Recommend me some history (and history adjacent) blogs, old or new
January 20, 2025 10:04 AM Subscribe
In times of trouble and stress, blogs are the ideal format for me. I have been reading ACOUP and Ada Palmer's Ex Urbe. I also enjoy blogs focusing on literature and material culture (food, clothing, weaving, toys, tools, furniture, building stuff, etc). What can you recommend?
ACOUP and Ex Urbe are ideal for me because they focus on long written posts - not so much video or just a couple of paragraphs plus an image.
I will absolutely read old blogs that no longer update. I will read a blog from front to back if I enjoy it.
My guess is that pop-scholarly blogs are going to be the biggest hits.
Readability is more important than topic - I basically never thought about the Roman Empire before I started reading ACOUP and now I have a vague general sense of when major events happened and how a shield wall works, and I had very little interest in Machiavelli before I started reading Ex Urbe, and now I have a lot of interest in Machiavelli plus some opinions about gelato. So anyway - if you have a pet blog, it doesn't matter if it's about Viking crafts, fabric printing or factional struggle in the Edo period, if it's interesting I'm in.
ACOUP and Ex Urbe are ideal for me because they focus on long written posts - not so much video or just a couple of paragraphs plus an image.
I will absolutely read old blogs that no longer update. I will read a blog from front to back if I enjoy it.
My guess is that pop-scholarly blogs are going to be the biggest hits.
Readability is more important than topic - I basically never thought about the Roman Empire before I started reading ACOUP and now I have a vague general sense of when major events happened and how a shield wall works, and I had very little interest in Machiavelli before I started reading Ex Urbe, and now I have a lot of interest in Machiavelli plus some opinions about gelato. So anyway - if you have a pet blog, it doesn't matter if it's about Viking crafts, fabric printing or factional struggle in the Edo period, if it's interesting I'm in.
I believe Papyrus Stories meets most of your criteria. It was mentioned in this previous AskMe.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:53 AM on January 20
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:53 AM on January 20
I like Kevin Baker's writing on the history of computers/tech.
posted by coffeecat at 10:55 AM on January 20
posted by coffeecat at 10:55 AM on January 20
I also came here to recommend Papyrus Stories, which I also got from that previous AskMe. So that's 2 votes, which in MeFi maths means it's twice as good as any other recommendation, right?
Anyway, I also like Codex99 and, possibly an obvious one, but the Smithsonian's History blog is a favourite in my RSS feed.
posted by underclocked at 11:21 AM on January 20 [1 favorite]
Anyway, I also like Codex99 and, possibly an obvious one, but the Smithsonian's History blog is a favourite in my RSS feed.
posted by underclocked at 11:21 AM on January 20 [1 favorite]
It's not a blog per se, but Peter Morwood occasionally goes on that sort of tangent, usually regarding historical weaponry, on his Tumblr (in between reblogging cute cats and fandom marginalia as well as posting recipes). You want the Arms and armour tag.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:30 AM on January 20
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:30 AM on January 20
Polyglot vegetarian , Res Oscura, Maddy's Ramblings (india centric)
posted by dhruva at 11:37 AM on January 20
posted by dhruva at 11:37 AM on January 20
When he was on hiatus last fall Devereaux gave some recommendations for other history blogs (also podcasts and youtube but you said you wanted text).
Also I don't have time to search right now but I'm certain somewhere on Palmer's Discord there is a list of other recommendations for blogs, I'll try to remember to look later.
posted by Wretch729 at 11:43 AM on January 20
Also I don't have time to search right now but I'm certain somewhere on Palmer's Discord there is a list of other recommendations for blogs, I'll try to remember to look later.
posted by Wretch729 at 11:43 AM on January 20
I came to Eleanor Janega through a post on chivalry, and have since read most of Going Medieval.
Table of contents by subject
posted by droomoord at 12:07 PM on January 20 [1 favorite]
Table of contents by subject
posted by droomoord at 12:07 PM on January 20 [1 favorite]
Admiral Cloudberg writes about plane crashes (used to be weekly, but is now more infrequent).
posted by hoyland at 1:29 PM on January 20
posted by hoyland at 1:29 PM on January 20
BBC In Our Time podcast host Melvyn Bragg talks gently with a couple of experts about inter alia history: recently The Antikythera Mechanism, The Hanovarian Succession, The Venetian Empire. 1000 episodes something for everyone.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:37 PM on January 20 [2 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:37 PM on January 20 [2 favorites]
Mostly About Stories is one I stumbled on recently
Worth noting from author:"My reading preferences and practices reflect a traditional, very privileged and conservative upbringing in my homeland." but he's reflexive about it...
start with his most recent - today's - post about Life and Fate; if you like that you'll like the rest of the blog.
posted by lalochezia at 4:09 PM on January 20
Worth noting from author:"My reading preferences and practices reflect a traditional, very privileged and conservative upbringing in my homeland." but he's reflexive about it...
start with his most recent - today's - post about Life and Fate; if you like that you'll like the rest of the blog.
posted by lalochezia at 4:09 PM on January 20
There aren't very many and no recent posts, but I enjoyed the Queens of Infamy series by Anne Theriault.
posted by Preserver at 4:46 PM on January 20 [1 favorite]
posted by Preserver at 4:46 PM on January 20 [1 favorite]
Peter Gainsford aka "Kiwi Hellenist", a classicist from New Zealand, writes about ancient Greek literature and science. The sequence of posts on how Eratosthenes measured the Earth (and how we know that, given none of Eratosthenes' works survives) is particularly good.
posted by cyanistes at 4:36 AM on January 21
posted by cyanistes at 4:36 AM on January 21
Literature and History has both audio and text options. Which is good because I prefer transcripts. 107 episodes. I haven't even gotten through all of them.
posted by ovvl at 10:32 AM on January 21
posted by ovvl at 10:32 AM on January 21
Poemas del río Wang is an incredible blog with many hundreds of deeply engrossing posts from all over the world written by, for the most part, Dr. Tamás Sajó, an art historian and translator. It is part travelogue, part photo diary and part journey into historical esoterica. Some old posts — there are entries from 2007 right up through the present — feature music, too. Posts are tagged well and those discussing certain places are mapped. I enjoy the non-mobile version of the blog more than the mobile version because it is simply nicer to browse the entries on a larger screen, and the blog’s “back door” lets you sift through entries in an order other than from the most recent, giving the reader a real sense of serendipity.
It’s more than a good read, too: I actually cannot actually think of a more influential website of any kind in terms of affecting my own explorations of the world. I have planned entire vacations based on his “minute-by-minute” trip reports (as in this trip to Georgia, in two parts), and the author of the blog also leads tours in small groups around some stunningly beautiful places.
posted by mdonley at 4:44 PM on January 21
It’s more than a good read, too: I actually cannot actually think of a more influential website of any kind in terms of affecting my own explorations of the world. I have planned entire vacations based on his “minute-by-minute” trip reports (as in this trip to Georgia, in two parts), and the author of the blog also leads tours in small groups around some stunningly beautiful places.
posted by mdonley at 4:44 PM on January 21
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posted by HearHere at 10:32 AM on January 20