I'm looking for recommendations on books that aren't made for academics (so not so scientific i guess) on military (preferably focus on strategy), on philosophy and political history. Thank you

Ok, probably a long shot but, does anybody know where the quote about Cicero's last words is from? (something like "There is nothing proper about what you are about to do, but at least do it properly" or something of that nature). I've looked through Plutarch, who doesn't mention them, and other ancient historian don't seem to go in to too much detail. Any help would be much appreciated thankyou!!!

Over the last few months I've been reading a fair amount of about the European theater in WWII, and before that I had a WWI Western Front phase. In both cases, there seems to have been attempts to achieve massive pincer attacks to create decisive victories. With war planners (it seems especially German ones) invoking Cannae by name.

Was there any deliberate attempts to "recreate" Cannae during the American Civil War? In addition to the total war strategy of Sherman, was this the intent when amassing Grant's troops to North and Sherman's to the South as the Union squeezed Virginia?

Thanks for any reply,

I know his stepping down set a precedent for America and was seen as a very humble act and set in motion many great things for this country in terms of democracy. But was this act completely new? Had no other rulers done this before?

It is mind boggling to me that anyone would stay away from their homes for so long. How did the supply lines work? Did the soldiers get mail from Carthage? And all of this when the Carthage senate did not fully stand behind Hannibal at all times.

Title says all, basically.

To expound, dozens of empires have come and gone in the past. Some were more vast than others. If one looks at a political map of different dates, it will be seen that empires go from small to large, over the course of years and decades, sometimes even centuries. After all, when Constantinople fell, it was just a vestige of what was once a massive empire that held the entire Mediterranean, and even before that, Rome's territories were lost over the centuries.

This case was not for the Macedonian affair with the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander's empire basically experienced the imperial equivalent of a pubertal growth spurt. After two major engagements with Darius, the entire empire was his.

Note that this is not to take away from Alexander's genius, but I am merely asking whether or not he fought an enemy that was not in top shape.

My wife is part (a small part) Abenaki, and would like to know more about the art of that tribe. What are some good resources - books, museums, websites, etc? There's a ton of stuff for the more Western tribes, but much less for those of the North-east.

Hi AskHistorian subreddit, I just found out you existed!

I'm unable to find any information pertaining to specific logging methods. I'm writing a book and I've reached a bit of a snag. The town I'm building is a logging town and the technology I've established in the story matches the time period 1700's - 1900's, probably more apt to say ~1850 America. I've tried to find specific information about logging practices at that time but I've been unable to find much.

For instance; I know that one of the more popular methods involved using water-ways to transport timber. The on-site loggers would divide into teams and watch the logs go down the river to ensure they wouldn't get stuck. To increase flow of water, they'd build "flash" dams from higher level water sources to increase river flow to lower level water-ways. This is the primary method by which the town I built collects the timber they need.

I can find this type of information, even how the lumber was processed/treated, but I can't find much about the specific methods as they cut the logs. For instance, how did they get a cut log into the water, or did they just cut nearby and hope for the best? Were there pulley systems in place or did they bring more equipment with them on site than I predicted? Did the men just tug the logs into the water through brute strength? That seems inefficient and impractical.

However I have no clue. If you do, please let me know and discuss at your leisure. I can't find much online in terms of information but hopefully you fine people can give me some moderate clues into how our forefathers did it. :)

Apologies as well if this is against the rules in any form. I read the side-bar and couldn't find any prohibitions on historical context questions. If there were a logging subreddit, I'd be all over it.

Thank you in advance!

Edit It looks like they used a primitive log bridge to move it across the ground when moving it towards a river. I managed to find a picture of the event but surely this wasn't the only way to go about it? No wonder so many people died.

I read that the Meiji emperor's grandfather died when he was 46, and a number of his predecessors did not make it to 40. Could this be due to inbreeding/genetic issues? Was the makeup (dying teeth black for example) or diet toxic/unhealthy? Sedentary lifestyle? STD's? Disease?

As a corollary, what was the cause of the high rate of infant mortality in the Imperial family?

There is this historiography of the Quiet Revolution that I hear a lot, where we are supposed to talk about Quebeckers rising up in the 1960s and 70s, becoming "maîtres chez nous", and doing things like, say, forming the Hydro Quebec monopoly, or throwing off the Catholic Church in favour of a modern welfare state (and so on) as a way to assert ourselves.

But it seems to me that in its own way, the Duplessis period was also marked by a great deal of nationalism: for example, by its rejection of federal intervention in domains which were supposed to be provincial affairs. So what gives? Are we just talking about a changing depiction of what "nationalism" is supposed to mean?

See title.

What do you consider best works about Joan of Arc? I happened to be really exited about that topic recently and I want to read about her, but I don't want to waste my time on semi-novelized kind of books.

We often hear about land tenure in New France and then Quebec being semi-feudal, all the way up into the twentieth century in certain cases. Why did this system manage to persist so late, what were its effects on the people living under it, and who was motivated to finally abolish it? Are there any vestiges of the Seigneurial System that still exist today?

(Super excited about Canada week, btw! Thanks!!)

I'm currently reading Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich. Ullrich said Hitler's public speaking ability was very good. Crowds applauded and cheered with Hitler.

I have only seen clips of Hitler speaking, in which he screamed and gestured his arms theatrically. To me, Hitler seemed more like a madman than a good public speaker.

Was the standard for public speaking different back then?