I'm thinking of "Band of Brothers" versus "The Pacific", specifically, but it seems a general trend (can only really think of 'Catch-22' and 'Slaughterhouse-Five' emphasizing the horror of war, whereas between Iwo Jima and Peleliu, it seems like most depictions of the Pacific seem to emphasize the senselessness and horror of war)

Monday Methods will return next week.

Next time: Mapping heaven and earth, in written and oral traditions

This is actually a claim my father had; that the battles fought between North American tribes are no different to the expansion of the 13 colonies into Western America. A sort of, "they did it too, we just did it better" argument. I had my own response but I felt it lacking and was hoping for a more detailed explanation.

Forgive me if this has been asked before. The terms 'Native American' and 'colonization' end up together frequently on this subreddit so I wasn't able to find a related answer.

I know during Soviet times they had less autonomy than the Soviet republics, but what made Kazakhstan, for instance, have more autonomy in the USSR than Tatarstan?

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Hi, I heard about how illiteracy was especially widespread in the medieval era. Did that illiteracy mean that people went through their entire lives without being able to read a single word? Or were they able to read simple words such as signs and announcements?

It's pretty difficult as a first-year wrapping your head around the primary source work (Herotodus, Thucydides etc.), and some people can just drop names and analysis like its nothing. I want to be more comfortable with the sources and have an approximate understanding of their time periods. Any recommendations?

18th and 19th century warfare is often portrayed in media as an almost bureaucratic affair, with orderly lines of infantry slowly advancing towards the enemy to lob volleys at one another, with cannon rounds exploding all around.

My question, as stated in the title, is how on earth these men were able to stay so calm and organized with all this chaos surrounding them, Especially when they are about to be fired apon from a formation at nearly point blank range. Those men in the front rows were quite literally staring death in the face, seemingly indifferent.

I know this may sound more like a question for a psychologist, but i'd like to know if there was any training that these men went through to prepare mentally for this type of combat, or if there was some sort of historical context to predispose people to act as what would seem to be cannon fodder.

Any responses are very much appreciated. Been curious about this for awhile.

Did Robert E. Lee qwn any slaves personally ?

I made a similar post before but as I was directed in how to make my question more focused I decided to re-write it, to be clear, Im trying to steer away from Horn/North/Western Africa, or Medieval Africa, Im asking at a period between (lets say) 1,000B.C. and 2A.D.

Now I have no problem on finding information of Medieval societies such as the Kongo, Zimbabwe, Mali and Ashanti Kingdoms, but if I try to go anywhere near B.C. most information usually ends up with the Egyptians or the Carthaginians, or the Nubians... cultures deeply tied with the Mediterranean world.

I know there have been Bantu groups in Central and South Africa for millenia, did they never develop ancient world civilizations (urban centers, trade, complex administration, writting, specialized divisions of labor) like the Mycenae, Egyptians, Olmecs, Shangs, etc...?

And if so, why? I've read about the tzetze fly as a major reason, as this pest would interrupt the development of large population centers and cattle production, but, this has never made sense to me, the Olmecs didnt had cattle either and didnt really stopped them from creating a civilization, and its not like any civilization is a stranger to disease, Central/South Africa is also bursting with mineral resources and arable land, so it makes little sense to me that I havent heard of many Ancient World Central/South African Civilizations.