I have some bad news. I don't want to go into too much detail, but my anonymity has been compromised. A post I made (which I deleted, so don't bother looking) has been made public along with my identity. It's worked its way to some of my colleagues, and caused me a great deal of trouble. So long story short, I have to delete this account.

Hopefully I'll be able to return at some point under a different name. So if you see another user some time down the road with a similar flair, it's probably me. If you recognize me, I'd ask you to not explicitly point it out as I don't want this to happen again.

I'm going to miss you guys. Hopefully this break won't be permanent.

So I run a tumblr account where I post pictures of artifacts or news stories about Mesoamerica and sometimes South America. The whole thing has been fairly successful and helps me accomplish my career long goal of reaching out to people and to make archaeology/history more accessible to the public. The other day I had someone message me asking for articles about West Mexico. I was so excited that I made a folder on Drive and dumped all the pdfs I had in it and sent the person a link. I think I may have scared them away with the 200+ items in the folder because they have not messaged me back. So, note to self, stay excited but don't overwhelm people.

A friend and colleague has taken the plunge into the world of research-blogging, and I'd like to pass it on!

Medieval Confessions will examine the peculiar and often unexpected problems addressed my medieval penitential manuals; this first post, on the dangers of wearing leggings that were too tight, offers a glimpse of things to come.

Also hoping to pick up steam on Twitter by offering a good stream of general medievalist content.

A quick note for interested parties that the Cambridge University Press is offering 20% off all online purchases of volumes in their excellent Cambridge Companion series until March 31st. A full list of available titles can be found here.

I'm an undergrad working on a research paper on Clinton era Peacekeeping policy and I was hoping I might ask for some research tips.

I have found Presidential Review Directive 13 which called for a review of multilateral peace operations which led to Presidential Decision Directive 25 a little over a year later. (Which I also have.) What would be the most useful to me is having some or all of the preliminary working group reports called for in PRD 13 so I can compare pre- and post-Battle of Mogadishu attitudes at State and the DoD but I'm running up against a wall in trying to find any information on those working groups or the umbrella Interagency Working Group. The Clinton Library doesn't seem to have them (Though they do have 5 linear feet of unsorted/unreviewed PRD related documents that I suspect may contain some of what I'm looking for but that doesn't help me much.) I can't find them through the NARA electronic records search and I'm having trouble navigating the State department's various archival resources though I have sent an e-mail to the reference desk for their Electronic Research Collections page. The DoD is completely impenetrable to me.

Does anyone have any knowledge in this area to point me in a useful direction? Even if that's to say that the information I'm looking for isn't available I would be helpful. Particular State/DoD resources I should be mining? I know the NSC and the White House are exempt from FOIA requests but perhaps they have an archive or other resource that I've overlooked. Really any assistance or suggestion would be most welcome.

Thanks.

I really like good historical fiction. To me good historical fiction has to be...

1. Well written.

2. Truthful to actual history as far as we know it.

3. Plausible in the "grey areas" outside of historical knowledge.

Obviously for any individual book there is room for debate about points 1 and 3. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here with a question about point 2.

Recently I picked up When Christ and His Saints Slept, by Sharon Kay Penman. It's about the rise of the Angevins in medieval England and France.

My knowledge of this era is not nearly detailed enough to tell whether the book is staying true to what we know of the history of the time. And I really hope it is, because it's a cracking good read. But experience tells me I'll be crushingly disappointed if it turns out the book ignored actual history in the name of telling an exciting story.

Has anyone else read this book, with enough knowledge to tell if it meets my second criterion for good historical fiction?

For the people who teach surveys: to what extent do you build an argument into the overall course, either explicitly or implicitly?

I've been teaching a few surveys and while I've always had implicit arguments expressed through the structure of the course, I've started making them much more explicit. For example, in my global environmental history course, I've been much more deliberate and explicit about the connections between human uses of environments, the creation of markets, and inequality. I certainly find it more satisfying, although the jury is still out on the degree to which the students can follow a multi-month argument.

The /r/BadHistory March Madness Bracket has entered the Sweet Sixteen. Make sure to check it out and vote for the worst of the worst!

Hello everyone, I actually have a question for the mod team and other informed redditors.

I've recently gotten multiple requests to start my own subreddit so questions could be directly posed to me outside of PMs so other people could participate in the conversation.

I've gotten some of these requests before and I've always thought it was a bad idea since the thought of having to moderate my own subreddit would be a nightmare as well as cut down on the time I spend answering questions.

And they could always include my username in a post in AskHistorians so it ends up in my mailbox.

But recently I was pointed at /r/AskDoctorSmeeee as an example of a personal subreddit working pretty well. But I can think of a few ways that this is different (Dr Smeeee hands out infinitely more useful advice and information than I do, in most cases).

Is there any point to opening a new personal subreddit?

It seems to me that posting in AskH would still be the best way to get the most information to the most interested people and people have a much better chance of getting their questions answered here since we have an abundance of excellent posters, not just me.

I also have no idea how to even set up a subreddit!

Comments?

Hey guys if you guys want a fun way to apply your historical knowledge and maybe dive into a world building experience. Come try out /r/HistoricalWorldPowers.

I'm a sophomore with a fairly high GPA and have already taken quite a few 400 and upper 300 level courses. If I wanted to I could graduate next semester.

I've been invited into the accelerated Master's program and if I accept it, I'll start 500 level courses next semester. I don't plan on doing academia and my school has a good program for my area of interest.

I'm not so much wondering if I should or shouldn't do it, but more: What would you think having a student this young in one of your classes? Would you be delighted, concerned, uncaring as long as I do the work? Should I pay special mind to anything? What should I do to prepare? I'm still a tad bit struck by the invitation, so any advice is welcomed.

is there any work like the destruction of European jewry that essentially created a whole other field of historical study.