Today I get my tenure letter. Although it's supposed to be an open-and-shut case of approval, it still has me on tenterhooks. After all, if you've spent nearly two decades being beaten down and fighting the odds, you become very skeptical that the dream of a secure position at a big research uni can ever come true or if such things really exist anymore. Ever wonder why so many professors have massive anxiety disorders and alcohol problems? It's not the grading, as much as we may joke about it. Anyway, I will update when the info is available. Wish me luck.

EDIT: Letter received, promotion and tenure confirmed. I'm ready for a nap.

So, do you want to know what ancient history is like? I realized this week that all of my top comments from this sub basically boil down to "I don't know":

I don't know how much casual sex there was in Rome.

I don't know what happened to injured soldiers on the march.

I don't know how safe ancient cities were.

I don't know how widely barrels were used in the ancient world.

Someone submitted this link (NSFW) to /r/history this week. It got removed because the submitter didn't include a submission statement, but I took a look at it when it was first submitted.

Is it just me, or is that really Eurocentric as hell? Also, I'm sort of not comfortable with the implication that our prehistoric ancestors just spent their time beating each other with clubs and raping each other? I'm not even sure if that was accurate. Anyone in prehistory who can chime in on the accuracy of that?

Have yet to find out if Stalin had a weakness for ragtime piano, but I intend to keep digging.

Now, I don't usually post this sort of thing, but a friend of mine shared this on our private Facebook group last night, and I was so blown away that I want to share it here. There's no way for anyone to tell where or who this is, so The anonymity is assured and we can just marvel at it in abstract. This is from a college American history course.

From a primary source analysis about pro-slavery arguments from Antebellum America: "I personally believe that we can bring a similar type of civilized slavery system back to our country because there are far too many homeless people out in the streets and thus we can give them jobs. I mean it could possibly end world hunger if everyone owned at least one servant, that would mean that’s one less hungry, scantily clad, and diseased person out in the streets. Of course it’s not our god given right to have slaves but we can potentially help the homeless population by giving them jobs in return for medicine and other life necessities. I do however disagree with Hammond and his thoughts on Thomas Jefferson’s quote, “everyman is created equal."

Do the historians/contributors on this subreddit get tired of all the WW2-related questions on here and in general (e.g. abundance of WW2-related programs on the History channel)? I'm not chastising the people who ask the questions, nor the people who upvote the questions, but for me, it gets a bit tired always seeing so many WW2-related posts. Makes it more difficult for threads on other stuff to get visibility.

Family history has always been my conduit for interest in wider history, so I've begun researching my family's (US) military service history in earnest, focusing on the World Wars. I've always known a good deal, but there's a lot I don't know. My recent foray is in part because I started reading War in the Ruins by Edward G. Longacre, which is about the US 100th Infantry Division during World War II. My grandmother's brother served in the Century Division and was tragically killed by an "accidental weapons discharge" while in France. I know a lot about my great-uncle since I have his division "yearbook," which means I know what unit he was in down to the company level and I've seen photos of his grave marker in the Epinal American Cemetery in France. Reading War in the Ruins has given me an appreciation of what he went through in the ~4 months of combat he experienced before he died.

Going farther back, my main research is into my great-grandfather's World War I service. I'm trying to figure out what unit he was in. What I have to go on is his name, what state he was from, his Army serial number, his Victory medal with battle clasps, and his Purple Heart (which he would have applied for some time in the 1930s since the Purple Heart wasn't in use during WWI). I have one photo of him in uniform and there are no unit insignia. However, with the evidence I have available I believe he was in the 27th Infantry Division, which was a New York National Guard unit. The trouble is, I have yet to find him on the unit rosters of any of the division's subordinate regiments. Just a few days ago I submitted a records request with the New York State Archives, which should have a service summary record for him that would list his unit and what wound he suffered (family lore says he was hit in the head with shrapnel and also breathed in some poison gas, but I want to see what the documents say). The New York State Archives is also more likely to have a record of him than the National Archives in St. Louis, since US Army personnel records from 1912-1960 were the primary victims of the 1973 fire there.

I also came into possession of a family tree, and one of the entries showed my great-grandmother's brother having also served in World War I and listed him as killed on November 10, 1918--the day before the war ended. Naturally I wanted to investigate that further, so I looked up to see if he was buried overseas and found him in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial. He was in the 82nd Infantry Division and his grave marker says he died on October 11, 1918. So somewhere in my family's telling of his story 10-11-1918 got turned into 11-10-1918. I believe the October date is correct since his regiment was involved in heavy fighting on October 11 and was behind the lines doing training on November 10. Another reason why personal anecdotes are not good sources!

So it's been a big family history week for me.

Today I (among others) met with the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and several hibakusha to discuss their concerns about the forthcoming Manhattan Project National Park. It was very interesting. I think we all see more eye to eye than anybody suspected.

Is Automod on strike or something?

I passed my comprehensive exams, so that's cool. All that's left is to finish my thesis and defend ^^^and ^^^take ^^^two ^^^pesky ^^^credits

The publisher just put up the webpage for my (first) book--and I was surprised to learn that they are charging $175 for it. For some reason, I had thought it was going to be a lot cheaper.

At that price, I can't imagine anyone other than librarians purchasing this book--and even they might not be particularly interested.

So, how can I improve my chances of getting copies of this expensive book sold to libraries and individuals--both scholars and lay people? And what should I tell the many lay people who have expressed their interest in it but whom I can't expect to shell out that kind of money?

Anyone want to help trace down a strange little piece of Canadian history? I've known this story for probably close to ten years, it could possibly be fake, but seems to match up well enough with knowns it could be true (and the person telling me had 0 motivation to lie). I've asked on AH before and got more confirmation of its having happened, but nothing else.

So, what's known:

-- sometime in the 1960s, a man was picked up, with many others, by the RCMP to fight a forest fire in B.C.

-- they may have been picked up in a provincial park and may have been selected due to their apparent indigence.

-- the B.C. Wildfire Act appears to possibly allow this sort of forced volunteerism.

-- the person who told me this story claims to have been forgotten in the woods with a Cree guy for three days.

So where and when is this story? It seems like there's enough to go on it should be readily verifiable (the redditor who responded to my initial post seems to suggest it was a studied case), and yet, I find nothing.

So, in about six days I fly to Frankfurt then on to Almaty for a week teaching web design in Kazakhstan. I mentioned this in the panel sub, but any folks out there with any expertise in Central Asia or any general pointers? (I saw the documentary Borat, of course.)

(I know it's not a documentary, don't panic. But I actually did see a documentary about the making of Borat, the filming of which actually took place in a town in Romania.

I'm a math student and love history. Can somebody point me to some papers/blogs/books that approach historical research using mathematical techniques?
I found this https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=s7tDVe_sFIbfoATki4CYBw&url=http://his.library.nenu.edu.cn/upload/soft/haoli/113/202.pdf&ved=0CBwQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNE3ZaaVpv8xOxxDWh8SI0X-euQFQQ&sig2=iCPAtxSYO7dG8ZCadBV5bA and I'm looking for more like it, Mathematical modeling using differential equations is more specifically what I'm looking for.
I'd love to find some area I could investigate on my own over the summer.

I HURT EVERYWHERE. 7 mile bike ride and then a two mile run and then raking the yard for an hour. oh god the pain why.

also, guys, this has been an awful fucking week. the other day I came to the slow and horrible realization that all of my resumes (60 of them) were trash. As in I'm not getting a teaching job because I fucked up my cover letter by talking about being hearing impaired. this is sad.

in other news, I'm beginning my first real reading of marquis de sade after being horribly turned off him by 120 days of sodom when I was like 13 or something. wish me luck.

This has little to do with "history" per se, but those wishing to view an excellent, excellent production of Macbeth can do so for free via PBS' "Great Performances" portal. This inventive take on The Scottish Play casts Patrick Stewart in the title role, with the whole of the thing performed with an intriguing Soviet-style aesthetic. Some of the production decisions work better than others, but it's still absolutely spellbinding.

They also have a production of King Lear featuring Ian McKellen and one of Hamlet featuring Patrick Stewart and David Tennant, but I haven't had the chance to check them out. Still -- they're free, they're not outdated old BBC productions, and they're there.

Cross posting some information.

Alright, some quick promotion on event this week. For any of you plane enthusiasts and historical plane nerds.

The annual Chino airshow is here again this weekend on May 2nd and 3rd on Chino's Planes of Fame museum. The planned flying schedule is amazing.

Some notable planes that are flying include.

• P-51s Mustangs,
• B-25s Mitchells,
• P-40 Warhawks,
• Spitfires (Not sure which, doesn't say so on the schedule),
• C-47 Skytrains,
• P-63 KingCobra,
• Pilatus P2,
• P-47 Thunderbolt,
• P-38 Lightning.
• F-86 Sabre,
• MiG-15,
• T-33 Shooting Star,
• Hawker Sea Fury,
• T-6 Texan,
• Yak 3,
• F4U Corsair,
• FM2 Wildcats,
• F6F Hellcat,
• F7F Tigercat,
• F8F Bearcat,
• TBM Avengers,
• F4U Corsairs,
• Aichi Val,
• Mitsubishi Zero, (Probably PoF's A6M5)
• CF-18,
• F-22,

If any of you showed up, I'll be a Japanese Army and Navy reenactor (switching it through the day) hanging around in a camp nearby. Feel free to say hello!

I'm teaching a World Civilization since 1500 class next fall, and I just realized that my textbook orders are due now. Anyone have suggestions for good novels, memoirs, or other substantial documents that undergraduates can handle? Items in the neighborhood of 200 pages are perfect.

I'm thinking of having my three large items be Equiano's Interesting Narrative, something that deals with India in the 19th century, and then something for China in the 20th century. I can populate the rest of the course with smaller pieces.

why did Atlantic history (the discipline) form?

After ww2 when did the conflict between compac and the west start? Had it already started with the race to berlin? Was compac expansionist? Did they want to convert europe and asia to communism?

What did the west think of the compac? Did they see it as the rise of another expansionist country like germany in ww1 and 2?

There was the arms race, but what response did russia expect it would provoke when they started lighting off nukes? What did russia expect when it started building strategic nuclear submarines, and putting nukes in cuba?

It seems like a lot of the conflicts were started by the compac, korea, vietnam, and afghanistan. Were there instances of western provocation?

Did western governments see stalin as a new hitler?

I read about some a crazy anecdote concerning the Titanic. One of the cello player was a young French who leaved not really far from me actually, his name was Roger Bricoux. Like the other members of the orchestra, he died. His body was never found.

For some reason, certainly the confusion that followed, his death certificate was never sent to France by the American authorities which meant that two years later in August 1914 Roger Bricoux was called to serve for the Great War. Of course, since he was dead, he never showed up and his name was placed on the list of deserters.

Roger Bricoux, though honored as one of the Titanic's musician heroes remained considered a deserter until August 2000, after an association took the case to court and a judge finally rehabilitated his name.

I have a friend who's starting a pattern company (and with whom I'm started to collaborate on historical patterns), and I'm trying to figure out if I want to turn some of the antique garments in the collection of the museum where I work into full-size patterns for costumers and reenactors. My first thought was to do the patterning during work hours and have them be essentially commissions from the museum to be scaled and printed (and only sold here), but I don't think the expense would fly. The other option would be to do them outside of work as a personal venture as part of the collaborative line, and the museum could get cheaper copies to sell. I'll probably raise this option at the next staff meeting, once I get over my "you focus too much on your specialty and everyone resents that" anxiety.

I recently found out about the "Lebensborn" (Fountain of life) program implemented by Nazi Germany to try & raise the birth rate of Aryan children.

My question is what actually went on in a Lebensborn birth house? What were the in's & outs of how it operated? Was "Aryan sexual positions" (if there was such a thing) taught to the women when they were there?

How were young people taught about the ins & outs of sex in Nazi Germany? & Did what they were told about it differ if you were male or female? How was pornography perceived during this time?

I also read that during & after the war, the Norwegian-German "Aryan" children & their Norwegian mothers were shunned by the Norwegian public, they were labelled tyskerunger ("kr**t kids") how did the public go about ostracising them? What sort of rights did a norwegian "war child" have? How true is it that these war children were subjected to rape & even death?

I've also read in an article from the Reykjavik Grapevine that during that early-mid 1990's gay Icelanders were often assaulted:

Gay people were often assaulted in the streets in the early 1990s—by the end of that decade they flooded those same streets by the hundreds, dancing in celebration as they asserted their rights. With children holding balloons cheering them on.

And since Iceland is such a liberal country when it comes to the LGBTQ community it made me wonder how true that statement is.

Can anyone possibly be able to shed some light on any of my queries? Thank you :)

I know there's a lot of history teachers / professors here - can you share some stories about your favorite history students?

quick question. what is the earliest known slavery revolt?

Questions on ancient Greek slavery; Do we have any surivng writing from ancient greek slaves? Did ancient Greek slaves(domestics and tradesman only) considered themselves Greek? What was the ethnic makeup of ancient greek slaves(like how many are Persian)?