I've recently fallen into the trap of Graham Hancock and others and have been slowly pulling myself out. His books captured my imagination in ways normal historical texts haven't. In my own research I have finally come to the conclusion that this realm of fringe research is fully pseudoarchaeology and it's making me think I have wasted a few years of my life.

I think it has been a waste because I find myself in a very non-critical mindset which I have to now correct. Sure, I know a lot more interesting tidbits, but the avenue I took was one of extreme speculation and leaps of logic. I feel trapped now and I think there are a lot of people like me out there whom have fallen down this rabbit hole and can't find anywhere to go. I think the way this interesting material has been presented has made me dumber by virtue of polluting my critical thinking, even though it came with cool and interesting true facts.

This said, what do you all recommend I read to help debunk the works of writers like Hancock? And how can I get back to a critical perspective on history?

Particularly around the mediterranean / Asia minor. It would definitely fit into ancient "flood" myths if there are a bunch of cities buried in the shallow coasts.

I honestly don't know what to add, so I'll just write this.

Hi historians,

Recently watched a debate (sort of) between a conservative Jewish commentator and an atheist, and the crux of one side's argument was that Thou Shalt Not Murder emanated from the old testament. The majority of the argument seemed very western-centric, and neither brought up ant points other than Buddhism.

My immediate thought was: well, if you can date parallel thoughts of murder being wrong from the same time period to other parts of the world, you kind of sink that theory.

So, my question is: do we have evidence of pre-CE writings, or laws, about murder and other ethical/moral dilemnas in non Judeo-Christian societies? That are specifically around the time exodus was likely being compiled? Any books you can point me to on the subject?

Thank you!

When I think of that period, I think of the bold propaganda posters warning citizens about the Commie menace, urging them to be on the lookout, plus movies like I Married a Communist.

But was it really a frequent concern? Were Americans worried that their friends at the neighborhood bbq were Communists?

Clarification: I’m not asking whether or not Communism really was a pervasive threat; rather, whether or not is was perceived as a pervasive threat.

I had always thought they were vastly outgunned and made a difficult call in the face of adversity. Why lose a ton of lives and history when the odds of defeat were guaranteed?

Am I missing something?

Are there any early accounts of settlers, pioneers, or native americans experiencing these fires and was it known as something to expect every summer?

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I'm not sure if this belongs here, but I'm working on research for something I hope to turn into a book at some point. I think I've uncovered an interesting angle to an urban legend with roots in WWII - as best I can tell no one has put together what I think I've figured out. (Sorry for being vague)

The problem is I'm trying to track dozens of people who wanted to keep their relationships to each other private. Early on in my research I learned not to ignore any names that popped up just because I didn't recognize them. Every once in a while the name pops up again and it leads to a connection I didn't see before. But now my time line is getting unwieldy.

Is there any kind of timeline/mapping software out there that I might use to show, for example, that "Person A was at this address on this date and Person B was also in town at the same time"? Ideally, I'd sort the info in a spreadsheet - NAME, DATE, LOCATION, NOTES, LINKS - and then people's timelines would form in layers on a map.

Does anything like this exist? If not, I'm open to any suggestions you might have for record keeping, organization, and note taking.

Thanks in advance for your time.

What percentage of allied ships were in the Pacific compared to the Atlantic Also, why would the Japanese fight a battle like Leyte Gulf? Literally the odds were so stacked it's not even worth fighting.

By "historical" I meant to refer to RECENT 20th-21st century history. Sorry if that wasn't clear from the question. Can't edit titles.

Anyways, you'd think Spain would be a bigger player given it's history as a major colonial power and size/population.

Are there any good, authoritative books on the history of capitalism and how it developed? I've developed an interest in economic history as of late and I'm looking for titles worthy of perusing.

From previous posts in this sub I gathered that (contrary to what I thought) cats were in fact not worshiped, but that they held a special place in society nonetheless. I was wondering how this was viewed by other Mediterranean cultures. Was this something that was mocked?

After reading that Mosul had been cleared after 9 months of fighting, with much of the city leveled in the process, I wondered how a similar city would have been cleared during WW2? In an era where you couldn't just call in precision bombing of every hold out, what sort of tactics were used? What sort of casualties were expected for a given number of die-hard holdouts?

Why did British General Percival surrender to a Japanese forces in Malaya despite the fact that the allies had a significant numerical advantage? Are the majority of military historians critical of his decision?

I remember seeing a reference to veiled Grecoroman clothing somewhere and a friend told me that it was a thing in Greece and Rome but I have not heard much about women's fashion in Greece/Rome. Was this a thing?