First of all, I'm sorry. I am aware this is not the place to ask this question, but I found no other place where I could ask this specifically to fellow historians.

I absolutely love history, I graduated in the subject in my University, always found reading about it fascinating, and every time I enter this subreddit I'm having a blast. I am now researching my masters in a foreign country, all that I ever wanted to do, but it seems to me that I suddenly lost my passion. I don't have the need to discover new things anymore and reading has become a professional activity, not something that I do out of my own accord anymore.

Reading anything relating to my research has become painful, and I cannot really start, even though I, in theory, find the theme very interesting. It came to the point today that it's 17:00 where I live right now, and I'm still in bed, because I promised myself that as soon as I leave it I'll have to start reading for my research.

Has anyone in this subreddit ever faced something like that? What would you recommend me to do? Does that mean I'm not fit to be a professional historian?

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As I was reading the The Histories in an excellent "Ladmark Herodotus" edition, I stumbled upon the passage in 2.149, talking about Lake Moeris:

This is clearly a man-made lake which has been excavated, for roughly at its center stand two pyramids, each of them rising 50 fathoms above the surface of the water and extending just as far underwater. On top of each sits a giant stone statue on a throne.

No note or comment is provided by the editors for this - rather astonishing - claim, in an otherwise extensively annotated edition. I looked into the appendix that deals with the accuracy of Herodotus' account of Egypt, and, while it mentions the incorrect theory of the Lake Moeris being man-made, it doesn't say anything about the pyramids.

What is especially intriguing to me is that Lake Moeris is one of the places which Herodotus claims to have seen with his own eyes, and his account of the nearby Labyrynth and the lake itself is geenrally believed to be accurate.

I didn't find anything in Wikipedia, and general googling seems to mostly produce results from conspiracy theories sites, ancient aliens believers etc.

I was wondering if there was any serious attempt to locate the pyramids or refute the claim.

In the song "SS marschiert in Feindesland" (a marching song from the SS) there are multiple lines like:

SS marschiert in Feindesland und singt ein Teufelslied (SS marches in the enemies land and sings the devils song)

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Und der Teufel, der lacht nur dazu ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha (And the devil laughs like ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha)

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There are also other things like their skull rings that seem to indicate that they know they are the bad guys. Now I'm wondering, wouldn't they want to see themselves more as some kind of heroes (Not trying to imply they were at all, just trying to think from their perspective)? Wouldn't it make more sense to say god is on their side? How could a group that obviously sings about being evil attract so many people and justify what they were doing?

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A don't see why the Schleswig-Holstein question between the German states and Denmark would be a matter they would care enough about to get involved militarily

I think this question is allowed here.

I’ve always been taught that Trench Warfare is slow and nasty. That one side would shoot bombs on the other side, than rush their soldiers to the other side and try to take over their trench. Although, they would get slaughtered in No Man’s Land

Instead, couldn’t one side just slowly dig closer to the other trench? Making No Man’s Land smaller and shorter? Wouldn’t this be easier to set up things to hide behind from bullets, thus making it easier to get to the other trench?

Hello! I am interested in reading about the 1953 Iran Coup, specifically on background that led to the United States making the decision (domestic, fear of Communism, British, Oil) and have struggled finding good stuff. Wondering if any of you all have good books or articles that are good!

We know that the sagas of the Vikings mention the native Americans but is that true the other way around? Are there any native American stories about the Vikings?

How were darker-skinned people treated in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik? How did racial laws change following the creation of the DDR? Are there any noteworthy statements made regarding race relations in the DDR?

And could it be proven?

A lot of conspiracy theories link the lost tribes of Israel to some other ethnic group or another, but it seems logical to me that Palestinians and Arabs in the Levant would have the most probable connection to the tribes of Israel who scattered.

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I assume he might have been talking about things like graph/systems/game theory or more mathematically oriented discourse analysis. Has anyone actually found such an approach useful?

Were the stories of Theodoric also present in Italian/Romance dialects or were they entirely Germanic? That is, if they were also present in Italian culture then the question I have about transmission is irrelevant because people were obviously translating them and spreading them, but if they aren't present in Romance then I think that would give more bearing to oral transmission from Goths->Germans?

Or were the legends of Theodoric/Dietrich through intermediaries i.e. German monk-types reading Latin chronicles -> telling other Germans because they saw some affinity with the Goths -> legends? With no direct cultural contact between people living in what is now Germany and Goths.

I'm interested in reading a book on the fall of the USSR that takes a critical look at the common narratives in popular (especially US) media about that time. Those popular narratives, as I understand them, are that collapse was inevitable and reform was impossible, the transition to capitalism was liberatory and democratic, Yeltsin was a positive force, etc.

Now, I'm not looking for pre-formed conclusions. I'd be perfectly happy with a history that considers those questions and finds the popular narratives are correct. I saw that "Stalin's Tomb" is on the AskHistorians book list, and while I'm interested in reading it at some point, it doesn't seem so focused on what I'm thinking about.

Edit: Sorry, Lenin's Tomb, not Stalin's. Lenin only had to share with Stalin for a short time.

I assume that this is not entirely true to the degree that it is in Asterix, but many names of famous people in the Gaulish times of Caesar ended in -ix, such as Vercingetorix, Dumnorix, and Orgetorix. Was it just a common suffix, or was it some sort of honor given to a leader?