In America we have what is called a "common law" system, where we value the rulings of previous judges even more highly than more modern judges. Aside from the question as to whether or not that's even practical or moral, I have to wonder, how long it took after the American revolution (an illegal usurpation of anything resembling precedent, ostensibly to champion the causes of liberty and a more moral legal system) before our legal system started to esteem its own history so highly as to make future changes so difficult?

I have read somewhere that due to the fertile pasture that ancient Macedonia and Thessaly share that allow for more breeding of horses, yet considering their conflicts with the Greek city-state which favour hoplite why did Macedonia or Thessaly feel the need to field such expensive and time-consuming calvary who were formed by their aristocrat and ruling elite no less?

To my rudimentary understanding of ancient warfare, calvary relied on breaking formation of their foes and run them down, yet the hoplite offers precisely the opposite. Masses of spearmen tightly pack together to form a wall of spear essentially, is this not a perfect counter to all calvary?

The various texts I have studied made it clear that Chinese dynasties like the Song and Han used large numbers of crossbowmen. These crossbowmen used crossbows with composite arms. Given, from what I have studied, it took a year to make a composite bow, how did the Chinese manage to equip so many soldiers?

Hi! I'm writing a very specific paper for a class and having trouble finding primary sources regarding the Nazi's Conservationist ideas or any specific appeals (outside of Mein Kampf) to the pre-Weimar/pre-recession agrarian lifestyle. Essentially I'm analyzing the metaphors used to talk about nature, and/or how land/environment was used as a metaphor for describing other things. I've already read all of Goebbels' speeches (send help, my soul is dead).

Thank you very much!

Wouldn't that have been easier?

I've seen while reading about Italy in Late Antiquity and in the early middle ages that Latin is still used, at least in a formal sense. But for example in the names of the Doges of Venice, they go from being in Latin primarily, to the Venetian dialect of Italian. Also thank you in advance for the people or persons who answer!

Some background

I am currently enrolled in a teacher credentialing program in California. I am training to become a secondary school History teacher and today in one of my classes I heard a claim that intrigued me.

One of the candidates in my program told an anecdote in which they had informed a student they were working with that Columbus had received a map from the Moors via his brother Bartholomew, which showed him how to get to the Americas.

My initial reaction to this claim was extreme skepticism as I have heard a lot of dubious claims about he Moors having discovered the Americas at an early date previously. In the past I have even heard claims that the pre-columbian civilizations such as the Olmecs were in fact founded by settlers from West Africa.

When I see these types of assertions on Youtube or Facebook it is generally a curiosity for me what their origin is or what type of evidence they use to support such a claim.

However, when I researched this anecdote I literally could not find a single reference to any such claim on the internet.

Does anyone know of any conceivable evidence for such a claim? Even if this evidence has been radically misinterpreted or confused? I have heard of Columbus using Moorish maps to calculate the circumference of the globe, could that be what this person is referring to?

As Napoleon rose to power, he seemed to be someone who would fight for personal liberty, but dmthings didn't turn out so great. Was there any indication the people of France could have been aware of that might have made them wary that Napoleon might not be fighting for what he said he was fighting for?

I was listening to a playlist of old sea shanties from the 1600's and it occurred to me that they could not possibly sound like they do in modern reproductions. I can't imagine that ships would be able to keep stringed instruments around without serious damage. Drums wouldn't make much sense, either.

Does anyone know what kind of instruments would have been played as an accompaniment to these old tunes?

I don't think that there were classes for that kind of thing back then. So how did people learn? Their parents? Did they just figure it out?

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(sorry for the double questions)

I’d like to know what the people of Wessex called themselves or each other, this could also include what the Mercian called the people of Wessex or what the Northumbrians called the people of Wessex, same with the vikings or the French. I know that king Alfred called all the Anglo Saxons the ‘anglcyn’.

Tl:dr was there a name for the people of Wessex (preferably at the time of king alfred) like how a British person is callled a ‘Briton’

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Did the US have any plans to enter into WWII before the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Were they planning to just sit the whole thing out or would there have been some line in the sand?

So Athens’s fleet was supposed to secure the city’s supply of grain that was coming from the Black Sea. Exactly where in the Black Sea was this grain coming from? How did Athens pay for it? How did the exporters of the grain produce a large enough surplus to feed a city as large as Athens? What exactly did the enemies of Athens seek to do to cut off that supply?

Hello all,

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I'm not much of a poster on Reddit so bear with if I'm breaking any rules but I need some help. I'm currently studying at university and have been assigned an essay on how active were peasants at the start of the Early Modern period. I was hoping to use Dithmarschen as a bit of a case study as I feel the tiny republic has very little academic papers written on it. The issue is I'm finding it challenging to find much written about it at all, I have managed to find one book "Dithmarschen: A Medieval Peasant Republic" by William L Urban but my student finance isn't going to cover the $500 cost for it. I was hoping the great minds of Ask a Historian would know any good place to find any primary and secondary sources on the place. I've had no luck at the University library (which is rather extensive) and not much luck online either. Thanks!