I imagine a lot of it had to do with sprawling suburbia post WWII, the rise of single family home ownership. But who decided green, flat, neatly trimmed turfgrass for everyone? It's nearly ubiquitous across the U.S., even in areas where it's maintained against what would naturally grow there.
Is there a Frederick L. Olmsted of residential landscaping? Was there a model suburb or development that all developers just copied?
Prior to this advent of green grass lawns, how did people maintain their yards? There was some kind of middle ground residential between city and farm post Civil War and during the Industrial Revolution. Or was just not a big deal? What grew, grew and what you didn't want, you chopped or burned?
1 Answers 2019-11-27
I was reading today about the stupendous achievement that is the Pont du Garde at Nîmes, which was so precisely engineered that it descends only 12.6 meters over its entire length, for an average gradient of 1 in 3000. I know there are many other examples of such excellent early hydro engineering - the Indus river valley civilization had indoor plumbing in 2300 BC - but this got me thinking - how would ancient societies measure something like elevation?
I have a general awareness of the techniques surveyors would have used to lay out the courses of such aqueducts - basically, combine visual sight lines, trigonometry, abundant labor, and the inchworm method to lay everything out in as fine detail as necessary. Maybe this is just the answer? But I keep thinking that ancient societies would have needed to have some concept of relative elevation in order to know whether a certain water source could even be made to serve a given city in the first place prior to doing all the backbreaking work of surveying.
I know that in the 1800s, people like William Henry Brewer hauled massive barometers up to the top of mountains and used measurements of atmospheric pressure combined with trigonometric calculations and sightings to estimate the heights of the peaks. But AFAIK, the concept of atmospheric pressure only goes back to Torricelli in the early 17th century.
Does anyone have a better answer here? I'm open to being told that the answer is just pretty boring - they measured lots and lots of angles. But I wondered if there was more to it than that.
1 Answers 2019-11-27
Here is the thread. If it's against sub rules (I didn't see anything) I'll remove the link. But some people were arguing that Germany's economic growth would have been very rapid and strong, while others argued that their economy was supported entirely by the looting and slave labor of the invasions. I'm sure there's truth to both positions, but how strong was the German wartime economy in reality?
1 Answers 2019-11-27
In answering this thread /u/Chamboz said in passing:
Anatolia partially excepted, wheeled vehicles were almost entirely replaced by animal transport in the Middle East between Late Antiquity and the 19th century.
which piqued my curiosity. Why did that happen? Naively it seems that for a given amount of animal power you can haul more stuff with a cart than by piling the stuff on the animal's back. So why did they stop using wheels? And what was different in other regions of the world, that they didn't?
3 Answers 2019-11-27
I feel like there's no way it isn't inspired, the deaths are so similar.
1 Answers 2019-11-27
Hey guys, I was wondering if you might be able to help me solve a certain issue I'm having. I am trying to find any sources about the population of Ethiopia in the 14th century and the size of its military under Emperor Amda Seyon. I have found no sources that give even an estimate on how many soldiers medieval Ethiopia could raise. Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated.
1 Answers 2019-11-27
Just found out about the Hwarang recently. Wikipedia gives multiple theories as to what they were, and most of the internet is talking about some Korean Drama show when it’s brought up. I’m really curious as to what they did, what their lifestyles were, if they were basically just the Korean equivalent of a samurai, what they wore... etc. It just seems interesting to me.
1 Answers 2019-11-27
According to a BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/241864.stm) life expectancy in the late Medieval period in England was 30, and if one survived to 21 one would likely live another 43 years to the age of 64. In contrast, the life expectancy of the average Roman was 27 (https://www.britannica.com/science/age-distribution), with total life expectancy at 15 being 37–41 years. I was under the impression that quality of life was superior in Classical Rome due to improved sanitation and infrastructure, especially relating to the supply of clean water (i.e. aqueducts). If this is the case then how come the average Roman of antiquity died younger than the Medieval Englishman?
1 Answers 2019-11-27
1 Answers 2019-11-27
As the Republican forces were defeated and I doubt Franco would want hostile foreigners to remain in the country, staying in Spain was probably not an option. Unless they wanted to join the forces that continued the fight as an insurgency that is.
I know that some went into exile in the USA, Scandinavia or the USSR, but surely some of these former combatants attempted to return home. I imagine they would be subject to arrest and interrogation but I'm having trouble finding any sources that speak about it. What about those from countries that would soon be annexed or occupied by the Axis? Thousands of French, Czech, Dutch and Polish citizens (among others) also went to Spain and I imagine they would be more likely to return home than their German and Italian former comrades.
1 Answers 2019-11-27
Given that the modern nation-state is a relatively new phenomenon, how did borders work in the past? Was there such a thing as “International” travel? Did people immigrate? Was there anything resembling customs or border control?
1 Answers 2019-11-27
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32 Answers 2019-11-27
I'm surprised that the Allies managed to form a large force of their former enemy to fight with them. How come the transition was almost seamless?
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1 Answers 2019-11-27
The body count was obviously significantly higher, but is that simply because of more highly populated countries being at war than ever before?
How much of a role did technology play and what were the battlefield altering inventions? I know automatic weapons and chlorine gas were huge, but were there others?
1 Answers 2019-11-27
Do we know what percentage of downed bomber crews in WW2 successfully managed to exit their aircraft and parachute to safety? Some of the videos of B-17s seem to give the crew little time to successfully abandon their aircraft.
1 Answers 2019-11-27
if far back enough are there any that may involve archaic humans?
1 Answers 2019-11-27
Let's say you have a relative in some other city and he invited you to visit. You never were in said city, so how would he tell you where exactly is his house? Would it be "next to the bakery, 3rd building to the south with green door" or did they use street names and house numbers?
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I've heard that only the rich got wheat for their bread and porridge in premodern europe, while the poor made due with barley, oats, and rye. I always imaged there was an economic reason for this, such as that barley, oats, and rye had higher yields and that wheat was a prestige food with a lower yield but higher palatability. Is that true?
Were there other factors involved in wheat being the food of the rich?
2 Answers 2019-11-27
Hitler reinvented himself before the start of his political career and later changed the opinions he expressed a lot depending on what he thought the crowd of each speech wanted. This got me wondering, did he ever reveal why he really did what he did? Since coming into power, was he at some point aiming for the good of his people and/or the world or was power his main goal from the start? Was there a gradual descent into hell or had he already made up his mind beforehand and never noticed/cared about his horrible acts escalating?
1 Answers 2019-11-27
1 Answers 2019-11-27
This question came up at dinner tonight, and I am a little stumped. I know the record of the native's response to the European arrival is likely sparse due to tribal devastation, but I would be happy for any information you could provide.
1 Answers 2019-11-27