Dont mean a specfic place but just how the books that explain in a rich detail exactly how it was living back then, feels like they lie a bit..

I've heard that, statistically speaking, the highest casualty rate of any modern war the US has been in (civil war), was 1/15. It makes sense then to say your chances of actually killing someone are about the same.

However I was curious if this would hold true to a medieval soldier, someone on the front lines. For simplicities sake, in one battle, what would your chances be of actually killing an enemy soldier?

I think I remember reading a brief mention, many years ago, of NVA soldiers burying themselves a few inches below the ground, and breathing through straws, to wait for American patrols to pass right over them, at which point they'd surface and attack from behind. Is there any truth to this? How did it work?

This statement is repeated a few times by the narrator to enforce the idea China was attacked with no provocation by the Empire of Japan. To what extent is this statement true?

Edit: for more specificity, say in the period from 1600-1800, before any electrical communication but as technology and society were rapidly changing.

I suppose I'm asking this specifically with regard to people in committed, monogamous relationships (as is the norm in western society), but I guess it could really be about anyone. There have always been people who were explorers or had to be away from their families/lovers for sometimes years at a stretch for whatever reason, and being able to communicate in a short period of time--not even instantly--with someone in a different part of your own country, much less part of the world, is relatively new in human history. How did they manage it? How did the loved ones manage it? Was infidelity just rampant for both parties? Or did most people just suffer through it to maintain the societal expectation of fidelity? Did people just abandon relationships for new ones (old-time ghosting)?

Since homosexuality and 'buggery' laws existed, it presumably wasn't safe to go around asking the cute same-sex individual on a date or to hook up if you didn't already know where to find the community. I know there were gay clubs and the like, but how did one find out where to go, safely, without every gay club getting busted in short order?

WW2 rations in the UK comprised about 3,000 calories a day. Why is it higher than the modern recommended calorie intake?

Where can I read more about this time? What do we call this period of history? Who were the major political/ military players of this time?

In Islam, there are a bunch of rules about putting your right foot forward first, with the exception of bathrooms where you should step in with your left foot. But I know this idea didn't start there.

The Romans referred to the left as "sin" like "sinister" (at least for marching orders), but they're not the oldest either. As far as I can tell, they got that idea from the Greeks who would start their battles by stepping with their right foot first for good luck. I know the Greeks practiced this as far back as the reign of Philip II of Macedon. That brings me to my question.

Where did the Greeks get this practice from, assuming they didn't start it? Where is the origin? Thanks!

It just seems like after the Battle of Cannae when the Romans still refused to sue for peace, Hannibal was in a "now what?" mode and was basically reactive to Roman actions. How did he plan to win the war in the subsequent years in Italy?

When Harold Godwinson was said to have sworn loyalty to William the Conqueror over relics, what would these relics been?

This never made sense to me.

According to a story widely believed in Hungary, Friar Julian has travelled from Hungary to Bashkortostan / Bashkiria in 1235 and found Hungarians there. Also, their language remained mutually intelligible, and they were able to communicate. What authentic sources do we have about all this?

I've recently been reading a lot of about separatism movements in places like Catalonia, Kurdistan, Chechnia, Tibet, Xinjiang, etc. and I've been wondering, how did the U.S. prevent independence movements? With the notable exception of the American Civil War, the U.S. doesn't seem to have a history of independence movements along ethnic, religious, cultural, or racial lines.