1815: A Year in Review

This summer the bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo dominated Historyland:  a real life reenactment in Belgium, a real time reenactment on-line, thousands* of new books on the subject, and a gazillion Waterloo-related blog posts on topics as large as the Congress of Vienna and as small as false teeth. It was a big, flashy…

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1915: A Year in Review

In 1915, the world was in the second year of the Great War. Over the course of the year, the use of poison gas, submarine warfare, and aerial bombing changed the face of war. Britain and the Ottoman Empire squared off at Gallipoli–a military stalemate with heavy losses on both sides that helped form the…

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1814: The Year in Review

I wish I could tell you that 1814 was a year of peace compared to 1914–but it wouldn’t be true. In fact, the two years look an awful lot alike–emphasis on the awful. The allied powers of Europe fighting an aggressive empire. A generation of young men damaged by war. Belgian fields trampled into mud…

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