Full Width 
Shortcuts 
Sign Up 
Log In 
Articles 
Reading List More from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
This week we’re continuing our three-part (I) look at one of film’s most famous Roman battle sequences, the iconic opening battle from Gladiator (2000). I had planned this to be in two parts, but even though this sequence is relatively short, it provides an awful lot to talk about. As noted last week, this iconic … Continue reading Collections: Nitpicking Gladiator’s Iconic Opening Battle, Part II →
This week, we’re going to take a close look at arguably the most famous and recognizable Roman battle sequence in film: the iconic opening battle from Gladiator (2000). Despite being a relatively short sequence (about ten minutes), there’s actually enough to talk about here that we’re going to split it over two weeks, talking about … Continue reading Collections: Nitpicking Gladiator’s Iconic Opening Battle, Part I →
Hey all, we’re doing a Fireside this week! For this week’s musing, I thought it might be worthwhile – this being a frequent space for military history – to offer a brief outline of professional military education (PME) in the United States, which is to say the various stages by which US officers are academically … Continue reading Fireside Friday, May 30, 2025 (On Professional Military Education) →
This week, we’re doing another ‘silly’ topic, but this being me, it is a silly logistics topic, because – as the saying goes – amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics. So we’re going to be professionally silly this week and talk about the logistics of vehicle warfare in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting, in part because … Continue reading Collections: The Logistics of Road War in the Wasteland →
This week we’re going to do something a bit silly, in part because I have to prepare for and travel to an invited workshop/talk event later this week and so don’t have quite the time for a more normal ‘full’ post and in part because it is fun to be silly sometimes (and we might … Continue reading Collections: Alexander Goes West (A Silly Counterfactual) →
More in history
In 1984, Melanie turned 18. Margaret Thatcher was prime Minister and the UK was mired by the seismic Miners’ Strike (here, here, here and here). Home to Leeds for the Christmas holidays, Melanie’s daughter Victoria Gill was going through her stuff when she spotted two old boxes of photos under the bed. She found … Continue reading "Melanie’s ‘Average Weekends’ out in Leeds in 1984" The post Melanie’s ‘Average Weekends’ out in Leeds in 1984 appeared first on Flashbak.
On the Spot: Imaobong Umoren JamesHoare Mon, 06/16/2025 - 08:00
In Search of Homer and the meeting of like minds
Europe and the End of Old Java JamesHoare Mon, 06/16/2025 - 06:00
Jealous, vengeful, cruel, foreign, and with a fondness for snakes, Olympias has often been portrayed as a malevolent figure. More than two thousand years after she lived and died, it is impossible to know what she was actually like, but the actions of the mother of Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) were rarely without […]
