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Historian on the Warpath — articles, reviews, and everyday encounters with the past
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Medieval version of a do-nothing manager

by Scott Manning February 11, 2016
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In the ninth-century, the Frankish historian provided a medieval depiction of what many modern-day managers and would-be managers think their job might look like. Describing the last of the Merovingian kings, his “sole command function was to sit back on his throne with flowing hair, his beard uncut, satisfied with the name of king and […]

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Liberty Place Monument and #BLACKLIVESMATTER

by Scott Manning January 12, 2016
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Nestled between the Aquarium of the Americas, The Westin, and a parking lot, the monument to the Battle of Liberty Place is difficult to find, even with the Historical Marker Database. Last week, I tracked it down. This monument claims to pay tribute to the casualties on both sides of the 1874 battle—the New Orleans […]

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Why study Alexander the Great?

by Scott Manning December 19, 2015
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Every historian takes a crack at explaining why their area of expertise is important for today’s world. It is difficult to argue with Guy MacLean Rogers’s take on Alexander the Great from more than a decade ago. In less than a decade Alexander conquered the Persian empire, the largest and most successful empire in the […]

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‘Agincourt’: A battle made famous by Shakespeare

by Scott Manning November 14, 2015
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No other medieval engagement has a “greater cultural legacy” than the Battle of Agincourt, according to Anne Curry, professor of medieval history at the University of Southampton. Shakespeare’s Henry V, and popular lore before and after, has portrayed it as the miraculous victory of outnumbered, God-favored English underdogs against the overwhelming superiority of the French, […]

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I have knelt before the tomb of the Athenians at Marathon

by Scott Manning August 3, 2015
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As with many 2400-year-old battlefields, most of Marathon is the victim of development. Although historians continue to debate over the exact positions of the Greek and Persian armies in 490 BC, the reality is that modern buildings and streets cover much of the terrain. Our modern-day concept of preserving battlefields would likely confuse the ancients […]

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“Don’t forget your roots, Yank”

by Scott Manning July 19, 2015
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I typically reserve these conversations for the battlefield. The toxicity of the Confederacy mixed with the Internet and long-held beliefs is a recipe that I prefer to avoid. Instead, I wait until I am with friends, family, or coworkers at Gettysburg or Antietam. There, I can talk freely about military strategy and tactics, and provide […]

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Genghis Khan at the Franklin Institute

by Scott Manning May 26, 2015
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The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia has a Genghis Khan exhibit through the rest of 2015. Here is what you can expect. The exhibit focuses on the rise, dissemination, and fall of the Mongolian empire, paying particular attention to the amalgamation of cultures—Mongolian, Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and European. For example, there is one fourteenth-century sword sporting […]

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King Sargon II’s Warning to ISIS

by Scott Manning May 13, 2015
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Among the ancient cities ISIS bulldozed and blasted this past March was Dur-Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad in Iraq), a capital city founded by Assyrian King Sargon II (r. 722-705 BC). Like all ancient Assyrian kings, Sargon left a clear warning to those who destroyed his work. Safe from destruction was a 9-sided prism describing Sargon’s founding […]

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A Case against Battlefield Preservation

by Scott Manning May 10, 2015
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I have trekked battlefields dating back to the Greco-Persian Wars and made more than three dozen trips to Gettysburg, so I am avid supporter of battlefield preservation. Until recently, I thought the only enemies of preservation were apathy or necessity. Quite simply, people do not know about the ground upon which they want to build an […]

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Artemisia between Herodotus and the High Middle Ages

by Scott Manning April 20, 2015
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After the extreme fictionalization of Artemisia in the blockbuster 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), I wondered how historians depicted her throughout history. What survives leaves massive gaps in the historiography, but what remains creates a narrative that remains true to Herodotus’s original depiction of Artemisia. After Salamis, the fate of Artemisia remains lost to history. Based […]

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