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I've recently watched 300 (which I know is not reliable at all) but I was wondering about the battle tactics. In the movie they repeatedly say that a man is only as strong as the men beside him. But that's only true in a phalanx. 5 minutes after the fighting starts, they break formation and start hacking at the Persians with their swords instead of using their spears. Did this happen or was breaking formation pretty much a death sentence for the unit?

Also a bonus question: in the first battle, the Spartans place themselves immediately at the entrance (for the Persians) of the gorge which immediately nullifies the effect of the gorge as soon as they press forward a bit. Wouldn't it have been better to place themselves in the middle of the gorge to allow themselves to be posted back a bit or to push forward a bit without losing that advantage? Or did Greek strategists use the gorge in that way?

Reposting this question in hopes of an answer!

6 hour flight next week and I've recently become interested in World War One. Preferably focusing on the Western Front. Feel free to comment any other highly regarded WWI texts. Many thanks

Operation Northwoods, if I understand, was a CIA plan to carry out a series of false flag attacks on American citizens and blame it on Cuba. And then to use those attacks as a pretext for war against Cuba. I'm wondering if there's want details that would make this less terrible on the part of the CIA. For example, maybe it was a plan that was created because the CIA just makes tons and tons of plans all the time, but there was never any intention to carry it out.

From Napoleon to Hitler many countries tried to take over the Russian lands but failed miserably. What features about Russia make it so uncounquerable?

I'm very curious as to what made some people choose the land option vs the sea option.

It seems that land routes had very obvious challenges that are well known - namely, crossing the Sierras before winter fell. But it seems like less is talked about the sea routes for getting to California - was this a safer option? Was it more expensive? Were there other reasons why some people chose one option over the other? Did the tragedy of the Donner party make more people less keen on taking the land route to California?

The extent of my formal education on this topic is from my elementary school education, and I was hoping to get more insight on this from historians!

How much of it was military? How much of it was economic? How much of it was political? How long would it have lasted had Japan not brought the Allies and the US into the war against them? I've heard it argued that Japan was able to advance at will in China and that their occupation of China had no impact on their operations elsewhere. But I also know about significant Chinese victories like Changsha and Guangxi in 1939. What's the real story here?

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We have classicly attributed many mathematical and geometrical discoveries with 'western' scholars. However, I've heard that there is a lot of evidence that more ancient cultures than the Greeks already knew about (estimating) pi, the golden ratio, or even the Fibonacci sequence - believed to have been discovered in ancient India already if I'm not mistaken. Also I've heard that this notion (that the Greeks borrowed most of their knowledge) was not controversial at all in ancient times.

How far back does human knowledge on these things go? For example, what is the earliest credible estimate of human discovery of the theory of Pythagoras? Did pre-columbian American cultures and ancient Chinese cultures show similar (or possibly even more advanced) understanding of mathematics and geometry (i.e. did they conceive of these theorems independently)?

Medieval monasteries were the ones to preserve stories from our past, but their views must have clashed with those these previous civilizations held. How did they react to, for instance, the many mentions of homosexual acts and relationships found in ancient Greek mythology? Did they preserve them or do we know whether they were censored? Did they keep them and comment on them from a Christian point of view? Do we know whether there are records that were erased from history because they disagreed with what was depicted on them?

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I'm traveling in Italy at the moment, and the limited historical context given on plaques and museum labels is making me so curious to build a fuller picture. I'm largely interested in domestic life, the family, gender roles, women, social institutions, servants, dress, and class - to throw a bunch of interrelated topics at you.

My preference is for academically-published books or very rigorous popular history (in English). I don't know if this is as important a thing to specify as it is for English history, but I'm not really looking for anything that focuses on these issues entirely through the lens of literature.

Thank you!

When reading about witches in medieval Europe, I often come across the supposed origin of witches flying on broomsticks- namely, that witches would perform rituals by smearing broomsticks and similar staffs with an ointment made from psychotropic plants and berries like deadly nightshade and belladonna, which they would either "ride" like a hobby horse while nude, or even use as a dildo to cause hallucinations like seeing demons or sensations of flight.

However, something feels off about this story- I can't explain exactly how or why, but it reminds me of a lot of apocryphal historical tidbits that are often touted as fact but have no concrete evidence to back it up. Can anyone here set the record straight?

I apologize in advance for the general question! Perhaps this might not even belong here, it might be more of a sociology question. I am not sure but I hope someone here can shed some light.

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Time: Before writing became commonplace

Place: I am going to assume that would be not as relevant as I expect the same principle to apply more or less universally. I hope that is okay.

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Clarification: I am aware that over the many years oral traditions would change and alter but today I heard a claim (in the context of mythology and meta-stories) that over time, orally passed-down stories, specifically myth stories, were stripped down to their essense and any irrelevant details were dropped, leaving behind only the details which had a meaning. This seems to be counter-intuitive as I would have expected the exact opposite to happen: over time stories would become more and more embellished with each generation adding something to the story. Is it possible to make a general claim (i know, terrible) about the validity of this?

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I am aware there will be scant, if any, evidence for the gradual progression of oral stories but perhaps we can draw some conclusions (gasp!). Google has not been very helpful -unsurprisingly-I really hope someone on here can at least point me in the right direction. Much appreciated!

I was reading about how Tisquantum (Squanto) was kidnapped and virtually enslaved, and how Sir Ferdinando Gorges likewise captured other Native Americans and sent them back to Europe...but why?

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So I've been curious to how naval warfare was conducted in the Indian Ocean as I'm only familiar with the calm-water war galleys, and the modern era sailing ships of Europe.

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I've read that the Arabs and Indians used the Dhow to transport goods, but was there something like the War Dhow?