Badasses Of Academia, A Boer Battle & A Soapy Spin-Off

Academics have developed a pretty negative reputation in recent years. There’s a lot of weirdness in the academy, to be sure — but there are also plenty of people doing good work, inside and outside the classroom.

I submit as Exhibit A, the legendary tale of my friend Craig Rullman in an early incarnation as a teacher demonstrating structure in story and language by having his class construct a Claymore mine.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of an hour-long conversation with Robert G. Parkinson. He’s a professor at Binghamton University in New York, specializing in 18th Century history, particularly the American Revolution. Currently he is on leave to work at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s plantation estate in Virginia. He’s also the author of Heart of American Darkness: Bewilderment and Horror on the Early Frontier. I will post at length about that conversation in a few days. For now, suffice it to say that Parkinson is welcome around this campfire.

So is Dr. Jackson Crawford, whom I’ve mentioned several times recently (patron Russ Lucas is receiving a copy of his The Wanderer’s Havamal this Yule). Crawford melds his ranching heritage with his deep knowledge of Norse language and culture to create some really compelling and entertaining videos on his YouTube Channel. You can imagine the satisfaction I take in discovering that the good professor ran a Finnish Brutality a couple of years ago.

 

Finnish Brutality is a 2-gun-style shooting competition that began in 2018, testing competitors’ physical and shooting skills across various stages. The first Finnish Brutality was organized with InRangeTV in 2018. Now, Brutality competitions are held in multiple countries, organized by different parties.

Clearly Dr. Crawford takes Verse 38 of the Havamal seriously:

Never go even a single step without a weapon at your side

You never know when you might find yourself in need of a spear

(The Cowboy Havamal version):

Keep yer guns close.
I don’t care what they say,
there ain’t no tellin’
when there’ll be call for ’em.
An armed man has a shot.

That’s my kinda professor. Here he talks about the experience with Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons. Just all kind o’ awesome.

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Osprey has just released a new tome on one of the most epic battles in the history of Frontier Partisan warfare: the nation-defining clash between the Zulus and the Boer Trekkers at Blood River in 1838.

Ian Knight is the dean of 19th century South African warfare studies, and I really dig Adam Hook’s work. So, this ’un is on order.

A myth-shattering study of the first clash between the Zulu kingdom and European interlopers and its dramatic effects on Boer and Zulu alike.

By the 1830s, the Zulu kingdom was consolidating its power as the strongest African polity in the south-east, but was under growing pressure from British traders and hunters on the coast, and descendants of the early Dutch settlers at the Cape – the Boers. In 1837, the vanguard of the Boers’ Great Trek migration reached the borders of Zulu territory, causing alarm. When the Boer leader Piet Retief and his followers were massacred in cold blood, war broke out. Although the initial Boer counter-attacks were defeated by the Zulus, in December 1838 a new Trekker offensive resulted in a nation-defining clash between Boer and Zulu at the battle of Blood River.

In this ground-breaking and carefully balanced new work, containing stunning artwork and detailed maps, Ian Knight explores what has long been a controversial and partisan topic in South African history, placing the Zulus more squarely in this part of their history. Among the topics covered are the 1836 Boer/Ndebele conflict, the imbalance in technique and weaponry, the reasons why the British settlers allied themselves with the Boer Trekkers, and why the war was a key turning point in the use of traditional Zulu military techniques. This work also reveals that a Boer victory at Blood River was by no means a foregone conclusion.

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My Cowboy Soap Opera isn’t riding off into the sunset just yet…

The upcoming Season 5 finale of Yellowstone will not be the end of the Dutton clan’s story. Series standouts Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser have closed deals to lead a spinoff series, reprising their roles as Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler, respectively, sources tell Deadline.

Doubtless this means more shameless cameos from Taylor Sheridan… Ah, well. I’m in. Of course I am.

Ryan Bingham just dropped the full version of cowboy-by-the-campfire ballad he performed in a recent episode.

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From another Sheridan show — a little Taran Tactical training for Lioness S2: