This is one of those historiographical questions that I hope meets the rules of the sub, so here we go!

I'm currently in the very early stages of a new project which is a pretty big departure from my previous work on nuclear proliferation. It revolves around looking at games and the perception of nuclear war in the Anglophone world during the 1970s and 1980s. I come to this having a) played a lot of RPGs in my teens, twenties, and thirties, and b) having designed and published a few moderately successful RPGs in 2000-2010 (prior to weaseling my way into academia).

I've been doing the usual searching through resources like JSTOR, JISC Library Hub, and all the usual scholarly resources. This has led to a lot of stuff on - for example - computer/console games and the memory of WW2, which has proved both interesting and provocative from a research development POV. However, I was wondering anyone here had recommendations for particularly good literature - whether by academic scholars or not - on games in the twentieth century that they have read? I'm particularly interested in things like RPG, but would also welcome recommendations on games of any kind. And if you are able to articulate why this scholarship is good and what insights/findings it offers, that would be great as well.

Thanks in advance.

Malcolm

Apologies if this comes across a bit ignorant as it’s just something I was curious about, what would’ve been the first ever forms of preserving food say from hunter gatherers and what other breakthroughs followed along with being able to preserve, how much of a significant impact did any of these discoveries at the time have if any?

Did he actually cure him?

There is no shortage of interesting post titles in this sub. Often, by the time I get around to viewing a thread, it has been gutted by the moderators - where every single post/reply has been deleted. Also, the top posts frequently have a single reply - the auto moderator.

I don’t see such aggressive policing in other subs, particularly those with an academic bent. It’s to the point that I feel it disincentivizes participation.

What gives?

Is it possible for a common born roman citizen to rise up the social ladder? Was there any limits to what position they could feasibly reach? And what would the journey look like for that individual?

I hope this doesn't break the rules? I just finished writing my history paper and have a new found appreciation for history. Asking for the sake of curiousity. Not sure where else I can post this.

During the early modern period, did snipers range ahead of their army or did they stay behind their army and shoot past the front line? Was it different in the revolutionary war vs the napoleonic or even the 30 years war? I know before smokeless powder smoke from guns could obscure the battlefield. Did snipers have a way around that?

My understanding is clay is pretty abundant all across the world, and all it needs is fire to cure it. In a time of nomadic hunter/gatherers who camp in an area for a short time; one would think it would have discovered clay earlier, and shortly after many of it's uses.

It would also seem clay tile roofs really don't take too much more effort and time to make than thatch, etc; but it would have been far superior to protecting you from the elements. So why aren't there littered remains of these little mobile-settlements clay roofs being discovered?

Oh, and I don't necessarily mean each individual person/family having their own tiled roof, but at the very least some sort of communal center they could set up in just a few days?

There is enough evidence that Mary Queen of Scots conspired to have her husband Lord Darnley killed. But why was that considered a criminal act?

Henry the eighth had a couple of his wives beheaded and that was considered fine. Yes that was because they cheated on him.

But so what? didn't kings and queens in those days have divine right to do pretty much what they wanted? Why did people even at that time make such a big fuss about the fact that Lord Darnley had obviously been killed? Is it because Mary was a woman that different standards applied to her?

It took the U.S. about 4 years of really trying to create the original bomb, pioneering entire sciences. The soviets had spies that stole the plans to the mk.iii implosion bomb (fatman) which they recreated in about 4 years.

Why did it take the same time to recreate the bomb if the U.S. figured it out for them?

Hola!

So, I am working on the effects of the Long Cold War in Latin America and its effects on the trade of narcotics, mainly on how the institutions and paramilitaries that originated because of this conflict helped criminal organizations, intentionally or accidentally, on their rise to power, like by justifying the narco violence at the eyes of the public (in order of the dynamics between the MAS and the M-19 in Colombia) or in the direct protection of illegal activities (like the things that the DFS did for the Guadalajara Cartel).

Anyways, I'm looking for any secondary sources about drug trafficking in Colombia and Mexico, mainly during the second half of the 20th century. It's a project for college and I have a few things that I'm sure I can use, like Marco Palacios for Colombia and Luis Astorga for Mexico, but besides that I only find fiction and journalism that I don't really trust, not history per se, so I was wondering if anyone had something about this, thanks in advance and sorry for my broken english :)

I was looking through some magazines from the 1930s and 1940s and saw quite a few ads where the "man of the house" is wearing a coat and tie at the dinner table. Or he's sitting by the radio with his pipe and newspaper - wearing a coat and tie - while his wife invariably is sewing. Just wondering if this was based on reality - or was it just some ideal that didn't really exist?

I identify it as a sort of Christmas celebration. How did I even decorate?

Perhaps it is the outside looking in perspective, but it’s hard as a non-Christian to understand why such traditions as the Easter bunny hiding chocolate, a fat guy living on the north pole, and a day devoted to ghosts and witches (Halloween) became so widely popular, especially in a puritanical protestant nation, such as America.

In S1E9 of the German TV show “Dark”, a character makes the following remark: “Do you believe that Hannibal marched over the Alps with elephants? There are no truths - just stories”.

This got me thinking. I’ve heard the Hannibal and the Alps story so many times that I’ve never thought to question it, but now that I stop and consider, it does seem a wildly improbable feat. Do we have any kind of physical evidence for this crossing, and if not, how reliable are our textual sources? Is it possible that such a widely-believed historical fact is merely a creation of later Roman writers?

I’m interested in the historiographical question here, as well. Is there a tradition of doubting the mainstream account of Hannibal’s invasion that the show-writers might be pulling from? Perhaps it’s more prevalent in German scholarship?

Reading wikipedia it says that while there were many ball kicking games in the world, the modern game originates in England in the 19th century. How did the sport spread to be essentially the most popular game in the world?

In a related question why, if the game originate in England, did the game not take as much of a hold in many of the former British colonies? Especially when considering the game is obviously popular in the UK and other British games (or variations of them like baseball/cricket or American football/rugby) are very popular in former British colonies

So I read a little on beauty in Ancient Greece for some reason considering I wasn’t too happy with my appearance (I sometimes do that lmao). And to my surprise I found out that most of the stuff I have was considered overly attractive back in Ancient Greece! I have red curly hair, a kind of short tongue, blue eyes (not exactly blue, I do have hazel eyes tho, so a mix of blue, gray, and a little bit of brown), not sure if this is right but I do believe someone said pale skin was also considered good? and I’m rather pale, but I get a good tan when summer comes around the corner lmao. Is there other Beaty standards they had on men which made them more attractive? And was 6’2 or generally tallness attractive back then?

I understand the need for having natural barriers to protect Russia's heartland (It's one of the primary reasons for the ongoing war with Ukraine) but I'm curious as to why Russia expanded past the Urals?

The Ural mountains provide a massive barrier that protects the majority of the Russian heartland's eastern border.

So why expand further than that given the sheer size of the territory, the cost of protecting it, and the various disparate ethnic groups wanting greater autonomy only leads to instability within Russia?