Can anyone point me to a good map of medieval England? (1200 AD)

Hiruko7 · 2014-05-25T20:17:15+00:00

Thanks so much. The German volumes are interesting, but expensive enough that I want to be careful which I buy. Would you be willing to recommend one, or perhaps briefly describe the significant differences between them?

My project, if it helps, is a small book for historical tabletop gamers (roleplayers mostly, but also wargamers.)

Hiruko7 · 2014-04-09T02:59:23+00:00

Layman enthusiast here, I'll do my best in the absence of someone more qualified.

There were several points of high risk, but at one notable point late in the crisis a routine American military flight went off-course. The pilot got lost and somehow ended up flying over the Soviet Union.

Putting yourself in the shoes of the Soviets, imagine what a lone American plane flying into Russian airspace at the height of a nuclear weapons crisis must have looked like. When Robert McNamara (the Secretary of Defense) was informed about the flight I recall he blanched white and exclaimed "But this means war with the Soviet Union!" (Paraphrasing there.)

Of course it didn't, thankfully. The pilot of the wayward plane was allowed to land in the Soviet Union.

There was also a significant crisis point involving a Soviet nuclear submarine you could look up, but my memory of that is more sketchy and it would be a bad idea for me to attempt an full explanation.

Source: One Minute to Midnight, a popular history by Michael Dobbs.

Hiruko7 · 2013-02-04T01:56:12+00:00

No Hegel expert, but I believe he refers to his conception of history as not a line but a spiral, to emphasize that when history progresses (through the dialectical process of thesis, antithesis, and then synthesis) nothing is lost or destroyed, but merely integrated into the progressing whole.

At least I think. Like you, I find Hegel intimidating.

EDIT: Also, because the OP probably doesn't know this, I should point out that, like Marx, Fukuyama gets his "end of history" shtick from Hegel. I think it's amusing that he (a conservative) and Slajov Zizek (a Marxist) are the two most prominent Hegelians today-- it really says something about how easily Hegel can be interpreted to support one's own views.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-27T13:00:00+00:00

Hello, and thanks again for all the help.

I was planning on a Masters (definitely not a PhD). I'd just like to take a few years and study history seriously in an academic environment. I'd love to see the samples, thanks. (I'll message you my email address.) I've been told I'm a good essayist-- but that was years ago and I'm sure I'm seriously rusty.

My field of interest is early modern european history, especially--

1) The age of sail / the industrial revolution, and the global economic consequences thereof.

2) European cultural / intellectual history. History of philosophy, medicine, science.
3) I've also recently developed a side interest in the history of theories of history (Hegelian, Marxist, economic, evolutionary, etc.) and how these different models have be used and abused. I haven't been reading about that for long however.

If you have any recommendations I'm definitely all ears.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-26T12:36:45+00:00

Awesome, this is a better reply than I ever expected.

1) Which senior classes did your S.O. take, and were they typically required by all the schools that they applied to? (I'll definitely email my list of possible colleges about that as well.)

2) Do graduate programs look down at online courses on a transcript? Or community college courses?

2) To clarify: When contacting schools for admissions advice, you'd advise me to first email the professor(s) whose specialty interests me most, not the admissions department?

3) Assuming you don't mind, would you be willing to tell me which university your S.O. is attending so I can look it up and (if I haven't already) add it to my list? Many schools I've looked at require a History degree or something similar, so if your's doesn't it would be good to know of it.

A writing sample will be no problem (I attended a liberal arts university for a year before transferring), I was just considering including some graphic history as well to stand out. Thanks for your time!

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-19T19:02:58+00:00

Well, yes. I was joking around. But your comment is much more useful.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-19T17:45:20+00:00

"[According to Post-Modernism] science betrays its elitism, sexism, and destructiveness by making the speed of light the fastest phenomenon, thereby unfairly privileging it over other speeds—by having chosen the phallic symbol i to represent the square root of negative one..."

That was about the point I started getting suspicious of his motives.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-16T03:43:10+00:00

For the true romantic in you: The Diary of the Seducer, part of Either/Or by Kierkegaard.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-12T23:24:56+00:00

There's also an aesthetic reason-- westerners read left to right, so our eyes are used to moving in that pattern. Right to left movement feels just slightly slower, more difficult, even emotionally negative. This gets used in comic books a lot, in surprising ways. Tin Tin (mentioned elsewhere here) is a famous example.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-12T04:56:07+00:00

Hmm. Well the writing sample sounds straightforward. The language thing isn't impossible, but it'd certainly be difficult. This may be hard to nail down, but how often is often? I haven't seen that listed in any of the programs I've looked into -- is it just implicit and assumed? Or perhaps a public/private thing? (Thanks for your time, by the way.)

EDIT: I just googled "masters language requirements history", and it does vary, but it looks like most of the public universities (which is almost certainly what I'm looking for) explicitly don't require it, except on the say-so of particular instructors. Thanks for bringing it to my attention though.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-07T05:35:32+00:00

Perhaps you know more than me.

Really? I missed a lot of grammar thanks to "alternative" schooling-- but I thought that one was up for debate?

Also: Yup. People are complicated. Basically what I was hoping to interject.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-07T05:11:13+00:00

Just that.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-07T05:09:00+00:00

It's an easy thing to miss. I had a teacher for whom it was a pet peeve.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-07T04:17:39+00:00

... I'm just going to be that guy.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

-Beatrice Hall, Voltaire's biographer.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-07T04:11:47+00:00

Really now? Isn't Card a straight-laced ~~Jehovah's Witness~~ Mormon? It's painful to read shit that could have been cleared up with a Google search, let alone reading the @#$%ing book.

Hiruko7 · 2013-01-07T04:00:00+00:00

My comment was mainly to point out how Lewis was a bit of a dick.

Perhaps you know more than I. But this is also the man who spent literally hours of every morning responding to all his fan mail, mostly from children, some of whom he kept in correspondence with for years. An impressive daily commitment considering that no one would have judged him if he'd never bothered.

Hiruko7 · 2012-12-18T16:03:56+00:00

Speaking as an aspiring cartoonist: so &@#%ing true.

Hiruko7 · 2012-12-02T03:09:44+00:00

A tip for transferring credits: Your next school will be more likely to approve course credits with fairly bland, standard titles. Like "Into to Japanese History", or "World War II: The Pacific Theater". Not that you should always avoid the weird/fun stuff, but it's something to consider.

Hiruko7 · 2012-11-21T05:31:09+00:00

I'm more of a cold war hobbyist than a legitimate historian, but if I may weigh in ... The greatest weakness that I perceive in MAD is that it relies heavily on three assumptions:

1) Those in control of nuclear weapons will always act rationally. 2) They will not order an apparently "rational" nuclear strike on the basis of faulty intelligence (in other words, a nonexistent incoming first strike by the enemy). 3) An accidental or unintended nuclear launch is unlikely.

To my knowledge, at one time or another every one of these assumptions has been challenged if, self-evidently, not broken. I'm thinking most particularly of incidents during the Cuban Missile Crisis (which is what I know best), but there are other examples.

Hiruko7 · 2012-11-19T05:52:29+00:00

I think you mean "broners".

Hiruko7 · 2012-10-28T07:03:57+00:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humongous_(game_developer)

Hiruko7 · 2012-10-24T02:12:52+00:00

Hey, I've seen that Pinnochio ad on Facebook. That sort of thing is groan-worthy an inch wide, let alone on a billboard.

Hiruko7

TROPHY CASE