I’m watching Dances with wolves and I was reminded of the chest plates of the native Americans, in this case, the Lakota. They have many holes in the armor kind of, were they effective against arrows and such?

Would the USA have continued bombing Japanese cities with atomic weapons if Japan hadn't surrendered after Nagasaki?

Are there any declassified U.S. documents alluding to further bombings?

Would the American public have supported such a strategy?

Hi!

I've been really getting into the subject of historical European fashion from the late 19th century and earlier, though I have been interested in what I could find as far back as the 2, 3, and 4 centuries (I'm not sure how much has survived about then, however). It's just really difficult to decipher which sources are credible and accurate and which aren't.

I'm wondering if there are any good places, websites, books, journals, or anything like that I could look at and read to learn more about these periods and trends. I'm not looking for any specific European period at the moment, I'm only just delving into this so I really just want to see what's out there.

Thanks!

You see this all the time in media from that era, as well as modern media set during the early and mid 20th century. Was bringing an apple for your teacher actually a common or expected practice, and if so what prompted it? Why did the practice fall out of favor?

I've been doing some genealogy on my great uncle and was able to request his military records from WWII.

Under military specialties it lists the following info:

Years/Months | Grade | Principal Duty

0/3 | Pvt | Artillery Basic Training

1/0 | Pfc | Radio Operator

1/0 | Sgt | Scout

1/5 | 1st/Sgt | First Sergeant

This brings up a couple of questions.

1. What exactly would a Scout have done in a Field Artillery Battalion?

2. Was he likely on the frontlines calling in artillery support from his battalion (hence being a radio operator), OR was he simply a scout for where the unit was, and would simply be at the front of the unit's advance making sure things were safe for the artillery to setup?

3. From what I understand a First Sergeant is very high in the Enlisted ranks (based on my research it was the highest enlisted rank in the Army at that time). He would have been 23 or 24 when he was promoted to First Sergeant. To me this seems incredibly young? I realize there were casualties and promotions could happen, but he joined as a Private and ended the War as a First Sergeant. This seems kind of remarkable to me. Am I correct in thinking this?

4. Did he skip ranks? Was this even possible? Or do they only list his rank when his principal duty changed?

As the title says I´m searching for the declaration of war from 6. April 1672 by Louis XIV. and other primary sources of this period for a research paper. Help is greatly appreciated

In antiquity, many countries/cities/geopolitical entities had origin stories that we now regard as complete myths, like the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus, but which were treated at the time as factual. When did these peoples start to recognize them as myths that probably didn't line up with what could be documented?

Sorry for the wordy title. Basically, was it a massive influence in and of itself, or did other events (Pentagon papers, Vietnam war in general, economic troubles in the late 60's/early 70's) drive the rise in distrust?

This is all assuming there actually was a rise in distrust in the 1970's - correct me if this is wrong.

I’m writing a novel currently, and am trying to puzzle out how exactly bilge pumps worked during the Pre-Industrial Era. I know that it was commonplace to use a hollowed out tree running vertically from the bilge to the main deck as a pump, with stoppers intermittent between the top and the bottom, and I know that it worked on a pulley system that was manned by the crew at a windlass, but I’m confused as to where the water was siphoned from as well; is it siphoned from within the bilge? Is it siphoned from outside of the ship? How did they remove the water that got in the bilge, then? With water buckets? Please help educate me on the matter.

I was watching an episode of Adam Ruins Everything the other day, and he mentioned that love and romance weren't really linked to marriage at all until the past couple centuries. But the existence and popularity of Romeo and Juliet suggest that at least the concept of marrying for love was fairly widespread even at that time. So just how unusual was it for people to get married for love during that era (feuds between families notwithstanding)?

I cut out the factors of resistance and density in the title so it would fit, but my main point still stands.

Did anyone try taking two objects of simillar density, one twice Ir tens times as heavy, and see what happens if you drop them from the same height at a extended distance at the same time? Or Is this not giving aristotle theory justice?

So, for example, did British rule in India bring in more wealth for Britain than was used in maintaining said colony or similarly for French Indochina? Was the maintaining of these colonies primarily economic driven or more about national prestige?

In Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the Riders of Rohan begin their attack on the orcs attacking Minas Tirith by simply riding right into them and trampling them with their horses. Is this a tactic historical cavalries could/would use against opposing foot soldiers (particularly before widespread use of gun powder weapons like cannons)?

Well, while reading a few things about medieval warfare, I noticed that the use swords was limited to nobles, professional men at arms and wealthier soldiers, as they were the only ones who could afford them. Yet, in antiquity, the tens of thousands of legionaries serving Rome after the Marian reforms were all equiped with the gladius as their primary (?) weapon.

Now, I understand that most Medieval Kingdoms could only dream of reaching the industrial power of ancient Rome, but still, I can't help but wonder... just how could the Romans pump out swords in the thousands while the latter Europeans could produce so few of them?

Thanks in advnace!

So, I am somewhat aware of some syncretic movements among native americans (like at least part of the Ghost Dance movement) and obviously missionay activities and attempts to convert native americans was an ongoing effort by european imperialists, what I know a lot less about is how these efforts were recieved by native american groups. Did native american converts tend to join nearby "white", churches? It is often talked about the importance of african-led "Ethiopian" churches in the context of european colonialism in Africa, did anything similar happen among native americans?

Did there develop distinctive "native american" (or even more specifically, national/tribal variants) christian denominations?

The title speaks for itself. Was there any push within the corporation to transition to greener energies, or was everyone in the know completely fine with setting this planet down the path we've since gone down?

Hi, I'm working on a piece about the ancient textile economy as seen through documentary papyri and archeology in Roman Egypt, and I've come up against a small problem of sources. (Basically, spinners seem to be rarely mentioned, despite this being a key stage and indeed bottleneck in textile production - perhaps because of a difference in status).

I'd like to read some articles about spinning - specifically drop spindle spinning - in medieval and early modern Europe, just to get a better picture of how it fits into another pre-modern textile economy. I'm aware actually directly using this as a comparandum within my piece might be problematic, but I'm just looking for some perspective. Particularly useful would be information on who span, when (since it's a very portable and multitaskable activity), and how yarn production interacted with the weaving trade.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! (Especially if they're available online, as my university library has been closed by covid-19). I would look for them myself, but I'm really exclusively a classicist by training, and I'm just not sure where to look.