What was the mood of the people in Europe's great powers? Did many expect a large war going into 1914? Were they optimistic? Were rulers/politicians actually telling them what was going on? Even if you can't answer these questions any relevant info would be much appreciated!

I was watching "Fury" and noticed that at one point the soldiers behind the tanks were ordered to start marching fire. This conflicted with my impression that the practice was dropped after World War 1, though that might have just been my assumption. I was also wondering how effective the tactic itself actually was. Thanks for any response!

Is it a recent development or has the winter solstice been traditionally a bigger event than other holidays?

I'm aware of the term Occidentalism as being considered analogous to Orientalism but the Wikipedia article is pretty unsatisfactory when it comes to artistic/cultural conceptions of Europeans. If Europeans depicted "Orientals" as philosophical, exotic barbarians, what was the reverse perception?

I've always heard that back in the Middle Ages beer was safer to drink than water. Did this lead to deformities commonly associated with fetal alcohol syndrome?

I know many last names are linked to professions, but what about colors?

Often we see in movies that the future is chrome or a shiny white. Why is the future shiny white?

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Maybe this is because I'm from Europe, and not that well-educated on qaukerism, but to me this always seemed the most strange fact about NIxon. Nixon, known by some as the most corrupt politician ever, was a quaker, who are known for things like abolitionism, social justice and pacifism.

Hello Historians, I am Swiss and recently got interested in history. So my question is, are modern Swiss people Germanic or Celtic in heritage?

At first I thought we are Celtic, because of the Celtic tribe of Helvetians (Helvetii) who settled here and the country is actually called Confoederatio Helvetica, abbreviated as CH. However, after some more reading I found out about the Alemanni (Alemannen), who were a Germanic tribe that settled in north eastern Switzerland and which gave the name of our "language", some might say it's only a dialect, who is called Allemannisch.

So all things considered, would you say the Germanic or Celtic tribes had more impact on what would be considered modern Switzerland and would a Swiss guy like myself be more Germanic or Celtic in heritage?

In other words, does the mythology ever shed light on previously unknown history, leading to a finer understanding of the subject? Is there an example of this? Maybe this is a historiography question. I've been listening to Philip Harland's Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean podcasts, and if I'd been in that class, I would have asked this question.

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(Disclaimer: I absolutely do not mean to offend Christians. So please do not take my words that way.)

What is the historical, secular view on Jesus' goals and importance in Roman Judea? I've asked some of my friends who have done research on it, and they say these are some of the prevailing theories: Jewish political revolutionary who wanted independence from Rome and used religion as a way to do that / social worker / person with an unspecified mental illness that led to visions and was taken as a sign of divinity / etc.

Was it to make a better acronym or is there another reason m