Tag: hollywood

Ancient Warfare – “Ancient Rome: Facts and Fictions” (ABC-CLIO, 2020) – Monica Bontty interview

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Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/2B0MNTC

Dr. Monica Bontty is a professor of archaeological studies and ancient history. She teaches at the University of Louisiana-Monroe and she wrote a book on misconceptions about Ancient Rome. We spoke about the ancient Roman military from the Republic to the Empire and the research she did for the book. (The audio player is at the bottom of the post.)

1:11 – Monica talks about why she wrote a book on misconceptions about Ancient Rome.

2:26 – Monica talks about how the Roman Army changed over time.

5:15 – Monica talks about phalanx style fighting.

6:26 – Monica talks about the maniple system.

7:45 – Monica talks about the reforms of Marius.

10:45 – Monica talks about Julius Caesar and the establishment of the empire.

12:04 – Monica talks about Octavian, Anthony, and Lepidus.

17:00 – Monica talks about military life and benefits.

28:00 – Monica talks about military pride but also the trouble that soldiers got into and abuse of power.

30:22 – Monica talks about military courts.

32:34 – Monica talks about soldier complaints about centurions.

33:10 – Monica talks about where the money came from Rome to hire so many more soldiers during the time of Marius.

34:34 – Monica talks about the abruptness of the reforms of Marius.

35:10 – Monica talks about Hannibal and the Punic Wars.

38:43 – Monica talks about the Praetorian Guard auctioning off the imperial office.

40:56 – Monica talks about where the term barbarian came from.

41:52 – Monica talks about how she researched the book. Livius.org and Penelope are useful resources.

45:21 – Monica talks about the myth of the vomitoria.

48:38 – Monica talks about learning surprising things about Augustus.

50:09 – Monica talks about Nero’s popularity.

51:02 – Monica talks about Roman hygiene.

54:06 – Monica talks about the hygiene standards of the Roman Army and “bad air”.

57:25 – Monica can be found on ulm.edu.

 

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/2B0MNTC

https://products.abc-clio.com/abc-cliocorporate/product.aspx?pc=A5404C

https://webservices.ulm.edu/facultyactivities/profile/bontty

https://www.livius.org/

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/home.html

 

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Guests: Monica Bontty

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Nero, Caligula, Rome, Italy, Roman Army, legio, cavalry, phalanx, maniple, Marius, Julius Caesar, Augustus, military camp, barbarian, Hannibal, Pax Romana, Gauls, Egypt, auxiliary troops, Arminius, proscription, Golden Ass, centurions, Punic Wars, Praetorian Guard, Vomitoria, Nero, Hollywood

Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/2B0MNTC

WWI history book – “Remembering World War I in America” (University of Nebraska Press, 2018) – Kimberly Lamay Licursi interview

I interviewed historian Kimberly Lamay Licursi about her new book “Remembering World War I in America” being released by University of Nebraska Press in March 2018.

1:09 – Kimberly’s interest in history began with her interest in genealogy. She began in the government field. The book came out of a seminar class she was taking and research she did at the archives of New York state. She noticed that not many books had been written about America in WWI.

3:26 – States tried to create histories of the war. Kimberly looked at movies and pulp fiction to determine how Americans remembered the war. There was even a WWI pulp fiction genre.

6:12 – Many Americans were apathetic after the war. People wanted to move forward from it and thought that maybe they shouldn’t have been involved in it. A lot of soldiers wouldn’t even participate in state remembrances for the war. Many were unemployed and poor after the war.

8:12 – Gold Diggers is a 1930s movie that mentions the Bonus Army. She looked at other movies from 1918 to 1941 such as Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Big Parade is the first to really look at the American experience in the war. Aviation movies like Wings became popular later on. Sergeant York becomes very popular right before WWII.

13:24 – King Vidor was one director who wanted to make a grand film but didn’t necessarily want to do a war movie. Warner Brothers made a WWI movie only because they were focused later on WWII.

15:29 – The soldiers who returned after the first returning wave didn’t get parades. Many soldiers resented what they had been through. They weren’t commonly thanked for their service.

17:44 – Americans didn’t see much of the war or the dead. Many dead soldiers were interned in Europe.

19:43 – Even Europeans didn’t talk about the Americans very much. Many Americans wrote memories but they weren’t popular among the public.

21:57 – A Farewell to Arms is one of the more important books about WWI for Americans. But it doesn’t really sell well until the 1950s when it came out into paperback. Academics made it popular and made students read it.

26:19 – The American Legion was prominent in trying to remember American soldiers after WWI. It was made up of veterans without much support from civilians.

28:59 – Kimberly most enjoyed reading the pulp fiction about the war. It was very light hearted and fun in many ways.   Many of the writers were veterans.

34:21 – During the war many publishers were making a fortune putting out memoirs but soon after, the market disappeared. Most of the war books were supportive of the war, especially with the speech restrictions.

35:33 – There weren’t Federal efforts to get information out. Carnegie funded some national level private efforts.

36:53 – One female memoir by Ellen Lamotte called the Backwash of War is difficult to read because it presents the horror of war and was banned. Katherine Mayo wrote a popular memoir named That Damned Y. Many women wrote war memoirs who were in the war as ambulance drivers and nurses. Willa Cather and Edith Wharton wrote about the war.

39:48 – Two black women wrote memoirs about the war. A black film production company made a movie about the war and African-Americans.

43:40 – Kimberly would like to next write about remarkable women in the 1920s and 1930s. Women lost to history.

 

Links

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024069/?ref_=nv_sr_2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012190/?ref_=nv_sr_5

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015624/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018578/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034167/?ref_=nv_sr_1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Farewell_to_Arms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Vidor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_LaMotte

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Mayo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willa_Cather

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wharton

 

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

 

Guests: Kimberly Lamay Licursi

Host: Cris Alvarez