Rome didnt fall when you think it did Premodernist 2022-05-12 | Rome fell much later than most English-speakers realize. We have tended to be taught world history from an English point of view, which means we have traditionally dated the Fall of Rome to AD 476, even though the Roman empire continued on for a thousand years after that.Putting a date to the fall of Rome is tricky, because it depends on how you define "Rome." If you regard the Holy Roman Empire as a continuation of the western Roman empire, then you'd have to say that the Roman empire continued to as recently as 1806. But no one says that, because people have a certain idea in their head of what real "Rome" was.I think the most correct date for the fall of Rome is 1453, with the Ottoman capture of Constantinople. The Byzantine empire of the Middle Ages, with its capital at Constantinople, represented an unbroken continuation of the Roman empire of Antiquity.
In defense of the state flags Premodernist 2024-09-17 | The U.S. state flags have been unfairly maligned, and "Good Flag, Bad Flag" has been unjustifiably praised.Every time a state or city in the U.S. sets up a flag redesign committee, the members of that committee are given a copy of the pamphlet "Good Flag, Bad Flag" by Ted Kaye and directed to judge submissions according to its guidelines. There is, though, nothing scientific in that pamphlet's five principles, and some of the information it presents is factually inaccurate."Good Flag, Bad Flag": nava.org/good-flag-bad-flagTo learn more about Civil War regimental flags:New York State Military Museum: museum.dmna.ny.gov/flagsPennsylvania Civil War Battle Flags: http://pacivilwarflags.orgDigital Vermont: digitalvermont.org (enter "flag" in search box)ConnecticutHistory.org: connecticuthistory.org/hall-of-flags-memorial-to-connecticuts-civil-war-colorsDelaware Historical Society: dehistory.org/regimental-flags-of-the-civil-warI purchased the flag of Virginia here: store-dgs-virginia-gov.3dcartstores.com0:00 The flag redesign movement0:59 Origin of the classic state flag design7:25 CGP Grey7:45 Illinois10:02 New Jersey11:47 South Carolina19:38 "Good Flag, Bad Flag"20:34 "1. Keep It Simple"21:33 The state flags are easy to distinguish25:05 Complex flags are not harder to recognize27:42 Complex flags do not cost more30:33 Reversible flags33:57 Turkmenistan38:10 "2. Use Meaningful Symbolism"39:31 Navajo Nation43:03 "3. Use 2–3 Basic Colors"44:38 Virginia49:03 "4. No Lettering or Seals"49:17 States that put their name on their flag58:39 Not all text is bad, though1:04:33 Lettering is not hard to sew1:05:53 Flag lapel pins1:09:40 Seals on flags1:11:26 "5. Be Distinctive or Be Related"1:11:43 Indonesia1:16:46 Exceptions to the 5 Principles1:22:47 "Test Yourself"1:28:21 What's the point of this pamphlet?1:29:02 In defense of an older aesthetic1:31:58 Conclusion
Poland and the Renewal of the Roman Empire in the year 1000 Premodernist 2024-06-27 | What was Otto III up to?This video is part of a collaboration about early medieval Poland.M. Laser History's video: youtube.com/watch?v=phqnRzQgntYHistory with Hilbert's channel: youtube.com/@historywithhilbertCheck out the Museum of the Origins of the Polish Statehttps://en.muzeumgniezno.pl/youtube.com/@UCuXGeP9UO0y6-iR9T2WswBQ FOOTNOTES1. Gerd Althoff, Otto III, trans. Phyllis G. Jestice (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), 82; Roman Michałowski, The Gniezno Summit: The Religious Premises of the Founding of the Archbishopric of Gniezno, trans. Anna Kijak (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 223.2. Althoff, Otto III, 83; Michałowski, The Gniezno Summit, 225–27.3. Althoff, Otto III, 83–84; Michałowski, The Gniezno Summit, 228–40.4. See Anthony F. Czajkowski, “The Congress of Gniezno in the Year 1000,” Speculum 24, no. 3 (1949): 341; Althoff, Otto III, 85–86.5. For the life of Adalbert of Prague and the sources for it, see Ian Wood, The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe, 400–1050 (Harlow, Eng.: Longman, 2001), chapter 10.6. Czajkowski, “The Congress of Gniezno in the Year 1000,” 350, 352; Althoff, Otto III, 103; Andrzej Pleszczyński, “Poland as an Ally of the Holy Ottonian Empire,” in Europe around the Year 1000, ed. Przemysław Urbańczyk (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo DiG, 2001), 419; Tadeusz Manteuffel, The Formation of the Polish State: The Period of Ducal Rule, 963–1194, trans. Andrew Gorski (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982), 61.7. Gesta Principum Polonorum: The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles, trans. Paul W. Knoll and Frank Schaer (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2003), 34–41.8. Althoff, Otto III, 90–91.9. Althoff, Otto III, 99, 100–101.10. Czajkowski, “The Congress of Gniezno in the Year 1000,” 352, 355–56; Manteuffel, The Formation of the Polish State, 63, 75; Althoff, Otto III, 101; Michałowski, The Gniezno Summit, 188.11. Althoff, Otto III, 101.12. Althoff, Otto III, 90; Michałowski, The Gniezno Summit, 240–41.13. Thietmar of Merseburg, Ottonian Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg, trans. and ed. David A. Warner (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001).14. Michałowski, The Gniezno Summit, 104–105, 264. I was attempting to allude to passages like Rom. 16, 2 Cor. 8:23, and Col. 4:11.15. Czajkowski, “The Congress of Gniezno in the Year 1000,” 354–55; Pleszczyński, “Poland as an Ally of the Holy Ottonian Empire,” 421.IMAGE CREDITSMap of Holy Roman Empire in the year 1000Wikimedia user Sémhur, CC BY-SA 3.0commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holy_Roman_Empire_11th_century_map-en.svgComputer animation “Gród w Gnieźnie”Courtesy of the Museum of the Origins of the Polish StatePhoto of Drzwi gnieźnieńskie (Gniezno Doors), c. 1175Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Gnieznohttps://archidiecezja.pl/historia/drzwi-gnieznienskie/Image of Otto IIIEvangeliar Ottos III.BSB Clm 4453Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munichhttps://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb00096593?page=21Empress Zoe MosaicHagia Sophia, IstanbulPhoto by Wikimedia Commons user Myrabella, public domaincommons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empress_Zoe_mosaic_Hagia_Sophia.jpgImage of Henry IIPontifikale Benediktionale (sogenanntes Pontifikale Heinrichs II.)Staatsbibliothek Bamberg Msc.Lit.53, 2vhttps://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/CVYKOXPZAAFGNUMT273SXWT3SQDRMQMAPhoto of the Museum of the Origins of the Polish StateMuzPoczPansPol1.jpgWikipedia user Aung, public domaincommons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MuzPoczPansPol1.jpg
How academics can talk to pseudoarchaeology fans Premodernist 2024-05-07 | My thoughts on the recent Joe Rogan episode with Graham Hancock and Flint Dibble.The original podcast episode: youtube.com/watch?v=-DL1_EMIw6wFlint Dibble's followup: youtube.com/watch?v=--StG8FIrE8CORRECTION: I think I misremembered what Flint Dibble had said about shipwrecks. It doesn't affect the point I was making though.0:00 Intro1:18 Why call it pseudoarchaeology?5:17 Assume good faith10:18 Be patient if you've heard the claim before13:29 Marvel together17:01 Academia24:08 It's about the evidence30:00 Academics on YouTubeThe thumbnail (not including the two persons) is based on the image "The landscape of Atlantis" by Віщун, CC BY-SA 4.0commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_landscape_of_Atlantis.jpg
What wheelbarrows can teach us about world history Premodernist 2024-04-08 | I use the example of the wheelbarrow to talk about some general points about the history of technology, and the limits to our ability to reasonably make sweeping generalizations about individual technologies.0:00 Some people overestimate how necessary wheelbarrows are3:53 Technologies are only obvious in hindsight7:23 It's really hard to trace the origins of a technology11:44 Technologies have contextThumbnail image:La aldeanita del clavel rojoAdolfo Guiard, 1903Bilbao Fine Arts MuseumAccession number 82/31https://bilbaomuseoa.eus/obra-de-arte/la-aldeanita-del-clavel-rojo/commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adolfo_Guiard_-_The_Little_Village_Girl_with_Red_Carnation_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Time travel to medieval Europe - Q&A Premodernist 2023-12-28 | I answer questions that prospective time travelers raised in my initial briefing.A followup video, "How would a medieval European react to the present?", is available to supporters on Patreon: patreon.com/posts/how-would-react-99631718FOOTNOTES1. Eileen Power, Medieval Women, ed. M. M. Postan (Cambridge University Press, 1975), chapter 3; Diane Bornstein, The Lady in the Tower: Medieval Courtesy Literature for Women (Archon, 1983), chapter 6; Maryanne Kowaleski, “Women’s Work in a Market Town: Exeter in the Late Fourteenth Century,” in Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe, ed. Barbara A. Hanawalt (Indiana University Press, 1986), 145–64; Joseph and Frances Gies, Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1992), chapter 9; Jennifer Ward, Women in Medieval Europe, 1200–1500, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2016), chapter 6.2. Richard Goddard, “Female Merchants? Women, Debt, and Trade in Later Medieval England, 1266–1532,” Journal of British Studies 58, no. 3 (2019): 494–518, doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2019.4 .The topic of women as merchants is also briefly mentioned in Power, Medieval Women, 56; Kowaleski, “Women’s Work in a Market Town,” 147, 155; and Ward, Women in Medieval Europe, 88.3. Rémi Esclassan, Djillali Hadjouis, Richard Donat, Olivier Passarrius, Delphine Maret, Frédéric Vaysse and Eric Crubézy, “A Panorama of Tooth Wear during the Medieval Period,” Anthropologischer Anzeiger 72, no. 2 (2015): 185–99, doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2014/0442 .4. Edward Rosen, “The Invention of Eyeglasses: Part II,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 11, no. 2 (1956): 183–218, jstor.org/stable/24619648 ; Vincent Ilardi, “Eyeglasses and Concave Lenses in Fifteenth-Century Florence and Milan: New Documents,” Renaissance Quarterly 29, no. 3 (1976): 341–60, doi.org/10.2307/2860275 ; Amir Mazor and Keren Abbou Hershkovits, “Spectacles in the Muslim World: New Evidence from the Mid-Fourteenth Century,” Early Science and Medicine 18, no. 3 (2013): 291–305, jstor.org/stable/24269428 .5. William of Rubruck, The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, 1253–1255, trans. Peter Jackson (Hackett, 2009).6. Bernard Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West (Edward Arnold, 1986), 115, 189–91.7. Joseph R. Strayer, The Albigensian Crusades (Dial Press, 1971), 22–25; Walter L. Wakefield, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100–1250 (University of California Press, 1974), 66–67, 76–79; Malcolm Barber, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages (Routledge, 2000), 50–54.8. By the way, I’m aware of the irony of talking about the Romulans being the sneaky ones while showing images from “The Enterprise Incident.”9. Guy S. Métraux and François Crouzet, The Evolution of Science: Readings from the History of Mankind (Mentor Books, 1963), 205; A. G. Molland, “Medieval Ideas of Scientific Progress,” Journal of the History of Ideas 39, no. 4 (1978): 571–72, doi.org/10.2307/2709442 .VIDEO CREDITSStock footage by YuriArcursPeopleimages, chipleader, BlackBoxGuild, StockVideoEU, and perovaphotostock, courtesy of Envato“Immunization,” 2nd ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, [1955]“The Enterprise Incident,” Star Trek, directed by John Meredyth Lucas, Paramount, 1968“Day of the Dove,” Star Trek, directed by Marvin Chomsky, Paramount, 1968 IMAGE CREDITSAbrégé de la Chronique d’“Enguerran de Monstrelet” (15th century), folio 208Bibliothèque nationale de FranceThe Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1562)Museo Nacional del Prado, MadridRomans arthuriens by Robert de Boron (c. 1270–90), folio 158vBibliothèque nationale de FranceThe Cloisters Apocalypse (c. 1330), folio 5v, “The Court of Heaven”The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkThe Cloisters Collection, 19680:00 Intro1:01 What if you're a woman?5:49 What about a woman traveling alone?8:54 What about guns?10:33 Can I as an engineer talk to medieval engineers?10:57 Can I as a surgeon or doctor talk to medieval surgeons or doctors?11:44 Can I go as a journeyman?13:53 Health15:51 Would it be weird that I have healthy teeth?17:09 What if I have tattoos?18:53 What if I wear eyeglasses and can't wear contacts?22:03 Buddhism correction29:37 What if I have other non-Catholic beliefs?36:57 What if I am Orthodox?42:58 Aren't modern social classes the same as the medieval class system?47:10 What if I try to introduce modern technology?48:55 What if I tell people about democracy?49:21 What if I try to teach people modern science?51:35 Would medieval people even understand the concept of time travel?53:14 Should I be concerned about bears or wolves?53:27 Novels about time travelers visiting the Middle Ages54:32 Endnotes and credits
Happy Genghis Khan Day! (Why is Genghis Khan Day?) Premodernist 2023-11-14 | Genghis Khan Day is a national holiday in Mongolia. But why would they make a holiday honoring Genghis Khan?SOURCESChristopher Kaplonski, Truth, History and Politics in Mongolia: The Memory of Heroes (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), chapters 5 and 6.Nomin Lkhagvasuren, “Today’s Genghis Khan: From Hero to Outcast to Hero Again,” in William W. Fitzhugh, Morris Rossabi, and William Honeychurch, eds., Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire ([Media, PA]: Dino Don, Mongolian Preservation Foundation, and [Washington, D.C.]: Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution, 2009), 282–287.0:00 Genghis Khan Day0:42 Historical background2:50 Genghis Khan in the 20th century4:55 Genghis Khan after communism11:26 Historical narratives17:54 ConclusionImage of Genghis Khan statue by François Philipp, CC BY 2.0flickr.com/photos/frans16611/4673835675
Advice for time traveling to medieval Europe Premodernist 2023-11-09 | Watch this video before visiting the European Middle Ages.SUGGESTED READING• Steven A. Epstein, An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe, 1000–1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).• Urban Tignor Holmes, Jr., Daily Living in the Twelfth Century (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1952).• Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England (London: The Bodley Head, 2008).• Paul B. Newman, Daily Life in the Middle Ages (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2001).• Jeffrey L. Singman, Daily Life in Medieval Europe (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999).FAQ• What about traveling there as a woman?My advice applies to both men and women (except for the bit about clergy, obviously). Men and women will have to give the same amount of attention to constructing their backstory, including their marital status, because people will ask either way. Women went on pilgrimages. While most women (and men) worked on farms, women in towns did engage in economic activities like shopkeeping and weaving. It was rare for a woman to work as a long-distance merchant, but it did happen, typically as a widow whose husband had been a merchant.• But what about a woman traveling alone?When I said, "Travel in a group, don't travel alone," I meant it. Solo travel is not advised, regardless of gender. Even the medieval people themselves traveled in groups.CORRECTIONS• I said William of Rubruck was from the Netherlands but he was actually Flemish. Apologies to my Flemish viewers.• In the anecdote where William of Rubruck met the Buddhist monks, he was confused at first but he did figure out in the course of talking to them that they were not Christian. I misremembered the passage. So I'd say Buddhists would probably just be understood as pagans in medieval Europe.• The magic I discuss in the video is known as natural magic. There was also another form of magic I didn't talk about where you perform occult rituals to persuade demons to do things for you. That's known as demonic magic.0:00 Intro1:52 Health2:56 Personal safety7:49 Do not leave personal items unattended11:35 Money14:25 Where to sleep17:01 Where to eat17:57 Language barrier22:54 Social class24:42 Backstory30:22 Shopping30:47 What if you're not white?40:16 What if you're not Catholic?46:32 Witchcraft48:25 Arriving via time travel49:31 Time travel discretion51:49 More on witchcraft55:25 Medicine59:45 Good luck!
The Reluctant President: Reelecting George Washington Premodernist 2023-09-20 | George Washington did not want to be reelected in 1792, but he was anyway.Support my work on Patreon at patreon.com/premodernist0:00 Washington's decision to retire after one term4:18 Hamilton's proposals: Funding7:01 Hamilton's proposals: Assumption7:57 Centralization vs. state autonomy9:53 Hamilton's proposals: A national bank11:21 The underlying cultural divide14:10 The rise of political factions19:15 Naming the factions23:23 Loyal Americans vs. enemies of the Republic25:57 Jefferson's conspiracy theory29:58 George Washington was a Federalist31:29 Philip Freneau and the National Gazette36:02 Washington refrains from retiring36:47 The battle for the vice presidency43:25 Choosing the presidential electors46:22 Election results47:39 The legacy of 1792FOOTNOTES [1] Madison's account of the conversation is in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, 4 vols., (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1865), 1:554–59. It has also been published more recently in The Papers of James Madison (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia), Congressional Series, vol. 14. The meeting is discussed in Stuart Leibiger, Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999), 158–61.[2] Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, 7 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948–57), 6:358.[3] Freeman, George Washington, 6:148–51; John R. Alden, George Washington: A Biography (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984), 234.[4] Freeman, George Washington, 6:357–60. Donald E. Heidenreich, “Conspiracy Politics in the Election of 1796,” New York History 92, no. 3 (2011), 153–55.[5] Hamilton’s first Report on the Public Credit (January 9, 1790) is published in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (PAH), ed. Harold C. Syrett, 27 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961–87), 6:65–168, but the main text is on 6:65–110. It is summarized in Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin, 2004), 297–301. The Report on a National Bank (December 13, 1790) is in PAH, 7:305–42. The Report on Manufactures (December 5, 1791) is in PAH, 10:230–340.[6] Noah Feldman, The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President (New York: Random House, 2017), 338–39.[7] John Ferling, John Adams: A Life (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992), 302–04. He soon put them away to fit in better: Ferling, John Adams, 318.[8] Jefferson told Washington to serve one more year and then resign: Jefferson to Washington, 23 May 1792, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford, 12 vols., (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1904–05), 6:494. Jefferson’s statement to Washington that it’s all the Hamiltonians’ fault and everything will be fine once they’re out of office: Conversation on 29 February 1792, in The Anas, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 1:196–98, and Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (New York: Random House, 2012), 262.[9] Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 318–20.[10] A. F. Gilman, “The Origin of the Republican Party,” 1914, 4–5. Wisconsin Historical Society Library Pamphlet Collection, content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/tp/id/46379/rec/466.[11] Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 263–270; James Roger Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993), 10, 42–43, 276–277.[12] Jefferson to Washington, 23 May 1792, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 6:488–493; Meacham, Thomas Jefferson, 263–64.[13] Jefferson, “Conversations with the President,” 10 July 1792, The Anas, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 1:229; Freeman, George Washington, 6:360; Elkins and McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, 289–90.[14] Alden, George Washington, 250. Freeman, George Washington, 6:355–356.[15] Alden, George Washington, 297; Don Higgenbotham, “Virginia’s Trinity of Immortals: Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, and the Story of Their Fractured Relationships,” Journal of the Early Republic 23, no. 4 (Winter 2003), 534–39.[16] Jefferson to Madison, 1 October 1792, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 7:154.[17] Freeman, George Washington, 6:378–79.[18] For the New York gubernatorial election of 1792 and its disputed results, see Alfred F. Young, The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763–1797 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967), chapters 13 and 14, and John P. Kaminski, George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic (Madison, Wis.: Madison House, 1993), chapters 35 and 36.[19] Kaminski, George Clinton, chapter 37.[20] Kaminski, George Clinton, 230–32.[21] Kaminski, George Clinton, 232–33.[22] Election Law of 1792: en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Statutes_at_Large/Volume_1/2nd_Congress/1st_Session/Chapter_8
The boring truth about the Library of Alexandria Premodernist 2023-08-11 | Modern writers make different claims about who destroyed the Library of Alexandria. Some blame Julius Caesar while others blame a Christian mob or the invading Arabs. But who is really responsible for the Library's demise?Check out Al Muqaddimah's video: youtu.be/ZxwaSMfD8hoSupport my work on Patreon at patreon.com/premodernistThe image used in the thumbnail and chapter titles is "Incendie Alexandrie" by Hermann Goll, 1876 (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Incendie_Alexandrie_by_Hermann_Goll_1876.jpg)0:00 Introduction1:56 Two libraries3:49 The Museum4:25 Peaked in the 200s BC5:15 Decline8:55 Papyrus10:36 Julius Caesar16:05 The Serapeum20:46 Muslims21:08 Three pointsFOOTNOTES [1] For a reality check on what we do and don't know about the Library of Alexandria, see Roger S. Bagnall, “Alexandria: Library of Dreams,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 146, no. 4 (December 2002), 348–62. On the methods of acquiring books, see also S. Johnstone, “A New History of Libraries and Books in the Hellenistic Period,” Classical Antiquity 33, no. 2 (October 2014), 364–65.[2] Bagnall, “Alexandria: Library of Dreams,” 351–56; Diana Delia, “From Romance to Rhetoric: The Alexandrian Library in Classical and Islamic Traditions,” American Historical Review 97, no. 5 (December 1992), 1458–59.[3] The location of the Museum is not known for certain, other than that it was part of the palace complex and close to the harbor: P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 1:15; Delia, “From Romance to Rhetoric,” 1450. On ancient museums as temples to the Muses: Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 1:312–13.[4] Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 1:315.[5] Johnstone, “A New History of Libraries.”[6] Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 1:318–19, 333–35.[7] Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 1:86.[8] Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 1:85.[9] Bagnall, “Alexandria: Library of Dreams,” 358–59.[10] The view that Caesar's fire did not affect the Museum Library is based in part on the phrase “storerooms of books” in Cassius Dio (42.38). However, see Hendrickson's comments in “The Serapeum: Dreams of the Daughter Library,” Classical Philology 111, no. 4 (2016), 460–61.[11] Plutarch, Caesar 49.3; Gellius, Attic Nights 7.17.3.[12] Strabo describes the Museum at 17.1.8.[13] Lionel Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001), 47; Bagnall, “Alexandria: Library of Dreams,” 357–58; Hendrickson, “The Serapeum,” 461.[14] For an introduction to the Serapeum, see Hendrickson, “The Serapeum.”[15] Orosius says the book chests were emptied but doesn't say what happened to the books (Histories against the Pagans 6.15.32).
Medieval Arabic names had 5 parts, but no surname Premodernist 2023-06-29 | There have been many systems for naming people over the centuries, but English-speakers tend to be familiar only with their own system. While it is true that modern Western surnames evolved in medieval Europe, there were other even more complex naming systems in use in other parts of the world prior to that.In this video we take a look at the naming system used among Arabic-speakers in the Islamic Middle East prior to modern times.CORRECTIONS1. I messed up the Arabic on the Spongebob slide. I didn't use the right grammatical form for the word "minutes." That's pretty embarrassing, honestly. In my defense, the Arabic rules for number agreement are out of control. (Needless to say, I'm not fluent in Arabic. This is not news to any Arabic speakers watching the video.)2. The English word "camel" doesn't come from Egyptian Arabic. It comes from Phoenician by way of Greek. Phoenician and Arabic are both Semitic languages. In most Semitic languages the word for "camel" is some variation of "gamal," "gamla," etc.3. I didn't talk about how kunyas can also be laqabs. Not so much a mistake as an omission. When I made the video I just didn't want to add extra explanation when it was already pretty long. But in retrospect, after seeing some of the comments, I see that I was leaving out an important and interesting part of Arabic naming.
Why precolonial Africa didnt have the wheel Premodernist 2023-02-24 | "The conventional notion that Africans failed to employ the wheel because of lack of initiative or intelligence is intellectually unsatisfactory, not so much because it is racialist as because it is circular: Africans are supposed to have ignored the wheel because they were unenterprising, and the evidence that they were unenterprising is that they failed to adopt the wheel."---Robin Law, “Wheeled Transport in Pre-Colonial West Africa,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 50, no. 3 (1980), p. 2570:00 Introduction1:34 What's so special about wheels, anyway?6:02 Why didn't Europe adopt the camel?8:02 Trypanosomiasis and the tsetse9:32 Arid areas of East and Southern Africa without the tsetse10:30 Appeal to Africa specialists11:08 Cigarettes and penniesFOOTNOTES[1] K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 110[2] W. T. Jackman, The Development of Transportation in Modern England, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916), vol. 1, p. 22Edward Whiting Fox, History in Geographic Perspective: The Other France (New York: Norton, 1971), p. 34William H. McNeill, “The Eccentricity of Wheels, or Eurasian Transportation in Historical Perspective,” American Historical Review, 92, no. 5 (December 1987), pp. 1111-13For a somewhat contrasting view (that still shows water transport to be cheaper than land), see James Masschaele, “Transport Costs in Medieval England,” in The Economic History Review, 46, no. 2 (May 1993), pp. 266-79[3] Jackman, The Development of Transportation in Modern England, pp. 8-9[4] Jackman, The Development of Transportation in Modern England, p. 5McNeill, “The Eccentricity of Wheels,” p. 1111[5] McNeill, “The Eccentricity of Wheels,” pp. 1123-25Yi-Rong Ann Hsu, Clifton W. Pannell, and James O. Wheeler, “The Development and Structure of Transportation Networks in Taiwan: 1600–1972,” in China’s Island Frontier: Studies in the Historical Geography of Taiwan, ed. Ronald G. Knapp (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980), p. 165Heather Sutherland, “Geography as Destiny? The Role of Water in Southeast Asian History,” in A World of Water: Rain, Rivers and Seas in Southeast Asian Histories, ed. Peter Boomgaard, Verhandelingen van Het Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde 240 (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2007), pp. 27–70For an overview of maritime trade in this region, see Ng Chin-keong, Boundaries and Beyond: China's Maritime Southeast in Late Imperial Times (Singapore: NUS Press, 2017), chapter 1.[6] Richard W. Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975), pp. 22-25A. G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973), p. 72[7] Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa, pp. 71-75Robin Law, “Wheeled Transport in Pre-Colonial West Africa,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 50, no. 3 (1980), pp. 257-58[8] T. A. M. Nash, Africa’s Bane: The Tsetse Fly (London: Collins, 1969)Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa, pp. 71-75Ralph A. Austen and Daniel Headrick, “The Role of Technology in the African Past,” African Studies Review, 26, no. 3/4 (September 1983), pp. 170-171Marcella Alsan, “The Effect of the TseTse Fly on African Development,” American Economic Review, 105, no. 1 (January 2015), pp. 382–410 (passim)See also Law, “Wheeled Transport in Pre-Colonial West Africa,” p. 253[9] Paul Starkey, “A World-Wide View of Animal Traction Highlighting Some Key Issues in Eastern and Southern Africa,” in Improving Animal Traction Technology: Proceedings of the First Workshop of the Animal Traction Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (ATNESA) (Wageningen, The Netherlands: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), 1994), p. 74THUMBNAIL CREDITSComposite satellite image of Africa by NASA, public domaincommons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Africa_(satellite_image).jpg
The election of George Washington was weirder than you think Premodernist 2023-01-07 | The first U.S. presidential election in 1789 had none of the features Americans associate with elections today: no campaigning for the office, no political parties or conventions, no primary elections. Election Day was in January rather than November. The Electoral College was taken seriously rather than being treated as a formality. This was the only election in which a state was disqualified from participating. And there was only one issue at stake: whether the Constitution itself should be scrapped.The final results of the election were that George Washington received 69 electoral votes and John Adams 34, making them president and vice president, respectively. John Adams should have received at least 49 votes, but many of the electors who wanted to vote for him voted for other people instead because of a scheme that Alexander Hamilton helped create. So instead of Adams receiving 71% of the electoral vote as he would have, he only received 49%.0:00 Introduction0:35 Why 1789? Why not 1776?2:59 The procedure for electing the president6:41 How the states chose their electors8:54 The major election issue9:58 The New York debacle12:04 What the anti-federalists wanted16:46 The plot to prevent Adams from accidentally becoming president17:31 Electoral College results20:10 ConclusionFOOTNOTESDHFFE = The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections, 4 vols. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976–89)[1] Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969), pages 128–132Jere R. Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism: New Hampshire Politics and the American Revolution, 1741–1794 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970), page 210[2] Neal R. Peirce, The People’s President: The Electoral College in American History and the Direct-Vote Alternative (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968), pages 39–48Lawrence D. Longley, The Electoral College Primer 2000 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pages 18–19[3] New Hampshire: The New Hampshire Election Law, 12 November 1788, DHFFE 1:790Massachusetts: The Massachusetts Election Resolutions, 20 November 1788, DHFFE 1:510[4] Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, chapter 13Jere R. Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism, pages 210–214Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), pages 15, 35The image shown here is the mural “The Anti-Ratification Riot in Albany, 1788” created in 1935 by David Cunningham Lithgow, located in Milne Hall at the University at Albany.[5] Alexander Hamilton to James Madison, 23 November 1788, DHFFE 4:95William Tilghman to Tench Coxe, 2 January 1789, DHFFE 4:125Alexander Hamilton to James Wilson, 25 January 1789, DHFFE 4:148[6] James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 8 December 1788, DHFFE 4:109Edward Carrington to James Madison, 19 December 1788, DHFFE 4:115Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 31 December 1788, DHFFE 4:122A Marylander, Maryland Gazette (Baltimore), 2 January 1789, DHFFE 4:126Marcus Cunliffe, “Elections of 1789 and 1792” in History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2001, vol. 1, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2002), page 15[7] Tench Coxe to Benjamin Rush, 13 January 1789, DHFFE 4:140Alexander Hamilton to James Wilson, 25 January 1789, DHFFE 4:148Wallace & Muir to Tench Coxe, 25 January 1789, DHFFE 4:149-150Tench Coxe to Benjamin Rush, 2 February 1789, DHFFE 4:160Marcus Cunliffe, “Elections of 1789 and 1792” in History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2001, vol. 1, pages 13–15John Ferling, John Adams: A Life (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992), pages 298–299Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin, 2004), page 272[8] William Stephens Smith to Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1789, DHFFE 4:178John Trumbull to John Adams, 17 April 1790, DHFFE 4:290[9] Benjamin Rush to Tench Coxe, 19 January 1789, DHFFE 4:144Benjamin Rush to Tench Coxe, 5 February 1789, DHFFE 1:401[William Bradford, Jr., to Elias Boudinot], 7 February 1789, DHFFE 4:168Federal Gazette (Philadelphia), 9 February 1789, DHFFE 4:172[10] William Tilghman to Tench Coxe, 25 January 1789, DHFFE 4:149William Tilghman to Tench Coxe, 9 February 1789, DHFFE 4:172Benjamin Rush to Tench Coxe, 11 February 1789, DHFFE 4:173Elbridge Gerry to John Adams, 4 March 1789, DHFFE 4:190[11] Georgia's throwaway votes:James Seagrove to [Samuel Blachley Webb], 2 January 1789, DHFFE 2:438James Madison to George Washington, 5 March 1789, DHFFE 2:478[12] John Adams to John Trumbull, 7 April 1790, DHFFE 4:290–291John Adams to John Trumbull, 25 April 1790, DHFFE 4:291–292John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 20 July 1807, DHFFE 4:292–293John Ferling, John Adams: A Life, page 299John Patrick Diggins, John Adams (New York: Times Books, 2003), page 42Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, pages 272–273
Why didnt George Washington vote for himself? Premodernist 2022-12-06 | George Washington was elected president in 1789, but hardly anyone voted for him, including himself. The U.S. president is technically elected by electors rather than by eligible voters. Whereas in modern elections voters can still "vote" for a candidate on the ballot, in 1789 voters intentionally voted for electors, as in selecting the names of men to serve in the Electoral College.
Politely asking Genghis Khan to stop killing people Premodernist 2022-11-24 | In observance of Genghis Khan Day, I talk a little bit about Genghis Khan and his friendship with a Taoist monk called Changchun.SOURCEThere are two English translations of 長春真人西遊記 (Changchun's Journey to the West) that I am aware of. Both are in the public domain and available online:- Emil Bretschneider, 1888: archive.org/details/mediaevalresearc01bret/page/34/mode/2up- Arthur Waley, 1931: archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.43995Some have commented asking about availability of translations in other languages. To my knowledge, Changchun's Journey to the West has only been translated into English, Russian (Palladius, 1866), and Japanese (Iwamura, 1948).Thank you to B. Cichoszewski for preparing the Polish subtitles.
Were the Ottomans a Roman dynasty? Premodernist 2022-11-14 | The Ottomans considered themselves a continuation of the Roman empire. In this video I discuss how they could be understood in that way.This video was sparked by a comment thread under youtube.com/watch?v=NVkVG5CL-GoMy argument here is based on how the late Byzantines conceived of what it means to be Roman (Romans are people of Greek culture and religion, and the region where they live is the Land of the Romans). But there is one aspect of the Byzantine definition of "Roman" that I left out because it wasn't relevant to the Ottoman self-definition: the Byzantines believed that the Roman empire was first and foremost a Christian empire, and in fact the center and bulwark of the Christian faith in the world. Obviously the Ottomans did not see themselves in that light. In other words, the Byzantines and Ottomans disagreed on whether being Christian is a necessary part of being Roman.===================================FREQUENT OBJECTIONS IN THE COMMENTSThere are a couple remarks that keep showing up in the comments over and over again. Here are my responses.*COMMENT: "Rumi wasn't from Anatolia! He was from Central Asia/Afghanistan!"*In the English language, saying that someone is from a place doesn't always mean they were born there. It can mean a place where they currently live or where they have relocated to. For example, Barack Obama was 24 when he moved to Chicago, but we still say he is from Chicago. Rumi left Balkh at a young age (18 or 20 years old), and then lived in Anatolia for 50 years. According to the rules of English usage, it is correct to say he is from Anatolia.And honestly, why do you think he's called Rumi, anyway? Maybe you should take a time machine back to the 13th century and tell everyone there to stop calling him Rumi, too. What the heck?(By the way, if you want to hear about what Rumi's family was escaping from when they left Balkh, check out this video: youtube.com/watch?v=gGDKO5xuJow.)*COMMENT: "The France analogy is stupid! The French did the French Revolution to themselves! The Ottomans were outsiders who conquered!"*I have three thoughts on this:(1) If you listen to what I say in the video, you'll realize that this is irrelevant to my point. In the video I make the analogy in response to the objection that the Ottomans changed the "political ideology, political legitimacy, the legal system." For example, the Ottomans did not adopt the Roman legal code or carry on Byzantine court ceremonial. The basis of their legitimacy was different because unlike the Byzantine emperors, they were not self-proclaimed defenders of Christianity. Likewise, the basis for the French Republic's legitimacy was different, it changed France's laws and legal system, and it was no longer the defender of Catholicism.I was not saying, and do not now claim, that the Ottoman takeover was like the French Revolution in every respect.(2) Also, many commenters worded their objection in a way that betrayed some basic misunderstandings of the Byzantines and Ottomans themselves.(2a) *"The Ottomans were foreigners! They came from Central Asia!"* The Turks had been in Anatolia for 400 years at that point, the same amount of time that white people have been in North America.(2b) *"The Ottomans weren't ethnically Greek/Roman!"* That would not have mattered to the Byzantines. If the Turks had been Orthodox Christian instead of Muslim, then they would likely be regarded as one more in a long line of Byzantine dynastic usurpers and the 1453 takeover would not be famous today. The Byzantines didn't care about your genetics. They cared about whether you were Orthodox Christian. That said, by the 15th century the Turks and Greeks in Anatolia had mixed genetically. What made someone a "Turk" or "Greek" by that point wasn't their genetics but their lifestyle and family allegiances.(3) *"The French Revolution was an internal development!"* This comment betrays a nationalist's logic. You're categorizing how severe the change is based on whether the people doing it are members or non-members of a given national group. *That is not how premodern people thought.* That is modern thinking which assumes that people naturally sort into "nationalities" and that their "nationalities" (whatever that means) are the ultimate basis for political legitimacy. Under this thinking, a "Turk" (defined nationalistically) can never be a Roman emperor because he belongs to the wrong nationality. That is how people today think, but that is not how people in the 15th century thought.To give just one example of what I mean: In 1714 the British imported a German *who was not fluent in English* to be their king. Why? Because he wasn't Catholic. For the British, it was more important that their king be Protestant than that he be "ethnically" British. In other words, a Catholic Scotsman was for them more of an outsider than a Protestant German.
How the world got to 8 billion Premodernist 2022-10-24 | There are a lot of people in the world today, but there haven't always been. The global population was relatively small for millennia -- until a sudden surge of population growth in the past 200 years. We're now reaching 8 billion people, 10 times what the population was in the late 1700s, and 30 times what is was in the first century AD. How did we get here? What factors made it possible for the world to sustain such large numbers in modern times?This video previously had the titles "Where did all these people come from?" and "The world used to be a lot emptier".
Did people eat spoiled meat in the Middle Ages? Premodernist 2022-07-09 | There is a common myth (repeated even in classrooms) that Europeans in the Middle Ages wanted spices from Asia to cover up the taste of spoiled meat. What the heck? Who eats spoiled meat? Medieval Europeans were no more capable of or willing to eat rotten meat than any other human beings.I also mention in this video some of the ways medieval Europeans preserved meat without electrical refrigeration.Check out the Crash Course World History playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9Clips in this video come from* “Venice and the Ottoman Empire: Crash Course World History #19” uploaded by CrashCourse on May 31, 2012, youtu.be/UN-II_jBzzo* “John Green Gets Slapped, and Other London Fun” uploaded by A Sad Man, My Friend on February 4, 2013, youtu.be/2Ymbbi7htmo
The History of Iran: A Primer Premodernist 2022-04-24 | I summarize all the major dynasties of Persian history from Antiquity to the present day. Watch this video if you want to get an introduction to Iranian history, or if you've already done some reading but want to get an overview to see the whole picture.Timestamps:0:00 Introduction2:58 Elam3:50 Achaemenids6:14 Alexander the Great7:12 Seleucids8:37 Arsacids (Parthians)10:04 Sasanians12:24 Arab conquest13:07 Umayyads14:52 Abbasids17:56 Ghaznavids18:54 Seljuks20:09 Mongols23:09 Ilkhanate24:07 Timur25:28 Safavids28:45 Nader Shah29:22 Qajars33:57 Pahlavis35:57 Islamic Republic
The REAL reasons European colonialism was possible Premodernist 2021-12-20 | Contrary to popular belief, the European colonization of the Americas was made possible not by the Europeans having superior technology, but by the inadvertent introduction of pathogens from the Eastern Hemisphere that had not previously been present in the Americas.This accounts for the fact that when the Europeans were colonizing the Americas in the 1500s and 1600s, they were not also colonizing Africa and Asia (with a few exceptions). It was not possible for the Europeans to colonize most parts of Africa and Asia at the time, because the people there already had the same technologies and the same diseases that the Europeans had.Of course, Europeans did end up colonizing Africa and Asia, but not until the 1800s. This was suddenly possible then, when it hadn't been earlier, because the Industrial Revolution happened to begin in Europe then. Within just a few generations, industrial technology also spread to the rest of the world, but by then the Europeans and people of European descent had managed to establish their preeminence in world affairs.The economic, military, and technological superiority of the countries of Europe and of people of European descent traces back only as far as the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. Before that, Europeans had no advantages over the countries of Asia and Africa.
The Alaska Purchase – debunking a myth Premodernist 2021-08-01 | There is a common historical myth among Americans that the Alaska Purchase in 1867 was deeply unpopular -- that Americans didn't see any value in it and ridiculed it as "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox". But in reality there was widespread support for the purchase. Most of the newspaper reporting at the time was positive or at least neutral, and the treaty easily passed the Senate.There were three main reasons for American support for the Alaska Purchase:1. Americans and Russians did in fact know (contrary to the modern myth) that Alaska was rich in natural resources.2. Many Americans believed that control of Alaska would make it easier to trade with Asia. (Americans had been trading with Asia since colonial times.)3. Most Americans were in favor of annexing the British colonies north of the U.S. (what later became Canada), and they saw the acquisition of Alaska as furthering that goal.One point I didn't make in the video but is worth noting:The Senate passed the Alaska Purchase treaty 37-2. Some modern sources erroneously claim that the purchase "barely passed by one vote". Not true. The Constitution says the Senate ratifies a treaty with two-thirds of those voting, not two-thirds of all members. So the treaty got 95% of the Senate vote, well above the 67% necessary. The Alaska Purchase had bipartisan support during one of the most politically divided periods in American history.Support my work on Patreon at patreon.com/Premodernist
Persia or Iran? Farsi or Persian? Which one is right? Premodernist 2021-07-10 | The country of Iran used to be called Persia. Who changed its name and why? Also is the language of Iran Persian or Farsi? Is it okay to say "Persian"? Where do the words "Persian" and "Farsi" come from? I answer all these questions in this video.EDIT: Many Iranians are discovering this video (Welcome! Khosh amadid!), and some are upset by what I say here. I recommend they read this piece by Ehsan Yarshater, a distinguished scholar of Persian/Iranian history:web.archive.org/web/20160714205848/http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-article5.htmN.B.: Don't think that because some Iranians/Persians in the comments are objecting to the terms "Persia" and "Persian", that that represents all people of Iran or of Persian culture. Many Persians would prefer that Westerners use the term "Persian." Some prominent ones are named in the short article linked above, and I have also known Persians in my daily life who expressed this view. When Reza Shah issued that request to foreign governments in 1934, he created an unnecessary complication that makes it more difficult for foreigners to get to know and understand the Persian people.Sources for my claim that Reza Shah's request was a 'marketing gimmick':"The most visible name change came in 1934 when Reza Shah -- prompted by his legation in Berlin -- decreed that henceforth Persia was to be known to the outside world as Iran. A government circular explained that whereas "Persia" was associated with Fars and Qajar decadence, "Iran" invoked the glories and birthplace of the ancient Aryans." Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran (Cambridge, 2009), page 86"In terms of foreign policy, Reza Shah was determined to maintain Iran's independence and to restore its sense of national pride by elevating its stature in the world and insisting it be treated with respect. This was the motivation behind any number of his actions, from insisting on the use of the name Iran instead of Persia to banning photographs of things that were picturesque but might give an impression of backwardness (camels, for example) to breaking off diplomatic relations with countries if its newspapers published unflattering articles about him or his country."Elton L. Daniel, The History of Iran (Greenwood Press, 2001), pages 139-140
What was the Stone Age? Premodernist 2020-08-07 | The Stone Age was when people used stone tools, but that definition can be misleading. People didn't just use stone for tools, even though that is how the Stone Age is often depicted in popular culture. The Stone Age is called that because of all the materials people in the distant past used, stone is almost always the only thing that survives in an archeological site. Stone Age people in fact used a wide variety of materials, mostly organic.
