Why were the Balts the last pagans in Europe? Did it have to do with their ancient amber clout or what?
1 Answers 2019-10-10
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1 Answers 2019-10-10
Hey...
I recently developed a liking for history and a large portion of my curiosity comes from podcasts / books by Malcolm Gladwell - Revisionist History, and Dan Carlin.
So i wanted recommendations on some good books / podcasts that covers history in a detailed and unbiased way. Starting with the Roman Empire onwards.
Any help in this direction will be highly appreciated.
2 Answers 2019-10-10
1 Answers 2019-10-10
I'm getting ready to write a term paper for university on how Germany became the dominant power of mainland Europe, leading up to WW1. And I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on books that cover things on how Bismarck created and then lead Germany to becoming a superpower.
2 Answers 2019-10-10
The inspiration for this question is a bit odd, but I noticed that Tod's Workshop (a maker of high-quality historical weapon reproductions) has a few "mauls" listed, which are weighted with lead cores in the heads. The description for one reads:
"Medieval studded maul constructed from ash with multiple inset nails/studs and filled with lead. Exactly the sort of maul a poor archer may take.
This is the sort of medieval mace or maul that could be made in any village."
To get to the question, would lead have actually been an inexpensive material available to most medieval European villages, such that using it as a weight in a simple cudgel would be practical?
1 Answers 2019-10-10
1 Answers 2019-10-10
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1 Answers 2019-10-10
1 Answers 2019-10-10
You always hear about how small pox and other diseases decimated Native American populations because they had no resilience to it, how come the Europeans were never affected by a disease transmitted to them by the Native Americans? Was there simply not a similarly devastating disease native to just North America?
1 Answers 2019-10-10
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1 Answers 2019-10-09
Were the State's formally reconized by the HRE? If so, did the two consider each other rivals, allies, or was the Empire too busy collapsing/America too isolationist at the time?
3 Answers 2019-10-09
2 Answers 2019-10-09
As I’m perusing this book, I can’t help but read this as satire. Perhaps I’m struggling to take off the modern lens, but there are so many satirized moments taken almost verbatim from Bede or Gildas, it makes it hard to tell if Geoffrey ever took this seriously...?
Am I completely missing the point?
1 Answers 2019-10-09
Maybe i’m missing something, but I don’t understand how a board of directors of 20 capitalists could have more influence than a million common laborers. The US didn’t have Prussian-style tiered voting, or ‘rotten boroughs’. The system was pretty close to ‘whoever gets the most votes wins’ and there’s a hundred common workers for every corporate CEO. I understand that the workers were relatively unhappy during this period, why couldn’t they just vote in a bunch of socialists in landslide elections? It would make sense if there was open bribery or a political system that made rich men’s votes far more important, but there wasn’t. After Universal Equal Suffrage was implemented, why did the rich’s opinion really matter at all?
2 Answers 2019-10-09
I'm interested in my heritage, I'm proud to be scottish, irish and welsh all simultaneously. For years I've wanted to learn more about it, only to find it has little to no accurate coverage in mainstream media, nor have I found a widespread selection of books detailing what I'm looking for. I know that very little is actually known due to English washing and heavy christianisation in Ireland, Scotland and to the lesser extent, Wales. But I feel as though there is still a lot out there, and maybe me learning as much as I can can further help me discover more in the future (due to my ideal job being anthropology - archeology).
1 Answers 2019-10-09
I am pretty sure the profession of a rural general blacksmith who makes objects like horseshoes, door hinges etc. Would have been almost 100% divorced from the profession of swordsmithing, and that most metalworkers would be fairly specialized. Do we know about a lot of blacksmiths who would actually do both? What kind of a time commitment would it have taken to achieve swordsmithing mastery in a really sword oriented culture like europe or japan? Are there any known real figures who mastered both sides of swordcraft?
1 Answers 2019-10-09
Slavery was not the only reason the Civil War was fought but it was probably the biggest. The issue of slavery seems very binary. Either one was for or against it. Was there anyone one advocating for a middle ground?
(Disclaimer: I think slavery is bad I’m not looking for any justification or validation of centrist views on the subject.)
1 Answers 2019-10-09
Basically, is the moon and star used in many flags today and historically, based on any natural alignments of the moon and one star?
1 Answers 2019-10-09
In the current political climate she has come back to prominence as a writer and thinker. Reading her most important works, I am struck by how literary and flowing her style is - she leaves a lot to the end notes and doesn’t focus on a series of facts and figures to tell her story. There style is unusual for modern historians — is she regarded negatively because of this?
1 Answers 2019-10-09
How were the borders after WWI drawn and decided in the middle east? I was just watching this video and there was a discussion towards the end about the Kurdish people being spread over four modern countries despite a common identity. They referenced these borders being drawn up by European powers after the first world war without inviting the Kurds to the table. If not by cultural and group identity, how were the borders of the middle east drawn and decided?
1 Answers 2019-10-09
Aelius Gallus set out with his army in 26 BC, and trusted his army’s guidance to Nabataean called Syllaeus, who deceived and misled him. A “disease among the soldiers (unknown to the Romans) destroyed the greater part of the Roman Army”. This is very intriguing to me & I’d like to know more.
1 Answers 2019-10-09
I was watching this video by Lindsay Ellis discussing why Pocahontas was a failure:
In it, she mentions that cultural appropriation is generally okay when it's a country that was exploited by colonialism appropriating the culture of a colonizing country. She mentions that nobody gets mad when Mexico appropriates elements of German culture, and jokes that unless you live in LA and hear it on the radio all the time.
I don't live in LA, but I do live in Houston with a very heavy Mexican population, and I as well hear this style of music all the time. I live by a little strip of Mexican stores and I hear this type of music being played constantly.
The most prominent aspect I have noticed is the heavy use of the accordion. It is used in almost every one of these songs. Personally, I don't mind the music. They usually have nice instrumentation and harmonies, but I also do feel like they sound somewhat sound the same, and that's probably also due to me not speaking Spanish.
So I'd never considered the historical origin of this music. And I do think of the accordion as a German instrument, so how did this style of Mexican music become so prominent? What would have been the context for Mexico appropriating German culture? Furthermore, what genre of American music could I consider to be its equivalent, if that makes sense. I can't think of an American genre of music with a similar sound and a similar presence.
1 Answers 2019-10-09