#military history is social history

[clove-pinks]

A Senior Non-Commissioned Officer, Probably a Sergeant, 2nd (or the Queen’s Royal) Regiment of Foot, by unknown artist c. 1806.

I love that this includes a woman and child in the background! The UK National Army Museum describes her as probably "a sutleress," but she looks more like a soldier's or even officer's wife. And to be fair, she might also be a washerwoman or sutler. I don't think people appreciate how many women and children were involved in Napoleonic era wars, accompanying the huge baggage train of the army.

[troythecatfish]

[boymanmaletheshequel]

I have yet to see an argument against rednote that is valid and not just the manifestation of the red scare and American exceptionalism. “But.. but the CCP is stealing your data and selling it to their government!1!” WOAH REALLY? wow, I sure am glad that I use Facebook and Instagram instead, American apps that were some of the first ever worldwide to specifically steal and sell Americans information to the us government! I Really dodged a bullet there! “But, but the CCP is commiting a genocide?!!” Yeah, and that’s horrible, reprehensible, but so is what the United States has done, multiple genocides in the past few years alone actually, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, all genocides funded and influenced if not outright carried out by the United States government. “Yeah well, well did you know that the Chinese are only nice to foreigners? They HATE eachother!!!” ???? Have you??? Seen ??? How?? We?? Have?? Treated?? Eachother?? The?? Past?? 8?? Years??? Like really? THATS your bombshell mic drop argument?? And finally, of course, “but-but China wants to sell you PROPAGANDA!!” Like what? That the United States is an oppressive imperial entity that controls the world through fear?? Yeah, no fucking shit bitch, I’ve BEEN knew, I LIVE here. All of these arguments, all of these claims of American superiority, are the result of DECADES of carefully crafted propaganda and paranoia campaigns designed specifically to convince you that communism is some great unimaginable evil in order to shift your eyes away from the actions of our OWN government. We are no better, and no worse, than the CCP, and anyone who believes otherwise, is one of the hundreds of millions who has been successfully duped by the most powerful empire in the world.

[nameinconcept-blog]

"Glory to Soviet Aviators" by Soviet artist B.A. Reshetnikov. 1972

Soviet art from book "Страницы Героической Истории" Published by Soviet artist

[vintage-london-images]

With Trooping The Colour being tomorrow 15th June 2024, I thought this snippet may be interesting of the slow march past from 1933.

The Colour being Trooped is the King's Colour of No 7 Company 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards in front of his Majesty King George V.

Please check out other posts with hashtag #video on @vintage-london-images

[the-worms-are-all-right]

friendly reminder that today (9/11/23) marks 50 years since the coup in Chile. I have literally not seen anyone talking about it.

Chile was under dictatorship for almost 17 years. over 3000 people lost their lives, and many others were forced to flee the country. artists, socialists and communists were given absolutely inhumane treatment. the coup leader were never charged for his crimes.

as we all know, history repeats itself when we forget it. i just hope that we’ll never forget what happened in Chile. that we will recognize the early stages of persecution of political opponents, and ensure democracy. that we will remember the ones who gave their lives to the fight.

anyone and everyone who has been affected by the coup in Chile: my thoughts are with you today.

[georgefairbrother]

Arguably the single most influential figure in terms of how the fallen of the Great War were memorialised was Rudyard Kipling, whose own son, John, a second lieutenant in the Irish Guards, was reported (missing presumed) killed at Loos, aged 18. (His grave was not identified until 1992).

Rudyard Kipling, an internationally renowned novelist, poet, short story writer and journalist, was subsequently invited by the British government to help establish the Imperial War Graves Commission.

He applied the phrase ‘Known unto God’ for the graves in which the occupant was unidentified, and recommended that headstones be uniform and should have regimental identification wherever possible.

"...What knowledge I have of the feeling among officers and men, dead and alive, convinces me that their chief desire would be for distinctive regimental headstones which could be identified in every quarter of the world where a soldier of their regiment may be buried..."

Perhaps his most significant contribution was establishing the policy that names on communal memorials be listed strictly in alphabetical order, regardless of rank, aristocratic background or class.

Upon his death in 1936, the War Graves Commission noted that Rudyard Kipling had either written, selected or approved every inscription on IWGC graves and memorials throughout the world, and had, on his own initiative, personally inspected memorial sites in Belgium, France, Egypt and Palestine.

Background from Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time (BBC Radio 4), the website of the Kipling Society, and BBC News (2016): Solving the Mystery of Rudyard Kipling's Son

[echoes-of-memory]

East German border guard Konrad Schumann leaping over barbed wire to defect to West Germany during construction of the Berlin Wall.

Photographer: Peter Leibing. 15 August 1961.

[lesbiradshaw]

three shots in trying to figure out what bradley was planning on doing with his poli sci degree if getting in the navy didn’t pan out

[blxxdysxn]

Anti-War/Anti-Capitalism Propaganda Pamphlet, 1950.

[hypokeimena]

does anyone have advice for greek text(s) i could work on translating a bit at a time? i am explicitly not looking for longer texts (plays or longe prose), but like... i dunno, a set of epigrams... something where i can do like 1-5 lines a day just to keep my hand. in.

preference for classical (not koine) greek, slight preference for 'easier' greek but i am open to anything

[troythecatfish]

[dykedvonte]

The side of the NCR we see in New Vegas so intricately shows every side of the military industrial complex through minor and major ways/characters especially through the lens of active war and combat but none of you are ready to get into that conversation.

[nameinconcept-blog]

"Flights from the Cruiser" by Soviet artist G.K.Sevostyanov. 1984

Soviet art from book "Страницы Героической Истории" Published by Soviet artist

[things-methinks]

Talking to [leftist/socialist/progressive/whatever] white people as a brown girl is always an experience

[jackgoodfellow]

Breaking News: Another horrible man is horrible to literally everybody and is then shocked when people are not nice to him. England once again totally fucked. But I hear the monarchy is good for tourism, so

"Doomed by the narrative? Too easy! No... it is the narrative that is doomed by US! (And also, we are so so horny for each other.)"

So it turns out The Lion in Winter (1968) slaps. Katherine Hepburn somehow manages to capture the feeling of watching someone tear out a person's jugular with smiling teeth. She and Peter O'Toole in this movie are basically performing the cinematic equivalent of the song "No Children" by The Mountain Goats and it is wild.

Tagging @thirdsisfics because I associate the term "doomed by the narrative" with the positive feelings I get from talking to you about the trope!