Category: History
-
In a Mass Knife Fight to the Death Between Every American President, Who Would Win and Why?
Hello everyone! One of my most-visited sites on the web is Reddit.com, and one of my favourite subreddits is HistoricalWhatIf, an online community that debates historical hypotheticals. Earlier today someone asked the question, In a mass knife fight to the death between every American President, who would win and why? Someone beat me to the…
-
My Favourite Authors of Historical Fiction: Sharon Kay Penman
Hello everyone, While I wait for the ISBN number for my next novel, Zulu, I thought I’d add to my ongoing 11-part series on my favourite authors of historical fiction. #5 – Sharon Kay Penman I’ve written about Sharon Kay Penman before in one of my earliest blog posts, a lengthy book review that I…
-
Why I wrote about the Inca
Hello again everyone, Amazon is still processing my e-book, so while I wait for the big news I thought I’d blog a little on what drew me to write about the Inca. I am wholeheartedly and unashamedly a history nerd. I love it. It’s the story of humankind, and there’s always something more to learn.…
-
Pyrrhus and Hannibal: What Great Enemies Taught Rome
I’ve had a lot of fun reworking two of my old university essays so far on this blog, one on the South African War and one on the foreign policy of John Diefenbaker. I’m pleased to say they are among my most popular posts so far, and so I’d like to continue posting content like…
-
Remembrance Day, 2010
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. It’s the first Remembrance Day of my life that I will not be celebrating with my grandfather, Murray Anderson, a veteran of the Second World War who passed away last winter. In December, 2009, I scanned a number of pictures he took during his time in the Royal Canadian Navy with…
-
Diefenbaker’s Foreign Policy
I enjoyed reworking one of my old university essays for publication on this blog last month, and so I’ve decided to do so again. This time my subject will be the foreign policy of former Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker. Oh, I know: Canadian History, what dreary stuff. Balderdash! Canadian History is boring when it’s…
-
The South African War: The First Total War of the 20th Century
I came across this old university essay the other day, and I thought it blog-worthy (after a few minor edits, corrections, and of course a healthy contribution of pictures). I already have one post about the Boer War on this blog. You can find it here. I’m aware that anything I put up on the…
-
Documents found in my mother’s antique desk dating to just after the end of the First World War
My mother collects antiques, or at least she likes them enough to keep an eye out for them when she pursues one of her true passions in life, interior decorating. Some years ago she bought a writing desk of quarter cut oak, and within one of the drawers she was told were some documents from…
-
Awesome Pictures: Assyrian Lion Hunting
What is it: This is a bas relief panel carved in limestone from an enormous frieze depicting the royal lion hunts of Assyria, built for the North Palace of Nineveh, circa 645-635 BC. It is now on display at the British Museum in London in a massive hall that will take your breath away. Why…