Michael J. Taylor

@drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social

2.4K followers 250 following 620 posts

Associate Professor, University at Albany SUNY
Greek and Roman History
PhD UC Berkeley

Videos

Economics 30%

History 25%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Seems like something Princeton should teach?

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 1d

Since we're apparently debating the popularity of military history, the department I generally teach for probably fills close to 300 seats of military history each year.

It also has no tenure lines assigned to the field and no intention to assign any in the future.

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

We don’t teach military history at Princeton.

For a while Jim McPherson and John Murrin did a great “war and society” course, but even then it was a seminar with a dozen students.

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 2d

I don’t know how things are at Harvard, where Hankins is, but I can tell you that military history is popular, but not uniquely so, at my public university.

Alan Allport @alanallport.bsky.social · 2d

90% of military history is about where the latrines are dug. You cannot make war if you have dysentery.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 5d

At least you got to keep the book, right…..?

a man in a suit is standing in a field of grass

ALT: a man in a suit is standing in a field of grass

media.tenor.com

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 6d

To what extent would illegally spending money constitute a crime (Fraud against the United States or the like)?

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Trevon D. Logan, Michael J. Taylor , and 2 more Anna O. Law, Trevon D. Logan, Michael J. Taylor, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Jesse R. Lasky

Justin Zimmerman @jztidecat.bsky.social · 7d

UAlbany, one of those, NY state universities, has been hovering around 4 percent tenure track Black faculty since ever. I am THE Black tenure track political scientists. These folks are just little liars.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 7d

You’ll never guess who else experienced ‘racism’ on the job market despite their unimpeachable academic credentials.

Naomi Wolf: I got pretty far along in the hiring process for a wonderful position teaching at a NY state university before a dean in the department told me I couldn’t go any further because I was white.

Reposted by Ben Barr, Rosemary A. Joyce, Lesley A. Hall , and 7 more Ben Barr, Rosemary A. Joyce, Lesley A. Hall, Trevon D. Logan, Julia Lynch, Michael J. Taylor, Sebastian Karcher, Meredith Farkas, Manisha Sinha, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 7d

You’ll never guess who else experienced ‘racism’ on the job market despite their unimpeachable academic credentials.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 7d

AI is just terrible at Roman stuff, in no small part because a lot of its training set seems to be 1950s Sword and Sandal epics.

One reason among many to never use AI!

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 7d

I’m increasingly uneasy about the flood of AI images on social media. They are mostly absurd and frustrating. They may sometimes be creative experiments, but the fact that so many users take them at face value says a lot about our collective loss of visual literacy.

www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 7d

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 8d

Yes. Disbanding ICE is the small-c conservative position at this point.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 8d

We call our family act T̶h̶e̶ ̶A̶r̶i̶s̶t̶o̶c̶r̶a̶t̶s̶ "The Crime-Fighters."

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 9d

Absolutely mandatory reading on the Republican Roman army.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 10d

Annual repost of my thread on Hasmonean military equipment. ]

Happy Hanukkah!

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · Dec 28

I celebrate Xmas by family tradition, but as a military historian of the Hellenistic (c. 300-100 BCE) Mediterranean, Hanukkah is the holiday that falls within my professional bailiwick.

So, a Hanukkah themed military history 🧵

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 10d

And they even have a foundational epic about a siege where it’s very clear no one knows how a siege actually works, except maybe Andromache.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 11d

Bad news, the Visigoths are also heretics.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 11d

😆

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 11d

The Hasmoneans are not crazy to seek diplomatic backing from Rome--Rome is the one state that has just humbled the Seleucid empire, and are still concerned with hamstringing any Seleucid revival.

Its hard to predict what will happen 200 years in the future!

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 11d

Also, while one Judean warlord revolts, and establishes a rather chauvinistic ethnostate (the Hasmoneans will forcibly circumcise you), there are lots of Jews who live as relatively satisfied inhabitants of the Seleucid empire, including in the ur-diaspora in Babylon.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 11d

But a lot of dominos in between!

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 11d

But backed by the multi-ethnic republican superpower of the era

(yes lots of irony if you know what happened next)

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 11d

Happy Hanukkah, the holiday where we celebrate the defeat of a large cosmpolitan empire by a small determined group of militant religious fanatics

Reposted by Daniel W. Drezner, Michael J. Taylor, David Waldstreicher

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 11d

Happy Hanukkah, the holiday where we celebrate the defeat of a large cosmpolitan empire by a small determined group of militant religious fanatics

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 11d

Right at Hanukkah the Maccabees are in the news, as archaeologists reveal finding a bronze coin from Side and several lead sling bullets at the site of ancient Beth Zecharia.

A few thoughts on the finds and how they do--AND DON'T--connect to the Maccabean battle.

And happy Hanukkah!

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 11d

Formerly marketed as Rullianus.

Reposted by Michael J. Taylor

SCS @scsclassics.bsky.social · 13d

Today on the blog, Stephen DeCasien (@sdecasien.bsky.social) discusses the parallel evolution of two ancient warships, one from Greece and one from China.

www.classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/ste...

A large metal object covered in barnacles and seashells sits on top of a bed of ropes aboard a ship

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 13d

Funnily enough, Keegan wrote in the late 1970s when *everyone* needed a French theorist in their back-pocket.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 16d

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New scientific evidence for the history and occupants of Tomb I (“Tomb of Persephone”) in the Great Tumulus at Vergina

The Great Tumulus of Vergina (Aegae) is considered to be the royal burial complex of the Macedonian kings. Beneath it four tombs were discovered, labe…

www.sciencedirect.com

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 16d

So smarter folks--was this study legit? Or is there more margin of error?

I'm not an expert, but by golly, all the *other* evidence points towards Philip II!

But the science stuff seems pretty conclusive (?)

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 16d

I recall thinking this would be pretty consequential if true. It would re-date a lot of things, not the least the use of barrel vaulted tombs and the introduction of the sarissa.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 16d

Question for the hive mind: recently there was a genetics article that suggested a radical reassessment of the tomb complex at Vergina--rather than the debate of was Philip II on Tomb I or Tomb II, it suggests Tomb I may date not later than the 360s.

Michael J. Taylor @drmichaeljtaylor.bsky.social · 16d

Is he even healthy enough to do so? Its been a loooong decade, but comparing Trump 2016 to 2024 is really startling. He's declined a great deal, and more than just standard aging.

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