Some 70 years after his death, it must be asked. Was Erwin Rommel a vile monster, like his regime, or was he a soldier first, heroic, and blameless for the actions of his men

I was reading a book about the history of railway accidents in the United States, and it notes that one of the first people killed in a railway accident in the US was a slave working as a engine fireman for the South Carolina Railroad. Engine fireman is a fairly skilled job and would require a fair amount of technical training, something that is at odds with the image of American slavery being something found only on plantations or in manor homes.

Was having skilled slaves such as the fireman uncommon, or was it widespread in the US South? Was slave labour used in areas like blacksmithing, milling, or even manufacturing and industry (such as it existed in the pre-Civil War South)?

From what I can tell Russia is, and has been, a deeply religious place. In the West we have this idea of the "godless" Communist. My question is, how did a country go from having the Orthodox Church play such a pivotal role in daily life to being atheist to back again after the fall?

Thanks!

It seems like he had the opportunity to defeat confederate forces several times but chose not to engage. I'm curious what reasons he had for his decisions

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There are European bison; the visent. Visents are sometimes called forest buffalo because they are usually found in the forest. But it seems likely that the forest is just the last habitat in Europe that humans allow them to inhabit, since we grow crops everywhere else.

The ecology of bisons, elephants and other large herbivores is typically that they constantly disturb the vegetation so that the young trees never grow old, so they prevent forestation and create open grassland. They are ecosystem engineers. We also used to have mammoths in Europe, and moose etc. Seems like there should have been open grasslands here and there.

I am curious if there is any archeological evidence that could point to where those old prairies might have been? Is there any sign of how large those prairies might have been? What the mix of plants and animals were there? Did the Europeans of those days live anything like north American natives? How long ago would we be talking about?

Many questions. I tried to make the title simple. Feel free to extend it even more of you know of an answer. Thank you.

Would there have been strategic for both American and French benefit from such an alliance? Why was it not formed to fight their common foe?

Apologies for very subjective experience and question! I was browsing some subreddits of photos (not NSFW ones, just /r/pics and following sidebar from there) and this thought came to me. I know hair styles, make up styles, and clothing styles play a role, but even faces...

I read a lot of 19th century British literature and you often see descriptions like "John dined at his club and then walked home." Sometimes men meet each other at "their club." I often wonder:

1. What were these clubs? Did they have a proper name?

2. How did a man become a member?

3. How would a man choose which one of several clubs to become a member of?

4. What would he do as part of the club? Literature seems most often to describe bachelors having dinner there.

Whenever I google information on John "Calico Jack" Rackham, it always seems to refer back to Johnson's History of the Pirates, which has proven to be inaccurate. When I search for Calico Jack on Amazon, all I get are a bunch of historical romance novels about him and Anne Bonny. Academic-level books about pirates go in depth about the truth about Blackbeard and maybe Anne Bonny, but always gloss over Calico Jack. Are there any reputable biographies about him?

I've been into history for a while now, and I've heard the phrase "history is just the deeds of great men" thrown around a lot. Is there any truth to that? Or is it just a bunch of baloney? I read a little into Thomas Carlyle and Herbert Spencer, but I can see both sides. I know it's a very general question, but I thought it couldn't to ask Reddit anyway.

I'm going to be honest, I'm not the smartest fellow when it comes to talking about the first humans. But, today while looking at my terrier sleep, I wondered how dogs actually became pets of humans? Did early humans keep some type of wolf as a pet? Historians help!

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