I rediscovered the importance of an outline over the past few days of working on my thesis. Idiot me did not do an outline as I have one for all my papers in the past both undergrad and Graduate level. I have no idea why I thought i could tackle a project as large as Master’s Thesis with only a Table of Contents to use as a guide. I say rediscovered because I started writing and after about 20 pages I realized I have essentially been wasting my time because I tend to ramble when I do not have something to keep me focused.
After I realized I was rambling I stopped and took a brief break to figure out what I was doing wrong and how I could fix it. That is when it struck me that I don’t have an outline. It was definitely a V-8/face palm 
moment. I then settled down and decided to write an outline.
Month: December 2010
Decimation
This is a curious word and does not mean today what it meant to the Ancient Romans who coined the term. Merriam-Webster defines decimate as:
DECIMATE; transitive verb
1: to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2: to exact a tax of 10 percent from
3a : to reduce drastically especially in number
b : to cause great destruction or harm to
It is 3a and b that is more commonly used today however, it is definition one where the word came from. Specifically the Roman military practice of decimation in which mutinous or cowardly units were sentenced to be decimated. This was never a common punishment, most extreme punishments are only effective if they are both extreme and rare. There are a few instances in recorded sources of a unit being decimated one of which is the Legio III Augusta which was decimated in A.D. 18 after allowing one of its subunits to be annihilated in battle.
The Actual Writing of a Thesis
I am about 20 pages into writing my thesis and it is killing me. I generally really enjoy writing, especially writing about history. I have studied my topic for about 3 years now and actually visited the battlefield twice. I find myself wanting to hurry writing the introductory chapters so I can get to the good stuff. It is getting increasingly difficult for me to motivate myself to write, I suppose I will struggle through it somehow though. Writing my thesis is exciting and boring at the same time. The best comparison I can think of is sitting on a screen line in Iraq overwatching a … More after the Jump…
WW II Tanks Panther-T-34 visual comparison
Was talking about WWII tanks at work today and while looking at pictures of the various tanks the visual similarities between the German Panther and Soviet T-34 Jumped out at me. The top photo is of a Panther and the bottom photo is a T-34. I have always read that the Panther was developed specifically to counter the threat of the T-34 but it never hit me how alike they looked. They have a similar turret, glacÃs plate, commanders cupola, even the tracks looks superficially similar at a glance. It just started to make me wonder if the German designers of the Panther had a captured T-34 … More after the Jump…
The Albigensian Crusades
Most everybody has heard about the Crusades. Generally, what people mean when they speak of the Crusades is the series of wars fought between Christianity and Islam. However, within the whole area of Crusading one particular episode sticks out, the Albigensian Crusade. The first Crusade waged wholly against fellow Christians, if not the last. It is also significant for a phrase that originated during the Crusade that has remained in use since that time and last but not least, it was the impetus for the founding of the Inquisition.
Bread and Circuses
I was driving back to the office from an appointment today and heard on the radio that there were demonstrations in Athens this morning in sympathy with the Italians against proposed austerity measures. I immediately started to reflect on the number of demonstrations/riots in Europe in the past few months because of budget tightening measures necessitated by the rapidly failing social states of Europe. The first phrase that came to my mind was how angry people get when their bread and circuses get reduced which got me to thinking of where the phrase Bread and Circuses came from. The phrase comes from the Roman playwright Juvenal who wrote … More after the Jump…
Today is the Day
Well, today is the day my final theses class starts. I have already looked at the syllabus and am very curious how this is going to go. I have exactly 16 weeks to submit a proposal, get approval, write a draft, make revisions, and submit a final thesis for defense. I have been looking forward to this for at least 4 years and working towards it for the past 3. I guess I am both nervous and excited. Nervous because I am not quite sure if my proposal will be accepted without some major reworking and excited because I am getting ever closer to being done with college. At … More after the Jump…
What is Military History?
This is probably a topic I should have tackled a few months when I started this blog; I have come to realize that i am in the minority when it comes to military history and my view of what it should be. I guess the best way to describe myself is that I am a macro-historian and not a micro-historian.
What is Military History is a pretty good question from my perspective. The definition determines how military history is written in the first place and to what uses it is put. Modern military history arguably began with the reformers of the Prussian Army after 1805 and the creation of the Prussian staff system and most importantly the Prussian Kriegsakademie. In its infancy, modern military history served a very simple purpose, to prepare military leaders for war by instructing them in the successes and failures of past military leaders. The Kriegsakademie excelled at producing what would today be known as drums & trumpets type military history. Â
Amusing Military turns of Phrase and Aphorisms
I was talking at work with some other soldiers this morning and it hit me how many funny black humour type jokes and sayings there are in the military. I thought I would share some of them. I would caution you that many are at least minimally obscene.