Or was the news that the US army was capable of such a technological feat completely unexpected

I am looking for a cultural or military history (or both, if applicable), and am most interested in the Heian through Edo periods.

As an example, I greatly enjoyed Robert L. O'Connell's *The Ghosts of Cannae, and would really like to find a book of similar scope and depth. That said, I am definitely open to more general histories of the periods, as opposed to simply a narrow history of a formative event like the Battle of Sekigahara.

Thanks so much!

I read recently that Donald Trump has been the first President since Jefferson to have not held an Iftar dinner. Assuming relations between Christians and Muslims had not been on the best of terms in the days of Jefferson and (more broadly) the original Founding Fathers, what was the reason to hold to any significance such an oft-thought of foreign holiday? Taking into account the Barbery Wars, the assumption that America at the time was deeply Anglo Saxon and Protestant in terms of the civilian population... why honor the holiday? Was there ever any reciprocation in the Islamic world to this, such as an Emir or Sultan celebrating Christmas dinner on an official level?

I was listening to a book, and the 'empire' in it changes the record of years to something based off the age of the empire. I have seen this in many stories, and it makes sense that kingdoms would alter their record of year off of things like the age of their rule.

I don't know, but the way we talk about China, makes me think that they did this, but I don't actually know (Ming, Qing, Yuan Dynasties).

Is there any actual evidence that religions/kingdoms changed the record of year keeping (set it back to 0). I only know of AD/BC (CE/BCE), but in ACTUAL BC times, and I even assume a decent way into AD. They didn't use those time stamps, so what did they use?

Year of Zeus? Post-Greecian Era?

I would also be curious in reading more about this, so what exactly is this called? What motivations records of study there are in this field?

Thanks in advance

A recent episode of Doctor Who (a show not exactly known for it's historical accuracy) shows us Scotland in the 2nd Century AD, where soldiers in the Roman Legion are invading and fighting the Picts in the area. One of the soldiers is black. Is it historically feasible to have had a black soldier in the Roman army in that area at that time?

Was it similar to say the Chinese and Europeans before the age of exploration i.e. they knew about each other and traded through several middle men or were they completely oblivious to eachothers existence?

Does anyone know what the two elf-like creatures on either side of the handle of the Ficoroni Cista?

I'm afraid most looking up I do on the items goes over a lot of the art but I seem to be having trouble finding this detail.

I posted this in r/history and got some upvotes but no answer.

I've just started reading "Our Oriental Heritage." I have the entire 11 volumes that make up the set, and I can't wait to read them all. However, I've heard some say that since the books were written a few decades ago, a lot of the history has been disproved. What should I keep an eye out for?

What was taught in schools?

I'm curious as to when music really became an important artform and what kind of music was popular back then.

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In this case, I'd like to focus on the Napoleonic era. Were members of cavalry divisions able to wear their sabre outside of combat? Or were there regulations against something like this?

In high school, the causes of WWI were taught to be a huge mess of complicated events that were, "too complicated to get into." I get that war can have a lot of factors, but if that's the case, why isn't WWII taught the same way? We're taught that WWII is just the Hitler thing, but I can't even tell you a single leader of the Central Powers. Why is that and why is it taught that way?

Edit: I get that different schools teach things differently, but overall, WWI is taught as more complex than WWII.