I've heard both of the Heavenly Kingdom being portrayed as a dangerous religious cult, and as a revolutionary proto-communist state. My impression is that which portrayal is popular has changed over time depending on the needs of the party - but then, it's not like every single thing that every single Chinese historian says is simply what they're told to say by the CCP.
When I went to the Presidential Palace in Nanjing (which also used to be the palace of Hong Xiuquan), the Heavenly Kingdm seemed to be portrayed pretty similarly to other Imperial dynasties, but that might just be because it looks interesting to tourists, with big golden statues and fancy chairs and so on. And my ability to read characters is pretty miniscule, so I couldn't understand the information on the walls.

It seems like it was a very capable ship, but was it's fame deserved or the product of propaganda?

Edit: The battleship, not the person.

Anybody have any idea how the Chindits, a long range, deep penetration unit, communicated with the rest of the British army?

In many a work of fiction nowadays we see the stereotypical ninja performing hand signs to perform a technique, signal his allies and what not.

Although I have only seen them in modern fiction (mainly popularized by anime like Naruto, but also seen in western fiction like videogames, series and cartoons) most of these hand signs are always the same, not changing at all from one work of fiction to the other, independently from studio, medium and so on.

The prevalence of these identical hand signs accross all mediums and stories has me wondering if they are based on real life accounts or techniques used by real ninjas.

Or if they are just a trope/cliché that has been copied in recent years by many sotrytellers because of the association these hand signs have with ninjas.

Homer and the epic poets document the number and types of ships (I think) at length in the Catalogue of Ships, and spends the entire Odyssey with Odysseus and his crew without naming the ship, yet other Greek myths like Jason and the Argonauts name their ship (the Argos).

When did the ancient Greeks begin naming their ships? Did this have precedent in other cultures?

How was the life of an average citizen under the rule of Charlemagne, Otto I and other ”great” emperor figures? How was the religious life, national/tribal identity, class politics etc? I’ve seen very little discussion about this.

Recently saw a post on r/damnthatsinteresting showing a 1920s teachers contract for women with some very conservative and specific set of instructions however I cannot find any verifiable sources on their authenticity. Would anyone have the knowledge to weigh in on this? Thanks.

I've been watching Mad Men, which is set in the early 60s, and it stood out to me how often the show repeats things like "2 dollars is more than he [an Italian bellhop] makes in a week", a German Au Pair being unaccustomed to large living spaces (in Manhattan!) and characters saying things like "the average American enjoys luxuries reserved for kings in the rest of the world".

Is there any truth to this? I know post-war Europe and Japan were in a bad place, but were the differences really so stark, even into the 1960s? Looking at historical GDP per capita on Wikipedia, it sounds suspicious to me. If true, how come? If not true, where did the writers get these ideas from?

Pretty much what the title says. How did we know exactly what they wore? And are movies like Alexander the Great, Troy, and 300 accurate or just spiced up by Hollywood?

i have this assignment about Greek legacies and i chose theater. One of my questions is How did it become widespread and i cant find a source. so i figured if i went to the sub i could direct me to a source that answers my question, or maybe one of you guys cant help me by answering my question. Pls i really need help with this and i cant find any source that answer my question

I couldn't fit everything in the title so

If I were a Native american c. 1500 west of the Appalachians, before De Soto, perhaps in modern day Kentucky or Missouri, what geographic knowledge would I have, either in the form of rumors or concrete knowledge from people in my community? Would I be aware of the great plains and the Rockies to the east? The Pacific and Atlantic Oceans? What about knowledge of other groups, like mesoamerican civilizations or distant peoples like the Cheyenne, Iroquois and Shoshone?

How would my knowledge differ if I were a trader?

Basically, I'm asking how expansive the world view of eastern woodland Native Americans was. I would also be (very) interested in answers about from the perspective of Mesoamerican, Andean, and nomadic Great Plains peoples, if anyone can answer to that, but I wanted to keep my question narrow.

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I saw a video on youtube today it was terrible. This is where I got that question.

Has there been a basic technology and fuel that persisted for many centuries? How has indoor lighting changed up until 500 years ago?

From my understanding these roles have a tie to the systems of government that have emerged from monarchies yet I really see no practical reason for these roles to be separated. What justifications did people give for including an additional cerminomial office serve to a nation if it effectively devoid of power?

I saw a post on reddit a while ago about Tyre and how Alexander the Great conquered it by building a road to the city so that he could siege it by land (Causing the city to eventually become a peninsula)

I was wondering: Why was Alexander unable to capture the city by sea? And what was it like for the people of Tyre during the siege?

From what I understand, whenever a society developed ironworking, bronze manufacturing was slowly fazed out and replaced with iron manufacturing. It's such an important event, that we divide the histories of most societies into bronze and iron eras.

So I know iron tools, weapons, and armor must be a lot better than bronze ones. But what made them so much better that they completely replaced bronze? Were they harder? Sharper? Easier to manufacture? Cheaper?

From what little I know, most games (when there was leisure time for games) prior to the Industrial Age lacked a cohesive storyline and if they weren't purely motivated by gambling, they were at least definite in objective (i.e. winning the game was the objective, not furthering your ability to play the game).

However, did games with character immersion, storylines, and/or multiple campaigns exist in this era? Or from a game objective point of view, were there games that necessarily didn't have a quick end objective, but focused more on "leveling" and continuing the game?. If not, when did these games come about? Was D&D the first?