I've been reading through Rictor Norton's critique of social constructionism in queer theory -- so far I am agnostic on it, but he has a knack for drawing from court documents that draw a vivid impression of a case. One of the Old Bailey proceedings he cites is from the trial of John Bowes and Hugh Ryly for sodomy in December 1718:

The Evidence for the King was Gerard Fitzgerald, who deposed that having been in company with one William Burridge, and going late home between 1 and 2 O' Clock in the Morning, being in Covent Garden, William Burridge said to him do you see the sport going on, shewing him as they thought (being at a distance) a Man kissing a Woman against the Church Rails, upon which he said let's go see what for a Madam he has got there, but being answer'd no, since we make no sport don't let's spoil any, they staid a little while till they thought they had done, then making up to them found the two Persons Mr. Riley undermost and Mr. Bowes upon him, Mr. Bowes Breeches being down about his Heeles, but Mr. Riley being nimbler had made a shift to shuffle his Breeches up by that time they got to them; that Rallying them for so vile a practice Mr. Bowes reply'd Sirrah what's that to you, cant I make use of my own Body? I have done nothing but what I will do again [...]

(Italics mine.) Norton frames Bowes' defense as the product of Enlightenment philosophy and an indication of an already-developing sense of identity, but I'm just struck by Bowes' apparent self-possession in this account. Both men were ultimately acquitted of sodomy, and it's not clear to me if anything of the sort did transpire between them, but if it did I appreciate the nerve of it all.

Anyone else use Mendeley and having to deal with this absolute bullshit of the past few days? The entire platform seems to have shit the bed, and they have been incredibly non-communicative about any time frame for fixing it.

This is supremely frustrating. And to think I was nearing the end of my free 2GB and considering paying them for more storage...

I wanted some feel-good reading, like towards the end of Battle Cry of Freedom or The Two-Ocean War (Morison's one-volume history of the US's naval World War 2). So I checked out Lenin's Tomb. From the introduction:

As this book goes to press in April 1993, ... a confidence that the former subjects of the Soviet experiment are too historically experienced to return to dictatorship and isolation.

sigh

I think I've noticed people on here say that resources on Romani history and culture aren't that easy to find, so thought you would be interested to know of two new books in the UK which I coincidentally found out about on the same day this week:

1)The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain by Damian Le Bas is described as "arguably the first literary exploration of Anglo-Romany culture by a Traveller" in a Guardian feature article here (and it must the first to come from a major publisher and get this sort of coverage); it has been serialised on Radio 4 Book of the Week. (A couple of days later, Le Bas had a Long Read essay in the Guardian too.)

2)Later I was looking at early modern histories by David Cressy when I noticed that he has a new book Gypsies: an English History out in July.

Then whilst preparing this post, and trying to find out how standards on terminology differ by country (given comments in other AH threads, and both of these books using the word 'gypsy' in the title) I found out that it's a particularly appropriate time for the books to be published, as June is also UK Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month. The Holocaust Memorial Day website has a page for the history month which includes links to some histories of the Porrjamos.

Can anyone recommend any good documentaries, articles, etc on the Nuremberg Trials?

So, I was browsing questions and found this one by /u/PangeranDipanagara about the sizes of Mississippian chiefdoms relative to their population.

Why were some Mississippian polities so large and so underpopulated?

It's such an interesting question and the details are so well constructed, it's kind of a shame it didn't get an earlier answer. The lower population does seem odd considering high-population areas like the past Cahokia and adjacent Apalachee. I've tried thinking of solutions related to politics, but the root of the problem is just trying to understand why this region as a whole was so under a potentially high carrying capacity.

I've got myself a Japanese book that includes an English translation, and the curious thing is that the English side open from left to right, while the Japanese side opens from right to left, or what we usually think as back to front. The page numbers for both sides start from page 1, so....how do I properly cite the right page number?

What are the best books on Statecraft akin to The Prince ?

Just finished Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson. My question is how do I find out what more recent historians feel about his work, or any work really?