Welcome, one and all, to The Sidewise Historian!
This site explores the ways in which people research, present and communicate history from new or unusual angles. This includes developments on the ‘macro’ level, where history is being expanded and reshaped by those with a sense of the innovative, as well as the more ‘noodly’ dimension – the weird and wonderful corners of the discipline where historians with more offbeat interests ply their trade. Unorthodox research methods, nontraditional media, unexpected sources – these (and more) are the bread and butter of the site.
The site’s offerings include such topics as:
- alternate/counterfactual history
- exploring history through games
- history and historical processes in fiction
- the fusion of history, philosophy, science and technology
The site offers book, game, television and film reviews, as well as longer-form articles examining particular historiographical methods, topics and perspectives. My aim with each post is to discuss these quirkier aspects of the field in a suitably thorough way, without losing sight of the intriguing and, well, fun qualities that attracted me to them in the first place. The Sidewise Historian is intended to be for everyone and anyone with an interest in history, academic or otherwise.
About the historian
I’m Simon, sometime academic historian and lifelong science fiction fanatic.
These days, I work as a freelance academic editor and (occasional) translator, working on books, journal articles and dissertations in a range of fields across the humanities and social sciences – though my preference, naturally enough, is history. If you’re interested in that side of my existence, feel free to give my other website a visit (and hire me, by all means).
When I’m not editing, translating or meandering through the fog of writer’s block, I’m generally immersing myself in books or games (of the video, tabletop and role-playing varieties). I love all things science-fictional and most things historical, and am especially delighted when the two overlap. I’ve also made forays into amateur voice acting in the past, and have appeared in a handful of online projects.