I'm currently reading War and Peace (currently on the third part of the first volume), and was looking to use the opportunity to get to know better the most important historical events that are background for the book (most of all the Napoleonic Wars).
I don't have time to do a truly profound research on the topic, but I also detest the shallow narrative that some high school textbooks and pop books have. I was looking for a book that would guide me through the events, sometimes quoting records and source material, and that could give me ample opportunities to reflect. Do you guys know a book similar to that? In absence of such material, other suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

During my history studies I have come across multiple mentions of "Penal battalions" being used throughout history. Since the Romans during the second Punic war to the most known cases on the eastern front during WW2. The thing I have never manage to understand is: how does an army make sure that a penal battalion will fight for them instead of turning its weapons against their officers and run away? From what I managed to understand, generally speaking, trusted officers and NCOs were put in the battalion to "convince" the criminals to behave properly. But to me having just some lightly armed officer who has to control a whole unit of heavily armed infantry man does not sound right. There is litteraly nothing preventing these guys to just shoot the officers and run away. I would like to know more about this topic, in particular during WW2 time period, thanks guys.

I asked this question six months ago and got no responses, so I'm asking again because I'm very interested in knowing if such stories are biased hyperbole or a legitimate description of the scale of destruction that occurred during those conquests.

I don't have the book with me so I cannot give an exact reference for where I've heard of these pyramids of skulls, but I believe I read it in Rene Grousset's Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, published in 1970, ISBN: 978-0813513041.

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The text is from the Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam written by Hồ Chí Minh in September 1945. Did Ho believe that America would aid Vietnam? If so, when would it become clear that America would be fighting a Cold War against communism?

Couldn't find any through the search bar, neither in the wiki.

Keep in mind it's an amateur (me) audience

Children can't write, they don't take up much space or resources, and they are often barely even "actors:" their actions can be more indicative of adult behavior than their own. How can historians go about a "history of children?" Does a history of children field even exist, in the same sense that "history of technology" or "women's history" does? What theoretical concerns must be kept in mind? Are there any particular methodologies that have been laid out?

Alaska is very close to Russia. Did the USA protect the borders of Alaska better, then for instance the border with Canada, because it is so close to Russia (Soviet union)?

Outlined in the Treaty of Versailles were some requirements that Germany disarm, refrain from having a standing army, and so on. Who’s job would it have been to enforce those restrictions? Were the allies just hoping that the Germans would adhere to the treaty, and so didn’t plan for such a situation?

It seems to me that this would be similar to a judge sentencing a murderer to prison, but then the murderer just says “no” and the police and courts are just cool with it.

I think you can read the title. Please answer my question. I need to know how much power the Yakuza could accrue post-World War II. Maybe even during it. Why did they become so powerful? What could they buy? I have read and seen that their supposed golden age was after World War II. How many of them were soldiers? Seeing as the Japanese Imperial army was kind of disbanded after the war. Seeing the aftermath of America dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I can see, mostly, how they got powerful.

More time elapsing for any given response/follow-up/appreciation comment to appear seems like it would be preferable to bad responses lingering. Browsing Ceddit you can see moderators remove the junk very quickly most often, but they can't always be everywhere instantly at once and sometimes bad stuff sticks around because its not immediately clear if its a good response or not. OP posting "Thanks for the great answer!" beneath a removed comment is pretty common I've noticed...the much later good answer going maybe unnoticed as the question had already been "answered".

If it would make life easier for the moderators, it might be worth the time-delay for commenters.

Or put differently, what use did scholars have of music?

I don't know if this is the right place to ask but lately I've been greatly intrigued by the histories of Greece and Rome, my question being to really understand how or why things happened as they did in history should you start with texts about the events and then culture? Or start with culture and then read about the general history?

Which of the two actually and what was his motivation? Was he driven by compassion for animals or..?