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As the study of the war enters the twilight period between memory and history, to paraphrase Eric Hobsbawm, looking for these echoes is becoming increasingly what we have left. Still exciting to find, explore, and research, and this is what makes the journey of the historian worthwhile.

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Because scholarly interest in the African experiences of World War II has only recently gained interest (Moyse-Bartlett, and Haywood and Clarke’s works being notable exceptions) most of the people who were there are no longer with us, so we may always have more questions than answers.

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What American magazines were they interested in? How did they first come about them? About 60% of American troops in Burma were African American service battalions, who built Stillwell’s Ledo Road. How extensive and deep were the connections between them and their West African counterparts?

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This little paragraph, telling British officers of a postal issue in India and Burma tells so much, but also leaves so many unanswered questions. African soldiers writing to the United States to order magazines and (?)oke (smoke? Coke? Something else?) raises so many questions.

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So we can see that African soldiers were interacting with the broader world they were sent to, and making sense of it on their own terms. But we only see echoes, not the whole pictures.

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If we want to see their experiences outside the fighting, we have to look elsewhere, and where better to look than where they were sent to unwind when given a chance? The problem? These were all written by the British reacting to their soldiers’ initiatives within military and societal cultures.

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I found this paragraph hidden in daily orders of a Leave Camp administration. While most of us (myself included) look at the pointy end of military history, when men are fighting, their other experiences don’t get the attention in the archives from the front-line sources.

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However, in Burma, roughly 100,000 Africans from all over the continent were sent to fight a British war, under British leadership. As such, the British voices dominate the archives, and finding echoes of African experiences beyond the battlefield requires perusing overlooked archival sources.

In my last work, Biafra: A Military History, finding the voices that helped me connect the military to society was rooted in African experiences, as this was an African war.

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My interests, as I have been stating in my work for the better part of a decade, are in the interplay of operational and social experiences that soldiers and societies experienced during wartime.

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What is setting me apart from the seemingly dozens of people have taken a sudden interest in African military experiences in the past few years?

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

One of the magical moments when researching a project is finding important, thought provoking, and inspiring ideas in the least likely of places. My next major project is looking at the African soldiers in Burma during World War II.

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When he came to argue with me, our LLM, which @barnesandnoble.com manages access to textbooks showed he had used the readings this semester for exactly 19 seconds. The response to COVID destroyed student learning for a generation, and now they think they have a tech tool to effortlessly "fix" it.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Now, they have a tool that lets them appear to compensate for that without the work of actually developing their skills. One student this semester submitted a series of poorly argued, but well written essays full of hallucinated citations.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I teach at an HBCU with a significant population of 1st gen, low income students. Many of the students, who would have been underprepared for Uni regardless, had their skillsets cratered by the closing of schools during COVID.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Grades are submitted! Now I don't have to get out of my PJs until August! Though it will look strange when I present at @worldhistoryassn.bsky.social in June wearing my Golden Girls PJs.

static.klipy.com

Perfect Strangers: Bronson Pinchot's Dance of Joy

ALT: Perfect Strangers: Bronson Pinchot's Dance of Joy

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

But you're forgetting it's all the democrats' fault. Look at Texas. Everything is the democrats' doing, even though the last Democratic governor was in 1995.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Meanwhile, Netanyahu's plane is circling around the Mediterranean. No way to know if he's on it or maybe he just put his lunatic wife and shitstain of a son on board.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

@degruyterbrill.bsky.social is a great publisher, and I am proud to have partnered with them to found and edit, along with @cthomasjamh.bsky.social, the Journal of African Military History. I'm pretty sure the person who made this display is also our contact at Brill.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

I regularly invite people to talk to my classes to discuss their work. Always an engaging time. Students appreciate when scholars take an interest in their education and scholars love talking about their work not to a mirror.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Just one look at the map of this "plan" and you realize that this is a barely passing grade for an undergraduate poli sci or urban planning project, so who would have thought a project dreamed up by an imbecile nepo baby (Kushner) would be in any way feasible or even sane?

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

But as soon a Democratic president gets elected all the Republicans will be debt hawks.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

He should put his money where his racist mouth is and get rid of Šeško, Casemiro, Lisandro, Mazraoui, Diallo, Mbuemo, and really, everyone except Mount and Maguire. At least half the "English" players on the squad are 1st generation. Funny how immigrants are good when they add to your bottom line.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Just had a colleague submit a course proposal that was entirely AI generated slop. A history course with no history methodology, no actual content, but hey... he had a catchy title "Coded Kingdoms". Is this the end result of embracing AI? And he's of course on the university's new AI taskforce.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Nyquil tonight, a big bowl of pho tomorrow and more nyquil on the flight tomorrow,. Trust me, I'm a doctor

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

To be honest, most of these people would better choices than who's actually on it.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Anything by him makes the list by default.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Maybe it's time to rethink the World Cup this summer? Too bad FIFA have their nose so far up Trump's ass that it will never happen. Scotland have essentially won Group C if Brazil, Morocco, and Haiti are banned.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

So Tunisia, Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Iran, Senegal, Algeria, Jordan, Ghana, Brazil, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Haiti, Brazil, and possibly 3 other countries won't be able to make it to the World Cup? Good news for Scotland, as they have won Group C six months early.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Bruce Gilley is the happiest man on earth right now. Also, Miller has no idea what neoliberalism actually means.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

When Trump invades Greenland, and he will, what is to become of NATO article 5?

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

After watching West Ham today I take solace in the fact that my day is not as bad as Maduro's

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Could be, but then films especially in that era were also prime drivers of pop culture and language. Gaslight created a new meaning for the term. Not inconceivable that bombshell did the same.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Maybe Jean Harlow's 1933 movie? Don't know if it was used before to describe women.

Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

The federal government can, did, and continues to use federal funds to coerce states to changes their rules and laws. Reagan did this to force states to raise drinking age to 21, or they lose 10% of DOT funds. I think Louisiana was the last holdout, and if you've ever driven there, it still shows.

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Now I need to watch this movie. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mil...

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

This seems like something @nytpitchbot.bsky.social would come up with

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Roy Doron @konstrukt.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Are these French? Do you know what unit? In Burma, the West African Divisions used porters, which was a great way to move in the Arakan, but overlooked was what happened when they made contact with the Japanese. Apparently, 200-300 unarmed men are prone to panic and panic in battle is contagious.