I might be ignorant to it but I've never heard of a Chinese War or a Sino-American War that occurred after WW2. With the geopolitical issues America have today with China its kinda odd the US actively participated in proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, Central America to prevent communism from spreading there yet let China go.

I keep hearing the staggering number of 100 million people died under Stalin. That seems incredibly high. Are their documents to back up these claims?

Sorry, the title may sound a little too specific and my English is not the best. Please let me know if this is the wrong subreddit for my questions. I am currently working on a book project about the life of a Jew from Bukovina in the second half of the 19th century in Austria-Hungary. Even though I researched much about the life there, many questions still remained unanswered. The protagonist, who grows up in a traditional Hasidic household in a small Carpathian village, makes friends with Christians and even develop sympathies for Christianity. Now I wanted to ask what Jewish-Christian relations in Galicia/ Bucovina looked like in the 19th century? What influence did Austria-Hungary's politics have on them? Which non-Jewish nationality was the most tolerant? Germans, Romanians, Lipovans, Ukrainians, Rusyn? How tolerant were the Jews towards them? How, when and where did Jews and non-Jews meet? How was the religious harmony? And how did Jewish life and ethnic relations differ in rural and urban areas? I would be very happy to receive answers to my (hopefully not too many) questions!

The U.S. for example. At what point are the Americans born there counted as natives? We don't call other countries by their "pre-conquered" names, so at what point are people born in America, native Americans?

I hope this isn't coming off wrong, I'm just genuinely curious as to why we don't considered Americans born in America natives. It's been almost 400 years and people still aren't counted as "Americans".

Oddly enough Al-Ma'arri doesn't have a wikipedia article in english, but he does have articles in spanish and german and that's how I learned about him

edit: Apparently the article in english wasn't linked in the translations of the article in spanish, which made me assume it didn't exist. I know better now

I was very surprised to see that was able to publish texts attacking religion in the Abassid Empire, but I guess they were a lot more tolerant than muslim nations today

However what I really want to know is what was the impact of his work?. I imagine that maybe he was like Giordano Bruno or Democritus, someone whose genius we can recognize in the present day but who wasn't very impactful on his day. Or maybe he was impactful, I don't know

PD: I want to check out his book Fusul wa Ghayat, but I can't find it anywhere in a language I can read, does anyone have a link to an english online version?

The most common views are:

The strategist Hitler had no military training.

Germany made the mistake of opening many fronts.

Germany's friendly countries abandoned it.

It was a mistake to face the UK.

Germany underestimated her rivals.

They never thought of the bravery of the Soviets.

Others.

I understand that Hitler had major territorial ambitions beyond what he conquered in WW2. But I’ve read a few histories that say Hitler put some thought in the idea of a global Nazi conquest. Did he actually seriously consider the idea, and if he did, how well thought out was this?

I’m trying to learn more about the Holy Roman Empire but can’t seem to find any definitive information on why it never extended south of the Papal States. Also, what was the main religion of the Kingdom of Sicily? Roman Catholicism I take it? And if so, did Sicilians recognize the Pope as their religious leader? And did the Pope have any dominion over the Kingdom of Sicily (investiture rights, etc)?

Viking Berserkers are always depicted as barely controllable blood crazed murder machines.

But is this really true? Were that really drug fueled killing machines or just extremely skilled and fearsome warriors?

Hygiene is usually pointed out as one of the reasons but I’ve seen that the idea of medieval europeans being unhygienic has mostly been debunked. Also they knew well enough that they had to isolate themselves from the sick and burn the bodies.

On top of that Asia had some major cities 10 times bigger than London such as Sarai which had a great influx of people from all around central Asia if not from all Eurasia and didn’t seem to have been hugely affected by it.

So am i missing something?

I've heard both that it worked to help pull the country out of the Great Depression and made it worse keeping the US stuck in it until WW2. I assume it is a great deal more complicated than people have been telling me but I am just wanting to know if overall it helped or hindered the recovery of the US.

What was the Wild West actually like? How accurately do TV shows portray the Wild West? Was the land there really "lawless" and berserk? What kind of jobs did people actually have there? Did people actually follow the laws there or was it just chaos and violence and survival of the fittest and constant gun fights and brawls in bars? Would sherrifs actually do anything there?

Also, could individuals just uproot themselves and start anew in an entirely new town with a new identity and new name? It seems as though back then, without things like social security or a Drivers License, there were no forms of identification and anyone could just move from one town to another changing their identity if they didn't want to be found. Thus, was the Wild West really full of outlaws changing their identities?

Hi, I have been reading Fernand Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II and I have found it incredibly interesting. Now, I would like to learn more about structural (long dure) topics related to agriculture and peasant life. Some of the key ideas that I would like to know more about are:

- Cycles of farming: seeding, collecting, selling, in general the main routines in the life of peasants throughout the year. Also interested in animal breeding.

- Overview of the main food sources across countries/regions. For example the cereals (wheat, oats, barley), fats (oil, butter), milk products (cheese, milk, yogurt), salt, wine, etc.

- Implication of the previous in larger scale events like famines, man power limits, city development, etc.

The period that I am targeting is Medieval and Modern (but it could include more).

And the region which I would be interested in are Europe and/or the Mediterranean.

Do you happen to know any good book that could be useful? I guess that it is very unlikely that there will be a single solid book that happens to cover this but any suggestion is highly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

​

PS: Re-posted since I did not get any reply when I asked 2 months ago.

I’ve read the US expansion west was the second fastest permanent land expansion conquest, after Russia’s expansion through the Steppe and across Siberia.

However the Steppe historically have founded many disruptive groups that fought back and expanded into Europe and Asia.

Why was the Russian expansion so quick given the various challenges faced in Russia? Was it the result of new technologies proving imbalances between sides or a long term decline with these groups due to pressures from settled populations. When did these occur and if much earlier why did other nations not expand into the Steppe?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

In 1946 a group of men got together to retranslate the bible and make the Revised Standard Version, RSV. When they got to 1 Corinthians 6:9 they translated the last Greek word in that verse to Homosexuality:

1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV): 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, (I know this is ESV and not RSV. Will explain later).

This was the first and only time the English word homosexuality has appeared in both the new and old testament.

Once they released the RSV, a seminary student wrote to the head of the RSV translation team, Luther Allan Weigle, and told him that he thought they made a mistake translating that word. According to that student this Greek word is very rare and only appears in all Greek transcripts 100 times, and when it does it better translates to "Sexual Pervert." Luther Weigle wrote back and agreed that they had made a mistake, but that he couldn't make any edits for ten years.

Currently the RSV does use the word sexual pervert, but as the ESV version above shows and other versions of the bible show that word has stuck and hasn't gone away.

Questions:

1. I have been a Christian my whole life and never heard this story. Supposedly the Yale archives has these letters between the student and Luther Weigle. What's your take on this story? Is it accurate, did I miss anything or miss represent something?
2. To the Greek scholars out there did they make a mistake translating that word? Not being a Greek scholar, how could I check this myself?
3. If I wanted to see the primary sources of those letters between the student and Luther Weigle would I need to travel to Yale, or is there a way to check online?

Thanks!

Was reading up on slave treatment And wanted to know why did northern states support abolition of slavery

It's a classic joke nowadays, grab your phone pop open TikTok and do a 2 for 45 minutes.

I've heard of people grabbing a soap bottle to read the back of. I'm sure I've done this one too.

And of course, popping open a novel to read while pooping happens all the time.

However I'm curious is this a phenomenon of the past 30-40 years? The creation of The Mass Market Paperback? Or are there records of some Cleomenes of Athens grabbing a clay tablet on his way to his morning constitutional? Basically is there evidence of people seeking entertainment while doing their business prior to the late 20th Century?