Why was the Alexandrian library burned down? How much effort did it take, as I heard it was fire-prove?

[deleted]

[deleted]

When I was in high school a lot of what I learned about was fur trading and migratory patterns, but most history I was taught was post-industrial Canadian history. However, most of what I'm hearing from academics at the moment is that the 500+ years post-contact was non-stop genocide that persists to this day.

I'm finding it difficult to find sources that aren't biased in either direction. It's either nothing but roses or nothing but brutality, and my intuition is telling me not to buy into either narrative and just do the reading myself. So, all I really want is the best source for the best recounting of events. Does such a thing exist?

I just finished watching Wonder Woman, and although I loved the movie, I did not like seeing like the 20th movie that portrayed all Germans as the absolute evil of the world. Of course there were terrible people that led or fought for the Axis and Nazi armies, but I would love to see the perspective of German soldiers and how their complex experience was. I'm sure they had quite a bit of patriotism, but I imagine quite a few had doubts, or even thought they were fighting on the wrong side or that it was wrong to fight at all.

Thank you in advance for any responses :)

Additional question, was there ever an author in Shakespearean times (or earlier) that wrote about what life might be like in the future? If so what kind of world did they envision?

Thank you for any answers that are given

In the wake of the Fourth of July weekend, I watched parts of the movie, Gettysburg, and re-read some of Shelby Foote. The North had plenty of manufacturing capacity. Putting firepower in the hands of the soldiers repeatedly proved to be very effective. For example, Northern cavalry armed with Spencer repeating rifles out-gunned Southern cavalry. It would seem that Federal soldiers, if armed with a Colt Army Model 1860 (.44 caliber, 900 fps) would have been very effective at 50 yards.

The Springfield rifled musket was $20 a copy and Colt originally sold the revolver for $20 also, although the cost was later dropped to $14.75. The Remington 1858 was in the same price range.

Was it only cost that precluded arming all soldiers with a revolver?

Was a class thing, that only certain ranks and troops could have a revolver?

Was a logistics issue, providing ammo for two weapons instead of one?

Was there ever a move look at the balance of a soldier's lethality and survivability?

In 'Meditations', the private journal of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, he writes.

"People ask, have you ever seen the gods you worship? How can you be sure they exist?"

Judging by 'Meditations', Romans seemed open enough to doubt the existence of gods to their Emperor. Now I'm curious to what extent.

So, what role did Atheism serve in Ancient Rome?

Can we piece together something as robust a political philosophy one would find in reading, say, Plato?

More or less, I find ancient Egypt fascinating. But I don't know of any specific texts that would be focussed on a political philosophy from Egyptian writers. Anyone have any insight?

there are a lot of similarities between roman and greek religion, sometimes it looks like the romans just changed the names and made nothing themselves, i would be very interested to hear where they differed.

How much control do merchant guilds have control over the economy during the medieval and renaissance?

Were merchants coerced into participating in the guild?

Did the guilds engage in price fixing and other non-competitive behaviors?

What are some notable examples of merchant guilds based on success and size?

What were the primary benefits and costs of joining a guild?

(My goal in asking the questions is to try to make an as-realistic-as-possible guild system in a novel I am working on)

In reference to the famous propaganda, "Loose lips sink ships". Was that just a catchy saying or was it based in fact?

Potential Spoilers below:

Wonder Woman: featured a Native American "Chief Napi" who's able to navigate through No Man's Land and trade goods with both sides of the war (such as German beer for the British and British tea for the Germans).

The Lost City of Z: featured an elderly Russian female psychic who was smuggled into an English trench to give palm readings to soldiers.

For Wonder Woman, the Chief was warmly welcomed by the Allied troops who see him, seemingly like a regular visitor. Were civilians (and otherwise non-authorized people) able to freely visit soldiers in the trenches like this, whether or not they provided goods and services?

From what I understand, the Roma had been given special privileges in the Kingdom of Bohemia around the 15-16th century, but it wasn't until the 19th century that the French popularized the term to refer to those living an artistic/unconventional lifestyle. Was there just a general ignorance in Western countries regarding the Bohemian people, that they would believe that everyone from Bohemia were Romani? There is still prevalent misappropriation of the word, at least in the Midwest United States., so I was just curious why this connotation has so strongly stuck.

Really, any information or resources on the conjoined histories of the Roma and Bohemia, or how they were perceived by the greater West would be nice to know about.

These days we have the knowledge and technology for us to achieve great physical feats, my question is what sort of things, if any, did the Knight do to train his body into combat readiness.

Did they have a special workout routine that they would stick to, or merely practise with their weapon of choice for hours on end?

I was lucky enough to see an early screening of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and one of the movie's best jokes involves a character remarking that the Washington Monument was built by slaves. I wasn't sure if this was true or not, so I turned to Google, but wasn't able to find a clear answer. So: was the Washington Monument built, at least partially, by slaves?