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This is one of the historical questions which fascinates me. Unfortunately, the actual event happened when I was mostly interested in playing in the sandbox with my monster trucks, so I have no first-hand knowledge of the events and the lead-up to them. I asked some people in Russia about it, and most of them tell me they don't understand why or how it collapsed. I get the feeling that its collapse was a largely unexpected and shocking turn of events.

In spite of the gravity and drama of this event, I have been unable to find any well-informed, reliable, and at least not blatantly politically and ideologically motivated book or literature on the topic. Is there any book or source that provides a balance of theories, explanations, and points of view as to how and why the Soviet Union collapsed? I'm not a historian, so I have a hard time evaluating if a book is something that historians would take seriously, but that's what I want.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise in advance!

The Romans, including Caesar, utilized genocidal tactics (most famously in the third punic war), but are often idolized. Genghis Khan also committed genocide against his enemies, completely destroying cities and their populations. In more recent times, dictators such as Stalin committed genocide as part of solidifying their rule. Why is it that, in the public consciousness, we idolize some historical conquerors who committed mass murder and genocide, but readily recognize how bad the Nazis were?

Is it because of the industrial nature of the holocaust? It's more direct impact on the lives of people in modern western countries (many people know/knew people who either fought against the Nazis or became victims of the holocaust)? It just seems weird to me that we seem to look up to conquerors who caused enormous destruction or even genocide (Caesar, Alexander the great, Genghis Khan, Chin, etc), glossing over the destruction they caused, yet we don't do the same for the Nazis.

Edit: Just to be clear, this isn't diminishing the horrific crimes of the Nazis, but rather asking why we diminish the crimes of others that are of a similar nature.

From what I can see Martin Van Buren was the oldest living US President at the time of the Civil war, do we have any records on his thoughts on the time given he was born During the Revolutionary war and to die during the Civil war.

My understanding of the history of Asian immigrants to the US is that they faced discrimination similar to other ethnic groups. Yet it seems that they have somehow overcome some of the challenges faced by other minority groups, such as barriers to entry in higher education and the job market.

Were they less subject to these challenges or were the other mechanisms in play?

Do forgive me if this question doesn't fit the rules of the subreddit!

Was it really about the public maintaining the ability to overthrow the government by force?

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My understanding is that the US moved away from the Articles of Confederacy because they were unable to address the problems of a weak central government. Did the Confederate government of the civil war have any more success in those areas?

Does the palm tree have some significance in Roman imperialistic culture? Why is this an artistic trope and does it feature in any Roman literature?

Was it even a real thing considering the few female warriors in history. Are the cups really necessary or just a visual stimulus for men in movies?

Just wondering why it started!

Couldn't the term "Dark Ages" better describe the late bronze age collapse than the period immediately after the fall of Rome? After all, the late bronze age collapse had things such as writing, art, and society as a whole disappear for hundreds of years. While some may argue this also goes for the period after Rome, it was of much less effect. For example, the Kingdom of the Franks rose soon after the fall compared to it taking hundreds of years for any non-nomad society to rebuild or rise again.

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did the marines on tarawa use Springfield 1903's or M1 garands, did they use M1928 thompsons or M1 thompsons? did they use the m1917 or the m1919 LMG? did they have any m50/m55 reisings?

Just read Baptist, "The Half Has Never been told". One secondary argument he presents is the misinformation campaign regarding southern secession and the causes of the civil war. He calls the states rights argument too "abstract" and cites the numerous instances slavery was mentioned as a point of contention during the crisis. Also, the fact that slavery itself was the "states rights" issue being fought over. I just don't see how you can argue that it was a "states rights" issue and not a "slavery" issue besides Baptist's claim that it's a whitewash attempt to minimize the impact of slavery on the American economy, industrial revolution, American way of life, and Civil War.

How did people handle crushing sunlight? Did they just shade their eyes with a hat?

I know glasses existed, but was it effective to tint them, or is this a recent combination of ideas?

I have a coworker who is an old English-speaking Montrealer, who insists that Montreal used to be the centre of Canadian finance and business prior to the 1995 referendum, when English Canadians, fearing the results of such a close call, moved en masse to Toronto.

However I can't find any information on this anywhere. Sounds fishy, to say the least.

Specifically, how did they make the leap from underwear to logo'd advertisements and billboards for a persons political viewpoints, etc?

Interested in reading the sagas but I need help locating them. There's...what? About 40 of them right? Any collections you guys know of that has all of them in one or two volumes? The best I've been able to find is a collection of about twenty.