iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

“Might it perhaps be that the history of our foreign policy discourages us by its complexity? And if we fête those who introduce a principle of continuity to it, is this not because we cede too easily to the taste for arbitrary simplification and generalization... 1/

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Proud to have contributed to the launch of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Military History with my article "Reform Efforts in the French Army, 1715-1788," accessible here: Reform Efforts in the French Army, 1715–1788 academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

academic.oup.com

Reform Efforts in the French Army, 1715–1788

Summary. The period of the short 18th century from 1715 to 1789 witnessed the decline of the French army from the paradigm military institution in Europe t

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

#Wargaming Challenge today at CGSC with our 🇬🇧 allies using Battle for Moscow- the Frank Chadwick classic. @historianabel.bsky.social taking on 4 opponents!!

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

In #wargaming History with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC with @vucasimulations.bsky.social Task Force: Carrier Battles in the Pacific. Battle of Coral Sea.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Today with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC we played @phalanxgames.bsky.social Race to the Rhine. Operational WW2 #wargaming with a heavy focus on logistics!

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

In #Wargaming History with @historianabel.bsky.social playing a new game for the class Warlords: China in Disarray

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

In #Wargaming History with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC Playing @sebastianbae.bsky.social favorite Fredrick.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Second month of electives. Our joint #wargaming course with the CGSC Dept of Military History @historianabel.bsky.social this week Verdun Steel Inferno and Napoleon 1807!

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Second month of electives. Our joint #wargaming course with the CGSC Dept of Military History @historianabel.bsky.social begins today with the Frank Chadwick classic Battle for Moscow

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

In #wargaming History with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC with @vucasimulations.bsky.social Task Force: Carrier Battles in the Pacific. Battle of Coral Sea.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Students #army #CGSC playing Holdfast Korea #wargaming #simulations with a model that limits operations in our Wargaming through History elective with @historianabel.bsky.social

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

In #Wargaming History with @historianabel.bsky.social playing a new game for the class Warlords: China in Disarray

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

In #Wargaming History with @historianabel.bsky.social playing @sebastianbae.bsky.social favorite Fredrick.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

History through #Wargaming with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC Students playing Shakos Games Napoleon 1806 & 1807! Learning how to operate the Corps and Lee the links to learning lessons during the course.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

History through #Wargaming with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC students playing Fellowship of Simulation’s Verdun: Steel Inferno! For all your Barrage needs.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Our joint #wargaming course with the CGSC Dept of Military History @historianabel.bsky.social begins today with the Frank Chadwick classic Battle for Moscow

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

1/ We have no extant letters written by pre-1789 enlisted French soldiers, so it's very difficult to ascertain their motivations or thoughts. We can only do so obliquely through interesting vignettes like this one from Richelieu on Menorca: "In a country where wine was sold at the lowest price...

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Generals and Napoleon @andnapoleon.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

🚨New episode🚨- Napoleon's strategies have arrived on the battlefields of Europe! Special guest Jonathan Abel @HistorianAbel discusses how Napoleon approached his campaigns and how Napoleon's system has influenced future generations of military planners. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...

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Paul Johstono @profpaulj.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

In the flesh and it's fantastic. Great resource from @historianabel.bsky.social with beautiful set of figures

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

The father of American independence and the individual who probably did the most to secure it.

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

I will post nothing about Waterloo today, because I don’t celebrate defeats #skystorians

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Teaching Race to Rabaul this morning to @historianabel.bsky.social #Wargaming History class. RTR is a logistics focused game from @volko.bsky.social and @phalanxgames.bsky.social coming soon. Our students Army University are getting first crack at this #wargaming prototype!!!

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Today with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC we played @phalanxgames.bsky.social Race to the Rhine. Operational WW2 with a heavy focus on logistics!

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Princeton University Press sale 🤝my money

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Today with @historianabel.bsky.social at CGSC we played @volko.bsky.social @gmtgames.bsky.social Nevsky. Operational Medieval warfare with a heavy focus on logistics!

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Today with @historianabel.bsky.social Army University playing @sebastianbae.bsky.social favorite Friedrich #wargaming #simulations #army an accessible #wargame that explores the Seven Years War.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Practicing the Operational Arts with Napoleon 1807 from Shakos for History through #wargaming with @historianabel.bsky.social Army University.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Using a WW1 #Wargaming Drive on Paris with @historianabel.bsky.social Supply rules and reconstitution does a good job of representing operations. Army University elective on using wargames to explore decision making in history.

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Battle for Moscow!! Frank Chadwick’s excellent introduction to #wargames used here at Army University with @armeedeterre.bsky.social @abrgll.bsky.social present for #Wargaming through History elective with @historianabel.bsky.social

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Mark @smarkg52.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Battle for Moscow!! Frank Chadwick’s excellent introduction to #wargaming with @historianabel.bsky.social for History through #Wargames elective

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

As I approach 40, I’m finally starting to understand Gerard Manley Hopkins

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Jomini in 1805: "There is doubtlessly merit in designing a campaign plan well, but it is rare that one of these plans is able to be executed to the letter in all of its parts; an unforeseen event like that of the loss of a battle may require the complete change of the direction

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

FWIW, history academia Twitter/X was a useful, and even cheerful, place. So far, history academia Bluesky is largely a navel-gazing mess of pseudo-group therapy and toxic politics…

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Danielle Terrazas Williams @drdanielletw.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Job Opportunity! The University of Texas at Dallas invites applications for a 1-year Visiting Assistant Professor of History to begin in Aug. 2025 (renewable for up to 1 year). Seeks specialist in Early Modern Europe, any subfield or methodological approach. www.h-net.org/jobs/job_dis...

h-net.org

H-Net Job Guide

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

There was a big kerfuffle a few months ago about physical vs. digital archives. Reminder that physical archives are not safe either. #skystorians www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Arnold Schoenberg: Composer's vast archive destroyed in LA fires

About 100,000 scores by the Austrian-American composer have been lost in the Pacific Palisade fires.

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Every element of this argument is absolutely correct: the US is not materially prepared for war. What it ignores is that materially preparing for war, based on the example of the World Wars, requires three main components: 1/

theatlantic.com

The Crumbling Foundation of America’s Military

The U.S. failed to produce weapons and ammunition fast enough to supply Ukraine. Could it equip its own armed forces in the event of war?

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Check out the open-access intro I wrote to my translation of Guibert’s General Essay on Tactics, in which I provide a summary of the French army and its issues from c1700-1770 #skystorians brill.com/display/book...

brill.com

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Check out my discussion with my colleague Dr. Bill Nance on what professionalism meant in the eighteenth-century French and twentieth-century American armies #skystorians open.spotify.com/episode/7Auo...

open.spotify.com

Episode 41 - Abel and Nance on Professionalism

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Check out the podcast episode I did on the French Revolution and its military aspects (available on all major platforms): podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c... #skystorians

podcasts.apple.com

Episode 53 – Abel on the French Revolution

Podcast Episode · Confused Heap of Facts · 05/15/2024 · 1h 20m

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Me: “I just got the most esoteric book I’ve ever bought” Wife: “More esoteric than your book on Paris bakers in the eighteenth century?” Me: “Yeah. Civil War field artillery” Wife: “…you win”

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Check out the podcast I did with Dr. John Hosler about Vegetius’s Epitome, the only surviving, comprehensive Roman military manual (available on all major platforms): podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

podcasts.apple.com

Episode 63 – He Who Desires Peace, Let Him Prepare for War:” Hosler Talks Vegetius

Podcast Episode · Confused Heap of Facts · 11/01/2024 · 1h 5m

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Hey #skystorians, I’ve created a Napoleonic history starter pack. It’s very nascent; please let me know who else should be added to it: go.bsky.app/JYvzqJr

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Fellow historians, what’s the hashtag equivalent of twitterstorians on here? Last time I was here, it didn’t have hashtags yet

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