there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men

Brilliant!

Not just education. This dynamic exists in a number of fields.

It’s a PB4Y-2, a stretched Navy Liberator (B-24), with a monster vertical stabilizer and more turrets. They swept the skies (and seas) ahead of the fast carrier task force late in the war.

A Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer, a four-engine patrol bomber with multiple gun turrets. In the Pacific in World War II, they destroyed enemy shipping and reconnaissance aircraft.

RETVRN

What’s better than 1 Boyd podcast this week? How about 2? I was happy to join the MCA “Scuttlebutt” team as they focus on the Commandant’s Reading List to discuss “A New Conception of War” from MCUP:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2...

youtu.be/VgOPzQmUWVQ?...

Ok on a serious note, it cannot be exaggerated how bad formalized Iranian control of the Strait is for the world. The entire global economy rests on an American guarantee of free commercial shipping. That guarantee is gone. We don’t know exactly what will happen but none of it will be good.

A weakness of a good deal of analysis is that it applies Clausewitz's maxim that "war is the continuation of policy by other means" externally—to international relations—and not to internal politics.

To understand the U.S. administration's approach, I think the latter is essential.

Total solar eclipse seen from behind the moon

No humans have ever seen this before.. a total solar eclipse seen from the far side of the moon! #ArtemisII

Depluralize a movie.

The Magnificent.

This. All day. Every day.

Thank you for providing these details. Really appreciate it!

As if we needed more evidence that one cannot McNamara Fallacy their way to victory...

Sportsball!

What a comeback.

Book cover for "Revolutionary Warfare: How the Algerian War Made Modern Counterinsurgency"

My book is on sale! Cornell University Press has a 40% off & free shipping sale right now during the @smh-historians.bsky.social Annual Meeting. Enter 09EXP40 for the sale price.
@cornellupress.bsky.social @bethanywasik.bsky.social

Really appreciate this explanation for how to make a course more engaging and valuable.

a man in a trench coat is walking on a soccer field in front of a stadium . Alt: Judd Nelson as John Bender in the movie "The Breakfast Club" walking across the field at the end of the movie and raising his right fist in triumph.

TFW an anonymous reader of something you wrote describes the scholarship as "excellent."

🤷‍♀️

In addition to @bafriedman.bsky.social’s excellent thread yesterday on fundamentals of the MEU, let me offer a starter pack of readings on amphibious warfare in general and #USMC ops in particular. And as I have told others on this site: do the reading. There is no substitute.

Because I think the maritime perspective is a valuable and important counterweight to the predominance of terrestrial perspectives, I would consider Andrew Lambert’s “The British Way of War.” He puts Corbett in context and since strategy is so dependent on context, it might be useful.

I liked it better when it was comedy...

This is of course broader than just legal writing. Having just finished writing a second book, the friction was not typing the words, nor was it figuring out which words to say what I wanted to say. It was figuring out what I wanted to say in the first place.

WMU History Poster (Dunbar Hall, Room 3423) for Dr. Bret Devereaux, The Appearance of Accuracy: The Perils of Historical Verisimilitude and the Public's Understanding of History."

If you're anywhere near Kalamazoo, join us tomorrow with @bretdevereaux.bsky.social to campus to discuss "The Appearance of Accuracy: The Perils of Historical Verisimilitude and the Public's Understanding of History." This is the 1st of 4 lectures for our dept this year on Public & Ancient History.

Better to compare to Betio, the fortified island that saw the bitter fighting at Tarawa Atoll. It is just 0.59 sq mi, less than 1/12 the size of Kharg (7.7 sq mi).

Mega-histories Roland Ennos argues that it is impossible to understand our world without recognizing “the miraculous and devastating power of human technology”. Building

My first @thetls.bsky.social byline! But I’m afraid it’s for a book that will infuriate most historians. (That’s why you can read almost all of the review in the preview - you probably didn’t want to read 1500 words of my head exploding.)

Enjoyed the review very much. Thank you for writing it and sharing it.

I served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training for three years before the office was disestablished last year. I owned the policy on professional military education for all five services. I have listened to Secretary Hegseth's announcement. I have thoughts. 🧵

This is where I see similarities. A public declaration of “unconditional surrender.” The refusal of the weaker power to suffer defeat and instead pivot to unconventional (or unanticipated) means. Failure to anticipate on the part of U.S. leadership. Let us hope the end comes at much less cost. 7/7