US Sec of State

It's fascinating how life in the "wild west" of America became a separate genre in cinematography. They have their own charm that is very distinct of any other adventure movie. But how realistically do films and video-games such as "Red dead redemption" portray that life? We see little towns in the middle of nowhere with a saloon/hotel, barbershop, jail and several other establishments. Why did people "create" such little town? To settle in? Or were they purely a place to stay in for a night when you travel a vast emptiness of the country? Most of the time on films it seems like a place not suitable for agriculture or cattle breeding. So why did people willingly move in to such unfriendly places?

And i'm mostly interested in knowing of a criminal element of such towns. Was it really such a common thing for bandits to travel from town to town and be so liberal with shooting their guns? Were there real duels with the clock above two people? :) How did native Indians react to such places?

Oh, and one more thing. Did saloons really have such doors? And why?!! :)

We've all seen movie scenes where "the King" or whoever leads his army into battle. Now obviously that's a fictional portrayal, but I've read credible sources that say that on occasion famous rulers/generals did, in fact, lead their troops into battle; for instance, Julius Caesar, Napolean, and Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Here's what I don't understand. Surviving the front lines, especially in old hand-to-hand combat must have been a feat in and of itself, what with arrows flying directly at your face, spears, etc.

As a regular soldier, you might get lucky, but the thing is if you were the General, all the enemy soldiers would be aiming at you with ranged weapons. I find it impossible to believe someone could survive a hailstorm of arrows like that, especially on multiple occasions.

Thanks.

That is, is there a perspective from which purging a large part of the Officer corps could be better understood, without appealing to delusions? Had similar purges been conducted in Imperial Russia? Are there any potential military organizational reasons for them? Were there structural factors outside Stalin's immediate control that played a role?

I've read a half-dozen or so books on Stalinism in general, the show trials, the purges, etc, but much of it is by and in the vein of Robert Conquest, who all too frequently leaps to some variant of the convenient explanation that Stalin was evil/paranoid/intellectually poisoned by Marxist-Leninist ideology. (Actually, I think Conquest was a bit more nuanced way back in The Great Terror than he sometimes gets credit for - in my experience those who enthusiastically quote him as "the one who got it all right from the start" tend to be worse).

Was there any precedent, tradition or law that dictated how they would be treated, titles they would receive etc?

In reference to ancient and medieval battles.

So when you have your unit, did the people slip down between the isles somehow when they were injured or tired? Realistically I'd imagine there'd have to be some sort of a system or the front people would face certain death and flee. I makes sense to me that if they got a moment they could rotate to the back of their line, get some water catch their breath as they line up and move forward again. Please tell me if I'm not explaining myself properly. I'm not talking about the unit of 100 men being in front but the men within that unit 1 man deep.

Obviously sometimes they couldn't, such as if a roman unit was in tetsudo formation.

Winter in some places like Scandinavia can reach temperatures as low as -30°C or even colder. It is not a trivial climate to live in, even with modern technology. How did those peoples managed to survive?

I'm not sure if these numbers just don't exist or what, but I can't seem to find them. For the Vietnam War (correct me if I'm wrong), I've found that about 4,000 US dogs were sent to war and 200 managed to come back.

For WWII, I've found nothing. I'd like to think the volunteer program that allowed people to 'donate' their dogs to the war effort had some effect on the numbers in WWII, but I really can't find anything.

Does anybody have a good number on the number of American dogs that served in WWII and how many made it back home?

I'm trying to learn more about the Merovingians and this particular event caught my interest, but everything I'm finding on it is vague.

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I remember learning about eastern civilizations in school, and one particular leader always stuck out to me, but I cannot remember his name.

He was known for embracing other cultures, and even offering freedom to the prisoners of war, as long as they promised to join his nation and remain loyal to him. He always seemed so cool to me, and I want to learn more but don't know where to look for more info!

Associated question: If the evacuation attempt failed at the outset and the Germans captured or killed the entire group of 338,000 soldiers, would, as some have suggested, Britain have sued for peace?

Also, how long would Germans have likely strafed and bombed the beaches before allowing surrender discussions?

If I am not wrong, In most of the medieval times Farming was done in the open field system. A part was the Lord's land, Another the serfs, freeman's and villains. But how was land subdivided? There are many examples of Richer serfs who had more land, if so how in an open field system where there are no fences did they know whose land belong to whom? and how was after harvest people given their shares? This being if it was communal farming. It would be greatly appreciated if details could be given on how to and so on, especially on the Late Middle ages 1300-1500, England, Burgandy and France.

I read they were trying to hide what they were doing, but was it really a secret?