The English language, Women and War, and the recent Huntsville tragedy

I don't mean to draw any connection between the last two items in the title--they just happen to be articles of interest I read yesterday.

A friend drew my attention to this article on The Dictionary of Old English project at Toronto, and another friend posted this link to a Medievalists.net masters thesis from last year. Worth looking at, I think. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Edginton and Lambert's Gendering the Crusades, and Deborah Gerish's article on gender theory and crusades studies, so I'm curious as to how Illston modifies the picture.

And, finally, some comments on the recent tragedy at Huntsville, imported here from the Wormtalk and Slugspeak blog--very trenchant commentary, and right on the button, I think. And a rather depressing article, and reactions, in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, on the same subject...I'll pontificate my own views later, but right now I have to get ready to go to campus and work on student papers all day, and prep for a discussion section on the French Revolution...

Some fairly recent military news of note...And the crusades

I've been pretty busy of late, and haven't kept up with the news as I wish. I'm trying to broaden out a bit, as well, and look at military affairs in general, in addition to just the same old Hundred Years War/Crusades stuff (not that that's boring, in any way, but variety is good...).

Here's an interesting article from February 11 on the debate over McGill's military R&D research programs. Well-written, makes you think. Not sure what about, but it makes you think.

On the other hand, this lengthy, in-depth discussion of the military investigations over Barg-e-Matal suggests some disturbing leadership trends in the U. S. Army. If the facts are as they are reported here, I can't say I'm impressed with the leadership and responsibility of some members of the Army command...Speaking of Afghanistan, however, the new strategy seems to focus on sparing civilians--minus that unfortunate air strike a few days ago. We will probably never reach the stage where there are "no civilian casualties" in war...

One of the biggest issues facing nations such as Germany, or so I've always understood, has been a lack of long-range strategic airlift capability (and after all, what would they need that for?). Given Germany's involvement in various NATO ops, however, that need has become apparent; unfortunately, it seems that the Airbus program is running into trouble...

Time was when I looked somewhat askance at women in the military, and I know this issue remains complicated in some aspects (as in the story below). But, if a woman wants to serve her country, she should be able to do that, be afforded some recognition of any special circumstances, and NOT be told to put her child in a foster home so she can deploy with her unit. At least they didn't court-martial her...On the other hand, from the army's perspective, you can't very well have individual soldiers deciding when they will or will not deploy, and I think that's valid too--you can't run a military that way. I wonder if the situation would be any different, though, for a single father in the same circumstance (not that it makes much difference).

Apparently Christopher Tyerman's massive tome, God's War, has not sated the public's fascination with the crusades. Tom Asbridge, a fine scholar in his own right, has published a nearly-800-page book on the crusades, reviewed in The Guardian here. I wonder if he's still as critical of Richard I's generalship as he was in Avignon, when I was on a panel with him...Eh, that's another story.

Now, I don't answer for the opinions or phrasing of this article, which presents a politically-charged summary of revisionist crusades scholarship, but it is worth perusing because a) in very broad strokes, it's hews more-or-less to an accepted interpretation, and b) it highlights the difficulties we crusades scholars face in providing a nuanced interpretation, revising the old knee-jerk "crusaders-were-animals" reaction, without getting sucked into this kind of religious/cultural posturing.

The crusades were still popular in the 1700s, as Gluck's opera Armide suggests. Here's a review of a recent performance...

Fifteenth Century Conference 2010

This in yesterday from Adrian Bell, at the University of Reading:

We want to draw your attention to the call for papers for the Fifteenth Century Conference to be held at the University of Southampton, 2-4 September 2010.

Proposals for papers or sessions on any fifteenth-century topic are welcome. However, it is intended that sessions will reflect a particular focus on social and economic history (broadly conceived), and the theme of England’s wars 1399-1500 (as a follow up to the England's Wars 1272-1399 conference last year).

More details are available here:

http://www.soton.ac.uk/history/news/conf-02-09-10_fifteenth.shtml

War elephants

Here's an old, but still useful, article on war elephants, courtesy of the History of the Ancient World blog/news forum. I always feel that "elephant" is a funny word. In fact, I recall this really, really old joke book on elephants, called, appropriately enough, the "elephant joke book." Silliest jokes you've ever heard, but some were really funny, I think...if I could only remember them.

Here endeth the first lesson, as it is said. Yeeaaaah, pretty deep for a Wednesday, as you can tell.

Credit Finance in the Middle Ages (workshop at U of Reading)

This just in from Adrian Bell, at the University of Reading:
(more details can be found here.

Medieval Credit Finance/Sowing the Seeds II

ICMA Centre, University of Reading, 30 March 2010

The Middle Ages are popularly seen as a period of economic stagnation. In fact, historians have long been aware that there is ample evidence for innovative economic and financial developments. For example, bills of exchange and the growth of pan-European merchant societies contributed to an expansion of long-distance trade, while governments consolidated their authority and increased their revenues by establishing systems of direct and indirect taxation. At the same time, tools developed for modern financial and economic analysis have the potential to expand our understanding of the medieval economy, where it is possible to reconstruct appropriate data sets from the surviving medieval sources. There is thus considerable scope for collaboration between medieval historians and economists and this one day seminar will showcase recent research, with the aim of encouraging future projects.

The seminar is presented in two parts, and participants are welcome to attend the morning, the afternoon, or all day - just let us know your preference. There is no registration fee (and lunch and dinner is provided for delegates) but please note that places at the morning session ('Sowing the Seeds II') and the conference dinner may be limited; lunch and dinner will only be provided for those who have registered in advance. Anyone interested in attending should contact Dr Tony Moore (t.moore@icmacentre.ac.uk) as soon as possible.

It's GROUNDHOG DAY!!!!!!!

The seer of seers, the prognosticator of prognosticators, has declared six more weeks of winter!!! Boo-hiss, as someone I used to know would say...Apparently, Punxsutawney Phil has several rivals, among them Staaten Island Chuck, who didn't see his shadow--but we all know that Staaten Island doesn't count (for much of anything...who said that!?). Some great pictures from this charming but ridiculous ritual.

Apparently it's Candlemas. Who knew? I suspect quite often that modern ignorance concerning the liturgical year is a more serious handicap to understanding the Middle Ages than we know...

A few new medieval links, and some news...

A few recent databases and catalogs to which I was introduced the other evening by a friend:

The Morgan Library and Museum has digitized their manuscripts, and I can't wait to explore the collection...

France might lack organization in other aspects of government and society (that's more an observation than a judgment), but academically the French government has its act together. The Ministry of Culture has a web portal for all museum holdings and catalogs in France. Vive la France!


And apparently a major conflict archeology study has been completed, or nearly completed, and the true location of Bosworth field is about to be revealed. Among the speakers will be familiar names, such as Anne Curry, Matthew Strickland, Steve Walton, and Robert Hardy.

Also from Medieval News, something about which I know virtually nothing: medieval Sweden. Apparently the major Swedish statesman Birger jarl is having celebrated his eighth centenary. There's even a facebook group about the event--sobering to think that, less than a decade after it was created, Facebook has become the benchmark of whether an event is "noteworthy."

Just to follow up on that thought for a moment, I'm one of the "first wave" of college facebook users, since Rice was one of the first batch of schools to be allowed access to the site after the Ivies. Memory fails as to when exactly I joined, but it must have been in the autumn of 2004, since I had my own individual dorm room, and I believe the site was opened up around June or so. I recall one of my roommates berating me for not being more technically and socially savvy, and creating an account for me right there. How times have changed...The younger generation soon won't be able to remember a time without this tool. And it remains a very useful tool, I think.