The. Book. Manuscript. Is. Out. The. Door.

phew!

I hate writing fellowship applications. The instructions are so often ridiculous: "In no more than 500 words tell us what your dissertation topic is, your argument, a chapter outline, its historiographical contribution, how it's relevant to today's world, what your plans are for the next year, how you will budget your stipend, and how you're a good fit for this fellowship. We will need 4 letters of recommendation. One of these letters must be from your advisor, who you know has still not read the chapter draft you submitted 3 months ago because it remains unmarked at the top of a coffee-stained stack of papers on his desk. As you write this application, please keep in mind that failing to gain this fellowship means you will be penniless for the next academic year. The deadline is Jan. 31 at midnight; applications received at 12:01 will be tossed in the trash. We look forward to rejecting your application."

But seriously, any one have some tips? The one I'm working on right now is particularly tough because it's a 2-page statement of interest and not the typical 5-7 page research project description. The hardest part for me has been trying to distill my entire dissertation down into one, maybe two, very concise paragraphs.

Also, can any one enlighten me as to what should be included in a statement of interest? I'm assuming it's written more along the lines of a personal statement than a project description; in other words, there should be a greater emphasis on why you want the fellowship, how you make a good fit for it, etc. rather than the nitty-gritty of your research.

I'm in the process of writing up a grant proposal to purchase a drone to fly at Los Guachimontones. Hopefully I'll be able to fly it this summer.

So I'm in Tainan at the moment and just did a grand tour of the forts in the area:

1. The Sicao Battery, a coastal battery built in 1840 during the Opium War;
2. The Anqing 'Small Fort', ditto;
3. The Anqing Old Fort, formerly Fort Zeelandia, the Dutch fort lost to Koxinga's Ming loyalists in 1662;
4. The 'Eternal Golden Castle', a Qing star fort built in 1874; and
5. Chihkan Tower, formerly Fort Provintia, the Dutch fort lost to Koxinga's Ming loyalists in 1661.

The state of preservation, given the amount of Qing-era reconstruction over the Dutch forts, was genuinely quite impressive, and although there's obviously a little bit of Koxinga hero-worship I didn't find much to object about on the narrative front. English translations were a bit shoddy but I got by on the Chinese text.

Would there be any interest among folks who browse the sub in a in-depth post on how to pursue a career as a historical interpreter for the National/State/Local Parks and the things you need to consider carefully before doing so?

It's the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 8 today! I don't have any cool facts to share about it because it's really not my area, but I thought it worth noting a major anniversary of humanity's first trip to the moon.

I also recommend the old-ish HBO series From the Earth to the Moon. I dunno how accurate it is but it's damned fine entertainment.

Hello all-

As usual, I can't resist rhapsodizing here about the wonders of toldinstone.com, a website that explores (mostly ancient) history through buildings and monuments.

Unfortunately, my progress on the current building (the great Theater of Ephesus) has been stalled by a time-consuming book project, so I have no new material to share.

I would, however, encourage anyone intrigued by my recent post on Colosseum "tickets" to check out the Colosseum page in my History of Rome in 15 Buildings.

All the best

Expert historians: If you could ask one question from a common person living in your chosen era and geographic region of study, what would it be?

Hello historians. I have a question that I guess must be asked a lot but ... Couldn't find anything in the subreddit's sidebar. What would you recommend as starting material for someone looking to get into History in general ?

I'm not necessarily looking to get into the nitty-gritty stuff, or to focus on a particular era or region but I would like to learn more. Most of what I already know comes from either Paradox games or the Crash Course World's History series on Youtube (plus my high school classes but it's been a while).

Anyone have a decent recommendation for a book all about random, interesting historical tidbits?

I had a very quiet Christmas. One pleasant feature was an unusually fine turkey which a friend gave me. I drove him to the county-seat, a distance of only thirty miles, to arrange bail for his brother, as he had no means of transportation himself, and he seemed to think he was obligated to do something in return. He offered me a turkey, and when I refused to accept it for so trivial an accommodation, he brought it over that night, walking more than a mile and carrying it, and practically forced it on me. And I believe it was the fattest, finest turkey I ever set tooth in.

I didn’t even have anything to drink Christmas, but a few weeks later I more than made up for it. In fact I got on the biggest bat I was ever on in my life. It sneaked up on me, too, so to speak, for when I started out I had no intention of anything more than a mild souse. It was the first time I’d been lit for about eleven months. But my jags are few and very far between. A friend and I started out for a county-seat in a county to the south of here, and I took on a fair cargo of beer before we left Cross Plains. On the way we destroyed about a pint of hill-country rot-gut, and when we got to our destination we fell in with some friends and got a pint of bottled-in-bond which three of us lapped up in short order, I drinking most of it. Then we got a couple more pints, which quickly followed the others, and from that point my recollections are very hazy. I know that we were all soused to the hilt, and that one of the party, a six-foot-one, 220 pound giant, went on such a tear as not even the hill-country often witnesses. He smashed all the glass-ware he could get his hands on, he shot the panels out of the doors, cracked a few windows, threw a few slugs through the light bulbs, and altogether, shot up the place pretty thoroughly. He was on the damndest roaring tear I ever saw. I have a vague recollection of coming to grips with him, but how or why I don’t remember. I do know that during the melee I heaved him bodily off his feet, but before I could throw him, just as I got him on my shoulders, all the liquor got in my legs and they buckled, and we came down on the floor together with a crash that must have shaken the roof, and nearly shattered my knee. I limped for a month. And from the way I felt the next day, somebody must have tried to stave in my ribs with a gun-butt some time or other during the revel.

• Robert E. Howard to H. P. Lovecraft, Jan 1935

This was almost the final Christmas for Howard - and perhaps as fine and picturesque an anecdote as any for the creator of Conan the Cimmerian. When we come to the death of the year, my mind turns to these old ghosts...because however vividly they lived and loved, worked and suffered, the story always ends the same way. In 1936, Howard was dead. The next year, Lovecraft was dead. And though their parts in it may end, the story goes on...

For anyone interested in Leo X or church history in general, I came across an amusing article detailing Leo X’s relationship to his favorite pet, a small white elephant named Hanno. Its short and worth the read.

Are Albanians Illyrian? When you look at comments on youtube all of the Albanian kids say they are but I always thought that the Ottomans sought of "moved" their own Turkish people to that region. Is this true?

JFK was assassinated by an American with known ties to Russia. How is it the situation didn't spiral out of control?

After 9/11 we invaded Iraq, I feel like if JFK was assassinated in today's climate we would have gone to war with someone over it.

Any recommendations for a Book on the east india company army?