I'm a philosophy major and I just took two classes I'm trying to understanding together: one on Modern Philosophy and one on Poststructuralism. In MP, we read a piece of Spinoza's Ethics, and basically glossed over the Geometrical Method. I don't know much about the history of geometry, but I know the Geometrical Method tries to take axiomatic claims and deduce from them necessary truths, which in turn imply necessarily true propositional content, etc. My question:

is this a purely analytical mode of thought, or is there still a tradition of religious symbolism present in Spinoza's thought here? (It's a historical question because what I'm really interested in is Euclidean mysticism, its relationship to 'sacred symbols,' and the work that underlies Spinoza's content if the notion of a 'sacred' or 'geomantic' symbol is still present in his method and form.)

If the religious content is present, can we read Spinoza as writing a kind of spellbook with propositional implications resulting? Or..?

I'm sure this has probably been asked before in some form but I am currently reading a lot about WWII and I've run into a question that keeps nagging me: What was the relationship between the Wermacht and the SS? In contemporary conversation the general consensus between non-historically minded people seems to be that in general the Wemacht were not the ones that committed the crimes against humanity that are attributed to the SS. Is this an accurate summation? Were the Wermacht soldiers just that? Soldiers fighting for their country right or wrong? Or were they rank and file Nazi supporters by and large? Also were the SS seen as an inferior fighting force by the Wermacht, and by extension not generally well liked by them? Or were they one in the same mentality wise?

Hi AskHistorians -- I love this sub and I'm sorry in advance if this is a poor question. I'm reading Churchill's "The Second World War," I've finished volumes 1 and 2, about to start 3, and previously read volume 4. I'm wondering to what extent I should be taking Churchill's insights and accounts with a grain of salt. I love Churchill's writing, I revere the man historically, and I find the whole thing fascinating. But I have this nagging sense of "am I getting the whole story?" just because I know I'm reading history written by the victor. Those of you who know the area well, does it stand up well on its own as accurate and reliable?

(Suggestions about where to go after I'm finished for more WW2 history are appreciated as well.)

Title kinda speaks for itself. The fact that most of our languages descend from a group of nomads that possibly were the first to domesticate horse seems like a big deal to me. Why hasn't this permeated to our education?

From what I understand Rome and Carthage had been allies against Pyrrus, so why exactly did they suddenly become enemies when messana asked them both for help against Syracuse ?

The Italians were the main force in Baroque and early Classical music. However, Romantic music, which began in the late 18th century, was almost entirely a German phenomenon, at least initially. Such composers as Brahms, Wagner, Mendelssohn, to some degree Mozart and Hyden, and of course Beethoven come to mind. What happened?

Your average day for women, men, children, and scholers.

What was it like?

In the battle of Marathon, the persians outnumbered the greeks but lost due to their inferior technology in weapons and armor. Then, years later, Xerxes' solution to beat the Greeks is to shove even more troops into the meatgrinder, despite a numerical advantage having been proven ineffective at Marathon. Why did he do this? Surely his men must have reported to him that the greeks technology was superior, so why keep beating the dead horse of overwhelming numbers?

It stands in stark contrast to the civilian intellegence agencies western countries feature.

As above. Let's say I'm not already a "part of the family." How would I join?

And once in, how would I go about gaining the trust of the family and increasing my standing within the organization? What were the primary crimes perpetrated by the mafia during its peak (let's say 20th century to be broad, but I'm more interested in the latter part of the century)?

I'm currently reading "Legions of Rome" by Stephen Dando-Collins. There's a section that details every individual Imperial legion, and the author writes "(Not. Dig.)" - without the quotations - at the end of each subsection.

I tried googling the phrase, but even with my google-fu I get a lot of pages about not digging places, and haven't had any luck figuring out what this abbreviation means. Any help would be appreciated.

As a follow up, when I was reading about the horrifying details of the Halifax tragedy, I was wondering when the fear of large destructive explosions entered the public's mind? Would it have been right after the invention of dynamite or was the WWI a catalyst in those kinds of scares and fascinations?

Ok so bear with me on this. Oral sex is fairly common in current western culture (elsewhere as well of course) but was it always common? I know there are artistic depictions of it from the past thousand years or so, but were people doing it as much then as they are now? Was Mary Todd Lincoln blowing Abe? Sorry if this question comes across as crude, but I was genuinely wondering about it recently.

I'm trying to find information about humans and their lives 50k years ago, especially in Africa. How did they live? What did they eat? How tall were they? What was the life expectancy? What languages did they speak? I'm aware that this is a pretty grey area in history so any information or snippet of information is appreciated.