Occasionally you stumble on a book that matches your current research interests startling well, and luckily enough that happened to me recently with Matthew Symonds Protecting the Empire, which is (apparently) the first monograph study of Roman "fortlets" (basically small scale defensive structures, he calls them "outposts" often which gives the idea). It's fantastic so far, an excellent combination of really thorough documentation with some vivid evocation of ancient life (I was really taken by his description of subsistence strategies, although I suspect the parts about the sex trade will raise the most eyebrows). There is a lot I will need to mull over, but I'm left with two thoughts that seem to have implications that are outside the book's scope, and I haven't fully digested.

1. The Roman army produced just a gobsmacking amount of documents. I sort of knew this already and even had some familiarity with certain sets of it but it is really striking to see it laid out in front of me. There are entire shelves of books on the Roman economy that would be rendered instantly obsolete with this level of documentation of, say, mercantile activity. Survival biases exist sure, but the disparity still Says a Lot About (Roman) Society, I'm just not sure what.

2. I feel like the implications of the research on this topic should reopen some debates on Luttwack. Not saying that because these fortlets seem awfully well situated when taken altogether, therefore there was a grand strategy, but I'm also not not saying that.

Granted I have been pretty disconnected from Roman military studies, so it is possible these observations are completely banal!

Hey y’all, I am writing to you for advice on a career in academia. I have a bachelors in history and was intending to get my masters and PHD but became discouraged due to market prospects. I spent most of my undergraduate preparing to continue my studies but I got cold feet and decided to try my hand in the workforce. I work at a bank and I despise it. (I am thankful to have a job in these difficult times though).

I yearn to contribute to my field of study and, in the process, learn and become an authority in the topic. It is my dream job to work in a university and teach and write. I keep trying to find alternatives and always come back to this.

I suppose I am writing for advice on what to do. I really don’t know where else to turn. Is the market for history graduate students as bad as I’ve been told?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good overview about Sudan? I'm a middle school teacher and our new curriculum has a heavy focus on Sudan in the first part of the year. I know all of the basic stuff, but I'd like a little bit deeper knowledge before we start teaching it. Thanks in advance!

I just learned that I've been invited to serve on a committee related to historical collections in libraries! It's in the scholarly communication department of the organization.

What's your historical "team" that you're on?

We all have biases and will side with one faction over the other. Are you Team Rome or Team Gaul? Team Persia or Team Greece?

For me, I'm unrepentantly Team Teutonic Order. Especially over those spotlight hogging Templars. The Hospitallers have a close silver medal, though.

I'm currently in a tabletop war game campaign refighting the Norman Conquest of Italy. I am leading the Stormin Normans as we take a tour from one end of the boot to the other. My brave opponent is endeavoring to stop me. Both of us would be having a much easier time if we didn't have just appalling luck. Last game saw me roll 7 double one's in a row and I still one. My opponent got multiple rerolls at one point and managed to fail everything.

It's less a glorious conquest and more accidental victory.

What would you say is mandatory reading for someone who wants to study History at the graduate level, regardless of their specific area/period? I’m thinking not only about historiography but anything that constitutes truly very well written examples of academic work in History.

Does anyone have any book recommendations for iron age Britain, especially hill forts, especially in south west england, especially books of the 'accessible overview' variety?

I like visiting them and I was thinking after lockdown ends it might be fun to start a youtube channel about them, but if I was going to do anything like that I would want to have at least a passing familiarity with the current academic thinking.

In terms of casualty rates, were American Civil War battles actually not bloodier than past wars like the Seven Years' War or the Napoleonic Wars?

I found this graph that compares different wars from the Thirty Years' War to the Second World War, and it has a source, but I'm not sure if the graph is reliable.

Hello, I have been learning all about world war 2 and in my research I learned that only one opposing person was against the war even after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I also saw that after the attack 97 percent of people were for the war. My question is what about the remaining 3 percent? Is there any news for why these people were still against it?