The House of Habsburg In the Age of Empire

[LanMisa]

I thank you for answering me in such a comprehensive (Is this the right word?) way. I can understand you in a way: Just like school math and the math you learn / practice at the university are two totally different things having not much in common, the same must be true for history lessons and historiography / what you do professionally. Thus I understand that I cannot fully understand you - because this is just not my profession and thus I just don't see everything you can see.

But I think that I got the point of what you were trying to say.

 

[volksmarschall]

I feel less ashamed about my owning nearly all of the 1632 series now. Don't worry, I have plenty of other collections worth being ashamed of!

Haha! 1632 series is great. But I might have you beat. I have all the Disney movies, am an anime fanatic, and absolutely love South Park, even though I'm "an academic."

I thank you for answering me in such a comprehensive (Is this the right word?) way. I can understand you in a way: Just like school math and the math you learn / practice at the university are two totally different things having not much in common, the same must be true for history lessons and historiography / what you do professionally. Thus I understand that I cannot fully understand you - because this is just not my profession and thus I just don't see everything you can see.

But I think that I got the point of what you were trying to say.

Comprehensive was the right word!

No, I thank you for posing the question. As someone otherwise stuck still being a student (working towards the higher degrees), who only sometimes writes on a more professional level but whose journal work is probably read, at most, by a few hundred people whom I'll never meet, I always enjoy discussion in a meaningful manner rather than how must of my student-work life has been: write an amazing paper and only the professor reads it! :glare:

I hope I was able to clear up some room, and I confess, as professionals we need to do a better job at communicating to the public what we are really doing, vs. what many people (who do have an interest in history but are not professionals) think what we are doing. This way we're not just talking over one another. Sometimes I feel that we, as professionals (or my case, going to become a professional in the field instead of just being a researcher at present), forget that -- sometimes, our strongest and most interested reader base aren't actually trained historians who may otherwise have limited background in relevant historiographical evolution and knowledge of the theories of history that underline most of our work, which we never seem to explain and only adds to the problem.

 

[GreatUberGeek]

Volksmarschall: setting the bar higher for all of us.
Thanks about the Austrians and A Mighty Fortress mini-reviews. Conquest of Nature can't exactly be a general history, since it goes about modern Germany. However A Mighty Fortress had some weird errors: like the Maginot Line in 1914! :huh:

 

[volksmarschall]

Volksmarschall: setting the bar higher for all of us.
Thanks about the Austrians and A Mighty Fortress mini-reviews. Conquest of Nature can't exactly be a general history, since it goes about modern Germany. However A Mighty Fortress had some weird errors: like the Maginot Line in 1914! :huh:

I never said The Conquest of Nature was a general history. I said it was an environmental history and happened to be my favorite book that deals with German history!

 

[Nathan Madien]

Wait a minute. Isn't counterfactual history and alternative history the same thing? I always thought they were interchangeable.

 

[volksmarschall]

Wait a minute. Isn't counterfactual history and alternative history the same thing? I always thought they were interchangeable.

Alternative history is generally labeled 'historical-fiction' and there is a broad understanding that alternative history is not scholarly in any way, and is meant, mostly, for fun reading. Counterfactual history is a pseudo-academic (in my opinion) field that legitimately, however legitimately so, attempts to actually answer those serious 'what if' questions and its impact on linear historical development. For instance, what if the Muslims and Africans teamed up after the fall of the Roman Empire in the west and invaded Europe and were not defeated at Tours in 732, would Europe have become dominated by the Arabs and subsequently the Islamic religion, and what impact would that had had on our history, understanding of sociology and class conflict, etc. The Major difference to most professionals would be that CFH is a more 'acceptable' academic discourse where alt. history doesn't pretend to be scholarly but fun fiction reading.

As for me, I don't see that distinction as I outlined in my prior posts discussing the subject since, history only gets one shot, so to ask these 'what if' questions is counterproductive to what we actually do, or should be doing, as historians (historiographers). Thus, I don't see CFH as any more scholarly than alt. history but that they are, in fact, one and same but with CFH attempting to present itself as something more scholarly (we can debate why things happened the way they did, but I have little patience with these whole 'what if' questions, well, it didn't happen like that -- just get over it and actually study what did happen and the results of that). But who am I, a lowly researcher working up the ladder to obtain a PhD and someone only with a B.A. in history know!

 

[Red John]

Well, that was a fun read.

Might have glorified the French victory at Treviso a bit too much, though. It was a Pyrrhic victory.

Either way, good AAR, will continue to read as it's updated.

 

[volksmarschall]

Well, that was a fun read.

Might have glorified the French victory at Treviso a bit too much, though. It was a Pyrrhic victory.

Either way, good AAR, will continue to read as it's updated.

Nothing is without the abilities of the French propaganda machine! Plus, in the grand scheme of 'campaigns' (since I hate the fact that a few battles can decide the outcome of an entire war rather than many multiple smaller engagements being part of a wider campaign, in turn, part of larger war), the victory of the French at Treviso threw me out of Italy until the renewed offensive for 1512, which I suppose I might eventually get to if I ever decide to take the time to find the paintings and pictures that would accompany all those updates -- especially since I largely have everything written thru 1600.

Time management...