I'm currently reading David Anthony's The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. During his discussion of the Indic branch of Indo-European he brings up the Mitanni, who despite living in the northern Levant from 1500-1300BC have in their surviving written documents possibly the oldest recorded instance of an Indic language. Their regnal names, certain gods they invoke, and bits of their vocabulary are clearly Indic in origin.

Anthony conjectures that Indo-Aryan speakers came to the Levant as mercenaries and established themselves as a ruling class in the Mitanni kingdom, quickly adopting the local language but maintaining some Indo-Aryan vocabulary. He is quick to claim that this is purely speculative. The book is only 10 years old, so I'm wondering if there are any more modern theories or evidence as to how Indo-Aryans got to the Levant in 1500BC or earlier. Would they have even come by way India? Were the Indo-Aryans in India by that point? Are there other problems with the theory?

http://imgur.com/VMFIKiT http://imgur.com/I5AQYWI

1

2

3

4

I've never seen anyone claim these are an exact representation but is there anything to learn here about ancient battles?

Edit: What I'm mostly getting at is the images that are often conjured up of organized Greeks or Romans against "barbarian hordes" and how that doesn't really square with the fact that the Romans or Greeks often found these societies formidable. Or the idea of these clashes instantly dissolving into chaotic individual melee. Or ranks of men smashing into one another at a full sprint.

Can any lessons be gleaned whatever from modern confrontations without massive employment of firearms? Or is it just way too much a case of apples and oranges?

Edit: Thanks to everyone in the thread

Hello all! I'm Jeremy C. Young, author of The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society, 1870-1940. I'm an assistant professor of history at Dixie State University, where I teach courses in modern U.S. and European history.

The Age of Charisma argues that the modern relationship between American leaders and followers grew out of a unique group of charismatic social movements prominent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on hundreds of letters and testimonials, the book illustrates how “personal magnetism” in public speaking shaped society by enabling a shift from emotionally-inaccessible leadership to emotionally-available leadership. This charismatic speaking style caused a rapid transformation in the leader-follower relationship, creating an emotional link between speakers and listeners, and the effects of this social transformation remain with us today. I argue that ultimately, charismatic movements enhanced American democracy by encouraging the personalization of leadership – creating a culture in which today’s leaders appeal directly to Americans through mass media.

If you'd like a taste of the book's argument, I explain how the 2016 election reflects the emotional politics of the historical age of charisma here. I did an interview on the book with John Fea at the Way of Improvement Leads Home here. I wrote about Marcus Garvey, charisma, and protest movements here. I talked about charisma in Herbert Croly's book The Promise of American Life here. I wrote about Dr. James Rush and the invention of the charismatic speaking style here. And I tweeted some interesting anecdotes from the book here.

I'm a bit of a generalist (as you can see by my teaching fields!), but I have expertise in the social movements, religion, communication, leadership, and politics of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; the history of emotions, a new and exciting subfield; and a number of well-known figures who were active from 1870-1940, including (but not limited to) Henry Ward Beecher, James G. Blaine, William Jennings Bryan, Eugene V. Debs, Charles Grandison Finney, Marcus Garvey, Hiram Johnson, Aimee Semple McPherson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Billy Sunday, Max Weber, Frances Willard, and Woodrow Wilson. Feel free to ask me questions on any of the above topics (or other related ones).

I've admired this community for years, and I'm grateful to the /r/AskHistorians mods for the opportunity to do an AMA here. I'm actually a bit of a Redditor myself -- I've been a member of /r/fantasybaseball for several years (though under a different username, which I won't share here!) and last year played in a fantasy baseball league made up entirely of Redditors.

I've put this thread up around 7 AM EST; I've got a couple of classes to work around, but I'll be checking in periodically throughout the day, starting around noon EST, to answer your questions. Looking forward to the discussion!

Update, 6 PM EST: I've really enjoyed this conversation -- I can't say I've ever been in a venue before where 100% of the questions were smart, thought-provoking, and on point. I'll check back in tomorrow morning to answer any questions I missed. Thanks very much!