i just watched "the wild one", and it's fascinating to me just how a piece of functional clothing has become a fashion icon.

The Chinese government put a ban on Abortions in the 1950s (sparing medical circumstances), but for what purpose? Was it to curb sex-selective abortions?

What were the worst economic consequences from the first world war?

[deleted]

I'm curious about Britain's imperial past know very little about a very large part of it. I was wondering if someone more informed could point me in the right direction for something to read over the summer.

I was just remembering the meta thread about analyzing Hitler and examining the causes/basis of Hitler's ideas, but discussion of Mao in textbooks always seem to just point it at "Mao decided that..." or "Mao implemented this policy.." without providing much background. Where did the basis for his policies of the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward come from?

I tried doing my own research but Wikipedia's statement of " Mao and other party leaders ordered the implementation of a variety of unproven and unscientific new agricultural techniques by the new communes" and its citation are almost impossible to follow, giving me a book in Google Books but it's like 150 pages long with missing pages...

I've heard that the bering straight land bridge hypothesis is outdated and not fully supported by data, but how on earth would early man have gotten to the Americas otherwise? They couldn't have had the seafaring technology to make it across the ocean could they ?

Beyond ordering and funding, was he actively involved in planning and fighting (as a general I mean) battles or negotiating the surrender of British kingdoms/tribes?

I've currently been listening to and watching a bunch of stuff about WW1. I was curious if the loss of a generation that was in the prime of their lives had any meaningful contribution to the Great Depression a decade later.

I imagine ruling such a large empire required some form of change in technology and administrative knowledge compared to ruling a tribe or a small kingdom, so it is interesting that the Franks was able to transition from being just a tribe, like the Vikings and the Saxons to not just a Kingdom but a large empire.

For thousands of years, did regions such as North Africa and the Middle East ever have access to cold drinks?

Leaving aside stylistic differences (eg laid back vs boom bap, funk vs jazz, comprehensible lyrics vs iggity biggity) there are some real thematic and content differences, in particular the greater importance of things like the 5% Islam (Islam in general really) and Afrocentricism in New York hip hop, while LA hip hop has more focus on gang affiliation.

Obviously it is a bit of a stereotype and comparing Q-Tip and Snoop Dogg doesn't really get a comprehensive picture, but was there a major difference in the social environments of the black communities in LA and NY that this reflects?

Wasn't the whole point of the UN to prevent that type of thing? Why wasn't there international outrage?