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<blockquote data-quote="Galloglaich" data-source="post: 5207914" data-attributes="member: 77019">Don't worry you didn't drag me anywhere I was just trying to forestall anyone getting annoyed at me over my opinion on longbows.&nbsp;It's very tricky to generalize about any period of history. I'm not sure what the definitive answer is regarding Europeans vs. Samurai for example, I know a few anecdotes but the plural of anecdotes is not statistics <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I think there is more data to emerge on this subject, and there may never be a definitive answer about which style of warfare had more merit.&nbsp;Like you I am constantly surprised by what I learn of history especially as accurate technical data about arms and armor and European Martial arts has gradually begun to emerge in the last few years. I don't think it's actually a failure of intuition though, I think it's a failure of our media and education systems to inform us even remotely accurately. And our own eagerness to accept simplistic generalizations and failure to think for ourselves. The bottome line is we want to make broad sweeping statements about say, the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, but it's very hard to do that. So instead of the very interesting reality those of us interested in these periods end up with Capitol One Barbarians and Medieval higgins boats.&nbsp;With armor, the last word is not out yet, but the data which has emerged so far is surprising to me and quite throught provoking. One of the myths we English-speakers live with is the idea of historical progress, a legacy of Victorian thinking. So in order to feel right about the world we have to believe our ancestors were nastier, more brutish, and shorter* the further back we go in time. But when you look closer, you can clearly see, this was not necessarily the case.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;* that is a joke</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Galloglaich, post: 5207914, member: 77019"] Don't worry you didn't drag me anywhere I was just trying to forestall anyone getting annoyed at me over my opinion on longbows. It's very tricky to generalize about any period of history. I'm not sure what the definitive answer is regarding Europeans vs. Samurai for example, I know a few anecdotes but the plural of anecdotes is not statistics :) I think there is more data to emerge on this subject, and there may never be a definitive answer about which style of warfare had more merit. Like you I am constantly surprised by what I learn of history especially as accurate technical data about arms and armor and European Martial arts has gradually begun to emerge in the last few years. I don't think it's actually a failure of intuition though, I think it's a failure of our media and education systems to inform us even remotely accurately. And our own eagerness to accept simplistic generalizations and failure to think for ourselves. The bottome line is we want to make broad sweeping statements about say, the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, but it's very hard to do that. So instead of the very interesting reality those of us interested in these periods end up with Capitol One Barbarians and Medieval higgins boats. With armor, the last word is not out yet, but the data which has emerged so far is surprising to me and quite throught provoking. One of the myths we English-speakers live with is the idea of historical progress, a legacy of Victorian thinking. So in order to feel right about the world we [I]have[/I] to believe our ancestors were nastier, more brutish, and shorter* the further back we go in time. But when you look closer, you can clearly see, this was not necessarily the case. G. * that is a joke [/QUOTE]

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