Lucian's True History comes to mind, but then, as it was a satirical work, I am not sure what conclusion one could arrive at from that. But it would seem it mustn't have been too great a conceptual leap for him to envision people living on them, walking around. So, what did Ancient Greeks/Romans think of what stars and planets and the Moon actually were, apart from just lights in the sky? Thanks :)

Especially interested in sources about the Weimar Republic.

So I grew up in a Texas high school which had a moderate but noticeable lean towards the south when talking about the civil war. I remember hearing that Robert E. Lee joined the Confederate reluctantly and did not want to see the union broken up but his loyalty to virginia outweighed his loyalty to the Union and I'm wondering if that was true or more of the Texas state board's rewriting of history?

My grandpa, dad and I support the same football team. We pass it from generation to generation. This is pretty common in Europe with football teams, and also in the US with the NFL teams. In Europe the teams even have extremely fanatical groups of fans called ultras.

I was wondering if people were this sport crazy in the times before football.

This is not meant as a what-if, but rather if they would have been effective combat vehicles or just wastes of Steel.

I'm interested in learning about how these tribes structured themselves and what sort of societies they had. I appreciate there may not be a lot of information about them, but most of the stuff I can find online is just about conquests and migration rather than day-to-day living - if anyone has anything it would be great!

For context, the exact quote is:

When Waterloo is war-gamed, France usually wins: the Napoleon player attacks early, masks Hougoumont with a maximum of one division, has the rest of Reille’s corps support d’Erlon’s historical attack, which uses a columnar formation and is accompanied by two divisions of Lobau’s corps with the Reserve Cavalry corps in close support. Ney’s cavalry charge is supported by infantry and artillery, which pulverize Wellington’s squares long before the Prussians arrive.

There is no citation associated with it, though the acknowledgment section does thank "Dr William J. Lademan, Director of the Wargaming Division at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory."

In German it's Affe, in English Ape, in Irish Apa, in Dutch Aap, in Welsh Hepa, which all shows the word was around for a very long time; accumulating all the sound shifts that've been happening in those languages for millenia.

This is in stark contrasst with the (mostly Slavic) languages of Eastern Europe, which instead have regionally different and often much more recent words (majmun, maimuță (both from Turkish maymun), обезьяна, beždžionė (both from Persian بوزینه), małpa, мавпа (from the Low German word for a Gargoyle - Maulape) and opica (related to the above)).

To clarify: why is it considered genocide if only one town's male population was killed? It pales in comparison to Porajmos and Holocaust, for example.

Really not looking to start a fight here, I'm genuinely curious.

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I'm looking for a deeper answer than "strong political institutions" or "a disciplined society." What structural factors contributed to Japan having those institutions, and what structural factors discouraged them in China?

In Iraq, there's small pockets of black African Iraqis named the Zanj, who are former slaves. Which made me question, since the african slave trade was so large, and far reaching, are there any other groups like the Zanj around the world? Are there any descendants of these slaves in China? Large enough to make a community?

I checked the rules and the FAQ and wasn't quite sure if my question fits here, so I thought to give it a try.

I want to publish a diary (WW 1) that I transcribed and therefore I'd like to add a nice introduction. Since I'm not a historian, it would be helpful to hear about good reads on this matter, general tips or your experience. If preferred you can also send me a PM. Thanks.

I've just finished about 2500 pages about The Great War and I've also finished Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" to get a decent understanding on what was going on before the Second World War started.

Now I'm eager to get into World War 2 and I'm considering different books to get me started and I'd be happy to get some recommendations.

The ones I'm considering at the moment is:

• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer
• Hitler's War by David Irving
• The Origins of the Second World War by A.J.P Taylor

Anyone willing to recommend those books? If not, have any other suggestions for book to introduce and give a general understanding of the war?

I'm mostly interested in the politics of it all, not necessary details of the battles. For example, I want the book to mention things such as Danzig's Demography to give the reader an understanding of WHY Germany felt they had the right to "liberate" it. I'm mostly interested in the REASONS for the war.