The period of 1870 to 1920 saw the rise of a multitude of ritualistic fraternal organizations, for social purposes, mutual aid, or political or ethnic solidarity, to the point where a large percentage of the adult population was a member of one or more of these groups. I'd like to hear your take on the reasons for their rise and decline and your opinion on their effects on society and government, lasting or otherwise.

I had trouble blieving that I couldn't find this question in a search, but it kept returning 'search failed'.

I overheard a discussion last night about the nativity. The topic was things that are commonly accepted but aren't true. A couple of examples being that Joseph and Mary likely stayed with relatives rather than at an inn, and that the three wise men were actually kings who visited some years later.

I also have read where the entire story was likely created in order to fulfill some earlier prophesies about the messiah.

I'm interested in what is accepted by historians as likely true based on evidence. Is there any?

EDIT: holy guacamole, my first front page. Thanks for all the interesting answers and discussion.

Is it the melody? The lyrics are more winter-specific than Christmas-specific but if you caught me off guard and asked me to name a Christmas song, I would say "Jingle Bells."

The difference between Tories and Whigs was that the former was more in favour of the monarchy, the later more in favour of parliament.

Yet monarchs, at least since, James II, have been the (protestant) head of the Church of England. Why wouldn't Tories thus be big supporters of the Church of England? You instead find the Tories to be loyal Catholics.

What were the main reasons for Germany's invasion of Russia? My understanding is that it was primarily ideological(lebensraum and hatred of the communists). Strategically, what did Germany gain by invading Russia?

Also, how was the war sold to the public? Did the Germans resort to using some sort of propaganda? I remember reading that the war was sold as being a preemptive one against a possible Russia invasion. I'm not sure how accurate this is.

If someone could elaborate on the above 2 points it would be great.

From what I can tell, they did serve on both oceans and their successors, the Iowa class, had a very Atlantic Bow like bow. So why weren't the South Dakota or North Carolina class battleships ever fitted with them?

I know about Julian the Apostate and Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, but who were the last pagans in Rome?

Who were the last public advocates of paganism in Rome, who were the last to defend the old gods from Christianity? Would they be concentrated in Rome itself or in the provinces? What would we describe as Roman paganism in the 4th-5th centuries? How important were the latter-day religions like Sol Invictus?

I'd like to know anything about Roman paganism after the triumph of Christianity.

Alternatively, is there evidence of growth in smoking that correlates to growth in civil aviation at the time?

I've been curious if being able to smoke in aircraft was a factor in the growth of smoking.

It's been a common theme for a long while at least in the UK, and from my very casual observations much of western Europe. I know its quite common in Australia (although sport often makes the front pages as well) too, and I'm not so sure about the US (although something is telling me the back-pages in many American publications have been more reserved for the classified ads, whereas in the UK these tend to break up the "news" and the "sports"). Is there a rough time frame when this started to happen.

Also is there a specific reason as to why this happened, was there some revolutionary who decided it was a better idea, or was it just a gradual evolution.

NB: I had a very quick search for this and couldn't find anything specific.

Were there differences in the combat ability and skill between the different regiments of the Austro Hungarian Army?

Considering you had German, hungarian, slovakian, czech etc. regiments I really started to wonder how different they were in their ability to stand their ground/attack. And how well were they equipped?

Are there any sources which tackle with historical linguistics concerning its ideology, methodology, sources etc.? What I especially wonder is that how testable are the hypotheses of historical linguistics? In the classical sense, something cannot be called “science” if it does not produce testable explanations and predictions. When linguists talk about hypothetically reconstructed proto languages, is there any way to test these predictions? If not, what is the point of making them? Are there critics questioning nationalistic and racist agenda in historical linguistics?

Playing Crusader Kings 2 has got me thinking about this...

Is there a strict definition of feudalism that makes it distinct from cheifdoms as laid out in wikipedia?

Was there written laws that identified noble hierarchies, such as count, duke, king, etc.?

Or was a lot of the middle ages a very de facto case of 'this guy holds this much land valued at so-and-so which means he can raise such-and-such an army to exert A or B influence, so maybe the king will be nice and give him a new noble title that falls in between X title and Y title'. Otherwise, Eg. I don't think a count could get another count to become his vassal (though he might hold two counties, he'd split them up between multiple vassals or rule them directly).

Crusader Kings makes it a rule that any noble of one title cannot make a vassal out of another noble with the same title. In real life this could (possibly?) mean that the latter must be humbled or the former must be granted (or earn, by whatever political machination) a higher title.

Then again, there'd need to be written laws that rise above him saying that he could or could not, in the case of noble titles in general. Or that somehow, this was just universal popular consensus throughout every kingdom/empire that was 'feudal'.

This thing about medieval politics is a conundrum for me. Anyone willing to clear it up?

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Generally speaking how did most communist régime's throughout history view non realist artist, non classical musicians, and writers in society?

Was the primary religion Jewish? If so what other large religons existed, and if not what was?

I wanted to do with various historical topics. I'm just clueless how to get good sources and develop an education on a certain matter. I feel I should also note that this question probably ends up being what books to read.

With Roman influence so widely spread, why is Latin a dead language?