Why wasn’t unified Germany broken up after world war 1? The German empire was only about 50 years old at that point. Did any of the “states” want to leave Germany?

Apparently Oliver Clay North (US Army) went in to the war a 2nd Lieutenant and by the end of the war was a Major.

That's one heck of a fast-tracked promotion for around 4 years of military service. Was this normal during WWII? What about during the Korean War?

I'd like to become more knowledgeable about history. I find it hard to pick documentaries or books since history is obviously so interconnected, it's as if I skipped chapters in a book because I lack foundation.

I'd like stories of love, betrail, treason, heroism, anything except soley war and killing. Any ideas of movies/books that I could start with at this level?

What work can I do if I can no longer run? Am I entitled to a pension of some kind?

Why did it take until Bourdaloue for people to accept they were pretty much the same level?

To be a member of the french resistance during WWII must of been scary. Having little manpower and resources meant fighting must of been difficult.

So what tactics did they use? What weaponry did they use? What did they target and why?

In a few months, I have my Ph.D. interviews coming up and I need to pick up a research topic for my thesis. I've been scratching my head for the past few weeks and tried to narrow down the scope of research, but still feel like choosing the topic is a monumental task.

While I've been suggested to choose a topic of my interest, the basics of coming up with a good topic is something which none of the seniors I've gone for guidance really talks about. Issues like identifying gaps in existing scholarship and also identifying historical problems for research have never been mentioned by any of them.

Given that my area of specialization is early modern India, the number of sources I've been acquainted with are also limited, which further aggravates the problem, as I first need to read the resources before identifying what kind of history can be written from them.

Can the historians of reddit give me some tips on how to narrow down the scope of research ?

P.s.: English is my second language, so sorry for bad grammar.

I'm really curious to learn more about the world one of my ancestors lived in. My third great aunt and namesake grew up in rural Tennessee and never married despite all three of her brothers marrying and all of her female cousins marrying.

She contracted TB I believe in her 20s, worked in DC (1920-22) for a while as a clerk and then was moved to Denver (1922) as her illness worsened. She never married and there was never any talk of a suiter. Would it make sense that she never married because of TB? Or is there a chance there was another reason?

I've always admired her for forging her own way as a single woman but have always been curious why she never married. She grew up in rural Tennessee and was the first woman in my family to pursue any type of career. I feel so honored to share her name and I am continually curious about her and the world she lived in. She was incredibly loved by our family (they still talk of her!) but we don't know many details of her life.

I read on r/todayilearned about Jane Wenham, a woman who was accused of witchcraft in the year 1712, and witnesses accused her of flying on a broomstick, when the judge's response was that there was no law against flying.

My question is, why and how did the concept die out in Europe?

If you can answer the same questions about the USA, that would be a bonus as well.

P.S. a similar question was posted six months ago but went unanswered, & maybe someone has gained knowledge on the subject during that time.

I never understood the stereotype of this, why the demon necessary needs to listen to rock? Why not erudite music or jazz? Do you know where this started?

It’s a region that has two gulfs that connect to the Red Sea, at the end of those gulfs are Eilat and Suez. Both of those locations are connected or close to historically relevant regions. In the case of Eilat it’s the Red Sea port that’s close to the entire levant. In the case of Suez it’s about 40 miles away from a Mediterranean port city.

The Sinai Peninsula is essentially the landmass that borders two worlds. Firstly the Mediterranean, which gives you access to Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor. Secondly it also connects to the Red Sea which gives you access to Eastern Africa, India, China, Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf.

How was it not as relevant as Constantinople (which only divided the much less relevant Black Sea from the Mediterranean). You’d think it’d be the richest and most important region of the entire world.

And on a side note it also contains Mount Sinai, which is a super important religious landmark for Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

As in, when people transitioned from the bronze age to the iron age, how could they handle or manipulate molten iron when the strongest metal available to them would melt at a lower temperatures than iron? I did a little Googleing and didnt fully understand. Thank you in advance.

I have trouble picturing Orwell shooting and killing people. Also, it seems that when the army he was part of was defeated he ran away and his life went back to normal, but... did the british government simply let him in with no issues after he fought with a foreign army in a foreign war?

After looking back on old photos of my family I noticed that there were a lot of people rocking western attire such as women and men. In major cities in Syria( Aleppo Homs Damascus) recently on my trip back to Syria I visited Homs and Damascus and I noticed that there was still a lot of people with American/European ways of dressing but there were way more people in traditional attire. I talked with some older people and they also said similar things of people wearing more western attire in the middle of the century. Just to be clear this question was made for the whole Middle East I just wanted to apply some of the background knowledge that I could supply.

I read this fascinating book called Stalin and the Scientists about early soviet science, and it mentioned that Russia could not have properly adopted capitalism the way many other European countries did during the industrial revolution, because the cold semiarid climate nearly everywhere except the “black earth” region was too variable to generate a necessary crop surplus. How accurate is this claim?

I've always wanted to know why it seems like the central and south american natives were city builders and north american natives didn't bother. Is there any reason for this as the weather and soil in North America is usually stable and the soil is fertile for structured agriculture and development.

It’s quite common to find depictions, either images or statues, of the Buddha in seated meditation in the United States today. I’d venture that a very small percentage of people that display such depictions are Buddhist, or have much interest in studying the teachings of Buddhism. How did this proliferation of a particular religious/philosophical figure become so popular in western/non-Buddhist places?