I'm interested in famous revolutions of the XX century and how the people were affected by them. I don't have idea about reliable sources. Help!

As the title says, I would like some help to find sources to begin with the study of the revolution movements of the past century because I don't have any idea where is a good place to start.

2 Answers 2015-12-21

In WW2, did Heer officer cadets got sent into battle before being promoted to actual officers?

I recently read the memoirs of a Romanian who went to tank school (at Neuruppin) in Germany to become an officer. What I find interesting is that he was both Gefreiter and Fahnenjunker, if I understood correctly, and before becoming an officer, he ended up at Kursk. He was promoted to Leutnant afterwards. Did the Germans have the habit of sending their officer cadets into battle before promoting them? If I understood right, normal officer cadets for the British and the US armies came out of the academy directly as 2nd Lieutenants/Ensigns. How did the promotion system work for the Wehrmacht?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

How much damage would a war dart do?

Any kind of war dart. Were they made for killing or made for disabling the enemy. People say Valens was killed by a war dart during a Calvary charge. If lawn darts can kill people, then war darts can do serious damage

1 Answers 2015-12-21

I've read that Napoleon's enemies at war became ever more difficult for him to fight because, over the years, they copied his ways and used them against him. What were these ways and how were they employed against him?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Can You Identify This British Naval Uniform?

I wondered if anyone with some knowledge of British military / naval history could help me to identify the uniform of the man in this portrait: http://imgur.com/vHeWJTU (I'm sorry about the poor cellphone photo; I can probably take a better one if needed.)

I believe he was a Royal Navy officer of some sort - perhaps early 19th century? but don't know much else. The portrait has come down in my mother's family and I'd like to identify exactly who it was - so any information on likely date, rank or anything else would be extremely helpful.

Thanks!

2 Answers 2015-12-21

The comic book character Batman is well-known for not using guns. Was this characteristic at all related to an anti-gun movement in early to mid 1900s America or was it a simple plot device?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Doris Kearns Goodwin said on Colbert that the historian's job would be harder in the future because people don't write letters and diaries with "intimate" info anymore. Historians of Reddit, what do you think the best "primary sources" of the future will be?

Link, this question at 34:30

"We won't have that intimate detail" in the future, she claims. Thoughts?

4 Answers 2015-12-21

How were colonial trading posts set up?

I'm particularly interested in asian trading posts in the East Indies and similar areas. Were they built from scratch or just existing villages that were extended. Were the materials shipped in or taken from the local area?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Why is WW2 much more glorified than WW1?

I've been watching The Great War series on youtube and comparing WW1 to WW2, it is much more gruesome and intriguing than WW1. So why is there so much spotlight in the media towards WW2 than WW1?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Why did the Salvation Army adopt military structure and imagery in their church movement?

Is it unique among Christian churches for this?

3 Answers 2015-12-21

Why was the Free City of Kraków created at the Congress of Vienna?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Are today's Jews truly the ethnical successors of the ancient people of Judea, or are they rather the inheritors of the Jewish culture and religion, with only loose ethnical ties?

6 Answers 2015-12-21

What happened to the SA after the Night of the Long Knives?

I know they officially remained in existence. But at the same time, they didn't really seem to do anything. In the history books I've read, the story of the SA basically finishes at the Night of the Long Knives. The story then focuses on the SS and the Wehrmarch.

But if they still existed, they must have been doing something. Why wasn't it just abolished eventually? What did they do?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

How did nazi culture survive after WWII?

Nazi Germany was based on a strong ideology and I can't imagine this way of thinking disappeared just like that after the war. I found some anecdotical evidence while browsing the Wikipedia page on German POW camps in the USA.

Often members of the Afrika Korps who had been captured early in the war during Germany's greatest military successes,[13]:150–151 they led work stoppages, intimidated other prisoners, and held secret kangaroo court for those accused of disloyalty. Those convicted were sometimes attacked or killed in a process known as the "Holy Ghost"; most prisoner "suicides" were likely murders.[7][18][15] While the American government executed 14 Germans after the war for murdering other prisoners in three incidents, hundreds of such murders may have occurred.

Prisoners regardless of ideology often taunted their captors, such as saluting with Sieg Heils when forced to attend the lowering of the United States flag. They secretly celebrated Hitler's birthday and other Nazi holidays after the Americans banned them, and many became upset when Jewish American officers supervised them.

So it's clear the ideology survived but I'd like to learn more about how exactly it survived (did it also exist out of POW camps for example) and how long it remained strong.

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Sword carrying in Europe, 1500-1800

I'm trying to find information on sword-carrying laws in any European country between 1500 and 1800. I'm vaguely familiar with Medieval laws regarding the carrying of swords within city limits in England and France, but anything after the 15th century is outside my area of expertise.

1 Answers 2015-12-21

In early US history how people made decision of which President to vote for?

How Americans choose who to vote for in early US presidential elections? There was no telegraph or radio invented, so were people only limited in newspapers and candidate's speeches when he was in town? It seems that nowadays we rely on media a lot, so I wondered if the process was different in the past

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Who are the Hakka people of China?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Tell me about the gay rights movement in the Weimar Republic?

I recently learned that there was an explicitly pro gay rights movie made in the Weimar Republic as early as 1919. Where did this radical liberal thinking (gay rights) come from, what was the popular reception at the time and what led to its demise (I assume the Nazis)?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

Question about ancient and medieval warfare

Ok, this is about ancient warfare and tactics and how some of the physics behind them actually worked. So I have loved ancient warfare for the majority of my life. Over the years I've gained more and more knowledge about this subject, but a couple of questions seem to keep me wondering. The first two kind of have something to do with each other, but they both are some what independent.

In formations such as a phalanx or a shield wall you end up with an ungodly amount of force being exerted on the very front lines of the two forces colliding. With both sides pushing against each other, wouldnt the men in the front lines be literally squished and splattered simply from feeling the push of two armies on their fronts and backs? (like a giant sandwich).

My second question has a bit to do with the front line of a force being hit by the rest of its unit, but this question is about cavalry. In a cavalry charge with the horses galloping towards their target they hit with deadly force and come to a stop quite quickly, wouldnt this stop cause a load of friendly fire? I mean just think about it, you have a bunch of lancers moving forward at 30 or so mph and the front line of lancers comes to a halt.....wouldnt the rest simply not have time to slow and end up spearing their allies?

My last question is about when lancers hit their targets. If a lancer hits a lightly armored target dead center in the chest, wouldnt the lane get stuck in the target?

Also thanks to anyone that takes the time to read or comment. also i thought i should add a video in reference to the sandwich thing. you can clearly see that both sides are pushing on their front lines with the force of ever rank. https://youtu.be/HdNn5TZu6R8?t=1m37s

1 Answers 2015-12-21

The recent efforts of the United States at nation-building in the Middle East haven't gone great. What made the US so effective at rebuilding Germany and Japan after WWII?

First question here, hope it's not too vague. It just seems to me that there was more long-term will to help rebuild these societies after WWII, that maybe we haven't had since? Did it have to do with the influence of certain military figures, like MacArthur in Japan?

2 Answers 2015-12-21

Why do we not return ancient artifacts?

I understand the historical significance of most artifacts but why do we not document them and respectfully return them.

3 Answers 2015-12-21

A great granduncle of mine died in France a mere two weeks before the end of WWI. Do records exist that would show where his unit was to a reasonable degree of specificity, and would it be possible to ballpark the general area of his death?

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1 Answers 2015-12-21

How old is the legal profession? Given the money, would Galileo have been able to lawyer out of trouble? Joan of Arc? Jesus Christ?

2 Answers 2015-12-21

How widely-spoken was English in Scotland prior to the Union of Scotland and England?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

If Neanderthals were adapted for cold climates by being short and stocky, why are Nordic people generally tall?

Is this because of the different places of evolution, the Neanderthals evolving in cold climates during the ice age while humans evolved in the tropics?

1 Answers 2015-12-21

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