Adrian Buck > Recent Status Updates

Habsburgia would have been a better title; Bohemia is mostly outside of the Danube basin, Serbia is mostly in it. Under what conditions do rivers act as boundaries between states, and when become the core of a state?

"This tolerance was not extended to the orthodox Romainians, who were generally serfs..." Were there Hungarian and German serf? Is it fair to assume serfs made up the majority of the population?

Bear moats at Cesky Krumlov what connection did it have to the military frontier? Pure Travelogue.

Not sure I will ultimately like 'personal history' which at the moment reads like '1066 and All That' for an adult audience. I have to keep scrambling to Google to find out the things I'm interested in; what WAS the dynastic relationship between the Babenburgs and the Hapsburgs, and did the Holy Roman Emperor have to be elected unanimously.

Good to see the Hungarians dissed for repeated disloyalty so early in the book.

If modern cities are so difficult to eradicate, how are there so many ancient cities that seem to simply be abandoned?

Fascinating chapter using architecture and film, rather than text to explore the history of the city.

Walking in cities versus walking in country: walking in itself lessens alienation, in cities there is a little more alienation to overcome. In walking we take possession of the landscape we traverse.

Financial markets, consumerism, individualism: Amsterdam in the 1600s, New York in the 1920s

Higher mortality rates in medieval European cities prevented their government from becoming hereditary aristocracies. There was a constant demand for new blood.

Slavs as far west as Lübeck :)

Land trade before cars - 30 miles a day, and then the trader looks for food accomodation. Settlements spring up along his route 30 miles apart, funded from his expenditure. And then other traders flock there to trade with him. Rail and roads speed up travel, eliminating the unnecessary settlements, sea and air travel ends it altogether.

Did Roman cities collapse because Christians turned their backs on them?

Monogamy as a form of socialism?... Chapter 2 more of a history of how cities have been depicted, rather than how they have operated...the workings of cities are mysterious...Polyglotism as bad as prostitution.

"the nature of progress ... means reforming an education system that no longer works well for boys" - is there any evidence that it ever worked well for boys, the evidence we have suggests it works better for girls, it may not work well for either.

"Prosocial masculinity no longer means having to get married or having to be the main breadwinner. But is does require stepping fully into the role of father." - rejigging what is required of men.

"There is no getting around it: if we want equality at work, we need equality at home", and what if prefer choice over equality?

"One study finds that adolescents close to their non-resident fathers do better than those with resident fathers with whom they are not close...There is residency requirements for good fatherhood. The relationship is what matters." - Maybe that's true for mothers too.

"Dads are wired two distinct contributions "protection and teaching" Of course their expression will vary by context. In the context of "Lolita", 'Dad's' contributions were "abuse and grooming.

"[Men] are also poorly represented in teaching, accounting for 18% education degrees and just 8% of those in elementary teaching." It simply does not occur to many boys and young men that these jobs might be for them" - boys and young men are interested in using their talents to maximise their income

"We face labor shortages in two of the largest and most important sectors in our economy - health care and education. But we are trying to solve them with only half the workforce." - and half the pay.

"The main reason for starting boys later is not so that they will be a year older in kindergarten. It is so they will be a year older when they get to middle and high school" - its not their chronological age that is the problem, its their level of neurological development.

"Masculine supremacy, like white supremacy, was the neurosis of an immature society. It is good for men as well as women that women have been set free. In any case, the process is irreversible; that particular genie can never be put back into the bottle." (1958) - the Middle East?

"It is hard to see how much [conservatives are] exaggerating the truth where [liberals] deny the truth altogether."

"First many conservatives fuel male grievances for political gain, which simply creates more anger and discontent. [liberals would never do such a thing] Second, they overweight the importance of biological sex differences for gender roles (a mirror image of the progressive tendency to dismiss them altogether)." The question should be what role does biological sex play in educational and employment performance.

"Masculinity is not a pathology" - some conceptions of masculinity are in conflict with the way our society works, and masculinity has been conceived differently in different socities, their is no discussion of this here.

"Human behaviour is driven by a combination of nature (our instincts, based in biology, nurture (the instructions we get from our surrounding culture) and agency (our personal initiative)"

"When was the last "crisis of femininity"? That's right: never." - what about the fertility crisis, the number of women undergoing fertility treatment, and women who wanted to become mothers, but failed to beat the clock?

"As the institution of monogamous marriage spread, the number of men directly involved in raising families rose. The collective impact, via reduced testosterone levels, was to dramatically reduce overall levels of male violence" - the single most important observation so far, biology and culture interact, both ethnologically and genetically. The Extended Phenotype?

"Add to the fact that most human societies have been polygynous..." - is that true? Semitic societies - yes, but Greek-Romano socities?