My wife is taking a class on World Civ at SNHU and her final paper is based on comparing and contrasting the creation of three complex societies. She is an online student and one of the first discussion boards says that "historians use seven different structural filters (economic, gender, governmental/political, ideological, physical, social, and technological) to analyze complex societies." The question for the discussion board is "identify which of the seven structures of complex societies you think was most important in the development of these early societies."

I'm not asking for an answer. We already BS'd an answer. What we would like to know is a little more information into what these "filters" have to do with the creation of complex societies. These seven filters were not discussed in any of the chapters she has had to read so far (three weeks in to an eight week course) and when she asked for more guidance from the instructor, his response was "Much of the discussion about the seven modules is meant to be a reflection of your interpretation of the earliest societies-- that you select how you interpret the role of any of the structures in societies such as in the city of Jericho, the Sumerians, the Harappans, early China, or similar society of your choice." That sounds to us a lot like make it up yourself.

Our question is does anyone have any idea where she could find a resource that discusses what these filters mean to the study of the creation of complex societies? Or should she, in fact, be happy with trying to identify those sorts of large concepts on her own in an initial World Civilization course? Some of them are self explanatory like the physical filter which uses the physical boundaries of the fertile area surrounding the Nile river and the cataracts, the Red Sea and the Sahara desert to explain why the Egyptians were able to create such an empire with almost no outside interference for such a long period of time, but gender and social filters are so ambiguous that searching for secondary sources to explain such an idea for a beginning student seems like a big lift.

It seems like it would have been easy for a man to simply claim to be gay to get out of being drafted in various wars like WW2 and Vietnam. Did that ever happen and how well did it work?

(besides Dumas please) Need a historical fiction novel that's adventurous and somewhat faster-paced to learn about life and history in 1600's Europe.

Appreciate any suggestions!

By liberal, I mean things like rule of law, independence of the courts, equality before the law, secularism, freedom of speech, etc.

I listen to a lot of history podcasts and one thing I often hear repeated is that the creation of the Dreadnought immediately obsoleted all existing battleships. How did people at the time know this? When did the world actually start saying "oh, it looks like our fleet is obsolete." How did people outside of England even KNOW these details?

How have a relative handful of Arabs managed to keep it all to themselves?

Thanks!

On the television show MASH, most of the main characters are said to be drafted. I am wondering how realistic the portrayal of conscription during the Korean war is. In particular the length of time the conscripts would be expected to serve.

Capt. "Hawkeye" Pierce is a board certified thorasic surgeon. He is already at the 4077 MASH in the summer of 1950 and remains stationed there until the last day of the war, July 17, 1953.

Cpl Klinger, a draftee Corpsman, is also there for the entire length of the war.

Lt. Col Blake is the CO of the 4077 from summer of 1950 until probably late August 1952, when he has "earned enough rotation points to go home". (He dies when his plane home is shot down). (Blake might be a reservist-- he talks a lot about being pulled away from his civilian practice but never says he is drafted. Can we assume he wasn't based on his rank?)

In the first week of Sept 1952, Capt "Trapper" John MacInytre gets his discharge orders. They are evidentally a bit of a surprise-- Hawkeye left on a week's R&R not knowing he would return to find his friend gone. Wouldn't his release from service have been scheduled months in advance?

On Sept 12 1952 BJ Hunnicutt arrives in Korea. He has been drafted "fresh out of surgical residency" with a two-month old baby at home (would this not warrant a deferral?) . He remains at the 4077 until the last day of the war.

Maj. Winchester is a thorasic surgeon who was drafted and assigned to a hospital in Tokyo until he was transferred to the 4077 sometime in autumn 1952. He remains there until the end of the war.

Cpl "Radar" O'Reilly, a clerk, is also there at the beginning of the series. He is sent home in late 1952 on a "hardship discharge" after his uncle passes away, leaving his mother unable to manage the family farm alone.

Not too long ago, I read a discussion on a Roman general's description of an abandoned walled city the he came across in his travels. He remarked on the impressive size of the wall itself, being both tall and spanning a great area. I wanted to read more about this, but can not recall the specific person, nor the city. Searches of Reddit and the open internet return results commensurate with my lack of detail. Can anyone help me with a name?

I guess my question is more to do with the lives of slaves in the USA and what they did when they were not working.

Few different aspects I’d like to know:

What evenings consisted of? Any days off? Was there any sort of retirement cut off for slaves and if so how would these retires slaves spend their time?

I also understand that it may have varied from plantation to plantation.

Olaf Tryggvason was only king of Norway for 5 years, yet seems to show up in an outsized number of the Icelandic family sagas, as well as a saga all his own. What is about Olaf or what he represented to Icelandic society at the time the sagas were written that accounts for his plentiful appearances in the sagas?

(I am thinking of, for example, Fóstbrœðra saga and Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss)

With relevant context of course. Could Jerry Seinfeld hop in a time machine and go back to the 1800’s America and slay a crowd with a “what’s the deal with covered wagon food”? Would the ancient Egyptians have died laughing at a hieroglyph of Bastet saying “I can haz Ful medames”?

Is there any specific reason that America bombed these sites instead of other cities like Tokyo or Kyoto region

So pirates are kind of ubiquitous to modern pop culture, but I have no real idea how or for that matter why they became such a thing - even years before the invention of film. While with cowboys the answer is mostly due to the Wild West shows (to my understanding) - idk about pirates - is it because Britain wanted to mythologise its losses to Spain?

Are there any living descendants of his ?

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Are there any known examples of people claiming to be his descendants ?

Title says it all really. I know the broad outline of Kim’s life but I know very little about his years as a guerilla fighter and his life between young adulthood and becoming the leader of North Korea.

Doesn’t Germany have a native born citizen rule?