Alex Harvey

It’s a shame to be able to do only 1-2 lessons on this; pre-colonial Africa (even just a particular century) could fill a whole sequence / module

Given the approach of Christmas, online reviews really help authors out. If you have a moment, please write one (preferably nice) for either of my recently published works; its free!

LITTLE KINGDOMS: www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Kingd...

FORGOTTEN VIKINGS: www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Vi...

A picture of Alex Harvey with luscious locks holding up a copy of LITTLE KINGDOMS

Also, I'm growing out my hair

Text reading: This hard backed book isn't quite what I expected, but is all the better for it. I imagined it would be an A to Z guide of small Medieval kingdoms, that I could dip into in no particular order, whereas the author indicates that he intended it to be read straight through. Because this is a study of landscape, language, archeology and settlement 'arranged into alphabetised vignettes'. The history covers the Early Medieval period, also known as the Migration Period or the Dark Ages, which is between the fifth and tenth centuries. Starting with a place named Aechse and ending with Ytene, the history moves through the British Isles focusing on the site or an object to form 'mini narratives', so by the end of the book there is a rounded study into the communities, names and landscapes of the time. This is an interesting way to present research and history to prevent it becoming a dry academic text, which may well have happened if it was organised by the thematic structure of the author's focus. The book includes stylised maps and images of landscapes and artefacts, which enhances the reading experience for the layman, alongside the clear, friendly language used. The book can be used as an encyclopedia of course, as the first thing I did on receiving it was to check out the entries on the places I know, but, certainly for some locations, the information becomes more generalised about aspects of life, for example, and is no longer solely about the site itself. It did come across as a little odd when I initially read this, but when read through the chronological pages it all made sense. Overall this is a fun and informative book and I particularly like how the communities are at the heart of this work. Intensely researched, expertly expressed and covering so many aspects of this period, this is a gem of a book.

Lovely review from AJ Sefton of LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN (www.ajsefton.com/book-reviews...)

'Intensely researched, expertly expressed and covering so many aspects of this period, this is a gem of a book.'

A poster reading ‘what’s going on at Belton Coffee House?’

Delighted to be back on the Isle of Axholme, at the fab Belton Coffee House, on the 13th of December to talk about Little Kingdoms and sign copies!

The algorithms are making it a lot harder to spread the word about these online talks. Although numbers are still reasonable, it would be a great help if folk were able to give the 30 December event a quick share 🙂

Booking available here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/buildings-...

Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."

What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft?

'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social.

New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2

"Whatever you want to do with me, may you have the power of doing..."

So reads a Merovingian contract for selling oneself into slavery. But where might this concept of slave ownership have come from?

Find out more from our new blog post: www.dosseproject.com/from-francia...

Perhaps my favorite thing about putting work out into the world: it’s no longer “mine.” It’s whatever a reader needs it to be to them, and the fact that that can change amongst other readers makes me so happy.

Text which reads; 'start of this book, that across the four panels of that whalebone box were all the corners of the North Sea Age, contrasted with one another, entangled, interlinked. Cells of historical events, episodes in myth and legend, a bit like Gregory of Tours’ confusing History of the Franks. Not a simple journey from A to B, but rather A, to D, then back to A, then to X.'

It's a way off, but I'm drafting an upcoming book at the moment, and currently it contains references to Bladerunner 2049 and Peep Show within two sentences of one another - let's hope the editor(s) keep this in...

(hint hint...)!

A poster reading ‘what’s going on at Belton Coffee House?’

Delighted to be back on the Isle of Axholme, at the fab Belton Coffee House, on the 13th of December to talk about Little Kingdoms and sign copies!

Thinking about the constant, unyielding enshittification of the internet, and various sub-topics:

- will BlueSky get enshittified? If so, how long do we have left?
- I spend less and less time online now
- reading books / papers + handwriting is preferable
- I now leave the room when ads come on

Aksum is the one I know most about, and connects to Lincolnshire / E. Yorks through the ivory ring trade, placing early med. Africa in a local context which I think is important

And for Mansa Musa, the larger domains of the Mali Empire / for Marco Polo: Madagascar (his version of it anyway)

Very, very excited to be using this brill book (among other sources) to deliver a lesson for the Year 8s on pre-colonial Africa very soon

Undoubtedly the most fun I have had planning a lesson; ft. Marco Polo, Vikings, Romans, Chinese traders, tomb-dwelling kings and giant eagles!

And if you’ve ran out of books to buy… you’re doing something wrong!

EVERYONE WANTS BOOKS FOR THE WINTER HOLIDAYS if you are wondering what to get someone get them a book if you can’t decide which book buy both books, if you cannot decide which two books buy all the books

WANTED: readers who will be critical about the content and structure of an essay I have written on learning, teaching, and assessment theory in relation to the use of AI in schools and education

REWARD: my eternal gratitude

More than 200 environmental groups demand halt to new US datacenters Exclusive: Congress urged to act against energy-hungry facilities blamed for increasing bills and worsening climate crisis

“I’ve been amazed by the groundswell of grassroots, bipartisan opposition to this....everyone is affected by this, the opposition has been across the political spectrum. A lot of people don’t see the benefits coming from AI and feel they will be paying for it"

Little Kingdoms Before England, Wales, and Scotland were created, before Alfred the Great and the Great Viking Army, before even a raid on Lindisfarne, the kingdoms that…

Nice to see LITTLE KINGDOMS ascending the best-seller ranking on @penandswordbooks.bsky.social's website once again - it makes the perfect Christmas present, especially for those familiar with the British Isles and their varied backstories and landscapes!

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd...

This sounds like the title of an Elden Ring boss

'Zanzibar... forgive me...'
- TRAITOROUS MUSKBERG, PURE KETAMINE BRUNCHLORD

A remarkable project - a consortium of scholars from prehistorians to modern history. The Russians are indeed trying to kill an entire country and its culture, Ukrainians and their friends are resisting

uhgi.org

Terrific find
"It was initially believed the mosaic depicted a scene from Homer's Iliad. But new research has determined the piece presented an alternative version of the Trojan War story, first popularised by the Greek playwright Aeschylus"
As you might have read in British Archaeology in Dec 2021

Great book, I’m reading it now 👍

That’s very kind of you Sean, and lovely to hear! I hope you enjoy the rest!

(PDF) Wczesnośredniowieczny handel niewolnikami w bałtycko-orientalnej strefie wymiany w świetle znalezisk kajdan I kłódekEarly medieval slave trade in the baltic-oriental exchange zone in the light o... PDF | Slavery was common in early medieval Europe with the so-called Baltic-Oriental exchange systemas one of the most important markets. There is a... | Find, read and cite all the research you need ...

I must admit that I do despair at times; doing research from the locker room BEHIND the substitutes' bench is slow and unrewarding - but it is always a pleasure to see that studies I actually managed to get published is of some use to others, like in this paper:

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Netflix Confirms Cancel Membership Button Will Be Leaving Streaming Service Next Month

Netflix Confirms Cancel Membership Button Will Be Leaving Streaming Service Next Month

Signed!

Allegedly buried in the regio of the Færpingas, near where both Tolkien and Churchill grew up!