I know the question is a bit broad, given that the medieval-inspired fantasy often extends well into the early modern era and that, even if it didn't, Europe was quite diverse at the time.

Still, I wonder, what was the relationship between nobles and the peasantry in late medieval western Europe like?

Was there a time and place in Europe where the class divide between the common people and the upper classes was so large that the peasantry was treated as a disdained disposable workforce?

I'm interested in lections, podcast, and general videos on history.

I love history and it is hard for me to find channels which upload 1-2 hour long videos on history, I'm not necessarily looking for good quality videos, it will be enough for them to be good and interesting. Any time period is ok.

I'm more interested in European and Asian history. I like learning about how Portuguese and Dutch first contacted with the Japanese. About the colonial times, about wars, about everyday lives of people in those times. About why countries did what they did, what causes them to and etc.

I know about many popular YouTube channels, I just thought maybe some of you knew less known channels with less numbers of subscribers, but which are underrated. If so I'd be happy to hear about them. Thank you.

I have read that following the Second World War, Joseph Stalin launched a disinformation campaign of sorts regarding the circumstances of Hitler’s death. From having Zhukov state that Hitler had escaped Germany in a speech to outwardly telling people at the Potsdam conference that Hitler was either living “in Spain or Argentina”. I haven’t been able to find a clear answer about why Stalin would cast doubt around Hitler’s death. What was his strategy in doing this?

Sources for the examples:

Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. London: Brockhampton Press.

Beschloss, Michael (December 2002). "Dividing the Spoils". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 14 September 2018.

In school the most we ever learnt was Columbus 'discovering' America in 1492 then Pilgrim in 1620 a whole 128 years later. Then American revolution in 1776 a whole 156 years later. There's more time between Columbus and the American Revolution than there is between the American Revolution and today. But the time between the American Revolution and today is taught heavily and its a lot of events. Was there nothing massive happening during the Colonial Era of the US?

I've been reading a book on Italian Economics and it is examining why the south of the country generally has a weaker economy. It notes that despite the Kingdom of Naples being the first part of Italy to industrialise and being the location of the first railway in Italy, it's economy never took off. It blames this in part to a ban on the construction of railway tunnels which stopped the railways from becoming economically useful. It says the ban was instigated by the clergy as they saw railway tunnels as a threat to public morality. I can't find any more information on this and the book does not elaborate further. Do any of you know why the clergy thought railway tunnels were a moral threat and what their aims could have been?

I read a very interesting piece on here describing a ‘southern rosebud’ magazine but I couldn’t find any publications on it to read. I’d love to know if kids had books and the such on the treatment of slaves and if there are any I could access to read. Thanks

The discussion about the chinese winter olympics made me think about why there was no boycott of the olympic games in germany. Especially when you consider:

The already established concentration camps.

The systemic discrimination towards jewish people.

And generally speaking the fact that the host country was a totalitarian regime.

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Thanks to everbody.

Most smoke detectors nowadays contain americium (some recent ones, however, use the photoelectric effect), a synthetic element that does not exist on earth naturally, not even in trace amounts (unlike plutonium, which does exist in trace amounts). The first use of nuclear power was somewhere in 1945, meaning americium could have only been discovered and synthesized after 1945. If this is the case, what did we use in smoke detectors before 1945? Did we just not have smoke detectors before then? Are smoke detectors a recent invention?
(Note: I posted this in this subreddit because it's more of a history question than a science question)

I was cleaning out my grandmother's room at her nursing home and I came across "The Source" by James Michener. It tells the history of the Jewish people from the perspective of archeological artifacts found in a fictional mound in northern Israel. It looks intriguing, but I don't want to commit the time to reading a 400 page novel and come away with a lot of inaccuracies. Is the history in Michener's historical fiction accurate enough to be worth reading?

By late 17th century, I'm refering to the early post westphalian period (1648-1663) The book has to include this time period in detail, but it can also talk about other things.

And with pacific war, I do not mean only the American 1941-1945 theatre, I mean the WHOLE pacific theatre, including the Sino-Japanese war, the Burma Campaign, Ceylon Raids, Indonesia, Auletian Islands, New Guinea.. there are a ton of books about only ''Okinawa and Saipan'', I'm looking for something whole. As detailed as possibile. If you know any, please tell me. And what makes them good? Thanks in advance.

So the obvious qualifier ahead of time. This is a video game and I know it takes a lot of artistic liberties for the sake of entertainment. So I'm not expecting the game to be historically accurate. I'm also aware that modern scholarly research views the 'collapse' of the Western Empire as more of a slow decline and a transition to a series of successor states rather than the definitive collapse of a civilization.

However the game really tries to make the 4th and 5th centuries feel like the apocalypse. Climate change leading to problems with land fertility, constant barbarian migrations and attacks, the Huns, rebellions and civil war. All of these feature quite prominently in the game and make playing as the Western Roman Empire feel more like survival horror than a strategy game. You feel like your back is against the wall and the best you can do is just survive and hang on, rather than do anything proactive.

Is this general apocalyptic feeling reflected in Roman writings of the time at all? Did the Romans of the 5th century (in the west at least) realise that they were living through the decline of their Empire? Were they aware that things were worse than they'd ever been before? Did they look back on the great achievements of the past and wonder what had changed, or was it more or less business as usual for your average Roman citizen?

From what I already know of Roman history. It seems like every generation of Romans thought that the Republic/Empire was currently in a state of ruin and things were better in the past. So I guess it would be hard to differentiate any apocalyptical notions about the 5th century in particular, from the general apocalyptic notions that were a common theme in Roman writings?

In Europe in 1400, there is a variety of different state systems, city-states, merchant republics, town leagues, monastic states, ect., all seemingly a viable alternative to monarchy, and capable of being major players in international affairs.

By 1500, and certainly by the end of the Italian wars, all these alternatives of monarchy are either gone, or in a clearly subordinate position. What happened? How were the monarchs of the late Middle Ages able to build states that alternate systems could not rival?