in cookie history just happened. As if their creator wasn’t inventive enough to think of chopping chocolate and adding to cookie dough on purpose. It’s pretty bad that even the company that has made millions from Wakefield’s invention essentially makes light of her achievement by just passing it off as an accident. As another great inventor/discoverer once said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Anyone else could have thought of it, but no one else did.

Treat yourself to a Friday redemption of an otherwise ignored Great American.

For the first time in a long time, I have both the time and attention span to get back into some reading and researching. Yesterday I spent a great deal of time trying to get a better mental grasp on troop movement during the Battle of Prestonpans. While it may surprise some with my focus on the Jacobite Rising, I'm really more interested in the social and political aspects. So I found a nice diagram of the battle and set about trying to get a handle on it.

It took me FAR too long to realize that, when Cope reoriented his army on a north-south axis, he kept them facing south, thus allowing them to "wheel to the left by platoons" when the Jacobite charge appeared. I, knowing where their enemy was, assumed they did, too, which is obviously false. Now I have a ditch that people were apparently in that isn't on the battle diagram, but could possibly have been dug by the army. Unfortunately, I don't know how long it would take to dig a ditch or even if Cope's army did this (military history is very outside my league, can you tell?). They would only have had a few hours. If they dug it, I have a good idea where the ditch was, but if they didn't, all bets are off. The modern location is a very flat farmer's field, so no help from contemporary geography.

In other news, I've also resumed reading "Disability in Eighteenth-Century England: Imagining Physical Impairment," which was recommended to me by I-forget-who here on AskHistorians likely over a year ago. I remember them mentioning it was problematic in some ways, but at a whopping 20 pages in, it's pretty interesting so far.

It's good to be back in the swing of things.

I noticed that Gibbon's Decline and fall... is not in the list of books. Why the hell not?!!

Peter the Hermit was a god damn moron. I'm learning about the First Crusade and he was utterly useless.

Anyway, the essay I'm currently doing is 'Was the First Crusade an 'Armed Pilgrimage' or a 'Holy War'. Time to get back to my books..

Over the last few moths I have been reading a great deal on Vietnam and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I enjoy reading this kind of history as it switches perspective and gives some first hand accounts. The stories are intense and it is a nice change up from academic reading.

Books such as:

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo

They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 by David Maraniss

The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966 by Rick Atkinson

Redeployment by Phil Klay [Afghanistan and Iraq]

At the moment I am researching, Gerald Ford and the Mariana Islands: The Impact of American Citizenship on the Marianas. It looks at immigration, economics, and military importance and significance of the island chain.

I'm currently writing a paper compiling the native crops of the early slavs as well as the introduction of crops through trade from the Varangians and the Byzantine Empire and the domestication of those crops. So far I'm in the middle of reading a couple books:

The Early Slavs by Pavel M. Dolukhanov

Between Tsar and People by Edith W. Clwes

Ethnobotany and Biocultural Diversities in the Balkans by Andrei Pieroni

This lecture sourced Solbrig, O.T. and D.J. Solbrig. 1994. So Shall You Reap: Farming and Crops in Human Affairs.

European Landraces by M. Veteläinen

Varangian-Rus War-Merchants by Donald F. Dixon

This paper is for my undergrad class over Russian Food Ways and History, but hopefully I can get it published or so my professor suggested may be possible :)

I received my copy of Hitler's Table Talk among other books that were suggested on this subreddit that I bought. Wow, talk about fascinating. Its probably the single most different type of history related book I've ever purchased, and one of the more interesting reads. I simply can't put it down.

I wish I could afford a hard cover!

I had been thinking to write a post regarding how video game mechanics dealt with history, but since most video games like Paradox titles, Total War series and Civilization series are developed within these 20 years, I wonder how 20 years rule may deal with cases like this?

Was there ever a time when two kings met before a battle and created worldwide peace by dueling each other, and one of them won by using a bow and arrow instead of a useless gun? Also does that have anything to do with why Europe has always had better technology than the rest of the world?