I'd think after so long you'd be so traumatized and jaded by what you'd read that you'd just stop and never look back. Most people can barely stomach what passes by their peripheral, like WW1, WW2, the civil war, the Banana Wars, the Bubonic plague, the Vietnam war, slavery, the Great Depression, Hiroshima, the Great Chinese Famine, slavery in North Korea and the slow genocides of the Uyghurs and the Palestinians, never-mind actively studying the worst sins humanity has committed against itself from both what is commonly and uncommonly known.

I like many like to shut my eyes and pretend that there's only 10-20 historically horrific things that humans have ever done to each other. I don't think I'd be able to dig and dig and dig. How do you do it?

I'm mostly looking for the Caspian area, the area between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and the general area of that, I'd especially enjoy a book or writing about Uzbekistan

I understand that japanese had more planes, ships, and firepower but allies werent able to sink a single japanese ship. I would expect them to at least sink a few ships instead of loosing a quarter of their force.

My Mom and I are having a debate so I was hoping to have some historians weigh in. Essentially what we’re curious about is this: If there is an old couple living in America in the early 1700s with no children or close relatives and the husband dies, is the woman allowed to take ownership of the farm/property? Are there special considerations in this case? Is there historical precedent for widows to be able to maintain their own property after the death or in the abscence of a husband? Thanks!

Hi all. I’m world-building a setting inspired by the Scottish Gaels in a world that kinda parallels the 6th and 7th centuries of Europe in several aspects.

I’ve gotten some solid information on Gaelic culture and society so far but I still don’t know whether the Gaels had any kind of mead halls or not (i.e. a place where locals and maybe travellers gather to drink).

I’d like to include such places in the world, mainly as places that characters of a story can go to, and if need be I’ll find an alternative way of including them in a realistic way, but before I do that I’d like to know if they already existed so I don’t end up making names up for things that already exist.

How was the U.S so sure that the Enola Gay would not be shot down, even if the Japanese thought that it was a plane dropping leaflets?

When Oppenheimer made his famous speech after the detonation of the first Atomic Bomb, did the Japanese have access to hearing it?

Why is Poland sometimes accused of starting world war 2? Putin mentioned it in an interview, is there any merit to this claim.

Also, was Russia the real biggest threat to the U.S, more so than Germany? I remember hearing that many Americans believed they defeated the wrong enemy in the war, in reference to Russia being the bigger issue.

Out of just general curiosity, I want to know why such a switch happened, when it at first glance makes more sense for them to have the same general stances as way in the past. Are there any specific events/laws/acts that stand out in nudging it along?

The post-colonial movement has has led to a contemporary fervor for "de-colonizing" everything, whether for good, bad, or ridiculous. My question is: were there any anti-imperial movements in ancient Rome? There are, of course, innumerable stories of people resisting their colonization by Rome, but was there any resistance to the notion of colonization from WITHIN the Roman power structure? Were there any prominent citizens who criticized Roman expansionism on moral grounds (as opposed to it being simply too expensive, or whatever)? Or did such a notion simply not exist?

Were they double hulled (or outrigger) canoes? Did any have sails? What did the average sea canoe look like during the Mali empire?

The claim is that he sailed west with 2,000 ships, so I can’t imagine them being too complex. However, it’s also said he hired experts from lake Chad and Egypt to share some of their shipbuilding techniques.

Obviously there is still no definitive proof, but I’m interested to see how likely a ship from that journey could’ve made it to the new world

Hi, I've been looking over many maps from the 1400s-1800s and the region that we now know as Russia had on many maps the name of Tartaria, another very intriguing point was that some maps contained both Russia and Tartaria, Russia being on the west while tartaria on the east.

Are there any writings from that era that would support the idea that they were more than just nomadic tribes that were yet to be united? Looking over youtube of course I came across many "they are hiding our history" type of videos, But the evidence presented in those videos was nothing better than "trust me bro there is a conspiracy".

I read what Encyclopedia Britannica had to say about it and it kind of boiled down to the place is a name for the unmapped/ not well-understood region of the east. One other thing that caught my eye was the number of maps that contained Islands in the arctic region, that seemed to never have existed.

(some maps contain naked people, and may not be suitable for work environment)

There are 100s of these maps that I would like to share that are just really interesting to look through... also if there is anything interesting that caught your eye please do share.

On page 259 of his biography of Robert E. Lee, Allen C. Guelzo claims that after Antietam, there were rumors that McClellan approached Lee about combining their armies, marching on Washington, and staging a coup to overthrow Lincoln. Guelzo goes on to say that "Longstreet would later say that 'he was perfectly familiar with the McClellan letter incident'" and that "There had been rumors extending back to the Peninsula Campaign about unauthorized communications, under flags of truce, between McClellan's staff and the Confederate leadership."

Is there any evidence that this ever happened?

Hello,
I am looking for good resources for Ancient battle strategy. I am writing a fantasy novel but I am doing my utmost to keep the tactics realistic. I was inspired by Timothy Zahn's Grand Admiral Thrawn and how the author used his knowledge of tactics to create a brilliant strategist.

I already have the basic primer on war: Sun Tzu's text. What I am looking for now are texts or resources that pertain to specific things like troop formations and popular tactics such as the pincer maneuver. Any time period is fine pre gunpowder warfare since there are very few firearms in my setting. So far I've been looking at roman infantry tactics such as the Tortoise Formation to protect against incoming enemy fire.

If anyone has any suggestions for additional resources or would be willing to brainstorm with me I would be extremely grateful. I want to write something that students of war would read and enjoy.

Thank you very much

For extra points:

- What happens if I'm not a noble, could someone get instruction still?
- Could a woman get fencing lessons, perhaps in the use of the knife and abrazare(wrestling), so she can defend herself?

- What is the church's opinion on fencing lessons? (Since technically speaking they're meant to kill people)

Looking for books about Lisbon’s maritime and trade history. I’ll be going to Portugal next spring and I want to learn more about the naval and trade history. I’m looking for books that follow an academic historical apparatus but also know how to tell a story and wave intimate lives and details into their works. I’m more familiar with Italian history and I like books like: Christopher Duggan’s Fascist Voices: an intimate history of Mussolini’s Italy, R.J.B. Bosworth’s Italian Venice: a history, or Victoria de Grazia’s The Perfect Fascist: A Story of Love, Power, and Morality in Mussolini's Italy. So, something like that but about Lisbon. I’m happy to read about different historical periods but I’m not that interested in periods before the 15th century. I’m also not necessarily looking into a focus on ideologies, fascism is in the mentioned titles just because I though these were great books.

I'm looking for a good book that does a sort of overview history of Ethiopia. I'm mostly interested in the semi modern history, 1600's to present. When I look for books I'm seeing a lot of books about their ancient history and about their second war with Italy in particular but not the sort of broader book that I'm looking for.

Thanks for your advice in advance.

In her article "The Myth of the Classically Educated Elite" Naomi Kanakia makes the following claim,

"Indeed, the one area where Classical education continues to be in vogue is among neoconservatives: that group of former Trotskyists who turned to the Republican Party in the late 20th century and became a huge (albeit now waning) influence on conservative politics."

Is there a firm basis for an assertion that the neoconservative movement was an extension (or evolution of) Trotskyism and Marxism?

I've been to New York City a few times and usually the most common food recommendations are the world renown deli's (Katz in particular) and most of them seem to be Jewish owned. What's the history behind deli's in the Jewish community, Why deli vs other restaurant styles (diners,etc), when did they reach their peak popularity, how lucrative were they in their hayday, and why are they mostly unique to NYC?

How did socialist economies such as the Soviet Union and China gradually turn to capitalist policies and eventually embrace capitalism altogether? What role did the state and the people have in this?

Excavations in the 1970s confirmed that the pre-Roman Iron Age hillfort Cadbury was reoccupied in the late 400s, Leslie Alcock suggested a date of the 470s, with its defences reconstructed with a new dry stone wall atop its upper earthen rampart.

This is quite unusual given several factors.

No other site of the era has been found that is on the scale of Cadbury - all others are essentially a walled farmstead just large enough for a single extended family which could fit on Cadburys summit several times over, in other instances of Iron Age-era hillforts being reoccupied only a small area of the summit was refortified. The next largest is the interestingly nearby Cadbury-Congresbury which is half the size of Cadbury and its reconstruction featured a wall bisecting its summit walling only half of it in.

I am grossly summarizing and simplifying this point so please tell me if I am wrong but in short as I understand it the economy, trade, and manufacturing all seem to have broken down by this point after the Roman withdrawal. No coins appear to have been being minted or in circulation, older coins were being turned into jewelry or placed in graves; trade with the continent seems to have become very infrequent and light with only Monastic and wealthy coastal locations showing any examples (yet another notable feature of Cadbury is it is one of the few locations that is both non-Monastic and inland with any sign of such imports); and for a manufacturing example things like turned pottery ceased to be locally produced with simpler thrown pottery reappearing.

And as impressive as its defences must have been as I said it was topped with dry stone rather than mortared - I don't recall Alcock making the connection in his description of the wall but it looks like they somehow recreated on a small scale the murus gallicus technique - a step backwards for people who would have been living among the remains of Roman masonry.

So with all that now out of the way... who did this, how can there be no record of something like this?

And why was it on this enormous scale, what prompted something so much more massive than anything else of its era?

And how did they manage to accomplish this, where and how did they get the resources and manpower in the deprived conditions they appear to have been in for something of this magnitude?

It is such an unusual site given its scale for the era yet there doesn't seem to be much interest in returning to it since Alcocks initial work, everything seems to just cite that with nothing since. In contrast to this locations like Tintagel continue to be studied. Is there a reason for this lack of interest, is it considered too damaged by later occupation and farming?

So this may be a REALLY dumb question, but are we 100% sure classical music, classical music for example lets say Mozart or Bach. Music that has only survived in the pages, does it sound the same as it did when it was written? How would we know? Could the instruments have been different, or maybe tuned differently? If there is a better place to ask this please let me know. If the question is completely ridiculous feel free to insult me as well.