From Hudson Bay to Montenegro: Research Round Up

Greetings everybody. I wanted to give you some updates on my research. The major blog By Common Consent started a new press. This is very exciting news as the Mormon publishing world is very small. I've been waiting to hear back from the major publishers, but another one sounds like a great place to publish my second text on warfare in the Book of Mormon. You can read more about it here. (Though I've added an extra chapter since then based on this material.)  I understand BCC is not the most academic venue, but I'm not trying to get tenure or please those in the Ivory Tower. I want to publish something that I think is of great worth to readers and I'm having a devil of a time finding a Mormon publishing outlet.

In fact, if BCC doesn't want to publish with me I will make a pitch to Westholme Press. I signed a contract with them last November and my book, Decisive Battles in Chinese History, should be coming out in the fall. I've come up with a few potential cover pictures and a book blurb:

The study of Chinese battles faces many hurdles that include hard to pronounce names, different spelling systems, and a haze of impenetrable names, places, and ideas. Indigenous Chinese histories written by Confucians with an anti-military bias used rather laconic phrases to describe the battles that were then transmitted to Jesuit missionaries that shared the Confucian disdain for martial matters. The modern discipline of history developed in the West during a time of particular Chinese weakness and political division that lasted through many of the tumultuous events in the 20^th century. This book overcomes those hurdles by covering the wide span of Chinese history from their semi mythical beginnings to the 21^st century Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. Using the best of modern scholarship, with a keen eye for military history and strategy, the text penetrates the fog of Chinese history using an accessible writing style. Each chapter highlights an engaging battle that selectively focusing on unique Chinese characteristics including their major belief systems, ruling ideology, connection between technology and warfare, Chinese military theory, major political events and key rulers, their foreign policy with their neighbors, cultural developments, and their interaction with the West. The text pushes back on a variety of ideas and stereotypes ranging from the Chinese use of gunpowder, their supposedly weak reaction to the West, the viability of the Dynastic Cycle in studying history, the context of their military theory, the exclusivity of martial and cultural spheres,  and the uniqueness of Western imperialism.  It offers a groundbreaking reassessment of Mao Zedong’s leadership and his impact on the development of guerrilla warfare. In world filled with disturbing reports of conflict and potential warfare, Decisive Battles in Chinese History offers a unique addition to students, historians, and anybody wishing to better understand Chinese history. 

Nationalist propaganda 1937

I continue to publish with Opslens. My articles there have been picked up by Fox News  and Washington Examiner . Combined with writing for Strategy and Tactics Magazine as well as Strategy Bridge, I'm excited for my writing future.

On that note, I want to briefly introduce my next book. In a future post I might provide a book blurb or preview of a sample chapter.  I am writing a book that discusses a World History of Battle at 400AD. The genesis of the project came from something I noticed.  378AD  witnessed Tikal being overrun by Teotihuacan. In Book of Mormon chronology 378 covered the final Nephite battles for survival.  In 378 the Romans lost at the Battle of Adrianople, which inaugurated the final chapter of their history.  I started to look further and I thought the Battle of Badon Hill in the late 5th century was close enough to be considered, especially when it gives me the chance to examine what many think is the historical King Arthur. (If you read my first book you know that I used the words of British historian Gildas in discussing the behavior of Gadianton Robbers. So I'm already familiar with the sources of this age.) Speaking of being familiar, I have a whole book on Chinese battles, so its not difficult to re-purpose the chapter that covered the Battle of Fei River (383AD).  I've been working on a sample Japanese chapter, and their history is rather sparse before the mid 6th century or so, except you can line up general trends with the Gwanggaeto Stele, which just happens to detail a war right at 400 AD!  As you can see, this book provides a good chance to cover a variety of cultures and regions that aren't normally examined at all, let alone together in a volume. I'm particularly proud of my inclusion of Cree warfare, which I had to reconstruct from various sources. Each chapters looks at a particular battle and then considers the role of geography, technology, and culture in how they created armies and fought.

Thanks for reading and I hope you get a chance to read my research!!

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