iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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

...that are too straight must excite our suspicions. By all chances, they offer an inexact [and] deformed image of reality. They belong to the spirit of geometry. And it is the spirit of finesse that the humanities have need of above all.” - Gaston Zeller 3/

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

that is one of the forms of the esprit primaire? In reality, under the pretext of rendering the past more easily intelligible, we give it less truth. Few studies require the sense of nuance as much as history does. Grand constructions with lines... 2/

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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 · 22/10/2025

The scene where they drop behind the Atreides lines and kill the standard infantry easily is meant to demonstrate how good they are. Idaho is the best Atreides fighter (excepting Worm Leto and maybe peak weirding Paul).

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

3/ Marshal Richelieu made this punishment general. It produced an effect that characterized the spirit of the French soldier." What this tells us is that French soldiers cared more about participating in the attack on the fortress than they did getting drunk on cheap Spanish wine. #skystorians

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

2/ it was quite difficult to prevent soldiers from getting drunk on duty days. An idea came to several colonels, in whose number I was, to deprive all of those who had gotten drunk in the trench of mounting the next one...

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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 · 07/07/2025

Luckily Gates had the best American general with him: Arnold

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

I think that’s ex post facto reasoning. Congress would’ve been delighted if he’d won the battles he fought, especially the major ones like Brooklyn Heights

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Dr. Jonathan Abel @historianabel.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

I’d rank Louis and Carlos as the two most important decision-makers of course, but all they had to do was say yes. Galvéz was on the ground. And we of course know that Washington never won a battle he commanded.

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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

His absolute internal peace and knowledge of God requires a measure of internal peace on the part of the reader to understand.

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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

of the war; it is on these important occasions, in these moments of crisis, that genius reveals itself with the most éclat." So why does Moltke (or even Clausewitz) get credit for saying "no battle plan survives meeting the enemy?"

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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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