To clarify I don't mean the insect. I mean the people who are considered "Old Money" or "Old Stock" of white people whose ancestors arrived from England between 1620-1645, who were said to control the United States or have significant control over the country's institutions. Were these ever a real group of people or distinctive cultural group?

I’ve always wondered how people ended up with that job.

Did they typically come from a certain social class? Was it considered a lowly job or more middling? Was their job secretive or did their family know what they did for a living? Did every town have an executioner?
How many people who attended executions would have known who the executioner was? Why was it important that they were disguised with a black hood when they were doing their “duties”?

Not sure how to phrase this question. Basically, my understanding is that manufactured goods were exchanged for slaves. So how did this process affect the societies and polities involved? I mean both economically and also politically, as I imagine the constant demand for new captives was highly destabilizing.

I played a little Assassin’s Creed Odyssey again recently and it made me ask myself this question again and I realized I never got a satisfying answer when I googled around before.

In the game they reference “the ancients” and in game you go to some ruins which are clearly inspired by the Mycenaeans. I don’t recall them ever using any specific name to refer to them during the story, however.

I know, I know, it’s a video game. But it made me wonder if we have any references from the Classical Age of the Bronze Age beyond the works of Homer and the like. What did the people of the Classical World think of those who came before them? Did they even know of the civilizations that thrived before them? Is that where we get our stories of cities who defied the gods and were destroyed due to their arrogance? Was that the extent of their knowledge?

It just baffles me that these thriving cultures and civilizations that we know had widespread international trade networks could just be completely forgotten for millennia. There must be some mention of them beyond the epic poems and myth in Classical texts. They would have had some concrete idea of where they came from. Something! Right? Right??

I have a great great grandma that in the years between 1870-1890 fled from Russia to Norway sometimes in those years but my grandparents has never told me or the rest of the family why.

I can't find anything that might have made them flee other then Tsar Alexander 2nd was assassinated by revolutionaries and his son gave more power to the secret police. It's clear that they were scared and fled for their life but not why.

I don't know where they lived but they fled to Norway so you can assume they lived somewhere in the western or northern parts of Russia. They had a daughter in 1887 in Norway and they were around 20-30 years old at the time so they fled late 1870s to early 1880s. Almost nothing know of their life in Russia besides that they might have been nobility but it's not 100%.

It's to late to ask my grandparents for answers to I turn to you. What happened in Russia in 1870s-1890s that might have made people flee for their lives? Both why nobility might have fled and other. Reminder, they fled for their life, they were afraid of something.

Thanks for you help.

Trying to find resources on Pacific Island histories of colonialism, imperialism, and militarization to use in my research paper, so I would appreciate any help! Anything from the internet works too. Unfortunately, my books are still on the way, and many PI-related literature are unavailable. I'd love to hear about more.

I ask this because everywhere I look him up people are pretty careful to say stuff like "a legendary character best known for appearing in Journey to the West" instead of "a character from Journey to the West". Yet, every info on him seems to be taken specifically from Journey to the West, I haven't found any story about him that predates the book.

Is this a situation like with some greek characters like Odysseus, where, Homer didn't invent the character, the Odyssey is simply recounting already existing myths about him? (At least, that's what I understand about the Odyssey, If I'm wrong about this, please let me know)

Mind you, I'm not asking whether Sun Wukong has similar textual predecessors, like other legendary monkeys that Wu Cheng'en might have drawn from.

i'm asking whether a Chinese man in 1592 would pick up the hot new NYT bestseller and think "Oh, Sun Wukong, yes I know that guy."

And if he did, what would he know of him?

I'm specifically thinking something like Pride and Prejudice era, amongst this society of people marrying for status and wealth. How would a deaf girl or woman been a part of this particular culture pre-ASL?

My roommates and I are college students recently seized by the desire to host a medieval-themed feast. To the greatest extent possible, we would like to be historically accurate in the execution, dishes included, and table etiquette. However, we're having a bit of trouble identifying what is true and what is popular fiction (would they really have used just one knife? Would forks be allowed? etc). Most importantly, would a university student's diet differ in any significant way from the average person's, the way that a student now might be expected to eat more ramen and poptarts than others might? If so, what was the reason for this?

It’s pretty easy to track a countries border though their history but what about continental borders?

When and who decided on them? Was it one powerful country at a time or a unanimous conference?

Hi, I was just wondering how many political parties were active in pre Nazi Germany? I've heard several politicians advocate for more than the two party system we have in the United States, and it got me wondering about this question. Thank you for your time.

Cincinnatus was been upheld as a pinnacle of the Roman statesman, but how much of his actual story can we parse from the legend? What are our primary sources for discussing his life, and how accurate should we expect them to be?

Time to start an argument.