I am in the midst of completing my masters degree in History and have hit a wall in picking a precise thesis. I have researched and have a great interest in the psychological warfare operations conducted during the Vietnam war. I have gathered a strong base of sources, but I still cannot put my finger on a precise thesis that is really worth writing about(approximately a lean 60 page thesis).

So I turn to you fine folk here in hopes of some advice. Does anyone here have a background in PSYOPS that may be able to suggest a potential area of exploration that I could progress with?

Is there any source material that discusses Shaolin monks using their combat abilities? Or any good books about how they interacted with the rest of the world throughout history?

It's interesting comparing the interwar nationalist movements of Turkey and Italy and how they applied religion, modernization, and nationalism in their restructuring of society. Mussolini's Fascists compromised with the pope, granting him the a plot of land on the Vatican hill in exchange for the recognition of the state of Italy being legitimate in the Catholic world, as before the pope would excommunicate every king of Italy out of spite for the conquest of the Papal States. Was there a more strictly nationalist anti-religion faction in the Fascist party calling for the abolishment of the Papacy and abandon religion?

On the other hand, Atatürk abolished the Caliphate and expelled the Osmanoğlu dynasty from Turkey after over 600 years of rule. This more effectively consolidated power and there was no obstacle left for his modernization reforms and state building process. We have one nationalist movement relying on religion for legitimacy, and another brushing it aside for progress (legitimacy). Was there ever a more religion friendly faction in the People's Republican Party calling for Laïcite in Turkey but an independent city state Caliphate in Istanbul?

Did Atatürks abolishment of the Caliphate influence nationalist thinkers in Italy? Vice Versa for Turkey and their Republican People's Party? How much did the Sultanate's decision to collaborate with the allied powers effect this decision?

So, obviously tanks were used extensively in the Second World War. Tanks, of course, travel on tracks. What happened if, say, a tank's track broke in the middle of a battle, due to a shell hit or landmine or something.

• Were they stuck in place?
• If so, did a crew member have to get out of the tank and fix it, thus exposing himself to enemy fire?
• Or did they just abandon the tank and run?

Edit: that’s the Holocaust, for clarities sake.

Subquestion: which one is the better design?

At that high level of aerospace engineering, I’m surprised that they wouldn’t arrive on a consensus as to which one is objectively better for spacecraft and launch vehicles, not just the Americans and Soviets, but other countries as well. The chinese use a more angular spacecraft despite a communist background, and spacex uses a rounded design despite having an American background

Examples:

Rounded: LK moon lander, R7 rocket family, N1 rocket, Vostok, Voshkhod, Soyuz, spacex crew dragon, spacex BFR, falcon rockets, Chinese long march rockets.

Angular: Most early Nasa rockets, Saturn V, Apollo spacecraft, Apollo moon Lander, STS, SLS, project constellation, Shenzhou spacecraft.

So you got these guys in the Mississippi delta or in Memphis or Chicago, in the 19th century - or likely well before then - with guitars making wonderful music. How did they know how the guitar was tuned? Where did they learn those now-classic chordings? Was it sheer intuition or somehow passed down? And if it was passed down, from where?

Is it ok to ask if people can access ancestry/ military databases for me on here? I'm looking for information on my grandfathers journey through the war and thereafter, a British Veteran of WW2 and conflicts throughout the post-war period up until 1951 (i think) but have no money to be able to do this at the moment.

I was just thinking, how did an army hold ground once they took it, did they dig in another front line trench or just put some troops on it. And when a front line is broken through, did the retreating troops have to dig out a whole new trench?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I was just really confused when reading about the spring offensive.

Other then the original Beowulf I guess, who were Tolkeins favorite authors? Who inspired and influenced his writing? Googling around someone briefly mentioned H.P Lovecraft but didn't seem sure of it.

I’m reading an old textbook on European society and it says that the split between West and East civilization can be traced to Ancient Greece who saw the older civilizations they grew up under as “Eastern” and wanted to define themselves as something different. According to the book, they later bring this idea to the Romans. I’m wondering though, why the ancient Greeks wanted to separate anyway? It doesn’t say in any of the pages WHY Ancient Greece decided to do that in the first place. Was it just to set about their own legacy as their own civilization and didn’t want to keep being shadowed by the civilizations who came before?

Hi. I've just been re-listening Mike Duncan's The History of Rome podcast and what drew my attention is how quickly the Empire turned from relative religious toleration to persecuting non-Nicene Christians and pagans around 380 AD. Before, I thought this was a culmination of a long trend, but now it seems to me that there was suddenly a flurry of edicts from Theodosius and Gratian abolishing traditional pagan cults and institutions, such as the Vestal Virgins or maybe the Olympic games, and most famously proclaiming Nicene Christianity to be the state religion. And I started to wonder whether this could have been a way how the Romans dealt with their crushing defeat by the Goths at Adrianople in 378 AD.

As far as I can tell, in Late Antiquity and in the Byzantine Empire, the correctness of an Emperor's religious policy was often judged by his military success. When you won on the battlefield, it seemed that God was on your side. Also, Duncan claims that the main rationale behind the great persecution of Christians by Diocletian and Gelarius was the idea that the traditional Roman gods are angry with the Romans for tolerating Christianity and so it is good policy to appease them.

Well, so I was thinking that after losing at Adrianople, maybe the Romans thought "wait a second, isn't God punishing us for out toleration of all those ugly false pagan cults? Also...wasn't Valens an Arian? AHA! Perhaps if we show him out devotion and commitment to the true faith, he will allow us to start winning again!"

Of course it is just something that occurred to me, let me know what you think :-)

If you look at a map of Asia it's pretty clear that it would be much easier to encounter China as opposed to India if you were approaching the continent by sea coming from the West. You would have to avoid a huge area of land and also travel a significantly further distance in order to hit India first. Why would Columbus think that this unlikely scenario had occurred?

Was it simply too long a march for an army? Mongols managed to make it all the way to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, so I don't see any reason why they can't just march or ride around the western edge of the Great Wall. They also had naval capabilities (as shown during the Mongol invasions of Japan), so couldn't they have departed by ship off the coast of Northeastern China or Eastern Russia and to land anywhere south of the Wall's eastern end?

What primary resources do you guys recommend for understanding the American civil war and the ensuing period of reconstruction?

I don't know if anybody would really want that kind of thing but I don't recall seeing very much Klan footage of actual meetings so is there a place maybe I should donate it or something? This was the wife's family but this thing is definitely complete with a cross-burning and everything.

I am trying to put together a more accurate picture of an ancestor who fought in the Civil War. I know that he signed up in a town called Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and the papers were signed by a Recruiting Officer, Justice of the Peace, and Regimental Surgeon. But there was no camp nearby--so did those people come to the town for the day/week?

What was the order in which you would have done this? State your intention to the Recruiting Officer, then have the exam, then sign the papers?

When would a new enlisted man be given his uniform and kit? What was likely to be in the kit upon enlistment, and what would he get later?

How long would a recruit be trained? How would they be trained. Beyond marching, what would the Infantry do?

If anyone has any links for letters, diaries, or books that cover this, I would be very grateful. I have read dozens of letters and several diaries, and visit I don't know how many websites. The enlistment/boot camp/training portion of service is always glossed over.

Thank you very much in advance.

See title.