Dr. M.A. Davis
@mikedavis.bsky.social
Historian in WNC
working on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW
read me in https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/wars-we-never-fought-9798765121535/
world's leading historian of https://archive.org/details/colliers-1951-10-27
listen to me at https://tinyurl.com/meonnprwow
working on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW
read me in https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/wars-we-never-fought-9798765121535/
world's leading historian of https://archive.org/details/colliers-1951-10-27
listen to me at https://tinyurl.com/meonnprwow
Pinned
Dr. M.A. Davis
@mikedavis.bsky.social
· Jun 6
I do not think what that man says is true
the Polish-American lady has a name that sounds funny in English!
November 26, 2025 at 3:56 AM
the Polish-American lady has a name that sounds funny in English!
I think one reason we don’t talk all that much about cannibalism in the IJA is that it makes you sound super-racist!
November 26, 2025 at 12:49 AM
I think one reason we don’t talk all that much about cannibalism in the IJA is that it makes you sound super-racist!
on the menu tonight is eggnog snickerdoodles for Thursday festivities
November 25, 2025 at 8:57 PM
on the menu tonight is eggnog snickerdoodles for Thursday festivities
#previewofthewarwedonotwant content
November 25, 2025 at 8:21 PM
#previewofthewarwedonotwant content
November 25, 2025 at 6:38 PM
tying this back to my #FWOAN discussion, one of the fun bits with the founding of Jefferson (the Patriot Voortrek state in 1790s Texas) is that Benedict Arnold is among those who make the trip! never having met Peggy and having nearly died at Saratoga, he is loyal to the Patriot cause to the end.
amusingly, one of the better historic relationships to use as a basis for a wartime romance might be Benedict Arnold and Peggy Shippen!
November 25, 2025 at 5:08 PM
tying this back to my #FWOAN discussion, one of the fun bits with the founding of Jefferson (the Patriot Voortrek state in 1790s Texas) is that Benedict Arnold is among those who make the trip! never having met Peggy and having nearly died at Saratoga, he is loyal to the Patriot cause to the end.
Okay, #skystorians, here's a literary question for you:
The most famous setting for the historical romance genre is Regency England (Georgette Heyer, etc).
My guess is that #2 is the Old West, with World War II coming up close behind as it moves more into mythology than memory.
/1
The most famous setting for the historical romance genre is Regency England (Georgette Heyer, etc).
My guess is that #2 is the Old West, with World War II coming up close behind as it moves more into mythology than memory.
/1
November 25, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Okay, #skystorians, here's a literary question for you:
The most famous setting for the historical romance genre is Regency England (Georgette Heyer, etc).
My guess is that #2 is the Old West, with World War II coming up close behind as it moves more into mythology than memory.
/1
The most famous setting for the historical romance genre is Regency England (Georgette Heyer, etc).
My guess is that #2 is the Old West, with World War II coming up close behind as it moves more into mythology than memory.
/1
Which Doctor Who actor would have made the best James Bond?
November 25, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Which Doctor Who actor would have made the best James Bond?
The governor of Illinois has typical opinions about a very popular IP, does he?
November 25, 2025 at 12:15 AM
The governor of Illinois has typical opinions about a very popular IP, does he?
Durham, NC TV listings, August 27, 1983. I know what I'm watching at 5. And 6. And 7!
November 24, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Durham, NC TV listings, August 27, 1983. I know what I'm watching at 5. And 6. And 7!
still chewing on it, because why not -
it's interesting (IMO) the things Sobel takes for granted as bound to happen whatever the political situation is in North America.
it's interesting (IMO) the things Sobel takes for granted as bound to happen whatever the political situation is in North America.
with the American Revolution in the news, I just wanted to mention that pioneering work of fictional nonfiction - Robert Sobel's 1973 FOR WANT OF A NAIL. A textbook from an alternate world, a parody of historiography, an homage to a student who died in Vietnam. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Wan...
For Want of a Nail (novel) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:18 PM
still chewing on it, because why not -
it's interesting (IMO) the things Sobel takes for granted as bound to happen whatever the political situation is in North America.
it's interesting (IMO) the things Sobel takes for granted as bound to happen whatever the political situation is in North America.
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wood_... the Presidential great-grandson and namesake who became a high-ranking Mountie during the Yukon Gold Rush; dying in 1915 in Asheville after ruining his health in the North. Son of a Confederate refugee who settled in Halifax after the ACW.
WOOD, ZACHARY TAYLOR – Dictionary of Canadian Biography
WOOD, ZACHARY TAYLOR, office holder, militia officer, and RNWMP policeman; b. 11 Nov. 1860 in Annapolis, Md, son of John Taylor Wood* and Lola Mackubin; m. 9 April 1888 F...
www.biographi.ca
November 24, 2025 at 3:36 PM
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wood_... the Presidential great-grandson and namesake who became a high-ranking Mountie during the Yukon Gold Rush; dying in 1915 in Asheville after ruining his health in the North. Son of a Confederate refugee who settled in Halifax after the ACW.
ah jeez Canada is getting a Kate Beaton stamp. I'm not one to say "that other country is ahead of mine" but you can't deny it when it's true
November 24, 2025 at 1:24 PM
ah jeez Canada is getting a Kate Beaton stamp. I'm not one to say "that other country is ahead of mine" but you can't deny it when it's true
www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-hist... I wrote this for Christmas a couple of years ago, an article that I always think of as my "Santa Claus is real. And he's AMERICAN." piece.
Perspective | Today’s Santa Claus is rooted in American mythology
The jolly old elf we know today is a product of the early American republic.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:19 PM
www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-hist... I wrote this for Christmas a couple of years ago, an article that I always think of as my "Santa Claus is real. And he's AMERICAN." piece.
oh - one charm of the book comes at the end, where Sobel takes the form of a "Reviewer 2", a Mexican historian who politely but firmly takes Sobel to task as a compiler of secondary sources rather than a real historian, one completely unable to keep his own biases off the page.
with the American Revolution in the news, I just wanted to mention that pioneering work of fictional nonfiction - Robert Sobel's 1973 FOR WANT OF A NAIL. A textbook from an alternate world, a parody of historiography, an homage to a student who died in Vietnam. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Wan...
For Want of a Nail (novel) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 23, 2025 at 10:25 PM
oh - one charm of the book comes at the end, where Sobel takes the form of a "Reviewer 2", a Mexican historian who politely but firmly takes Sobel to task as a compiler of secondary sources rather than a real historian, one completely unable to keep his own biases off the page.
John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, Robert Treat Paine, and Roger Sherman were executed by the British, as were Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry. George Washington spent the rest of his life in prison.
you could see the message of the book as quite anti-American I suppose -
taking in parts of the US made the CNA a bigger, more diverse, but worse Canada, and made the USM a bigger, richer, but meaner Mexico.
Makes you think.
taking in parts of the US made the CNA a bigger, more diverse, but worse Canada, and made the USM a bigger, richer, but meaner Mexico.
Makes you think.
with the American Revolution in the news, I just wanted to mention that pioneering work of fictional nonfiction - Robert Sobel's 1973 FOR WANT OF A NAIL. A textbook from an alternate world, a parody of historiography, an homage to a student who died in Vietnam. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Wan...
November 23, 2025 at 10:16 PM
John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, Robert Treat Paine, and Roger Sherman were executed by the British, as were Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry. George Washington spent the rest of his life in prison.
you could see the message of the book as quite anti-American I suppose -
taking in parts of the US made the CNA a bigger, more diverse, but worse Canada, and made the USM a bigger, richer, but meaner Mexico.
Makes you think.
taking in parts of the US made the CNA a bigger, more diverse, but worse Canada, and made the USM a bigger, richer, but meaner Mexico.
Makes you think.
with the American Revolution in the news, I just wanted to mention that pioneering work of fictional nonfiction - Robert Sobel's 1973 FOR WANT OF A NAIL. A textbook from an alternate world, a parody of historiography, an homage to a student who died in Vietnam. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Wan...
For Want of a Nail (novel) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 23, 2025 at 7:40 PM
you could see the message of the book as quite anti-American I suppose -
taking in parts of the US made the CNA a bigger, more diverse, but worse Canada, and made the USM a bigger, richer, but meaner Mexico.
Makes you think.
taking in parts of the US made the CNA a bigger, more diverse, but worse Canada, and made the USM a bigger, richer, but meaner Mexico.
Makes you think.
So it’s just a bad man talking dirty to his bad girlfriend? Come on, folks.
November 22, 2025 at 2:13 PM
So it’s just a bad man talking dirty to his bad girlfriend? Come on, folks.
son needs to dress as Lorenzo de Medici for a school project.
November 22, 2025 at 1:46 AM
son needs to dress as Lorenzo de Medici for a school project.
isn't that much-shared edited B-52 image from the Persian Gulf War - or am I misremembering? (that does happen)
November 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM
isn't that much-shared edited B-52 image from the Persian Gulf War - or am I misremembering? (that does happen)
you, a professional historian, take issue with the content of a Ken Burns documentary? amazing!
November 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM
you, a professional historian, take issue with the content of a Ken Burns documentary? amazing!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbuP... the very first song that my son and I could sing along to together, in the car on the way to school.
Jane Archer and the Reactionaries - Great Atomic Power ( BSR - "Great Atomic Power" 2017)
YouTube video by Ken Tizzard
www.youtube.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:53 PM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbuP... the very first song that my son and I could sing along to together, in the car on the way to school.
I was looking at the list of works entering the public domain in 2026 and suddenly I really wanted a @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social Classics or @academic.oup.com World's Classics edition of THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK.
November 21, 2025 at 2:28 PM
I was looking at the list of works entering the public domain in 2026 and suddenly I really wanted a @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social Classics or @academic.oup.com World's Classics edition of THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK.
the 2028 Dem nominee will (probably) be somebody Josh Shapiro and Rashida Tlaib vote for. worth pondering.
November 20, 2025 at 8:47 PM
the 2028 Dem nominee will (probably) be somebody Josh Shapiro and Rashida Tlaib vote for. worth pondering.
electing Thalmann President of Germany in 1934 after completely defanging the office through constitutional amendments was a funny way to take that game. "enjoy cutting ribbons and opening hospitals - comrade!"
November 20, 2025 at 8:04 PM
electing Thalmann President of Germany in 1934 after completely defanging the office through constitutional amendments was a funny way to take that game. "enjoy cutting ribbons and opening hospitals - comrade!"