Can someone please answer this question.

I'm about halfway through the audiobook of Peter Frankopan's The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, which is one of the more succesful and well reviewed popular history books in recent years. So far I am enjoying it, it is a nice romping "big history" that I can recommend with little reservation, but I have one particular gripe: it is not about the Silk Road, and it is not a new history. It is, broadly speaking, a history of the middle east written in a sort of broad, connection focused style, which is sometimes called "global history" but is more accurately thought of as "globalization history". The result is that we don't really have a history of the Silk Road, as central Asia is basically neglected, and we really don't have a new history of the world, as it is still one that focuses on the large, agrarian, tax farming imperial states rather than the more amorphous and difficult to define steppe confederations that nevertheless managed to often drive the history of those states. I have numerous problems with Beckwith's Empires of the Silk Road but at the very least when you are done reading it you will know who the Gokturks were. I can't say the same for Frankopan's book, and so those times when the historian can no longer ignore the steppes, the Huns, or the Turks, or the Mongols appear as a mysterious, ahistorical, Mordor-esque horde that shatters the world then retreats without leaving anything behind.

There is also a really weird chapter ("The Road to a Christian Asia") that has a really cool documentation of the spread of Christianity before Islam in Asia, but then makes the strange conclusion that this represented the beginnings of the Christianzation of Asia, before being halted by the rise of Islam. Only a handful of paragraphs aknowledge that Buddhism was far more popular, widespread, and well supported. I suspect this is the author's Byzantine studies background (and general ignorance of all Chinese history--which is an actual and rather serious mark against any book claiming to be about the silk road) seeping through--it may very well be the case that Roman writers of the sixth century believed that Asia was on the cusp of a Christian dawn, but that belief isn't very well supported. And it has the unfortunate implications that Abrahamic faiths are inherently superior and destined to dominate weaker faiths, that as soon as China acknowledged the existence of Christianity, only the accident of history could prevent its eventual conversion.

Anyway, good book, very 2010s in its sensibility, misleading title.

I just learned about this app called “Let’s Learn Náhuatl”, an app designed to teach Nahuatl. I'm not sure how the Nahuatl taught in this app differs from Classic Nahuatl scholars look at in the early colonial period yet, but it should be interesting and fun to check out. The article also mentions that an app is in the works for Purepecha, the indigenous language spoken in the Michoacan region and the former Tarascan Empire, the rivals of the Aztecs.

/u/Ucumu

Obtained a small piece of pulp history this week; a copy of The Phantagraph (February 1937). One of the hallmarks of the pulp fiction era was the creation of the fan community - originally connecting through letters-to-the-editors pages in pulp magazines, but the mid-1930s you had multiple fan-organizations which adopted amateur journalism methodologies (and cheap printing/reproduction methods like the hectograph) to produce their own newsletters, journals, and 'zines. The best of these, publications like Marvel Tales, The Fantasy Fan, and Unusual Stories were really semi-pro versions of established pulp magazines like Weird Tales, and featured poems, stories, and essays by prominent pulp writers like H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, etc. Lovecraft in particular was keyed in to the fan movement - in large part because of his willingness to answer fan mail, supply material for 'zines, and to offer encouragement, criticism, advice, and revision for stories - as he did with writers like Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, etc. - and it was this interaction, as much as his fiction, which really established Lovecraft & co.'s legacy.

I'm reading and thoroughly enjoying The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule by Moshe Gammer. I'm about halfway through and it has been mostly about the Tsarist conquest into the Caucasus and the native peoples' resistance but ultimate defeat. Fascinating stuff in an area that I've found to be understudied. (I'm hoping to get into a Russian studies graduate program this year and help remedy some of that, fingers crossed.)

Anyway, before I fell in love with the more obscure points of Russian history, I had a lot of training in the craft of fiction, so I tend to come to historical texts looking not just for information but accounts that would lend themselves well to dramatization. Here's two that have really tickled my fancy so far.

The first is Gammer's discussion of a standoff between Russian generals Grekov and Lisanovich and Chechen leader Baybulat:

Once Grekov had departed, Beybulat returned to lay siege to Gerzel Aul. Grekov had to march again in that direction, this time accompanied by his superior of the Left Flank of the Caucasian Line, General Lisanovich. On 27 July [1825] the Russians arrived at Gerzel Aul, but Beybulat had retreated into the nearby hills. On the following day they invited 318 elders from all the Chechen and Kumyk villages in the area, intending to arrest them once they had all arrived. Opening the reception, Lisanovich strongly rebuked and insulted the elders in their own language. Then, threatening to punish them for treachery, he ordered them to give up their kinjals (daggers) -- an insufferable insult to a mountaineer’s manhood and pride. A certain Uchar Hajji Ya’qub refused to do so. Grekov lost his temper and slapped Uchar Hajji in the face. Within seconds Uchar Hajji hacked Grekov and two other officers to death and dealt mortal wounds to Lisanovich. However, before expiring the general managed to order Russian soldiers to kill all the natives. According to eyewitnesses, “the furious soldiers did not spare anyone in an oriental costume who caught their eye. Even three Georgians and several Greben Cossacks were killed.” (42)

For a little context, at this time the Georgians and Cossacks were on the Russians' side, but had uniforms similar to the Chechens (hence "oriental costume"). Whoops!

The second is from the early 20th century, once Chechnya had already been absorbed into the Russian empire. At this time the North Caucasus was considered something akin to the "Wild West" frontier of America, complete with oil booms, bandits and general lawlessness. There were a specific kind of Chechen bandit called abreks ("bandits of honor"). And there was apparently one who reached Robin Hood-like cult status:

The most famous abrek was Zelimkhan Gushmazukayev of Kharachoy (born January 1872), “who led the struggle against Tsarist autocracy between 1901 and 1913.” Officially admitted into the pantheon of “progressive” heroes by early Soviet historiography – later retractions could not undo this step – Zelimkhan has become the hero of both populist histories and oral folk tales. According to Dakha Gaisultan, “a local amateur historian who clearly liked this subject,” Zelimkhan’s career started when a “quarrel with the Russian-installed village head over a girl escalated into a blood feud”:

“Zelimkhan and his father were arrested and taken to Grozny by the Russians [...] Zelimkhan managed to escape, digging out of the prison and from then on lived in the mountains – he was an abrek. It was 1901. Everyone knew him and he could stay anywhere with friends, who would hide him and look after him. He started to fight against Russian soldiers, who were seen as invaders and Christian infidels, and whenever he needed men, he could find them.

One day he sent a note to the colonel at the Russian fort in Kizlyar and said ‘Don’t hide like a woman, come and meet me in Kizlyar.' The Russians laughed and said, ‘How could he ever get into Kizlyar, a fort?’ So Zelimkhan took sixty men and they dressed up like Cossacks and rode right into Kizlyar and robbed the bank. Before leaving, Zelimkhan left a note to the colonel saying, ‘I waited for you. Where were you?’ That was in 1907. He got back to the mountains and handed the money to his people and some to the orphans.” [Sebastian Smith, Allah’s Mountains. Politics and War in the Russian Caucasus, London: and New York, I.B. Taurus, 1998, p. 14.] (115-116)

Since Zelimkhan did reach folklore status, I'm not sure exactly how many of the stories about him are accurate versus exaggerated for drama's sake, but regardless I admire his flair!

I picked up a couple books from the sidebar reading list to bone up on revolution-era history and have a question about each.

I'm currently reading 'Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789' by Robert Middlekauf. I'm having trouble with writing style, it seems like it's jumping back and forth on different ideas quite a bit. Sometimes in the same paragraph. It's very slow reading because I have to reread a lot of sections multiple times to figure out what he's trying to say. I have an older copy and saw that there was a revised edition released. Is the writing flow better\different in the revised edition?

Second, I got 'America's Constitution: A Biography' by Akhil Reed Amar. In the author biography section of the Amazon page it says "He has been favorably cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in over 30 cases (citing to four different books and more than a dozen distinct articles)". I'm trying to find a list of where he was cited, but Googling has failed me.

For what reason is there confusion regarding Hitler's loss of a testicle/thigh wound?

The bulk of digging I've done just says "Either the leg or groin, with the possible loss of a testicle."

https://gunlord500.wordpress.com/2017/02/10/gunlords-dissertation-saga-episode-34-season-2-victory-approaches/

Not much to say for this week, but next week I'll have more: After waiting a few days, my profs just got back to me and said my second draft outline seems good, so send it in! I'm gonna go over it one last time to make sure everything looks good, then mail it to them :D

I need dead gods. I'm doing a thing, where the main characters are a bunch of gods of dead religions. I already have an Egyptian, a Celtic and an Aztec god and I need another four, from as many dead religions. I wanted to avoid filling the gaps with Norse, Roman and Greek gods, so... any good Manicheistic gods? Was there a pre-Shinto pantheon?

I'm currently trying to put together an impression. WWII American company aid man. I'm wondering if anyone knows if enlisted medics in Europe carried atabrine tablets to combat Malaria? I know they did in the pacific but i don't know about in Europe.

I want to learn more about what events shaped the modern world, both geographically and politically, that weren't covered in my US high school history classes. The best example of something I only know on the surface is how imperialism led to the current political situation in the Middle East and Africa.

What books can I read to put the rest of the world into context?

Does anyone know of a history-based or themed sub that's a little less strict about casual discussion/source-based speculation? I like discussing history and know a decent amount, but i'm no means an expert and any comments i'd post here would probably not be exactly the kind of stuff you're looking for unless I spend an hour looking for sources. Sort of a place for more history hobbyists/amateurs instead of professionals, like /r/everythingscience is as opposed to /r/science?

I am currently reading the works of Kautsky, Bernstein and Mattick. I think I will also be able to finish reading Hobson's Imperialism by Sunday.

I am wondering if anyone knows of a good book that maps out the history of the American colonies from the beginning to the American revolution. I am specifically interested in how colonists gradually saw themselves as 'Americans', as opposed to English, Irish, Scottish, etc. If anyone could recommend a book a would really appreciate it