I've been listening to Victor Davis Hanson and he believes that there is coherent entity called the "West" that has existed in Europe since ancient Greece and has been characterized by classical liberal values (religious tolerance, separation of powers, freedom of debate). He conversely says that other peoples have never had these values.

While it could be easily argued that the modern west is more liberal than other parts of the world, the idea that this is always how it has been seems based on and intentionally selective reading of history. Do many other historians buy into this view?

The magna carta is confusing.

I know that many religious groups moved to America during that time, but how else were they affected? Did the different colonies choose sides i the conflict, or did they generally just not care because they were an ocean away?

We know monotheistic religions generally despised pagans, but I have never seen or heard anything of the opposite point of view. Were monotheists viewed in a similar way by pagans?

I'm an avid horse rider and I've always wondered whether knights and cavalry brigades onwards go into battle in a rising or a sitting trot before they cantered or galloped. Could any of you provide insight into this? Cheers.

I am an undergraduate writing a paper about the varied experiences of vietnamese women during the Vietnam (American) War. Can anyone point me to a historical source of the period that covers the experience of women soldiers, entertainment industry workers, etc.? I have found a number of anthropological sources that deal with memory and post-war experiences, but there seems to be a gap in scholarship when it comes to history.

Did the elites of the tribes just integrate with the local elites? Or did they whole-sale replace them? Somewhere in the middle?

What about the commoners of the tribes in relations to local commoners?

Did a sort of caste system develop where the tribesmen are above the locals?

Seriously, where are all the primary sources that show Mussolini was a horrible guy? Please help me find some of these as I've been searching all damn day.

Among at least a portion of the arab world, there seems to be a fair amount of dishes using rice as an important ingredient. How did this come to be, as most of the climate seems unsuitable from growing rice, nor have I ever heard of it being grown there.

If the answer to that is the English simply beat them to it, what are the reasons for that?

Or is my issue that I'm imposing modern terminology (Irish, English, Scottish) on three groups of people with the same origin story?

I know that the French wine industry was more or less saved by utilizing resistant American varietals in France. What affects did this have on French wine in terms of quality and taste? Did French snobbery play a role and was there any "resistance" to adopting American grapes? I'm writing a research paper on the topic so if anyone could recommend any books or other literature on the subject, that would be great.

I read a little bit about the Coldstream Guards and some of the other famous guard regiments that date to the Civil war or thereabouts. It's my understanding that in addition to any ceremonial duties they may have had they were also normal troops. How were the famous regiments integrated with the rest of the army and did they do better? Also how were their recruits picked, was there large demand to get in?

I was surprised to read that the first black general (Benjamin O. Davis) was promoted to the rank in 1940. Coming from from a military family, I'm aware of the level of respect the rank a demands. Such reverence doesn't seem possible at a time when blacks were treated as second-class citizens.

Was, for example, a white private likely to be disciplined, were he disrespectful towards a black general?

More specifically, would a resident of say, Massachusetts, view a resident of Nova Scotia in the same way that he would view a resident of Virginia? Or was the fact that most Canadian's were French subjects until 1763 mean that they were viewed more as foreigners?

Also, was there any attempt to involve any of the provinces in the Revolution? If not, why not?

Edit in title: *Province

I know that the Italian states was occupied with the unification wars for a while, but with their close proximity to Africa it seems strange that they (and Italy after the unification) did not establish a colony or protectorate in Africa before 1866 when Italy annexed Massawa, especially considering that smaller countries such as, Portugal, Sweden and Denmark all had colonies in Africa before Italy and the Italian states.

I have been reading up on some WW2 events and battles, and often, there are speculations that the Germans did have a chance, but messed up in intelligence, or some unexpected events happened.

But I am wondering, judging purely by military strength, and ignoring all the other aspects that changed the tide of the war, did the German army actually even have the military potential to win the war as they planned? Or was it like they did stand a chance in a world war, and other things that contribute to a war weakened them to the point of collapse, not the lack of military strength? By military strength, I mean the number of soldiers, the degree of their training, the quality/standard of their weapon, number and amount of support available, etc.

I apologize in advance for any too simplistic view I have about this matter, but I just read too many texts pointing out how the German army underestimated their enemy or made a mistake, making it sound like they had a chance from the beginning, but eventually went bad for them due to other reasons outside of pure military strength.

Wiki is vague on how Louis and his mother Anne centralized the power of the king in france. So, how did they go about it?

Hello all. I'm a podcaster who plans to do an episode on pre-Columbian astronomical traditions of the civilizations of Central and South America. The names of people, place and things are really throwing me for a loop. Can anyone offer some pronunciation resources? Thanks in advance!