And was it really necessary?

I have always been taught that the nazi movement in Germany was a popular movement that swept people up with it, and later indoctrinated people to the point where the really awful stuff was accepted.

This 'myth' is often stated as fact, but seems to imply that if they didn't do it, people wouldn't be applauding?

Anyone know?

I was reading a book by Jonathan Clements and in one of the later chapters he says that Japan wasn't as closed off during the Tokugawa era as you'd think. He specifically mentions Japanese fighting in East Asia as mercenaries. How did that work? Were the men involved ever able to return home afterwards? And were Japanese samurai particularly sought after as soldiers by Asian leaders?

I'd appreciate whatever this board can provide in the way of enlightement, please.

I'm in the process of reading Duiker's work The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam. What are some other texts that might highlight different aspects and/or perhaps provide a contrast to Duiker?

I'd be very interested to hear what the grub was like for both sides of the front, if there are any variances throughout the war that would also be lovely.

Were there standardized ration packs? During the end was it just whatever they could scrounge together?

Thanks in advance for any responses!

Edit: apologies for my English, this is my 2nd language. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^lied ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^just ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^can't ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^spell ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^good

Mercenary companies played an ever increasing role in medieval and renaissance warfare. I was wondering if the same was true for Japan considering how weirdly similar Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe are to each other

Curious if Cerberus was named that way intentionally to adhere to the trend/for humor. If it was coincidence. Or was Cerberus the one to start the trend in the first place?

I want to learn about how the movement started and developed and eventually got absorbed by the GOP party. Anyone have a recommendation for a book? I only have time to read one book, so pick your favorite! thanks

For the various elements of the Northern Crusades, material seems a bit thin on the ground -- there's Christiansen's book, and then a bunch of maddeningly tantalizing, out-of-print stuff (William Urban's books in particular).

For the Old Prussians, stuff about "the other Prussia" tends to get in the way of my searching...

Samogitia, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to feature much at all -- at least, in popular works. Wider Lithuanian history has the opposite problem: there's material there, but I'm mainly interested in Lithuanians before ~1500, and I'm not sure what title will focus best on the Lithuania of the Crusade(s) and those centuries between prehistory and the creation of the Commonwealth.

(Finding English translations of primary sources is something I've almost given up on -- there's Henry's Livonian Chronicle, but the only English version of Balthasar's, or of the Rhyming Chronicle, seems to be in an again out-of-print compilation. So close, and yet so far...)

Thank you very much for any reading (or browsing) recommendations on any of these topics!

So I'm currently writing an essay on the Civil War and I'm tired of calling both sides the "North and South". Is there any other pronoun that I can call these?

Example : The increasing divergence between these two _____ led to the Civil War.

In the beginning of the Godfather, Don Corleone is seen doing favors to various first/second generation Italian immigrants such as lobbying politicians or other powerful figures on their behalf or dealing out justice or revenge where the legal system is seem to have failed, did the mafia in America actually do this during this period or was it just a romanticized view of post-war organized crime?

I would think this is not a top priority given the precarious situation..

I say just started, she's coming up the the end of her first semester. I've been looking around and I'm finding it hard to separate the crap from the good stuff. I'm not sure this is the place to ask this bit Christmas is coming soon and I'm a bit desperate.

EDIT: I stupidly forgot to include her specific area of focus. It's something to do with early Irish law texts... the Wisdom Texts? She's looking at female representation in them, I think. I'm going to visit her later so hopefully I'll be able to tease out a more specific summary.

EDIT 2: From a rushed Facebook text sent from a bus: "I'm looking at the discussion of women in the early medieval Irish wisdom texts, which are contemporary to and written by the same learned elite as the Brehon laws (medieval Irish law). It's interesting because they're all theoretical but imply significant contradictory interpretations of the role of women in the period." I'm sure it'll change as she comes to write her thesis and thinks about revising her work to suit a full-length PhD, but for now that should give a good sense of where her interests lie.

In the series Oliver Stone's Untold History of the US he says that the first splitting of a Uranium atom made an atomic weapon a plausibility. But why was Uranium first decided as an atomic necessity?

to my understanding, the times when germany and italy began to fracture were in the wake of the carolingian empire, with entities (almost entirely the HRE, right?) almost immediately afterwards granting fiefs to vassals to the extent that germany and parts of italy came to look a lot like a jackson pollock painting. it then took several centuries seemingly for a sense of regional nationalism to supersede past boundaries such as language

so my question(s) are this: given the fact that france itself had its fair share of cultural dissonance- between the paris-centered langues d'oïl, the occitan, and a fair amount of basque, arpitans, catalans, and bretons, how did france manage to generally not be split between multiple messy duchies for most of its history in the same way that germany and italy did?

Title.

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I know this question is complicated by the fact that the Party system hadn't emerged yet.

(PS of course while I am interested in this topic because of current events I'm sure it can be discussed without violating the No Current Events rule)

In a documentary I am watching, it is said, that Constantine had a vision of a cross and letter P, and heard some voice, they say that the Christian God Himself, that told him, that with this symbol he will win the war against usurpator Maxentius. So he painted this symbol on the shields of his men, fought against the army of Maxentius, and won. This made him realize that this Christian God is stronger than the Roman Gods, and so he converted to Christianity.

How accurate is this statement? Isnt this just too much speculation, and a little biased? What I know about Pagan religions, it is that they are very syncretic, meaning there is no rule like "You have to worship only the true Roman Gods, and no others!" Actually, the Romans had no problem worshipping a lot of Gods from different Pagan religions. Like one day a Roman citizen made a sacrifice in the temple of Isis, and then the other day this Roman citizen made a sacrifice in the temple of Jupiter. This is what my professor of history tought us, at least. The Roman Gods dont care if you worship another Gods as long as you make sacrifices for Them too, right?

So didnt Constantine just do the same thing when he got the vision? Wasnt he more like "Oh, this Christian God is giving me an advice how to win this war, great, I will worship him beside worshipping other Gods." And so he just added a new God to his pantheon, because why not? What makes historians believe that Constantine fully embraced Christianity and rejected all other Gods? I read documents from Eusebius, but that seem like a lot of Christian propaganda to me, I cant take him seriously. Are there any other sources, more objective, that proves that Constantine was the first Christian Emperor?

Besides, wasnt Constantine baptized on his deathbed? That is hardly something a devouted Christian would do...

Thanks for all your answers!