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In a modern world of instant communication technologies, aircraft, and cars, it is easy to take for granted the speed at which the modern world works. A journey that takes hours today may have taken days, or even weeks or months in the past. This can cause us to downplay
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For many Americans, the meaning of a king and a tyrant are largely synonymous. It is common in American media to see kings treated as tyrannical, because they are not bound by the will of the people, are arbitrary, etc. Here is what the inhabitants of my hometown had to
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I only have a few more days left in Munich, where I have been conducting research at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. The MGH library is world class, and the idea of not having access to it is despair inducing. I also got to spend a good chunk of time in
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Imagine you are watching a movie set in the Middle Ages. Something seems off so you dutifully Google "movie + historical accuracy," giving you plenty of results that emphasize the mistakes in the film. You might also occasionally find the directors, costume designers, etc. defending their decisions to break
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This week I have been in the Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv looking at charters in person. Not only has this been particularly useful academically, it is also just really cool to see them in real life instead of in a digitized copy. It is a remarkable accident of fate that we have
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As some of you may know, I am spending two months at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in Munich, Germany. In essence, I am interested in a seemingly boring question: who wrote Arnulf's charters? This isn't simply minutia, but is tied to long-standing debates about royal
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There are many biographies of medieval kings, but that does not mean all are the same.
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Rapidly approaching is this year's Leeds International Medieval Congress, one of the biggest conferences for medieval studies in the world. It is a great place to hear new research and to meet other scholars, not to mention the general social and celebratory atmosphere it tends to have. This
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No PhD is easy, I wanted to offer some thoughts on my experience, my struggle with depression, and the value of a PhD in the Internet Age.
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How does The Conversation (1974) reflect the methods of the historian? I discuss the similarities in this post.
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As usual for medievalists, we strive for topicality. Fortunately the recent papal conclave gives me an opportunity to discuss one of the wackiest events of the Early Middle Ages: the Cadaver Synod. In brief the Cadaver Synod was a trial of the deceased Pope Formosus by Pope Stephen VI, the
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My last post was about the 1,137th anniversary of Arnulf becoming king. This post is about the 1,225th anniversary of his death. It may sound surprising that the date of Arnulf’s death, and where he was buried, has multiple possibilities. This is a king after all, shouldn’