David Hume, Adam Smith, James Watt, Alexander Graham Bell. All Scots who had a huge impact on the world. Nowadays Scotland is more known for things like Trainspotting and deep-fried Mars bars than intellectual and technological advancements.

What was it about the Scotland of the 18th and 19th centuries that made it such a hub of innovation? And why didn't the grand intellectual traditions continue?

Why did the US Navy need to fully transfer the US Coast Guard from the Department of the Treasury into the Department of the Navy? How did the Navy actually use the USCG during World War II? Finally, how did the two branches view one another during the war? Thank you for any input or sources.

Since Romulus was seen as descendant of Aeneas in the Roman historiography of the late Republic, and the Iulii understood themselves as stemming from Aeneas' son Iulus, does this mean they also proclaimed they were descendants of Romulus? Because as far as I know Caesar only claimed his descendence from Ancus Marcius, whereas I can't find any evidence for a genealogical claim to Romulus...

When I try too see it from the pilgrims perspective I think: they could have evangelized the natives, evangelization leads to contact and eventual mixing. But apparently none of this happened.

When I try to see it from the spanish and portuguese perspective: evangelization did lead to mixing BUT then the caste system was created, probably to dissuade mixing, however people kept on mixing, despite their children having a lesser legal status, and I just don't get it.

Later sources extol the Taiping as liberators and peasant heroes who overthrew the landlord class. But at the time, was that purely what the average Taiping supporter believed in, or were they really invested in Hong's religious vision? Did they believe Hong was the younger brother of Jesus?

That is, was there the sort of cultural impact regarding these kind of restrictions one would expect once it became apparent that many of the greatest writers of their era would never have been read had they been strictly enforced?

What lead to Poland being relatively spared during the plague, even it's large urban centers which would have been where the disease would spread the most. After seeing a lot of graphics showing the spread I've seen it generally didn't hit Poland as bad and specifically cities such as as Warsaw and Krakow.

The book is from the perspective of a child at the start who is against the restoration and who's clan is brutally suppressed as a result, he and his surviving family are sent north to starve and freeze, but he eventually becomes a page(?) in Tokyo who joins the new imperial army eventually attacking the revolting clan that destroyed his childhood.

I believe it to be an autobiography and have given as much detail as I can remember. Any help would be appreciated.

(also unclear if this breaks the rules of the sub or not, but figured this would be more likely to answer my question than /r/askhistory or /r/books)

How effective was gambeson as armour? I know it was a cheaper choice for poorer people but how effective was it at blocking bladed weapons or arrows?

How about blunt force

Was it worth wearing into battle without chain mail with it?

I know there were lots of whites that hated it, but I was wondering if there were any black groups or notable people that opposed it too. If so, what was their reasoning?

[deleted]

I've found a good deal of information on what women wore in the high middle ages, but not so much on men. What did they wear, from underclothing to outer garments?

Hi all,

The Wizard is a great archetypal character found in legend and mythology.

The hermit, the sage, keeper of wisdom, the conical hat, the beard, spell caster etc etc

Is there a book on the evolution of the wizard archetype from an anthropological standpoint?

Where does the image of the wizard originate from?

How was this image shaped?

These next to statements are presumption, correct me if I’m wrong. The Franks where, undoubtedly, Germanic. The Frankish language was, undoubtedly, a Germanic language. How did this Germanic language morph into the French we know today? What re-latinized France after the carolingians and Franks (germans) faded away? Is there any major and or noticeable effect that Frankish has had on French that differentiates it from other Romance languages?

A more general question would be, how did the Franks (A Germanic tribe and later empire) morph into the French?

I'll start with a standard disclaimer. I do not mean to suggest in any way that the interment camps were good, useful, lawful, or ethical. I also do not think that any answer, even if a thousand spies were discovered, would justify what was done. I am just curious whether, after all the trouble of capturing and detaining citizens in the camps and interrogated people, was there anything at all gained from the effort? I haven't looked into it but I recall a teacher once saying that not a single spy was discovered. I'm curious if that is the case. A brief google search seems to suggest that is true, but that perhaps some individuals were convicted of some crimes other than espionage. I'm not sure what the crimes were though. Thank you.

The US was clearly seeing private companies superior to socialized government solutions. The Soviet way was bad. The US way was good. But as Soviet were far ahead of the US in the space race, the US decided to put a lot of tax money into beating the Soviets by going to the moon. But how was this idea presented? A large government institution costing billions of tax dollars, wasn’t that very close to “communism”? How did the US “package” that idea to appeal to the public who hated socialism?

Did countries like France and later Germany view it as another European power? How much did they care that they were Muslims and not Christians? Did they view it as an equal or were religious and cultural differences too much?

Edit: specifically from 1800 onward

I’ve seen a lot of comments suggesting that casting a black actor to play what is effectively a senior French police officer at the start of the 1800s is patently ridiculous. However, I vaguely know that French revolutionary politics had been quite progressive, and that at least at some points, France viewed their whole empire as being equally French. Further, Javert is meant to have been born in jail, rising from a low-key station.

So in short my question is: could a black former prisoner have reached Javert’s station, or is the casting effectively ahistorical?

On this day 20 years ago, my favorite digital watch died, a victim of the Y2K bug, I'm pretty sure. But nothing else did.

I know there was a huge effort to reprogram just about everything to avoid the Y2K bug, but I don't know if this was a case of Humanity solving a real problem, or a case of collective psychosis over something that didn't matter. My digital watch suggests the problem was real, but were there no other casualties?