What are the best books on Ancient Rome, Ancient Greek, the Crusades, the Age of Discovery, the French Revolution&the Napoleonic Wars, World Wars I&II, the Cold War?

And I am also interested in the Middle Ages overall(from cultural, social, religious, etc. standpoints), the histories of Japan and other Middle East countries(as I have no idea about those, I would really appreciate some guidelines).

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Since I am not a scholar, I would appreciate something accessible for a layman, but still, not overly simplified.

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And if you have any other suggestions on periods, wars, etc. that are especially significant and present interesting and important ideas and concepts, I am looking forward to your suggestions.

I have recently had published by Grubstreet a book on the recovery from Rajastahn, India of two First World War bombers and rebuilt them - one for our own collection and the other was sold to the Imperial War Museum. I have written a book about this long journey this called 'From Ruin to Restoration - the Extraordinary Story of the Discovery in India and return to Flight of a Rare W.W.1 Bomber". This is the only original 1st WW bomber flying in the world. Happy to answer questions on this or any related to aircraft restoration.

I do alot of reading on dogs and one book I read mentioned the prophet Muhammad had hunting dogs but most Muslims are anti dog. So I was really wondering what evidence is there that he owned dogs?

Spain and Portugal's Empires seemed to peak around the 18th Century whereas the French and British empires peaked in the late 19th/early 20th Centuries. Why were France and Britain 'late to the party' so to speak?

The info I can find online (for free) is extremely sparse. It seems like the Empire of Kitara was a political entity of the Bunyoro people that held influence over the African Great Lakes, but a lot of the info is apparently based on contradictory folk tales. What's the truth here?

I have read that adoption was treated very seriously by the ancient Romans where adoptees would be considered equal to any biological children. Was this also the case in the above situation? If not, what made this different. If it was, were Livia’s responsibilities as a mother/sister blurred at all?

G.I bill historically was considered an economic success ,

However many people claim that Military people weren't compensated well .

Is this true ? Was the adjusted compensation act etc really not enough ?

And how high and what benefits did WW1 and ww2 veterans get ?

In my hobbyist understanding of history, I get the impression that literacy following the Roman Empire was much lower than during the Empire. The idea of monks painstakingly copying text in monasteries explains why literacy and written sources in general would be hard to come by before the printing press.

So how did the Romans do it? I imagine literacy was still low compared to modern times but how did texts like Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, various military manuals, the numerous Roman historians, etc. reach our era without wide spread distribution? Especially since it’s presumed that loads of written material has been lost over the centuries, it appears the Roman publishing industry must have been pretty sophisticated. How did the Romans copy and distribute these well known texts?

I heard that it was

1. A status symbol, how pistols were more expensive and swords needed good training to use effectively, which only the upper classes had access to.
2. The pistol was used to keep the men disciplined at the threat of execution, being able to fire more rapidly than muskets or older rifles which took a while to load.
3. Infantry officers rode horses even though they led foot soldiers, and pistols were easier to carry.

But what use is this in combat, especially if the officer is a valuable target? I see movies where the officers shoot their sidearms in more modern wars where the enemy is far away.

As we all know, socialism has faced stiff resistance and conflict with capitalism since its conception. Capitalist and socialist movements/countries have been fighting one another since the October Revolution. I'm curious if any resistance occurred in the early days of capitalism from feudalism (for lack of a better word) and, if so, just what this conflict was like. Was it mostly internal conflicts between lords and capitalists or were there any of an external nature, different countries fighting to establish their preferred economic system? Or was the transition to capitalism more evolutionary and gradual? I'm specifically curious about England and Western Europe given that these were the first pockets of capitalism that the world saw.

I’m watching “The West” by Ken Burns right now and we am really interested to know how much is folklore and truth. Were duels really a common thing in the Wild West? How common were brothels? What is folklore and what is truth?

In Wang Mang's brief but disastrous interruption of the Han Dynasty, he made a number of (in)famous reforms, one of which was the abolition of slavery through the empire. Do was have any records of why he did this? Was it inspired by a deep moral conviction, was it part of his grander socioeconomic strategy, was it some combination of the two, or something else?

During World War 2 when 30 something year old men, who were successful business leaders and business owners were drafted did they start as privates or were they give higher ranks based on there experience?

The poem Ozymandias famously includes the plaque reading “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works ye mighty, and dispair!” Now Ozymandias was what the Greeks called Ramses II, so I assume the poem is referring to him. Yet, the title King of Kings was primarily used by Persian Rulers, such as with Cyrus the great. So was this simply an anachronism by Shelley or did Egyptian rulers actually use this title?

Hi there everyone. So I have been reading a history on Clemens von Metternich and the Napoleonic Wars, and I kept finding the mention of "cruiser" as some form of currency. So does anyone have any idea what a "cruiser" is?

...I meant to ask this last week

I recognise this is a very broad question and likely one with no real answer, but I thought I'd at least try asking. I've recently becoming interested in reading about a variety of historical figures, but there doesn't seem to be an obvious way of verifying the credibility of biographies or even just historical writing in general, at least for laymen. Of course, certain books will get published reviews, though rarely, and I could check the reviews on Amazon or Goodreads but I have no way of knowing if the reviewers have the credentials to really comment on the accuracy. Obviously, this very sub might have recommendations, but I don't want to spam it every single time I want to read about a new historical figure. Perhaps there's no solution - thoughts?