Or were they? What little I know is that most went on to live profitable happy lives. To some extent, that the commanders and politicians were not brought before the Supreme Court for war crimes, traitorism, etc contributes to their heroic mythos in the south to this day, doesn't it? I mean, openly rebelling and waging war against the federal government could be seen as a war crime right?

At Nuremberg the opinion was that it certainly was(granted the Nazi party lied, murdered, and coerced it's way into power)..

Anyway, it just crossed my mind. Thanks!

Polygenism is the theory that human races have different origins. It was somewhat popular before theory of evolution took hold.

When I first came across this idea, my modern sensibilities made me think that this might be racism. That in turn made me curious if the principles of polygenism played a role in the evolution of scientific racism.

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When did people start writing or telling stories strictly as fiction, that was not intended to be believed by the audience? What was the earliest written/published work of fiction? And were mythologies like the Odyssey actually believed by their audience at the time or were they more for entertainment?

I apologize if this type of question isn't allowed. To make this question a bit less general, I'm especially interested in the world itself - for example, how accurate are the clothes that people wear or their day-to-day lives? What about architecture and agriculture? In sum, would someone from Ptolemy XIII's Egypt recognize the world as Egypt at that particular time?

We're singing "Sherburne" in my chorus for our upcoming fall concert, and it's very different from other 18th century music we've sung! (E.g. Mozart.) According to the Wiki page for Daniel Read,

While the classical music era was in its heyday in Europe, American composers of "serious" music were setting hymn tunes in three- and four-part a cappella style, with simple folklike melodies and little regard for functional harmony.

Why were the American composers writing music like this? Is this how earlier 18th and maybe even 17th century folk/popular music in Britain sounded?

Was 'dark' referring to the person's appearance or ethnicity? If not, did it have to do with the person's aesthetics in any way?

Khwarezmid Empire executed a convoy of Mongol merchants, and later envoys largely unprovoked. Mstlslav of Kiev executed Mongol envoys, even though all the envoys wanted to say is that the target was the Cumans and not Kiev. The Japanese eventually executed Mongol envoys as well. Currently listening to a history of the Mongols, and provoking the Mongols seems like a spectacularly stupid action, but opposing nations kept executing Mongol envoys. Why?

I don't study history but while learning about WWI and the collapse of imperial Russia the Fisher Thesis came up. I didn't think much about it (the premise being that Imperial Germany was ultimately responsible for WWI) until I just recently came across an address by John CG Rohls (he gave it on November 6th, 2014).

I have always assumed, and been taught, WWI was sort of inevitable, and the result of short-sightedness on the party of ALL parties involved. But Rohl's address argued pretty strongly against this and said the Fisher Thesis was the best explanation, and the way he talked about it made it seem like it was the orthodox position to take. Is there a consensus among historians about what caused World War One? Or is this really not considered too important to debate about, and a lot of interpretations are viable.

I realize that Sophia was part of the Ottoman Empire at this time, so they might have just worn what Ottomans wore, but if they did, I only have a vague understanding of what that looked like anyway, so, I need some help on this either way. It's been unreasonably difficult to find answers on Google for this.

I'm also looking more specifically for what Sephardic Jewish people in that time and place would have worn, really, but I know that it's possible, even probable, that they mostly wore the same things as their Muslim neighbors. Still, if there was anything about the way they dressed that was different, I'd like to know that, too.

All that said, if you have other knowledge about 1600s Sophia, especially that would apply to the Jewish population there, besides clothing, that, too, would be very welcome. I'm trying to write a story, so, I want to get a decent understanding of the setting.

Thanks in advance!

To me, if I look at it, vikings were in a disadvantage: they were outnumbered, their supply lines were long (and could not get new men during winter), had no true allies to speak of, land was unfamiliar and local populace probably hostile. Yet they conquered much of current England and held it for a long time. How?

A while back I was looking at some of the oldest pictures ever taken. Most of these are cityscapes, and I found it fascinating the types and wording of the signs put on all the buildings. After all, aside from newspapers, if you wanted to address people, you made a big sign. Stuck on your house or establishment.

Are there any good or popular books about the history of signage? It was a such common form of public communication in times past, but I can't recall ever seeing anything about it.

I mean, "cheese" is a rather broad category. Do we have an idea of what variety of cheeses Romans had, and what their closest equivalents are now? Are there any contemporary Italian cheeses that closely resemble the ones eaten by ancient Romans?

I'm asking because I am writing a novel where the moment before dropping is important to the story.

So to clarify, what was it like? Were there air raid sirens going on, what was the weather like, and so on. I can't seem to find anything about this, apart from the date and the exact time of the detonation...

Additional question: Were stores open that morning? I know the US were conducting air raids and conventional bombings on Japan at the same time as the atomic bomb dropping, so would let's say a bookstore be able to be open in Hiroshima at that time?