Matt Gabriele

and as my friend says, the "dark ages" claim does modern, political work

bsky.app/profile/loll...

neither the dates nor the claim are true at all!

I’d like people to notice is how the reviewer and the introduction uses a multi-century movement of peoples to support today’s anti-immigrant argument in Britain.

However you characterize movement from 200-600, it ain’t anything like anything modern. Because FOUR HUNDRED YEARS

reported in Ademar of Chabannes and Rodulfus Glaber

so in 1009, the Caliph al-Hakim destroyed (well, likely damaged) the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. in certain cities, rumors were started that said that the Jews of Europe had instigated it and pressured the Islamic ruler to do what he did. massacres were carried out of the Jews in those cities.

“The ‘Dark Ages’,” Haywood writes, “has become a byword for ignorance, brutality and squalor.” He objects to that generalisation but then goes on to show that many areas were indeed dark. After Rome fell, the threads that held society together began to break. Across the old empire, splendid buildings were abandoned and knowledge of Latin waned. Violence took the place of governance. It is interesting to note that the Visigoths ruled the Iberian peninsula from 418 to 631 but left almost no cultural mark on the region.

come the fuck on, man. do you think Rome and Greece were not violent? do you think languages wouldn't change across 1000 years and (at least) 3 continents?

Cone-headed barbarians! Welcome to the Dark Ages John Haywood’s delightfully old-fashioned The Making of the Middle Ages uses maps to reveal how marauding tribes changed Europe after the fall of Rome

so when @lollardfish.bsky.social and me wrote THE BRIGHT AGES one of the things (some!) colleagues pushed back on was that no one thinks about the medieval world as "dark" anymore. those people were silly and very very wrong.

www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

no it does not

would also point out that that person making the point about the Nazi is from Scotland so who gives a shit what they think

Gotta say, I am desperately looking forward to a time that Eleanor Janega has a large enough fanbase for her scholarship that she can just go wild and publish on whatever the fuck she wants. Like, g-d yes PLEASE tell me about something I haven't already read 30 books on. P L E A S E. My crops are failing, and the rain they need is medieval Czech history

the children yearn for the Czech History @goingmedieval.bsky.social

listen to the episode for yourself --> podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

🚨 LATE SUBMISSION WINDOW OPEN 🚨

We've had a withdrawal from one of these sessions and would be very keen to include another paper - please do not hesitate to reach out if you're interested, and to help us spread the word. Many thanks!!

#skystorians #medieval #medievalsky #premodernrace #imc2026

Hey guys Christians do this too! No need to do lowkey Islamophobia!

can a senator be impeached?

we need Tom Haverford

youtu.be/8c0JrJdJrBA?...

i'm sorry

a group of cartoon characters standing next to each other with one wearing a white shirt ALT: a group of cartoon characters standing next to each other with one wearing a white shirt

insane in the Markwayne

it's gonna be really important that everyone tries to get him to appoint a House Republican so he effectively gives control of the chamber to the Dems

What are you talking about

i hate this clickbait crap. the data tells you a lot about national norms, but very little about generational ones

full data set www.kcl.ac.uk/assets/news/...

my author does at least not like Pinker

looking through a book on historical violence that cites evo psych bros, anthropologists, political scientists, and sociologists/ criminologists and
not
a
single
historian

social scientists what are you doing?

💅 coming soon:

"Rethinking Popular Religion from Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval Period" Università Ca' Foscari #Venezia, 12-13 March 2026

listen this is being shared but the screenshot is asking Claude to analyze what Claude may have done. this isn't actually truth or valid information; it's an AI circle jerk

oh your night school MBA class was a joke? no shit. oh your accounting professor was not a great accountant? no shit.

that said, a lot of the people dunking on academics related to this are complaining about their Business School professors and, friends, B-School isn't real school

I looked at his X account the other day and, of all the people pushing back on his Platner apologism, he chose to quote-dunk on the Jewish guy.

Pasts Imperfect (3.5.26) Across the world—from the United States to Canada to Australia—departments and museums within higher education are closing. This week, ancient historian Geoffrey Greatrex discusses the suspension of t...

The latest Pasts Imperfect is out, focused on the closing of humanities depts. & museums. @otavano.bsky.social discusses the U. of Ottawa, @mokersel.bsky.social on the DePaul Art Museum, @meirazk.bsky.social & @vox-magica.bsky.social on shuttering religious studies depts, & Justin Vorhis on U. Iowa.

Shaily Patel writes: “The other lesson I learned is that we must keep doing this work, particularly because it is being devalued. Just this term, I’ve spoken with several students who chose their major because they felt pre-professional pressure. Their experiences align with broader educational trends. Naturally, I cannot single-handedly mitigate rampant careerism, change the minds of parents or politicians, or rewrite self-fulfilling media narratives of the humanities in decline. As it stands, I cannot even recruit students into the major that I myself found so fulfilling.

In the face of all this scholarly destruction, I still think educators must do what we can. I can certainly impart to students the value of learning for learning’s sake, to see the worth of intellectual play as opposed to mere skill mastery. And I can hope that they will sustain a love of learning even as they settle into their respective career trajectories. I never intend to prepare my students for this world, after all; I want them to imagine better ones. Perhaps they will build a world that does not leverage learning only for career prospects, one that rewards curiosity, one that invests in civic goods like public universities.”

I found this by @vox-magica.bsky.social in today‘s Pasts Imperfect very moving because in the face of senseless cuts, it doesn’t rush to provide hope or advice beyond stating the necessity of continuing doing what we are doing.

pasts-imperfect.ghost.io/pasts-imperf...

So it turns out Ryan Grim got all of the "Platner's wife is Jewish, still think he's a nazi?" schtick from VDARE, a neo-nazi website, and now not only am I more convinced that Platner is a nazi, I'm also convinced Grim is.

Walk through Borough Market, or take a short train up to St Albans, visit Museum of London, have a drink at Satan’s Whiskers.