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This is the first half of the third part (I, II) of our long-delayed series looking at Hearts of Iron IV, Paradox Interactive’s World War II grand strategy game, easily one of the most popular historical games on the market today and thus tremendously influential in both the popular history and gaming spaces. Over the … Continue reading Teaching Paradox: Hearts of Iron IV, Part IIIa: Focusing on Politics →
Hey folks! Fireside this week! Last week’s post was a monster (over 10,000 words compared to our more typically ~6,000) which left me with some non-blog catching up to do. Next week, we’ll be starting our next Teaching Paradox series, this time looking at Hearts of Iron IV, which has been requested for quite some … Continue reading Fireside Friday, September 4, 2026 →
This is the first half of the final part (I, IIa, IIb, III, IVa, IVb, Va) of our apparently five-part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are organized, in particular exploring the principle that armies cannot help but recreate their civilian social structures on the battlefield. Last time we looked at … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part Va: Putting It Together →
Hello again all. It is once again the week of July 4th and so, as is customary here, I am going to use this week’s post to talk about the United States. This is going to be a bit more of an open musing than an argument as compared to previous years (2021, 2022, 2023, … Continue reading Collections: On the Declaration of Independence →
This week I want to try something a little different. Rather than taking apart a particular fantasy military system, I thought I might try to lay out a more general sense of how military systems tend to map on to societies, both because such general historical frameworks are handy for thinking about the past, but … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part I: Why They Fight →
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Nearly half a century later, Sony’s original MDR-3 headphones are making a comeback.
President Donald Trump, it seems, has some sort of odd obsession with obtaining Greenland. On several occasions in the 2020s he has offered to buy the ice-covered island from Denmark, and also threatened to take it. But American interest in Greenland dates all the way back to the beginnings of the Cold War. . Camp … Continue reading America’s Cold War in Greenland →
The 1970s are often remembered for their distinctive fashion, colorful cars, changing city streets, and evolving American culture. But photographs from the decade reveal another side of the country, where industrial smokestacks towered over residential neighborhoods, chemical plants lined waterways, and pollution was part of everyday life for many communities. These scenes existed alongside ordinary […]
In the past, authorities have authorized censorship on the basis of claims of substantial chances of social disruption or collapse if people were free to hear about religious heresy, alternate ideologies, sexually permissive art, losses in ongoing wars, looming disasters, and pandemic details.
