In this book review published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, I examine Gail Orgelfinger's new Joan of Arc book that uncovers four centuries of English opinions on Joan, a messy collage of misogyny...
https://www.inquirer.com/arts/books/joan-of-arc-english-imagination-gail-orgelfinger-20190719.html
Buried in Christ Church Cemetery is Philadelphia's homegrown Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), a figure whose credentials will baffle anyone unfamiliar with his legacy. A short resumé would include...
In Joan of Arc: La Pucelle, Craig Taylor tells us that the trial against Joan of Arc “is perhaps the best recorded heresy trial of the middle ages.” This only scratches the surface, as there ...
https://scottmanning.com/content/book-review-joan-of-arc-la-pucelle/
Paul B. Sturtevant is tired of quantitative studies that aim to broadcast the public’s ignorance of history. To him, they reduce history to memorizing facts and dates while taking “an explici...
When I first heard Amazon made a waterproof Kindle, I scoffed at them. Then I found myself commuting on public transportation every day. After 15 years of driving, I suddenly don't have to keep m...
https://scottmanning.com/content/7-weeks-with-the-kindle-oasis/
I wish I could delete the first few chapters of Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, or at least move them to the back. Like any book of myths, it’s difficult not to glaze over the initial inundati...
https://scottmanning.com/content/book-review-neil-gaimans-norse-mythology/
Taylor, Don. Roman Empire at War: A Compendium of Battles from 31 BC to AD 565. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2016. Don Taylor has produced a handsome volume on the battles of the Roman Empire. While th...
https://scottmanning.com/content/book-review-roman-empire-at-war/
Wyke, Maria. Caesar in the USA. Berkely: University of California Press, 2012. xii + 306 pp. Julius Caesar has ebbed and flowed in American memory, but he remains entrenched in pop culture, which...
https://scottmanning.com/content/book-review-caesar-in-the-usa/
No other medieval engagement has a "greater cultural legacy" than the Battle of Agincourt, according to Anne Curry, professor of medieval history at the University of Southampton. Shakespeare's H...
MacDonald, Eve. Hannibal: A Hellenistic Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. Pp. 323. ISBN 978-0-300-15204-3. $38.00. Using the prisms of the Roman perspective and the Hellenistic world ...
https://scottmanning.com/content/hannibal-a-hellenistic-life/