I read Andrew Halpin's thesis, Archery and warfare in medieval Ireland: a historical and archaeological study about a year ago, but I went back to it the other day to refresh my memory regarding the types of arrowheads used in Anglo-Norman sites and the evidence for Anglo-Norman bows in Ireland. There's an interesting trend with Halpin's Type 7 arrowheads - the only reliably identifiable Anglo-Norman/English military arrowhead - where the socket diameter increases from 7-10mm in the High Middle Ages (8-9mm being the most common diameter), to 10-13mm in the Late Middle Ages. I'm trying not to make too much of this, as it fits a pet theory of mine and the sample size is much smaller for the Late Middle Ages, but it does indicate to me that there was an increase in military bow draw weight in the late 13th/early 14th centuries. I'll need to find more evidence beyond the circumstantial evidence I already have before making any firm conclusions, though.

Another interesting find was that a number of Halpin's Type 7 arrowheads (long bodkins) likely belonged to crossbow bolts due to their large (13mm+) diameter, and a couple which were probably from some form of siege crossbow or springald, as their sockets were 16mm or more. This has me wondering to what degree late medieval crossbow bolts, with their short, square bolts have influenced our views on earlier ammunition. Just how many heads from light crossbow bolts (and many crossbows with wooden probs would have used light heads) have been attributed to hand bows instead?

The bows are also interesting, with one Anglo-Norman shortbow, with what appears to be typical Norse influenced deflexed tips, a Norse-Irish longbow, also with deflexed tips, and what must be a child's bow. A further two Norse-Irish bows can be estimated from fragments to have been 140-150cm in length.

Taken with evidence for shortbows from 13th century legal records, I think we can safely say that 1) shortbows existed, 2) that they were used in a military context, 3) longbows also existed and were used in a military context and 4) the longbows were not necessarily the monster 150 pounders that are currently accepted.

So I'm jumping on the secession bandwagon and working on a thingy about it in the previous decades up to the modern day (not strictly speaking history; although that's a huge component). I'm good with the classic western cases like Quebec and most of modern european secessionist movements but I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find a definitive (such as it can exist) source narrating the causes and effects of:

• The breakup of Czechoslovakia

• The historic Kurdish independence movement

It's a tall order, especially because Kurdish independence takes different forms in different countries. But I thought I'd ask about it anyway.

Been working through Larry Koger's Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860 and it should be a whole lot more interesting than it is. The information's fine, but there's a lot of redundancy. It's past good callbacks and cross-references and into the "is this a stealth collection of previous papers?" zone. The meatiest chapters are better about this, but Koger argues against the Woodson thesis in one of them and manages to make the same argument like four times with almost all the same words and evidence.

It also bills itself as a history of black enslavers in SC, but 90% of the book is about Charleston. Down to the point where he names individuals and beaks them down by trades, which is all great detail but seems a bit much for a state-level survey. Then it would also make a bad microhistory because it's clear that Koger knows little about most of the individuals he names except their trades, household sizes, and property. That's what's in censuses and court records, fair enough, but the way he zeroes in on named people and then doesn't have a lot to say about them feels like the worst of both worlds between microhistory and a state survey. It's not a bad book at all, but the presentation is frustrating.

I've been looking for a good analysis of Eisenhower as allied CinC in Europe; is there like a stand-out there in terms of books to recommend?

Can anyone recommend books about the Troubles? Particularly '69-'75

If anyone could recommend good biographies (in terms of reliability and depth) about any of these historical figures, I'd be very grateful: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Ludwig II of Bavaria, Caspar David Friedrich, and Averroes. I've found more than one for some, but can't decide.

Has anyone read The Compleat Motherfucker or any other Jim Dawson books? Are they worth a read? They seem a little gimmicky, but I'm ok with that if there's some substance to them.