Oathbreakers

I’ve started listening to audio books on my runs. I started with Yuval Noah Harare’s book [[ Nexus ]], which as deeply disappointing in a way that maybe I’ll write about someday. So many words, so little depth or actual analysis.

Then I moved on to Oathbreakers by Matthew Gabriele and David Perry, and it’s been a delight. Truly some of the best pop history and pop historiography I’ve read (which admittedly is a relatively limited category in my personal library, but trust me, book good).

I just finished the chapter on the Battle of Fontenoy (841), wherein the descendants of Louis the Pious (Charlemagne’s heir) go to war against each other in an attempt to control the Carolingian Empire. The book has a lot of solid intertextual references, both relevant to the historical sources and to pop culture that was informed by them (and some not; if I recall Chapter 2 included a “Charles in Charge” reference). This chapter ends with an ASOIAF reference (“the battlefield was a feast for crows and wolves”).

In any event, I’ve found it absolutely wonderful to listen to on my runs, and it’s filling some European history that I never learned in school.