Who decided that north was north and south was south? What defined our world view as we see it today? Why isnt it flipped upside down on a map?

I've been seeing a lot of videos about the infamous Panzerkampfwaken VI "Tiger I" and how it's apparently extremely unreliable and how everything it did was a failure, among those statements there's a reocurring "transmission bad" meme that's embedded against the tank.

I can't help but doubt the legitimacy of that meme considering that a lot of tanks in WW2 had transmission problems and most of the sources that were used in the testing of the Tiger was done by Soviets. So was the tank really a failure? Was it as bad as it is stated or does it's infamous glory have some sort of merit?

And why did we put them up in the first place?

They're cool.

For example, in wars, how would the kings communicate with each other? There might have been some people who knew multiple languages, hence served as translators, but what if a civilization got into contact with a new civilization, who’s language no one knew?

Hello all, I'm currently in the capstone course for the history track in a university. The whole semester is essentially building up one essay, and my essay is generally on the topic of war material aid (not just American lend lease, other nations provided aid too) which was provided to the Soviet Union during WW2. More specifically it is seeking to show facets of the aid it being particularly important or needed in opposition of the general Soviet stance that the aid from western allies being of minor importance. Facets of note seem to be aviation, expertise and trains/logistics.

The problem I am facing is that, at least for my university's catalogue of resources, there are few sources to be found about the topic. I am unsure what other databases I could even search for finding sources, and I would not have direct access to them as my school does not have them on hand. Be that as it may, as long as I know what I am looking for I can simply request an interlibrary loan and get whatever it is pretty quickly. Therefore, I am asking for sources in the style of scholarly articles or scholarly style books which may be relevant. Thanks for any help.

As a side note, primary sources beyond the boatload of lend lease things I've found on the FDR museum website are hard to come by. Any recommendations? Are there translated Soviet documents available?

TLDR: Need sources to show lend lease and other aid was helpful to the Soviets in WW2, perhaps not immensely overall but in select areas it does seem to have been of notable importance. Looking for scholarly style things, books and journal articles, and if you know any primary sources which can be accessed online that would be awesome.

My rough understanding is that before maybe the late medieval-ish/early modern period had much more social mobility than in later periods* and the lower classes and their craft (like leather-making) were not held in contempt and even if, when, and where these notions did exist they were more prescriptive than descriptive - hence many individuals and families of nominally lower varna becoming rulers and administrators, and certain families and even whole jatis within a particular region being elevated from Vaishya or Shudra to Kshatriya. Much of the stuff that modern sensibilities find most troubling about the caste system seems - based on my shallow understanding - to be, if not exactly modern, at least a lot newer than the whole framework itself. Is my understanding correct? Or are the concepts of lower caste "dirtiness" and contempt for their occupations also ancient?

*particularly the period of British rule where a bunch of proverbial round pegs (multi-varna jatis, cultures who were not part of a formal caste system at the time anyway, the identification of criminal "tribes", etc.) were rammed into a bunch of square holes with the threat of capital punishment and stuff

I'm pointing to varna specifically because the impetus of the question was skimming over an anecdote about a Indian political leader whose Brahmin subordinates would never hand him documents and the like directly, always instead placing papers or whatever on a table for him to retrieve. There was no mention of jati or ethnic group, etc.

Thanks!

Someone once told me, without source, that the KKK in America was vehemently anti-Nazi, and the two groups had distinct ideological disagreements regarding race and nationalism.

Is this a revisionist viewpoint, or is there truth to this comment?
Did Nazi figures express their views on the KKK or vice versa?
What actual differences in ideology were there, if any?

The traditional look of many toys and characters from the past are now often viewed as creepy and some have even entered in to our modern popular culture as figures of horror. Clowns, jack in boxes, porcelain dolls, puppets, ventriloquist dummies and even animals such as tambourine monkeys, teddy bears and rocking horses all lack ‘cuteness’ at best or seem terrifying at worst. Were they ever viewed as cute and lovable by children, or have our sensibilities changed?

I've heard about Frankish settlements and Goths too, but what evidence is there? And is it limited to a mention or two in manuscripts, or is there compelling archaeological evidence as well?

How do I go about becoming a historian. Where should I go to college (in the US) and what classes should I take. What does being a historian actually entail.

I'm highly interested in investing in some biographies for important war figures(and much less well known ones, if anyone has one on Alexander Vandergrift), but i'm wary of falling into the trap of just going into the most popular book, without doing any critical research or thinking of my own.

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Note: This need not apply to only biographies, or even just books. Web articles, documentaries-how do you go making sure that what you're getting is 'The real deal', so to speak, when you don't know much about the subject yourself?

Perhaps a witness account of the entire audience weeping, or something along those lines.

It could be a play, musical performance, a film, etc.

For example, the initial showing of the ballet “Rite of Spring” caused anger and tumult in the audience.

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Thanks!

And also, how is this event taught outside of China? Growing up in Canada, I've had nary a mention of this event during my public schooling. Is this mentioned in British and French history curricula? How is this taught in higher education?

Surely the idea wasn't that much of a shock considering dog breeding

I know that it was rediscovered in the Renaissance and some of the original manuscript copies are in private/public collections, but is Vitruvius' original writing still out there somewhere?

Lederhosen highlight a curious quirk of language. The german word for trouser is hose. Lederhosen means leather pants. Lederhosen seem to be analogous to english breeches.

Around the time breeches succeeded braies is when the transition from hosen (medieval stockings) to trousers began. Hosen were long woven wool socks that were attached by suspenders to a medieval man's belt or underwear, in a similar fashion to modern womens suspended stockings (erotic/novelty legwear). The medieval mans underwear were called braies which turned into early modern breeches. Here is an interesting wikipedia quote about this:

"Before the 1590s, stockings were made of woven cloth. The first knitting machines were for making stockings."

This suggests that the transition from hosen/braies to socks/trousers, whereby braies elongated into breeches and thereupon into trousers, and hosen shortened into socks, took place at around the same time as when the knitting machine was invented.

We know that in the napoleonic times the revolution was spearheaded by sans-culottes, or "without breeches." Culottes refers to the fancy white knee length breeches that we are familiar with from photos of 18th century soldiers like George Washington or redcoats. Below the knee were knee high socks or boots. At the same time the sans culottes disdained this aristocratic style and began to wear ankle length trousers instead.

This was during the industrial revolution. As mentioned the knitting machine was invented 2cent earlier ("to make stockings") and during the 1700s machines were invented for weaving. The clothing industry was being reshaped. A few decades later sewing machines would become prevalent. Additionally colonialism introduced imports of foreign fabric like cotton that had different properties from native european fabrics like wool, linen, or hemp. Some time during the 1800s and 1900s cotton had become so ubiquitous that all legwear, both underwear and trousers were made from cotton.

My quest here is, to examine more fully the development of modern clothing. If anyone can shed light on this transition, I would be grateful. How did we get from braies to breeches to trousers to pants? How did we get from hosen to stockings to socks? What role did industrialization and colonization play in this process?

Also, as a postscript, I will note that, having experimented with making my own wool trousers, I believe one reason why the braies/hosen combo may have been pragmatic, is that you could presumably affix multiple layers of wool hosen to a single pair of braies. This would be very useful in winter time. This is because wearing multiple wool trousers is rather uncomfortable. I am curious as to what did dark age germans (who wore wool trousers) wear in deep winter, and also what did industrial europeans (who, thousands of years later, also wore wool trousers) wear in deep winter. For example, did russians in 1812 put on multiple trousers? If so, did each pair have its own belt? Did they make quilted trousers? This reminds me that concurrently in north america, trappers wore leather leggings, which conceivably could have been made from furs in winter; fur hosen.

*Modern Subculture.