qqduckus

I taught ancient history for 31 years at the University of New Mexico, a plainly third rate institution, finally retiring in 2003 when the harassment from my department (wise ass; 9/11 cracks) drove me from a job I loved. In a fit of typical academic pettiness and vindictiveness my colleagues refused to grant me emeritus status, though some 20,000 students had passed through my classes, apparently pleased. After three decades in academe I fail to understand why successful revolutionaries bother to shoot the intellectuals, though ironically Soviet workers had a saying that certainly applies to university professors: "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." Indeed. I have at last completed the complex and difficult transition from professor to barfly, and I am ready to write something other than the scholarly tome on Marathon which I have been working on. Missing the major soapboxes of my classes and the student newspaper, for which I wrote a regular column, I decided to try a blog, fully expecting to be howling in the darkness. Of course, given the emergence of so many incredibly stupid people in our society, even howling alone in the darkness can be cathartic. I will post a new article on history and contemporary affairs every week. I realize the big boys are doing this every day, but I have a book to finish and want to keep the quality of the posts up (though my heart wants to rant and dump unclever invective on all the unreason, faith-based nonsence and plain stupidity that is being rubbed in my face. My perspective is particularly that of an historian rather than a journalist or a politician. My professional interests were in antiquity and I presume to write about contemporary affairs, but that is in fact what history is all about: the past illuminating the present. Read about the collapse of the Roman Republic and then think about our own country. Or not: Victor Hanson is the greatest expert - ever - on Greek warfare, yet his newspaper editorials frequently suggest a person clueless about history. If you like the stuff you see here, try the best and most readable Greek history on the planet: Dare to Struggle. The History and Society of Greece (at Amazon) and help me buy beer. I am available to lecture at birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc. The photo shows me in my NKVD uniform.