Where did this practise of personification come from? Why was Germany seen as the "father" land, and Russia seen as the "mother" land, and not the other way round?

All in the title.

From what I've learnt the Dutch navy was the most well fed navy in the world during this difficult time with the average sailor eating 6500 to 8500 calories a day. I can't find what's such as ratio would look like unlike the British navy. Can anyone elaborate?

If a majority of the people killed by nazis were Jewish. Why didn’t they just say they were Christian?

During the civil war, some lever guns already existed, but what was the reason for not using them instead of the muskets who could shoot only 1 bullet in 20-30 sec?

Hi, apologies if this doesn't fit the sub, but I've been recently hunting for an English version of the Iranian epic, the Shahnameh, by Ferdowsi, since I want a proper read of the tale. I've been looking around the net but I'm unsure which English version is the most accurate? I was hoping for some help from someone properly qualified

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I was also hoping any people with more experience here could recommend me other Iranian pre-modern works of literature that I could read, both pre-Islamic and post-Islamic.

Thank you!

Perhaps this is a silly question (who did not read history textbooks at school), but I really have no idea about it. I am from Russia, a couple of years ago I moved to Canada. And I wanted to know the Western view of world history (especially Canadian, as I live here :D).
Of course, I can read on the Internet, but I would like to read something that has structure and is an authoritative source.

Thank you :)

For context, none of us spoke Hungarian, but the tune was indisputable. The lyrics could have been anything. As well, the man must have been at least 60, and didn't speak a word of English.

Is it possible to track the dissemination of such a folk song?

The Byzantine Empire ruled over the Middle East for a few hundred years. Why did the people living there not become Christians like the rest of the empire?

Okay, so this might sound a bit dumb, but I was reading Borges' Aleph and really liked the story about the jaguar and the priest, and now I really want to learn as much as possible about the folklore, mythology, and legends of the Americas, from Beringia to the Tale of John Henry.

However, I am a broke college graduate, and would prefer to get the most comprehensive collections of mythology/folklore possible. Which ones do Reddit's historians recommend?

I find that books that describe history can be rather boring. I get that history isn't exactly a movie or novel. I just can't seem to read thru the books. Are there any books you recommend that I can read that talks about history from say the 20's til today?

I recently saw a picture of British soldiers manning an AA gun in Drag. I’ve also read they had Drag shows during the First World War. What is the history behind his?

My parents are from Uzbekistan and I want to know the history

Someone once told me that in the USSR, there were no "men" or "women", only comrades. I thought that funny, which is good since it's a joke, but now I'm wondering, is it true? How was gender, and by extension sexism and gender equity, treated in USSR? Was there any problems regarding gender, or was it totally okay to be a woman?

I just finished Hale's outstanding Lords of the Sea, and one thing in particular has bugged me to no end: how were hoplites marines outfitted?

It's a significant logical leap (and one I can't get over) to assume that hoplites, traditionally land-borne fighters in a dense phalanx, would accept the same heavy panoply aboard a ship, where combat has the potential to be vastly different. It is easy to envision a hoplite marine jumping from one ship to another, periodically throwing javelins, disembarking into sandy, wet shores to combat the enemy, and then potentially boarding triremes again to depart and recover wounded or prisoners, all during the course of a single battle.

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In my amateur enthusiast opinion, the typical panoply - aside from the open-face/Corinthian helm (for which there may be little substitute) - seems absolutely dreadful. Were I a marine, I would know that a heavy breastplate could mean death if I fell into the water, likewise with the heavy aspis with regards to rapid, flexible movement atop a ship or while boarding another. I might prefer a linothorax and a much lighter shield.

It seems to me there is not a lot of scholarship regarding this aspect of marine warfare in classical Greece, and if there is, I have not found it. Even Hale, whose research is outstanding, seems to fall short in this regard, and it's as if the body of research available simply assumes hoplite panoply was the same on land and at sea.

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So what are the latest opinions on this? Lightweight marines, or fully armored like normal?

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I know this is a little different from the usual sort of questions that get asked here, but do the historians of reddit have any recommendations for good history-related podcasts? I've found myself with a lot more commute time suddenly and I'm looking for something that isn't music to listen to as I go. While I'm casting a very wide net by saying most of history is open (I always like to learn new things!), I'd be particularly interested in Roman history, China and Mongolia, and Europe in the middle ages.

I understand that the south produced a lot of cotton and other materials from slave labor. Did that material make its way north to be used widely enough that even staunch abolitionist would find it difficult to to do with out slave labor?

Edit: spelling typo

Ok, this is super specific and will be extremely hard to answer. But, I need to find out the truth. My grandfather was drafted into the United States Army sometime around 1943 or 44. According to him, he was about to be shipped off to fight in D-Day when his entire platoon got narcolepsy (its not contagious in anyway). He awoke three or so months later, and his entire platoon had died. After a few months rehabbing he was shipped out the LA, and was on his way to Japan when the bombs where dropped. Now, this could easily be the lie of a man who just dodged the draft and moved to Canada. However, for the rest of his life he suffered from narcolepsy, and was able to take apart/fire a gun in under a minute. Which would suggest he went through basic, and is telling the truth. Now, I know the USA used to test Syphilis on African American Veterans and many within my family agree that our grandfather was involved in sort of similar experiment. However, we are white (albeit my grandfather used to be a dumpster diver during the Depression in the Appalachians so we weren't really that high on the cultural totem pole during that era), so I dont know if was at all similar to the guys in Tuskegee (i.e. race, location, branch) or something completely different (like the lie of a man dodging the draft). I would love to know the perspective of somebody who studies this piece of history. What other experiments were the US conducting on there population? Does one of them sound similar to my grandfathers? Or did my grandfather just hide in Canada and lie for the rest of his life? I need some perspective.