Had some wonderful news yesterday - the WW1 Historical Association awarded Framing the First World War the Norman B. Tomlinson Prize for 2025! Very grateful to our wonderful contributors and their hard work, series editor Bill Allison and the team at @univpressofkansas.bsky.social -

4 August 1906: Germany's first U-Boot is launched www.ndr.de/geschichte/c... via @ndr.de

U 1: Erstes U-Boot der kaiserlichen Marine 1906 - vom "blinden Maulwurf" zur tödlichen Waffe

Am 4. August 1906 wird in Kiel das erste U-Boot der kaiserlichen Marine zu Wasser gelassen. Anfangs von den Militärs wenig geschätzt, versenken U-Boote im Ersten Weltkrieg 6.000 Schiffe.

ndr.de

At Ypres #OTD 12 July 1917 the Germans fired the first shells in warfare containing sulphur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas. Like many chemical warfare agents used in #WW1, it did not behave as predicted. Mustard killed fewer, but caused far more horrific injuries than expected. An old blog:

Yellow Cross: the advent of Mustard Gas in 1917

In July 1917, on the eve of the Third Battle of Ypres, the Germans introduced two new chemical weapons to the battlefield. One was a failure, the other a spectacular success. The story of their use…

simonjoneshistorian.com

can’t believe a narcissist is being so publicly humiliated by a reflecting pool

Our huge double Special Issue, 17:1/2, is out now! Teaching the First World War for the Twenty-First Century – Pedagogies in Dialogue, eds Susan Grayzel, Ann-Marie Einhaus & @teachlearnwar.bsky.social has no fewer than 10 paired explorations of teaching the FWW www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfww20/c...

First World War Studies

Teaching the First World War for the Twenty-First Century – Pedagogies in Dialogue; Guest editors: Ann-Marie Einhaus, Susan R. Grayzel and Catriona Pennell. Volume 17, Issue 1-2 of First World War Studies

tandfonline.com

9. Juni 1884 Grundsteinlegung #Reichstag in Berlin in Anwesenheit von Kaiser Wilhelm I, seinem Nachfolger Friedrich III und dem späteren Wilhelm II. #OTD #OnThisDay #Kalenderblatt #Geschichte

Bring integrity back. Every Day is Ethics Day.

One of the interesting aspects of exploring Italian Front battlefields…calorie deficit. It’s often not physically possible to consume the same number of calories as those expended. This was also the case for soldiers, in WW1 and now. After a week of -1,500 k/cal per day at altitude, I’m done in.

I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human | Wendy Liu

I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It’s what makes us human | Wendy Liu

As intelligence itself becomes privatised by big tech, allowing your intellectual faculties to wither in service of inane bots seems a dangerous move, says author Wendy Liu

theguardian.com

Check out my new #substack page (I have brought back the name of my original website, 'Thoughts on Military History'). Expect articles and book reviews. Please take a moment to take a look and subscribe. drrossmahoney.substack.com #militaryhistory #airpowerhistory #plsRT

Thoughts on Military History | Dr Ross Mahoney | Substack

This is the Substack of Dr Ross Mahoney. It serves as a platform for my reflections on various research projects, bibliographies, and book reviews related to my interests. Click to read Thoughts on Mi...

drrossmahoney.substack.com

THERE IS NO PURELY MILITARY SPHERE open.substack.com/pub/deadcarl...

The Myth of Military Logic

How "military necessity" became the key-stone of militarism

open.substack.com

Not something I expected to see…King’s College London and Cranfield University merging. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

King’s College London to merge with Cranfield University

Merged institution will become second largest mainstream university in UK with about 47,000 students

theguardian.com

‘A Rumor of War’ was one of the books that inspired me to become a military historian. Fair winds and following seas, Philip Caputo.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 3mo ago

Philip Caputo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose best-selling, disillusioning memoir, “A Rumor of War,” about leading a Marine platoon through the sniper-riddled and booby-trapped jungles of Vietnam, entered the canon of wartime literature, died on Thursday.

“Weimar Germany, 1918/19–1933,” the final volume of our relaunched “German History in Documents and Images” primary source project, is now published and available! You can find the expanded edition, edited and with a new introduction by Erik Jensen, here: germanhistorydocs.org/en/weimar-ge...

This is quite extraordinary- scientists set a kind of trap for AI chat bots by inventing a fake disease. AI told people it was real and… the deliberately bogus preprints started being cited in peer reviewed literature 🫣 🧪 #MedSky www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real

Bixonimania doesn’t exist except in a clutch of obviously bogus academic papers. So why did AI chatbots warn people about this fictional illness?

nature.com

#OTD in 1918, Germany sank the entire Liberian navy with a single shot. After Liberia entered WWI on the Allied side, Germany sent a U-boat to Monrovia that used its deck gun to score one hit on the R.L.S President Daniel E. Howard, sinking Liberia's only gunboat.

"Superficial readings of Homer lead audiences to imagine that heroes are admirable. What each epic shows, however, is that the vast majority of people in heroic communities suffer because of their excesses... neoskosmos.com/en/2026/04/0...

How "heroes" destroy civilisations

Joel P. Christensen shares a provocative reflection linking modern geopolitical rhetoric to ancient Greek myth, exploring how hubris, heroism, and “main character” thinking continue to shape war, leadership, and the fate of civilisations.

neoskosmos.com

Looking forward to talking about my current project on seapower & the FWW at @kcllnucsc.bsky.social on 28 May. Link here: www.kcl.ac.uk/events/the-w...

The war business: British shipping and the First World War | King's College London

This paper develops an alternative account of the wartime relationship between ships, shipowners, and the state – and thus of Britain at war.

kcl.ac.uk

Great to speak to the World War I podcast about Framing the FWW, check it out here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f... @draefox.bsky.social @mpmfinch.bsky.social @univpressofkansas.bsky.social

Framing the First World War

Podcast Episode · World War I Podcast · 5 March · 50m

podcasts.apple.com

University Press of Kansas@univpressofkansas.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The launch event chaired by @dmorganowen.bsky.social hosted at St. Andrews University, will feature presentations from contributors and @draefox.bsky.social for the book Framing the First World War: How Divergent Views Shaped a Global Conflict. #firstworldwar #WWI #militaryhistory #upkansas

My review of Odd Arne Westad’s The Coming Storm, out in @thespectator1828.bsky.social today: spectator.com/article/lear...

Learning from history requires sophistication and skill

If you reckon you have an understanding of international politics today, you probably haven’t been listening properly. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump are making histor...

spectator.com

Book#5. Insightful work on the origins and execution of Verdun. A mix of intellectual history and military history, this is probably the best work available on why the Germans fought the Battle of Verdun. Highly recommend for anyone with a deep interest in the campaign. @robertfoley.bsky.social

Unlike most apps these days, Scrivener (@scrivenerapp.bsky.social) does not use AI in any way. I've been a happy user of Scrivener for 15+ years. And boy, am I happy about that! Thank you, Scrivener! tinyurl.com/2mh99w3y

I m advertising a PhD position as part of our ERC project BLOCKADE. The PhD cand. should focus on myth/narratives of the hunger blockade in Germany, Austria in the era of the World Wars. 4 years of funding, wonderful team, amazing city (evidence attached)! Pls share! www.hsozkult.de/opportunity/...

Tim Cook CM 1971 – 2025 A great loss to the military history community worldwide. Thoughts and aroha with his family in Canada. www.thestar.com/news/canada/...

Tim Cook, chief historian at the Canadian War Museum dies

The historian was the author of over 19 books focusing on Canada’s military history.

thestar.com

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero

This is the way.

Orla Hegarty@orla-hegarty.bsky.social · 10mo ago

London plan to improve air quality in schools by installing indoor air filters “Children & adults can be triggered [& INFECTED] by particles in air such as dust mites, mould, pollen, animal dander, pollutants & VIRUSES” airqualitynews.com/headlines/ai...

"Students, and increasingly all of us, risk becoming editors of what has already been said, where the future is built only from recycled fragments of yesterday’s data." theconversation.com/how-generati...

How generative AI could change how we think and speak

Over-reliance on chatbots could be eroding our language and critical thinking skills.

theconversation.com

“This morning, Germany is one nation again.” This is how BBC Breakfast News reported on German reunification, 35 years ago today.

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.