David Deane

(3) Mao Zedong. I know his famous, well-recorded swims across the Yangtze River were for propaganda purposes. But they were recorded (albeit wildly exaggerated) and he did the last one in his 70s, so he was clearly a formidable swimmer. Plus, he'd likely take PEDs. Ok, back to grading.

(2) Julius Caesar. Suetonius noted that during the siege of Mytilene, his ship sank. He was not only able to swim to safety but he did so while carrying important papers above his head. That kind of staminia would have made him formidable in distance events

(1) Charlemagne. He was at least 6'3" (Einhard said he was 7 times the length of his foot). You can only assess "the greats" relative to their own era, and given his size and athleticism, coupled with his devotion to swimming and reputation as an amazing swimmer, makes him the clear #1.

After 6 or 7 hours of continuous grading, I reached a stage similar to drunkenness. I knew I needed to stop when I found myself looking up from an essay and wondering, "Who would be the top three swimmers among political leaders in history?" - for those interested my list was 🧵

Interesting. Figes hates him, but I can't imagine he'd say it without solid evidence. Thanks for the info.

If Bluesky does better at controlling hate speech, it's a big improvement over Twitter. If it's a space for the bourgeoisie to be smug, and safe from the dirty minds of the proletariat, then it's worse than Twitter and a force for social ill. I'm here to see which way it goes :)

I don't think there's any support for the idea that he sued for back rent! As you likely know, though, he did think that the famine would bring social change faster, so he said some cold things about it.

Have you read Figgis "A People's Tragedy"? He flags that aspect of Lenin a lot, maybe that's where you read it?