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What I found ironic that both people in the Far Right and Far Left (especially the ones espousing pro-Russian / Novorossiya rhetoric) uses the fact that there were many instances where the Wehrmacht was welcomed and supported by the Ukrainians (at the beginning at least) to support their respective arguments which is:

1. "The Nazis was the good guys, look at all those happy Ukrainians!"
2. "Ukrainians are born Nazis, they welcomed the Germans in 1941!"

But from what I've read so far seems to suggest that such enthusiasm were only found in Western Ukraine. Some of the most prominent collaborationist units were based in the West (e.g SS Division "Galizien"). Is this true? If so, why such discrepancies compared to other region of Ukraine?

Shakespeare is known for his mastery of the English language. His lines often contain multiple meanings and subtle jokes that even today are easy to miss. You can practically get an entire degree on analyzing his works. So how likely was it for the common crowds of the time to pick up on these turns of phrases? Were the subtleties really meant for the common man, or would higher educated nobles be the only ones who could pick up on it?

I have done alot of studying on the Romans including the eastern empire and one thing stuck out for me like a sore thumb: Why no succession laws? Unless the current living emperor appointed a co emperor it was the wild wild west as to who would succeed them which caused civil wars constantly. Why didnt they solve this by passing clear succession laws? From my point of view the empire was destroyed from the inside by civil wars by disputes who was supposed to be emperor. Alexios IV caused the fall of Constantinople by the crusaders, directly leading from his father deposed by Alexios III. Things seemed to calm down in the last couple hundred years but as you know there were periods where an emperor wouldn't rule for a week before he was deposed.

I firmly believe we would still have them around in some form if there were clear laws saying who had the right to rule instead of a free for all.

I imagine that it must have taken hours, days, weeks or month, to reach any destination. How did people spend their time sitting in the back of a carriage? What did they complain about? Regarding long distance travel, how was it structured?

Rome has a population of ~1 million during the Roman Empire but only 10-20k during the Middle Ages.

Were all the old buildings razed or left abandoned? Are there any 1st hand accounts of living in a depopulated city?

Am watching this Netflix show and the first episode has Caesar personally on the staff of Crassus. Nothing they I have read, including Goldsworthy suggests this so I wanted to double check.

In Asian cultures it tends to be looked down in for having dark skin. Umbrellas, skin lightening creams and being covered up are as prevalent today as they have been for decades and centuries. It seems that staying out of the sun with parasols and gloves was fashionable in western culture right up until the end of the Second World War. Was there ever a time previous to that where having tanned skin was seen as a positive?

Hi,

I have been reading a lot about the Song Dynasty recently, and I still do not understand one fundamental thing:

The Song dynasty was very wealthy, populous, it had an advanced economy, and some sources say that it (during certain periods) had an army of more than 1 million soldiers and around 85% of it's spending was on military.

So how was it possible that the Northern Song was conquered by the Jin Dynasty/the Jurchens?

I realise that Song China had much fewer horses than, say Tang China or the Jurchens, but still, with such a huge army and such financial resources, why couldn't it defend itself?

I also realise that the Song dynasty sought to prevent commanders from having too much power, so as not to go down the same path as the Tang did and that the Song government was bureaucratic and might have been inefficient in dealing with the Jurchens threat.

But still, nothing of this looks like a convincing explanation to me.

To me, it seems as strange as if today the United States would be conquered by Mexico. I can't make sense of how this could happen and none of the books I am reading provides a satisfying answer.

If you have an answer or a book recommendation (English or Chinese, though preferably English), it would be great!

For an ancient example, see the map of Herodotus of the fifth century BC. Why and when did the name of the region (I know it's not exactly the same region but they are adjacent to each other) and the continent effectively switch?

Reading text from the late 19th century onwards, I've noticed that there's always been a fascination with Japanese culture, 60s onwards is more obvious with their technology and pop culture.

I read about how Hitler had an interest in Japanese culture in his youth, Sui Sin Far's fiance told her to pretend to be Japanese (she was Chinese) to save face, Lafcadio Hearn married a Japanese women and got citizenship, John Lennon, etc, of course, you could say these are self-validating observations.

The CIA financed Bin Laden as he led al-Qaeda to fight back against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 80's.

My question is while al-Qaeda has always been radical jihadists, were they technically terrorists if they were fighting against Soviet soldiers rather than targeting civilians. Or did al-Qaeda organize attacks against civilians around this time in addition to fighting Soviet soldiers?

I was wondering if anyone know of any photos or videos of a real banzai charge, and if the Japanese really shouted “Banzai” before charging

Seems inefficient at best

Is there evidence of Jesus's existence and his Resurrection? Is there evidence that he claimed to be God's son? Is there evidence that he even died on the cross and came back to life? What do historians know about Jesus?

Some of my professors don't have any math skills beyond their general ed requirements in undergrad, while others have taken courses like econometrics when they did grad school. From your perspective, how much of the work in history involves maths or stats?