Tag: military

Renaissance warfare history book – “Renaissance Mass Murder” (Oxford University Press, 2019) – Stephen Bowd interview

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Dr. Stephen Bowd studied and Medieval and Renaissance studies now teaches at the University of Edinburgh.  We talked about his latest book on military mass murders committed during the Italian Wars of the early 16th century.

0:46 – Stephen talks about how he got into writing on massacres during the italian Wars.

2:25 – The book covers the years 1494 to about 1530.

3:18 – The book is broken into sections on mass murder events, what the soldiers thought of murders, what the civilian thought, theories behind mass murder in war, and comparisons to other mass murders.

6:37 – Stephen talks about massacres associated with military activity and those that were between military activities.

9:05 – Stephen talks about the attitudes of soldiers towards civilians.

11:15 – Stephen talks about the nationalities of the various armies involved in these massacres.

13:45 – Stephen talks about the plunder taken in towns during these wars.

15:00 – Stephen talks about the sack of Rome.

16:19 – Stephen talks about the levels of lawlessness in these massacres and seiges.  But there also sometimes plans drawn up for these massacres.

19:30 – Some soldiers feared that peace talks would lead to less plunder for them after the siege or battle ends.

21:47 – Stephen talks about what weapons were used for these massacres.

23:38 – Stephen talks about the numbers of people massacred.

26:30 – Stephen talks about women who trained in arms to defend their towns.

41:00 – Stephen talks about Machiavelli’s views on the murder of civilians.

45:52 – Stephen talks about Protestant-Catholic divisions and these massacres.

48:27 – Stephen discusses how these massacres shape art and the Renaissance.

55:55 – Stephen’s work can be found by googling “Shadow Agents of War.”

 Links of interest

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/renaissance-mass-murder-9780198832614?cc=us&lang=en&
https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/about-us/staff-profiles/profile_tab1_academic.php?uun=sbowd

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: Stephen Bowd

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, German landsknechts, italian wars, massacres, soldiers, French, Barbarians, Spanish,

Institute of Historical research, Hugo Grotius, Machiavelli, Rome, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci

Ancient warfare military history book – “Soldier, Priest, and God” (Oxford University Press, 2018) – Fred Naiden interview

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Dr. Fred Naiden studies ancient Greek law, religion, and warfare, including Near-Eastern parallels.  He teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and we spoke about his latest book on Alexander the Great.

0:52 – Fred talks about how he became interested in writing on this.

3:15 – Fred talks about how the book is laid out.  It covers Alexander’s military career from start to finish.

6:56 – Fred talks about how the Egyptians and Persians viewed the Greeks and Macedonians. 

11:33 – Fred talks about Alexander’s upbringing. He also touches on Alexander’s relationship with Aristotle.

15:21 – Fred talks about Alexander’s effects on native religions.

19:48 – Fred talks about how Alexander performed religious ceremonies.

22:09 – Fred talks about Alexander in India.

25:05 – Fred talks about Alexander as a man on a mission to learn about different cultures and with an ambitious curiosity.

34:00 – Fred talks about the resources he used for his research.

53:46 – Fred has a page on the University of North Carolina website.

Links of interest

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/soldier-priest-and-god-9780190875343?cc=us&lang=en&
Fred Naiden

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: Fred Naiden

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Alexander the Great, Egypt, Persia, Islam, Quran, Hebrews, Macedonia, Greece, Muslims, India, Afghanistan

Kurdish conflict studies book – “Anatomy of a Civil War” (University of Michigan Press, 2018) – Mehmet Gurses interview

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Dr. Mehmet Gurses is trained as a social and political scientist.  He’s spent a great deal of time studying civil wars around the world.  He eventually began studying the Kurdish conflict and has written a book about his research.  We spoke about the book. 

0:54 – Mehmet talks about how he got into the subject.  He is Kurdish and grew up in Southeastern Turkey.

7:07 – Mehmet talks about how the book is laid out and what it discusses.

12:37 – Mehmet talks about the four years of research he did on the Kurdish conflict to write this book.

16:29 – Mehmet talks about his response rate for interviews and security issues.

17:45 – Mehmet talks about the positive effects of the conflict.

32:36 – Mehmet expands on how he did the research for the book.

59:28 – Mehmet has writings available on google scholar. 

Links of interest

https://www.press.umich.edu/9946395/anatomy_of_a_civil_war
https://www.fau.edu/artsandletters/politicalscience/faculty/gurses/

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: Mehmet Gurses

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Turkey, Kurd, Kurdish conflict, trauma