I sent out a quick tweet about this subject but I thought that I would follow that up with a post about what my point was. I listened to this really well produced and informative podcast on the 1848 revolutions in Europe from the always informative In Our Time hosted by Melvyn Bragg. During the podcast the distinguished academics discussed how the notion of revolution spread quickly across Europe carried by steam ships and telegraphs; the social networking tools of the day. By a serendipitous chance I was also reading an article in Wired about the new networked rioters that have appeared thanks to social networking tools. Neither of these 'events' claim that social networking started the disturbances only that they helped spread or enlarge the riots. The Wired article was very good at looking at how social networking like Twitter, BBM, etc can contribute to rioting and demonstrations; particularly how they can be used by malcontents to counter police tactics. The connections between the two stories really stood out and made an interesting comparison about about how social disturbances develop, how mobs take over, how problems spread, etc. The 1848 revolutions eventually lost impetus and failed in the short term. The recent disturbances in the UK, USA and Europe have had some short term impacts but have really not impacted politically in a major way like 1848. I can recommend both these articles as an interesting way to see how a historical event can still have parallels in modern times.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Friday, 20 January 2012
400 Gurkha positions to be cut in the British Army as part of cost cutting measures
(Source: Channel News Asia story)
As part of the most recent rounds of cost cutting in the British defence establishment the 3500-strong Gurkha presence in the British Army is to be reduced by 400 positions. The best quote is:
"When they needed troops for battle, the UK government recruited hundreds and thousands of Gurkhas for their service but they have decided to cut numbers in the name of reducing defence expenditure," said Gajendra Isbo, of the Kathmandu-based Gurkha Army Ex-Serviceman's Organisation.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Monday, 02 May 2011
Vale Richard Holmes
(From http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuchet/castle.html)
I awoke this morning to the sad tweet from Adrian Murdoch, of the superb Bread and Circuses, that the distinguished British military Historian Richard Holmes passed away on Saturday, 30 April 2011. The Telegraph's obituary is here (Hat Tip to Adrian Murdoch's Tweet) and there are tributes to be found here.
If you have even a passing interest in military history then you have probably read, listened to or watched Richard Holmes. I remember his fascinating narration of the documentary of Rebels and Redcoats. He talked you through the war as a friend and a mentor. His engaging style complemented the actual locations where the history occurred.
One of the strengths in his work was letting the participants tell their stories. I read his book Sahib enjoying the way that he was able to join the narratives by the actual people, stepping back to let them tell their story, returning to guide the reader to the next original tale. I bought Redcoat based on Sahib and was planning to read it soon.
He was a prolific author, a wonderful historian and a captive narrator. Military history has lost one of its true masters and the world has lost one of the last real gentlemen. It is a sadder day knowing that Richard Holmes will not be producing any more work. Condolences to his family and friends; vale Richard Holmes.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Thursday, 09 December 2010
Sunday, 13 December 2009
A poem
I notice that there has been interest in my post with the two quotes backed by pictures of the people who were responsible for the quotes. In a similar style but a poem this time, I offer the picture below. This is from an incident that occurred during the Battle of the Nile when Nelson's ships blew up the French flag ship, L'Orient. The captain's son supposedly manned his post despite the destruction around him until the ship exploded. I had heard the opening line before, normally followed with an implied fear of the presence of Oscar Wilde, never realising the actual story behind it. I found the story very touching and added colour to an interesting battle, in an interesting campaign during an interesting period. I hope that you enjoy.
The jpg is not the best quality so here it is in pdf format Download Casabianca.
Sunday, 04 October 2009
Sunday, 02 August 2009
Two quotes
I recently made these two pictures, they are quotes from Napoleon and General Patton. I liked the quotes and I tracked down some suitable photos. Please feel free to use them as you wish.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Thursday, 08 January 2009
Sunday, 31 December 2006
Currently reading
Audio books I am listening to
Blogs I like
Recently Read
Ken Conboy: Elite: The Special Forces of Indonesia 1950-2008
(****)Robert D. Kaplan: Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power
(****)Francois Jullien: Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking
(***)G. Hurst I II: Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery
(****)Eugene Y. Park: Between Dreams and Reality: The Military Examination in Late Chosŏn Korea, 1600-1894 (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
It may sound a bad way to open the review but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this book. I had not picked it up for reading pleasure but to try and understand more about the Choson military structure. It is a well written book and while it covers a lot of academic ground it managed to do so with surprising interest. I can thoroughly recommend this book. From the cover it may seem like a dry read but the work is well written and Park hasan engaging style. It is recommended for the reader of Korean history as well as for the more casual reader who may want to understand how a military bureaucracy functioned in pre-modern times. (*****)Hiroko Yoda: Ninja Attack!: True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws
(****)Ian Morris: Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future
At times it simply read like a very long comparative history of China and Europe. I don't think that he demonstrated his thesis although his breadth of coverage has to be apprteciated. Nor do I think that it had the answers as he did not adequately explain why China could not maintain its dominance in the 1100s. Explaining why one group of people is more 'developed' than another is always dangerous and I don't think that Morris really stepped up to the challenge. I agree with Morris that it is not a matter of genetics and while his argument of geography is important, I think that sociologists and anthropologists will probably be the best placed to tackle the argument. This book will make the reader think but it won't provide all the answers. Still full marks for putting his theory out for discussion. (***)Shirley Fish: When Britain Ruled the Philippines 1762-1764
Shirley Fish has written an admirable book on this period in Philippines history. Indeed, she has probably tried to write too much and because of that the book starts strongly with the immediate background and preparations to the venture but then meanders through a historical background that goes back to the early days of the Spanish colonisation of the Philippines. As an example, there is a section that comprehensively details the Spanish defences throughout the Philippines that while informative it does not seem to add much to the narrative because the British were limited to Manila in their conquest and so never sought to fully test those defenses. The author did have a good writing style and when she was on story she could relate the events very well. You do not not need to have a background in the Seven Years War or in the history of the Philippines to read this book. It is a good read and it will provide a good starting point for others to build on should they wish to write about the occupation or other facets of the story. (***)Ronald Spector: In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia
Ronald Spector's In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia is a good book that covers much territory and because of that it will always disappoint as there is so much to say. Spector has done a good job to show that there was more to the story of the Pacific War than the surrender of the Japanese and occupation of Japan by the allies. It was a complex story that involved the Allies having often competing agendas all of which were at odds with what the local inhabitants wanted. It was also a story of lost opportunities. What could have General Marshal achieved if he had stayed in China rather than returned to the US for lobbying and consultations? Could the French and Ho Chi Minh really avoided war if the incoming French left-wing government had received Ho's message prior to the Viet Minh launching its attacks. There seemed to be much left out, including the connections between the OSS and Ho Chi Minh and that is the reason why I have given it only three stars. Although, given the breadth of the subject matter, if Spector had tried to cover everything then it would have been a very long book. Despite that rating I recommend it as a good introduction to what was happening across much of Asia in the immediate aftermath of World War Two. While the endings are well known the stories that engendered them are often forgotten. (***)Hank Reinhardt: The Book of Swords
Hank wrote that the book was not about the beauty of the form of the sword but about the beauty of the function. Hank does not try to describe every sword that existed nor to give you a complete history of swords, he wants to tell you what he found out from a life time of testing swords. He covered western swords as well as the swords of other cultures, and not just Japan but also the lesser covered swords such as from Africa. It is not so much a book but a written conversation with a knowledgeable uncle about swords; "Uncle Hank, what do you think about Japanese Katanas please?" I saw him on the Reclaiming the Blade DVD and so I often found myself picturing Hank reading the words to me as I read the book; his style just seemed to have that effect. He had some asides in the book but they did not detract from the flow of the book, no story teller talks a straight path, the diverts make the ride more fun. He did not play favourites with the swords although he did not like the rapiers as they are primarily thrusting weapons but he still discussed a rapier that he saw at Ewart Oakeshott house that he fell in love with. He also explained how the materials helped define the type of sword as did the intended use. I can thoroughly recommend this book. It was a pleasure to read and very informative as well. It is a real pity that Hank has passed on and so cannot provide us with more books such as this. (*****)Kacem Zoughari Ph.D.: The Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan
Dr Zoughari's book on the Ninja is certainly well footnoted and he has gone to a lot of effort to track down sources but at the end of the book I still felt like I did not know what a ninja was. The author showed that the ninja was not the assassin of the popular imagination but that a ninja was a good guard against another ninja who may have been tasked to carry out an atypical assassination mission. I just felt that the book gave me a lot of facts but that it did not not provide the big picture. He did have coherent themes running through the book and he did discuss the possible origins of the ninja, including foreign connections, as well as how their role changed from military intelligence gatherers to something akin to a secret police during the Tokugawa Shogunate but to me the history of the ninjas did not come through. He discussed the Iga and Koga prefectures and how they were the traditional homes of the ninja clans but he also talked about ninjas and shinobi from other clans, assessing that other clans also taught ninja techniques. He described Iga and Koga prefectures as isolated and rugged so being the perfect training areas for the ninja but why just those two areas, why not other rugged and isolated parts of Japan. While Dr Zoughari provided some examples of ninja or shinobi uses I could not see where he gave his view on where they fitted into the martial structure of Japan, which was what I was after. Were ninja's assigned to clans or were they used as a resource of the shogun thus allowing him to control all information. If the ninja were an integral part of the samurai armies then why is there no mention of their work in Korea during Hideyoshi's invasion of 1592-98? Is this dearth of knowledge a result of their effectiveness or because daimyos wanted to claim all credit for themselves and their clans, or have we still not understood what ninjas did and who they were? I suspect that if you are a practitioner of ninjutsu then you will still get much worthwhile information out of the book, especially the later chapters on the essence on ninjutsu and the secret text of ninjutsu. If you are trying to understand what the ninja's or shinobi were and how they fitted in to Japanese warfare model then you will get a lot from the book but I think you will still be left with a lot of questions unanswered. (***)Antony Cummins: Shinobi Soldiers: An Investigation Into the Ninja
According to the author's notes this book was based on a series of articles that the author wrote for Combat Magazine and the book never seemed to get beyond that genesis. While the book is 164 pages long there is a lot of space filler and I read this book in a few hours with not much trouble. The objective of this volume was to break the misconceptions that people have about ninjas or shinobi. I believe that he did that. Despite achieving his objective, I think that is also the biggest failure of the book. At the end of the book you knew what a ninja was not and you have had some misconceptions broken, depending on how much knowledge you already had, but you have to buy another book, just released in November 2010, to actually find out what a ninja was. If you already know a bit about ninjas or shinobi then I probably would not buy this book as I think you will be frustrated with finding out what a ninja is not without any information telling you what a ninja actually is, especially if you are serious student of Japanese martial history. (***)Jonathan Clements: A Brief History of the Samurai (Brief History (Running Press))
I have read Clements' books on the Coxinga and the First Emperor of China so I know and enjoy his style and this book is very much in that style. I enjoyed his easy pace while he still ensured that he passed on key information. Clements started with Japan before there were samurai as we would recognise them and then brings them into the picture for us. He deals extensively with the rise of the samurai as seen with the clash of the Taira and Minamoto clans. This chapter is really the start of the meat of the book that concluded with the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. That however did not conclude the book as Clements looked as to what the samurai came to mean, especially after Japan's defeat in WW2. I thoroughly recommend this book as Clements delivers very well on a brief history of the samurai providing a great starting point for further reading in a very engaging manner. (*****)David Graff: Medieval Chinese Warfare 300-900 (Warfare and History)
(****)Jack Weatherford: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
(*****)David Loyn: Butcher & Bolt: Two Hundred Years of Foreign Failure in Afghanistan
(*****)
