This was what happened in Tamil Nadu politics from 1989-2016 with Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa. Just alternating power basically every election until they both died. I’m imagining Hilary Clinton and Trump running and alternating power from 2004 to 2028 and I tear up 🥹
5: Roman Republics bt Harriet I. Flower.
A fascinating accounting of how we think of the Roman Republic(s). I especially like how the author puts overall trends of Roman History in perspective, and how seeming consistently over time hides deep institutional shifts. A great reinterpretation argument!
4: The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India by Muzaffar Alam.
A classic of Mughal history for a reason. A dense account of how local power dynamics eroded Mughal legitimacy, and ended up birthing new, locally based polities. Local history at its finest, and relentlessly engaging
3: Princes of the Mughal Empire, by Munis D Faruqui.
A really engaging and interesting accojnt of the unique role the Prince’s Household held in Mughal succession. Unique and thought provoking history about how we think of “stable” succession and politics, especially of Mughal decline!
I love that he’s extremely tall and also a talented artist. He’s corrupt for the sheer love of the game
Ex: if voters, say want someone to represent Salmon fishing in BC, and then that MP, as part of the pro-fishing White party, then joins the anti-fishing Blue party, because that MP was bribed, wouldn’t that be undemocratic? Parties, made up of MPs, aggregate what people want out of policy
There is though! Under party list, you do have party splits all the time as members join and leave governing coalitions. In the Westminster tradition, floor crossing is the means, but in other systems, this style of opposition mps leaving their party to join the government isn’t uncommon
It goes to the oldest idea about what the role of a elected representative is: are they elected as part of a party, who is elected and expected to have party loyalty, or an individual, who can shift parties to best represent and advocate their constituents. The answer varies!
The problem is that FDR had a majority propped up by reactionary Southern Democrats who padded his majority in a way that is impossible now. The closest modern US politics came to that was Obama during his brief 60vote senate majority and that relied on the last gasps of Southern Democrats
Count Tilly was the Robert E Lee of the Thirty Years War send Skeet
Control over the Baltic was in the empire’s design though, and a divided HRE between permanent Sweden-aligned German princes and a rump catholic empire would have put Sweden in a strong position
MacArthur but if he had 50% more mental illness and was an actually talented commander who managed to go toe to toe with the best commanders of the age
I’m slightly frustrated seeing people think the story could have ended happily given part 2 was an escalating catastrophe for Denji where it is extremely clear as long as Pochita existed, he could never be happy. And without him, there’s a chance that Asa and Denji and everyone else can be happy
He should have worn the Yuji fit but him in a Nehru suit was awesome
Gen-Z Matteo Renzi stans are the most terrifying people on earth, all 20 of them.
To be fair; there are Iranians who do speak Arabic! They’re just almost entirely in Khuzestan, on the southeastern border with Iraq, which was part of the reason Saddam invaded to begin with. But that’s just being quite pedantic lol
How dare you slander Salva Kiir, President of South Sudan, and noted Stetson enjoyer
This is a bizarre attack against Nehru lol I wonder what crazy Sanghi, anticommunist source he’s using
Very funny to do that to (seemingly) Gaddafi. Like yes we love an ideologically incoherent strongman who a different political flavors and public images at various points in his career but who lost every military conflict he engaged in
Roll the dice for the next major crisis Shebhaz Sharif will have to face. He is a man cursed by God to suffer and muddle through crises he doesn’t have the influence to manage
It’s awesome how much Al Green loves doing this stuff. Genuinely great to see him being consistent, public, and focused in on disrupting and delegitimizing Trump’s State of the Union. Second year in a row he‘s been thrown out! God-willing there won’t be one next year for him to be kicked out of!
The Death of the Wehrmacht by Robert Citino:
A @sodrock.bsky.social recommendation. The German way of war is becoming really good at fast moving encirclement operations, but for no clear operational goal. Gambling at the highest level. Logistics and defense are lame. Love the Rommel slander as well
A History of the Habsburg Empire by Robert A Kann:
extremely lucky used bookshop find. An incredible dense but extremely rewarding history. The limits of centralizing imperial ideology, and German and Magyar chauvinism, to ensure a viable multinational empire was one of my main takeaways.
Creating a 2026 reading history to keep track and jot down ideas about the books I’ve read!
The entire plot about the scummy North Carolina businessman was a waste and ended with “love your family 🥺” the three friends plot ended with “being conservative is great!” And the plot-line of the guy revenging his dad ended in “the evil rich guy was just not evil!” Just a waste of time
The third season was so nakedly ideological and piddly I was so mad at the final episode resolving all the plot lines in the dumbest way possible
I wouldn’t totally agree with electoral alliances only working in those two cases. India has a very long tradition of pre-electoral alliances for smd FPTP, which could work in the UK. There are as many alliance duds as in the CRA in Japan, but some can be extremely successful.
It’d also be interesting to see articles on the state of popular history on YouTube and other platforms as well. Like people interested are more likely to watch a random video on say Stalingrad by The Wehrmacht Enjoyer about how they could have won Stalingrad than say, anything Citino has written
I’m going to start crying. He never accomplished his dream of becoming Chief Minister…I’m weeping…all that backstabbing and scheming and high drama and he goes out like this? Truly God is on Sharad Pawar’s side
With the electoral rise of Braun on the far-right, Poland has actually existing 1890s politics