Since a school trip to an Iban longhouse in Sarawak several years ago, I've been fascinated by the historic cultures of the native Dayak peoples. They just sound so awesome - with the Iban, you've got a warrior culture living in the rainforest who use blow darts and use diamond wooden shields. I'm just wondering if there are any good books about them, historical or anthropological? I haven't been able to find too much about them.

Asking from a US perspective. It seems like every blue-collar profession has a union: plumbers, roofers, boilermakers (?!), etc. Why didn't white collar professions develop unions?

There are some exceptions (teachers, Hollywood writers, etc) but the majority of labor unions seem to be blue-collar.

As above. Basically, why were swords given to knights just do they could use them as a spear?

I visited the Money Museum at the Denver Federal Reserve the other day with a friend and on display they had Revolution era paper money. Printed quite clearly on each of them said that the bearer could exchange the paper currency for Spanish milled silver. Why is that? Was Spanish silver the prime choice for an international currency?

I'm currently looking at the causes of the Crusades and the letter is mentioned a lot but I cannot find the primary source.

This question popped into my head, and I'm not really even where to start researching.

Thanks for your time /r/AskHistorians!

Today in class we were reading Hamlet and when Hamlet challenges Laerte's love for Ophelia that he would eat a crocodile. My friend and I both were wondering about this because we felt like back then not everyone would know what a crocodile was since they aren't native to Europe (?) Maybe this is just a dumb question , but I figured this would be the best place to ask...please be nice

Did the death of the English king cause concerns amongst the Continental monarchies about the security of their position? Was it seen as a direct threat to the Divine Right of Kings? Do we have sources about how lay folk from overseas may have seen the reduction in English royal power?

My grandfather died before I was born so I only have my father's descriptions of him. He served as a paratrooper during the second world war. My father has a chest full of his wartime memorabilia, but a lot of it has no context for me. Apparently he saw action in North Africa, Italy, and somewhere near the bulge. Maybe St Vith? I would like to put together some sort of narrative beyond what I found on Wikipedia. I'm looking for any kind of first hand narratives or reading that doesn't come off as terribly clinical in it's description. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

Were there units set up specifically for this task?

What about wounded that were missing but not located yet? I heard anecdotally that the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel was involved with Information Services and had an affinity for finding missing soldiers.

As a follow-up, were there specific evacuation units during later wars like WW2 or the Vietnam war?

This was on the first day of class for this semester and I have been intrigued by it for awhile to see if it's true or not, I searched the sub and it looks like no one has really asked this question, so I decided to jump on it.

Thanks for the responses in advance! I love history so I hope I can get an answer for this, since it's been bugging me for a few weeks now.

EDIT: I should also add that the time she stated was 7000 bc or so if that helps your search.

So I was wondering, can't seem to find anything on the differences between the Higgins boat and the Landing Craft Assault. I don't know much about machines and so on, so reading their specs I can't tell. Do you think we would have then tried to use these british ships and all lost? or realized they were not good enough before hand and try another tactic, if so what tactic would they be? and lets pretend for a moment no other ship builders would have built a ship. Unless of course you know of ship builders of that time and what they might have made.

Colonists eventually got fed up and revolted. How and how much were they being taxed at the breaking point?

This may be more appropriate for anthropology, but I'm thinking specifically about references to the Germanic tribes of the migratory period and the numerous waves of Steppe tribes that were so important in Eurasian history. I'm vaguely aware that there's been a move towards viewing tribes such as the Franks, Huns, and Goths more as originating as confederations to which you could pledge allegiance and join more than an ethnic/genetic identity. Kind of like a giant gang, for lack of a better term. Can anyone provide some insight on what the current thinking is around this?

Was it too disorganized? An early example of nonviolent resistance, succeeding in the same way and for the same reasons as Gandhi and King? Or were the causes too complex to summarize in a Reddit comment and require an entire book to answer?

I was watching a documentary (you all probably know how misleading and biased those can be), and I decided to look into it a bit more in depth. But I can find a straight answer as to why the ancient Egyptians left and stopped "living there." Is there even a definite answer to this?