Manipular Army Thesis

[Titus Labienus]

A friend on Facebook linked the following thesis from the University of Wisconsin on the manipular army: http://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/han...sequence=2. It is fifty-one pages, and I have not read it all yet, but thought I would throw it out here. Perhaps someone else can offer comments/review.

[Macedon]

The link is not working, maybe it is in some protected page?

[Alexandr K]

The link is not working, maybe it is in some protected page?

Just remove the trailing full stop:

http://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/han...sequence=2

Thank you, Steve.

Alexandr

[caiusbeerquitius]

Were I the professor, I would have returned it right away for corrections. Formally this is... hmmm... not so good. Secondary sources? Someone did not pay attention in class...

[Macedon]

Thanks Alexandr, got it!

Messy work, many mistakes, fuzzy use of terminology, too little reliance on primary sources, most of it is just pointless. Polybius' comparison is half a page and much more helpful. Apart from clumsily parroting broad arguments and descriptions stated a thousand times, absolutely no tactical understanding or insight of the Roman or any other system mentioned. Hope he rewrote it...

[Titus Labienus]

Thanks to those who have had a chance to read this and comment. I hope to read it soon myself. Alas, this sadly speaks ill of higher education. Sigh....

[Mark Hygate]

OMG - as the Facebook generation say.....

Only a quick cursory overview, as the subject matter is dear to my heart just now, with a better read (before consigning to the Recyle Bin I suspect) later.

But how is it that easy to get the basic composition of a Polybian legion so wrong? hock:

When I put my little 'thesis' here for all, I guarantee it will be better than that!

[D B Campbell]

... thesis from the University of Wisconsin.

I may be wrong, but this seems to be what they call a Capstone project, which is a prerequisite for enrolment as an undergraduate. So it's a "sixth form" essay, not a thesis -- let's ease up on our criticism. :wink:

[Titus Labienus]

Thanks for directing us to the Capstone link, D.B. After reading the link, though, it seems that the Capstone is something students do at the end of the undergraduate years and/or in preparation for student teaching. I hope to read this paper later today to see what all the fuss has been about. Glad I shared it here!

Mark, I look forward to reading something in contrast to this piece.

[Macedon]

I admit I was totally unaware of these "Capstone" projects. I looked them up a bit and found out that they can be taken at many levels and circumstances. UWEC seems to offer history programs to "three types of students: college graduates who wish to increase their background in history as a liberal arts area, teachers who wish to expand their knowledge of history, and students who intend to pursue a Ph.D. in history at another institution but require further preparation before applying." here Thus, I doubt that the author of this "thesis" is a high school boy, yet it could be some philologist who decided to also teach history. Anyways, Duncan is right that it surely isn't a Phd thesis or something supposed to be taken seriously.