I'm doing an A-level historical investigation in to the impact Ivan had on Russia, but I can't find a comprehensive list of Ivan's reforms anywhere...

Pre-colonial Africa consisted of states and empires that had extensive intra-continential engagement as well as interaction with other continents, including warefare and expansions of empires. Yet colonization is painted out as something abruptly different and new in history.

For example, Omani control of east African coast (swahili), Ethiopian annexation of Ogaden in the 19th century; or take the Nguni invasion into southern Mozambique in the early 19th century as an example; emperor Gungunyana is now the depicted as the last resistor to Portuguese colonization of Mozambique, but the Nguni themselves had invaded southern Mozambique. These are not labeled colonial, yet the Portuguese who had been in Africa for centuries are thought of as colonial. So why was the Portuguese takeover of the Nguni considered colonization, but the Nguni extending their empire into Mozambique 70 years earlier was not?

Was there something actually fundamentally different with the colonial occupations than the previous historical invasions and occupations? Or was it the emergence of the concept of nation states that created the concept of colonialism (the way we view invasions and occupations changed rather than the acts themselves changing)?

Amateur historian here so Im very interested to hear your answers :)

What was the Soviet 1939 physical output (GDP) valued directly in US 1939 dollars as a precent of US GDP per capita. The same for Soviet industrial output.

Hi,

I realise this is early, but I wanted to start plotting it out early so I can get my research/reading/writing/drawing etc etc all done before the deadline is anywhere near me.

What I would like to do is plan out a one shot D&D quest that is based on the original pagan festival of Easter. What I need to do is read a bunch of books that would tell me more about what the pagans used to do/what they believed.

I have the idea of viscious were bunnies (think Monty Python and the Holy Grail) hatching from Easter eggs to kill in the name of some primordial deity.

Just need a few books/places to start reading to get me started.

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas to all.

Ancient Greece has a reputation for its homosexual behaviour amongst men. Was it de rigueur? Did it still see marriage as between a man and a woman, and how did hetaerae fit into the picture? Essentially, how was sexuality perceived in Ancient Greece?

Hello, what did people usually carry in their belt pouches during the viking or earlier and medieval times?

Hi! To expand on the title, I'm a voracious reader, but mainly in fiction. I really want to expand my knowledge of (preferably non-American) history, but I'm having a hard time finding titles or authors that are intellectually serious. For example, I recently tried to read an 800+ page history of the Romanovs, but the author apparently had no interest in talking about anything besides the sex lives of the Tsars. This is what I'm trying to avoid. I've been looking at a lot of "Best of" lists and rankings, but they're all popular history a la Laura Hillenbrand.

I've recently enjoyed reading history books by Mary Beard, Barbara Tuchman, and Kenneth O. Morgan, and I find those authors to be a good compromise between fatuous popular history and dry academic tome. Can anyone pass on any recommendations for books or authors I should check out? Like I said, I'm trying to look beyond American history, and I'm also not as interested in topics like WW2 or Tudor England that have been written about or adapted on screen a thousand times. Other than that, I'm open to pretty much anything in terms of time period or geographic area.

Thanks in advance!

I studied history for high school and took a bunch of university papers but as part of a different degree. I'm looking to learn about the Korean War as it was never covered in any of those.

What books would you guys recommend?

Thanks in advance!

I read about Henry VIII's leg ulcer and I don't understand why it was never able to heal. Wouldn't it heal on its own if the King stayed off his bad leg for a few weeks? Why did it never heal properly?

Did we just mush up steak?

Did we feed babies soup?

I need help.

Watching a documentary about the airborne invasion of Normandy, I see them touting the ability of the squadrons to recover gliders via what I assume is called a skyhook. If that's not what it's called then it should be.

Anyhow, did these ever actually get used? Do we have any idea how often? Was the glider piloted on the return trip?

Thanks!

I know it was difficult to field large armies in the past partially because there just weren't that many people around and partially because of how inefficient they were at producing resources.

But when ancient sources quote ridiculous numbers for their army sizes, e.g. Herodotus claiming Xerxes had 2 million soldiers assembled at Thermopylae, did Herodotus know he was asspulling these numbers? Did ancient generals do headcounts? Did they even really need to know how many men they had? Were they just not good at estimating numbers of men by eyeballing it?

Can you recommend some books that discuss how ordinary people in history lived their day to day lives?

A quick internet search showed me that there is no concrete evidence on her actual skin color. What do you think, was she pale because of macedonian ancestors or not?

While getting my BA in anthropology I remember learned Culture was once seen as something elite and a self-conscious product of the arts and the like, but with anthropology through the 1800s or so the idea that all people had a culture of sorts, expanding the meaning of the word to what it is now

But I don't remember exactly where or with whom the idea started. Does anyone know? Thanks