USA Weren’t United
It happened only later on.
History
Collections: The Nitpicks of Power, Part III: That Númenórean Charge
Do not make shit up if it already exists. “this has been a theme of these posts but please, showrunners: when you are doing the visual design for a fantasy-historical society, you are not going to outsmart centuries of professional… Read More »Collections: The Nitpicks of Power, Part III: That Númenórean Charge
Putting the Middle Ages in Perspective
You are probably thinking wrong about Middle Ages.
New Acquisitions: Lannister Infantry Kit Review
Organization matters. “All of those tasks, in turn, require hundreds of literate, expensive bureaucrats to administer.These are not compatible systems. You can have your bannermen call up their retinues, or you can hire long-service professionals, but you cannot have your… Read More »New Acquisitions: Lannister Infantry Kit Review
New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part III
Castles were important in the middle ages. And not just because of foreign threat. “Castles – in the absence of castle-breaking cannon – shift power downward in this system, because they allow vassals to effectively resist their lieges. That may… Read More »New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part III
New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part II – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
This also goes for people today. E.g. terrorist. They believe the shit they talk about. “What I think this show has fallen into is the assumption – almost always made by someone outside a society looking in – that the… Read More »New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part II – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part I
People do not change that fast. “How we view the past has a tremendous influence on what we think about the present. In particular, the tendency to view the distant past as a time of unrestrained barbarism provides us with… Read More »New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part I
Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta. Part VII: Spartan Ends
You cannot win a war without strong economy. “Because Sparta produced so little of value, the Spartan state simply lacked the funds to supplement its operational capabilities. It could not afford foreign siege engineers or experts (an increasingly dire liability… Read More »Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta. Part VII: Spartan Ends
Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta. Part VI: Spartan Battle
Spartans weren’t super warriors. “Part of this, to be fair, is about time – tactical sophistication increases quite a bit from 500 to 50 B.C. But that’s the thing about judging the Spartans – the claim is often not “they… Read More »Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta. Part VI: Spartan Battle
Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta, Part V: Spartan Government
Having an assembly does not mean you have democracy. “I want to note this up front because it is important to recognize that the existence of a popular assembly does not make a Greek polis a democracy, nor does the… Read More »Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta, Part V: Spartan Government