Apologize if this doesn't fit ask historians, it didn't seem right to put it on ask science or physics. I was doing a history lesson that involved WW2 a little while back, and my teacher drifted to the Manhattan Project. He said that he loved the history of it because humans had little to no knowledge of that field, and the scientist behind it had to learn everything for the first time. I just find it hard to believe that we didn't have any prior information of nuclear energy before. Was the Manhattan Project the thing that gave us that knowledge, or did we have an understanding of it before the project started?

I'm writing a historical fiction novel set in 1765-1775 Boston. Just as a matter of research in case it comes up, I wanted to know a bit about the use of these powdered wigs we always see in portraits. I was able to find some information about the fad but not the specifics I seek.

I would like to know who wore them (was it an every man thing in the colonies or strictly a specific demographic). I would also like to know when people wore them (was it restricted to portrait time, work or church). For example, if you bumped into Samuel Adams on the street mid-Tuesday, would he have a powdered wig on realistically or could the scene dispense of it?

I very much appreciate any help you can give me on the topic.

So I was playing around with Company of Heroes 2 the other day and played as the Red Army against the German Wehrmacht.

I pitted an IS2 and a T34/85 against 3 StuG III Panzers. I thorougly lost the battle while there was still 1 StuG left on the battle field. Considering the IS2 being of of the two most expensive tanks in the game, I started to wonder if this idea of the Red Army's tanks were actually that bad?

I am not asking if the German Panzer divisions have been glorified in media, both Tv and games, since we all know that, that is the case. What I am asking is if game designers have been unfair to the Soviets and what their tank army was able to accomplish.

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I really need to polish my US history, so please help.

Were there just on-going wars between Columbus' team and Native Americans, and then more wars with Europe and now Americans? I have no clue what happened in between.

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I've seen it argued elsewhere that one of the "cardinal rules" of a historian is not make "moral judgements" on historical figures or otherwise compare contemporary moral attitudes to historical ones.

For instance, I've seen it argued that historians "aren't in the business" of saying/judging whether or not people like H.P. Lovecraft or Robert E. Lee were racist, or if Hitler really was evil.

I wanted to ask the experts take on this.

What I mean, to be clear, is that homosexuals were persecuted and killed during the holocaust yet Hitler was once considered close to Rohm. How did he rationalise this? It's something that fascinates me.

As always, thank you for your insight!

Considering the fact that alliances were sealed through marriages between nations in Europe, how often were these married couples unable to understand each other? Did they use translators to comminicate?

I have been reading a lot of books that were either set or written in the 18th and 19th centuries and have noticed a high frequency of women passing out after having a fit of hysteria or "fever".

Was this actually a common occurrence? Did it happen for a specific reason? Were women faking it? Or is it just made up...

Thank you!

If so, did they punish them for it? And did they call themselves orthodox?

My reading on Wiki leads me to believe that Otto was genuinely mentally ill, but Ludwig II was simply too fabulous and artsy and disinterested in ruling, rather than being actually incompetent.

Is there evidence of his deposition being organized by Kaiser Wilhelm and his uncle Luitpold?

For those of you unfamiliar with the TV show, the mythos of 'Supernatural' include elements that one might recognize as religious in another context (heaven, hell, angels, demons) but uses them to build a different universe.

Ok, so my grandfather passed away and I was unable to get him to speak in depth to me about his service during World War 2.

We are of German decent he was 2nd generation German American who served in the US Army. German wasn't spoken in our home, however I am certain that my great-grandfather, his father did speak German, so it would not be improbable that he spoke some German.

The little information I could gleen was that he served in " The Battle of the Bulge." What he specifically did , I am not aware of. He had shared some of his memorabilia with me which included a German helmet, Luger pistol, and the one thing that sticks out most in my mind now is a "minox camera." Minox cameras are very specific in their use....

The helmet and the pistol are something many returning vets may have picked up and brought home. The camera though isn't something that would be. Combining all 3 leads to more questions than answers. What is it he could have possibly done during his time in theater. Unfortunately with him no longer living I will never be able to get conclusive proof, but I'm hoping you might point me in a plausible direction.

The struggles of armies invading Russia during the winter from Napoleon to Hitler are well-documented, but I've never really seen any mention of the Russian winter playing much of a role during the First World War.

Part of it is probably that the Eastern Front in WWI tends to get ignored in my country (the United States), but were there other factors, such as better German planning and preparation or less severe weather during the winters of 1914-1917?