In the Seinfeld episode The Old Man (Season 4, episode 18, 1993) Kramer spouts some nonsense conspiracy theory regarding Senior Citizen's Volunteer, when asked where he gets his information he replies: "The alternative media, Jerry. That's where you hear the truth."

I consider myself fairly well acquainted with the alternative media landscape of today be it the good, the bad or the ugly (let's be honest it's mostly the latter two), but what did the alternative media landscape look like in the early '90s, what might Kramer have been reading or listening to and what would he have learnt?

I am well aware that the internet existed back then, but it didn't look much like it does today, wasn't as widely used and Kramer just does not strike me as a tech-savvy early adopter of the internet lifestyle.

Title. Thanks!

When I was in high school I took AP US history, during our discussion of the 1900s, our teacher told us about a man who wanted to use solar power to green the desert. While he called it solar power it seemed to have nothing to do with electrical production and more to do with greening the desert to use the land for farming. I can't seem to find the man's name or anything about his project all I can remember is it was suggested in the early to mid 1900s and he used a curved metal sheet as the solar energy collector. I really just want to know more about him and his work becuase its and interesting and important idea.

I have been reading Shōgun by James Clavell recently and it is an excellent book so far. The history is va Rey interesting and from what I’ve read it is generally correct yet I am not sure about the extreme use of seppuku in the book. I found it hard to gain actual information on seppuku in medieval japan so I am asking here. Was seppuku an extremely common form of suicide by samurai for even slight mishaps? Furthermore, was it true that samurai would actively ask their superiors to commit seppuku for a dishonorable action?

I’m currently reading though Paul Kennedy’s “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers”, and when talking about Europe’s rose to prominence he references that European adoption of capitalism allowed it to innovate more quickly.

Plague making the worker more valuable is often cited as a reason for the demise of feudalism, but the plague ravaged every corner of the world, including China, the previous center of technological innovation. So why was Europe able to throw off feudalism significantly earlier than the other parts of the world?

Is there a reading list or reading/viewing materials that you guys could recommend for someone who is woefully ignorant regarding history? Want to gain a grasp of early human civilisation to present.

How likely is it that I would be caught and brought to justice? Would I be more likely to be killed or or wounded in the act than being brought to trial? Would it be a one way ticket, or would I have a realistic prospect to leave with my share of the booty whenever I wanted? If I did, would it be likely that the authorities would eventually catch up to me? And what are the realistic chances of making my fortune?

Recently, for absolutely no reason I can think of, YouTube has started throwing clips at me from the historical drama series 'Sharpe', based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell. I've never watched the program or read the novels, but I gather the premise is that Sergeant Richard Sharpe saves Arthur Wellesley from an assault by three French dragoons and Wellesley gives him an officer's commission on the spot, thereby 'raising him from the ranks.'

This led me to wonder - how many times, if ever, did this actually happen? I'm no historian by any means, but being English myself, I know a little about the history of the British Empire and of all the major military figures I've read about, I can't recall one who started out as an enlisted man.

Now, 'Sharpe' takes place during the Napoleonic wars, and much of what I know about the Empire and its army is from the mid to latter part of the 19th century (India, Elphinstone's disastrous retreat from Afghanistan, Henry Havelock and the Sepoy Mutiny, etc), so my question is this - are there any stories or records of particular officers in the British military who rose from the ranks in the 19th century? Did this ever actually happen?

Hey, I am Indonesian and I have on the independence day of my country because our education system is so biased and full of propaganda narrative. Indeed Sukarno and Muh Hatta proclaimed the independence of Indonesia on 17th August 1945, but it took the Dutch four years to recognize the sovereignty of the nascent nation. My question is when is the independence? From what I know, a country has to have two "factors" to be considered a sovereign country: de jure and de facto.

I have read a theory that Caeser orchestrated his own assassination. The theory was that his epilepsy was growing worse, he had maneuvered himself into a political corner, was running out of money and just could not live up to his fame and nimbus. So, in order to take the "easy" way out and to die with his honor and glory intact, he chose to die an idol.

A fact that supports this theory is that he had been warned but insisted to attend the session of the senate without his bodyguards.

Is there any evidence to support this theory, or has it just been spread to add to Caesar's myth?

If English colonies ended up becoming places where the predominant race was white, then why didn’t the same thing happen to Spanish colonies? I’m guessing it’s because the places Spain colonized in the Americas were more populated by natives, but I’m no historian ;)

So something that most French Revolution books I've read seem to gloss over is the election of the initial third estate.

All that most books seem to say is that only propertied men could vote in it. However, given the political atmosphere, there must have must be campaigning and conflict across the entire nation. I'm really struggling to find any sources. Unfortunately, I can't really read French so most of the pamphlets of the era are out of bounds to me.

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Edit*: to expand on this, lots of the members of the third estate were prominent citizens like: Bailly, mayor of Paris; and Sieyes, who authored the pamphlet "What is the 3rd Estate".

There were 44 Parisian deputies, surely they can't have run unelected? Also how did they vote for these people?

As noted, I have really been enjoying The Great Courses Plus. I finished a course of 48 or so lectures titled "History of the Ancient World" by Dr Gregory Aldrete and binged it over just a week or two. I've now started a bunch of other lectures in different topics but mainly history and philosophy.

Just curious what their reputation is with the historian community. They seem very academic and well researched and the professors appear to be respected researchers and professors. But i am curious if that is the view of historians in general.

Also, one of the things I liked about the ancient world course was the delve into various primary sources and info about how we know some of things we know. But I always have trouble finding good places to locate ancient primary sources for myself or overviews of artifacts and information about how we came to know what we know about the ancient world.

I'm looking for recommendations of perhaps some databases, websites, platforms, etc that have lots of primary sources, archeological information and stories or info about our discoveries of ancient ruins and how we came to theorize about the ancient world.

Also, any other platforms like The Great Courses that have great lectures or classes are welcome as well!

What is meant by "wages" here? Because presumably it doesn't mean what it does in the modern sense, i.e. hourly cash wages or even a salary/stipend of cash

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I read how China was frequently referenced in Latin and Greek texts as the Land of the Silk, when the Silk Road began to take shape between the two Empires. When did those two Empires became truly aware of eachother's existence (not as simple myths), and what account can I read about eachother's views, both in Latin/Greek and Chinese ?

Dritte reich*

Historians think that the Iliad was a dramatised telling of a real event and I was wondering if the same could be said about the Aeneid.