Dr. Alexander S. Burns Profile picture
Historian of the eighteenth-century Atlantic World, American Continental Army, and Military Europe. PhD WVU. https://t.co/kc6TiZCYrG
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Jul 15 18 tweets 6 min read
A picture of George Washington standing on a cannon (in a hull down position no less) as an eagle flies above.

Of course, totally fictional, but amazing.

So I want to use this to tell you about a time a Prussian general rode a cannon into battle. 1/17
🧵 Image I think everyone has a historical figure off the beaten path they love to think about. Mine is this guy named Johann Dietrich von Hülsen. Born into a minor Prussian noble family in East Prussia in 1693, Hülsen had a long and varied military career. 2/17 Image
Jul 6 26 tweets 9 min read
A thread of threads. 20 misconceptions about the Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence). Americans (proud to be one) are often quite ill-informed about the military struggle which led to our independence from Great Britain.

This isn't your father's rev war. 1/25 Image I'm a history professor who studies the military history of George Washington's time: ~1739-1789. I teach at a small liberal arts college with a revolutionary mascot, and absolutely love my job, and our history. Spent the week in Philly, seeing cool Americana. 2/25
Jul 2 25 tweets 7 min read
Happy early July 4th, everybody. A 🧵on how Americans see foreign policy and the world through the lens of history, specifically the history of the American War of Independence. Americans love to view ourselves as plucky underdogs.

But we aren't underdogs anymore.
1/25 Image Christopher Duffy, writing under the pen-name Hugh Faringdon, described his motivation to write "Confrontation: The Strategic Geography of NATO and the Warsaw Pact" with the following anecdote: "The speaker hailed from an anglophone foreign country,..." 2/25 Image
Jun 25 20 tweets 6 min read
For students, wargamers, reenactors, etc, I think one of the hardest things to grasp about the eighteenth-century wars that I study is the lack of nationalism on the part of combatants. Modern films, games, etc, usually filter this layer in, when it wasn't there. 🧵 1/ Image Christopher Duffy argues that patriotism in its modern form was most recognizable in Russia and Britain, and the letters of British soldiers do occasionally express semi-patriotic sentiments: Thomas Plumb wrote home to his family in Feb of 1777, speaking about Americans: 2/20 Image
Jun 20 11 tweets 2 min read
The brainwashing of pedigree (where you went to college, how prestigious it was) is everywhere in academia. This has never been brought home further than when I lost a colleague (a good friend, veteran, and wonderful man) in January. 1/11 This scholar (an emeritus in his 70s) was close to the end with terminal cancer. He had a wonderful career, publishing four books, and securing a professorship. Our department went to visit him in the hospital, four days before his death. 2/11
Jun 18 28 tweets 6 min read
Waterloo, Waterloo, Waterloo. With greatest love and respect to my Napoleonicist friends, June 18th is also the anniversary of the Battle of Kolin in 1757, so I'm going to do a thread on a battle you haven't already heard everything about. 1/28 Image The battle is often remembered as "Frederick the Great's first defeat", but it is much more significant than that, reshaping the possibilities and aims of belligerents in the Central European Seven Years War. A bit of background. 2/28
May 8 8 tweets 3 min read
For the last 10 years, I've been interested in the history of the British Regiment that fought the Revolutionary War in the American Midwest, the 8th (King's) Regiment.

I was able to present on the history of the regiment at a conference last year (video below). Short🧵1/8 Image The 8th (King's) Regiment gets a bad wrap as a result of 3 things: 1) pithy comments from other units 2) their status as essentially a garrison regiment 3) comments from their officers. I try to address all of these things in the lecture, as well as explain their successes. 2/8 Image
May 4 25 tweets 8 min read
Were the industrial revolution and its consequences a disaster for the human race? Were we better off pre-capitalism? Was life better before nationalism?
The post below combined with the pesky resurgence of "medieval peasants had more days off than you" has inspired a 🧵. 1/25 I'm a historian who studies the last part of human history before these developments (1600-1789), in the North Atlantic World (Europe and NA) with a focus on the lives of ordinary people (peasants) and especially soldiers drawn from that peasant class between 1730-1790. 2/25
Apr 28 28 tweets 10 min read
Ok. Manor Lords review time, @LordsManor. In short, I LOVED IT. But, maybe not for the reasons you might initially think. A review 🧵on the indie peasant sim/city builder that took the internet by storm. It's been compared to Total War, but is something else. 1/25 Image So, I'm currently 13 hours in, and I think I have enough of a feel for it to give you my impressions. I'm not reviewing this as a gamer first, but as a history professor who has read, written, and thought about peasants in German History in the period just after this one. 2/25 Image
Apr 24 22 tweets 6 min read
Spent some time this morning chatting with Charlie, the Queensland State Library's WW1 veteran AI.

Of course, I immediately asked him about nationalism, race, politics and religion.

I'm not sure I love the concept, but it was entertaining, maybe that was the point?
🧵 1/23 Charlie was very keen to provide a balanced perspective on the 1914 election. 2/23 Image
Apr 24 25 tweets 7 min read
I was pleasantly surprised by the ending of Shōgun, having braced myself for disappointment after reading some reviews of the last episode. A 🧵with some letters from Blackthorne's historical counterpart, the Miura Anjin William Adams. 1/25 Image Both of the letters below were written in 1611, long after William Adams initial landing in Japan, and Tokugawa Ieyasu's (Toronaga's) victory at the Battle of Sekigahara in October of 1600. Both of the letter selections below describe Adams first meeting with Tokugawa. 2/25
Apr 18 11 tweets 3 min read
This from a Roman historian, who knows that the people who are currently studying what she studied have abysmal chances of getting a tenure-track position.

A 🧵of my history job market threads. We need to build a society in which people can professionally study the past. 1/11 Telling young aspiring historians: "do it for love, rather than a career" isn't a new idea. I heard it at the conference that inspired this thread. 2/11
Apr 14 22 tweets 10 min read
A lot of things going on in the world. Today, my university wargame club held the last meeting of the semester. We did the Battle of Höchst (June 20th, 1622). All in all, a fairly historical result, with heavier casualties on both sides than in the actual engagement. 1/22 Image It has been an absolute blast being the faculty advisor to this club over the last year. There were some bumps along the way, but we have a great crew: don't be fooled, young people love historical gaming, even in "obscure" periods. 2/22 Image
Apr 8 5 tweets 2 min read
I don't want to rag on anybody, and history is tough sometimes, but it is at least helpful to consult with the professionals. A short meta thread on aiming and rifles. 1/5

A thread outlining my views of 18th century infantry combat after a decade of research. 2/5
Apr 1 25 tweets 7 min read
This academic year marks a decade of teaching military history in higher education for me.
I'd like to reflect upon the demographic that keeps me employed: my students who are "into" military history. I'm going to try to limit myself to observations rather than judgement. 🧵1/25 Image These young people are frequently derided with memes about "starter packs" or paradox games. Some of my fellow graduate instructors at WVU called them "military history bros." Although a number of them were conservative white men, I've taught "milhist bros" of all stripes: 2/25
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Mar 18 18 tweets 8 min read
Today, the wargame club gamed the Battle of Fleurus (1622). Despite being close to spring break, we had a great turn out. In history, a 14,000 strong Protestant army of Mansfeld and Brunswick attacked Don F. Gonzales de Cordoba's 8,000 strong detachment of Spanish veterans. 1/17
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The Protestant "Paladins" were trying to break through the Spanish position to reach threaten the city of Breda, which Ambrogio Spinola's Spanish forces were currently investing. The goal of the action was not so much to destroy Cordoba as break through. 2/17 Image
Feb 25 23 tweets 4 min read
I attended an academic conference (History) this weekend.

There was a panel, run by brave graduate students, on the job market. I had to choke back my emotions, and I wasn’t the only one.

A report on how the kids (and by that: adults with advanced degrees) are doing. 1/23 The panel was quite moving, because like me, these PhD students attended a flagship state university in state that is much closer to the poorer than the richer end of the spectrum with a smaller faculty. (~25 history professors). 2/23
Feb 21 22 tweets 6 min read
I greatly enjoyed the "fascism doesn't win wars" discourse today.

However, I don't think those of us who live in liberal democracies will win bc of who we are either.

A 🧵on one of the reasons the fascists lost WW2, and my worries about American military power today. 1/22 First of all, it was refreshing to see the Wehrmacht put in its place. Despite Glantz and House's research being available for some time, the myth of the Wehrmacht as a (maybe * the *) superb fighting machine endures, at least in the eyes of my undergraduate students. Why? 2/22 Image
Feb 10 11 tweets 6 min read
A @TeamYankeeGame at my university wargame club today.

After the failure of the Soviet assault into Northern Italy in late April of 1986, NATO forces have launched a successful counteroffensive into East Germany. 1/11 Image The speed of the NATO assault surprised the Warsaw Pact, leading to a collapse of positions on the inner-German border, bypassing Berlin. With Berlin contained, NATO troops are driving for crossing points on the Oder.

Using an old JFO map for the campaign. 2/11 Image
Jan 31 10 tweets 2 min read
Most professors who publish and teach know things, actually.

This is literally just a plea to have a professor's life without doing ANY of the work.

So, what do professors do, and why is it valuable/worthwhile? 1/
Image Professors are paid to do three things, essentially. Teaching, Research/Publication, and Service (committee work).
Teaching keeps the tuition dollars coming in (for a lot of faculty today, especially in the humanities at smaller colleges, this is their primary job.) 2/
Jan 25 30 tweets 9 min read
I'm just over a year late to this discourse. Thinking of it again bc of debate over drones their impact the battlefield. A Cavalry charge 🧵
TL;DR: watching some extras duke it out is not a substitute for a source-driven understanding of what occurred on the battlefield. 1/30 @maniagnosis does a great job of touching on some of the major points of the "infantry revolution" of the late middle ages, and also why, almost invariably, cavalry were outnumbered by infantry. 2/30