Did the Romans ever campaign in the territories that now encompass Poland, the Baltic States and Russia?

I understand that the Roman frontier generally settled on the Rhine and Danube, but were there any serious attempts to conquer land or subjugate peoples further east?

If any showed patriotism.

I want to learn about the history of the British Isles, in depth and detail: I want a complete history, ideally running from pre-historic times through to the modern day, with as few kings and queens omitted as possible.

Which book/s would you recommend I read? If you have a selection of different books by different authors that, read together, would provide this kind of overview, that would be more than welcome. Works covering the geography of the British Isles would also be interesting.

I know that a tailored reading list is a lot to ask for but, with all the books out there, I really don't know where to begin. I'm grateful for any help you can offer.

was there any plebiscite between Mexico and the United States in order to establish if Mexicans wanted to stay or leave Texas?

Built in the Cold War during the height of nuclear paranoia, did Disneyland have bomb shelters or nuclear contingency?

Basically, what was the diplomatic relationship between the parts of America under British rule and the newly formed republic? I have difficulties finding books that are not completely biased in one way or another. Especially from 1776 and up until the war in 1812.

(for example, how did they decide that Spain ends and Germany starts in a certain place, how did they work out the borders?)

Ok, so in hindsight it clearly DID have a chance (and more)

But if you look at the British empire the manpower pool and resource pool they could use to fight the war was would be scary even by today's standards.

So what gives? Why would they think they could go against the largest empire in the world?

I'm aware of the "People's Budget" and the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, but this was far from the start of the supremacy of the Commons. As early as 1671 the House of Commons passed a resolution stating "That in all aids given to the King by the Commons, the rate of tax ought not to be altered by the Lords".

How did this state of affairs come to be? Was it the civil war, or does it go back even earlier than that?

That is, did any director from the silent era direct a film after 'Family Plot' in 1976?

Edit: a commenter pointed out that Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire was released in 1977, but the comment was removed. Buñuel had directed the famous silent short film Un Chien Andalou in 1929.

How did a small naval power like the Genoese, hold off and defend its farflung trading outposts, against the hordes of the Great Khan (Golden Horde)?

I simply don't understand how such small trading republics like Venice or Genoa, maintained such large force projection, to be able to defeat much larger land powers.

Back in my first year of drama in university, my professor (who loved the original Star Wars films) mentioned how George Lucas borrowed directly from mythology when creating Star Wars - and it's undoubtedly evident with the main themes and characters of the films.

However, my professor was not explicit with his explanation, and as much as I and I think most would agree with him, I feel that solid evidence is needed. Do we know for sure which myths Star Wars borrows from?

I know the Jedi (and the word itself) both borrow from Japanese samurai culture, for example which is not mythology, but which is heavily mythologized.

The Muiderslot, Berwartstein Castle and quite a lot more.
I can understand if it's a castle with a bad reputation, but sometimes perfectly good castles were just left abandoned for centuries.
Why do some castles get abandoned while others are used for indefinite time?

High medieval militaries seem, to my admittedly amateur eyes, to all be fairly similar in broad strokes. They seem to be dominated by big dudes in lots of armor riding around on large horses (please correct me if this is inaccurate), and those men seem to typically be semi-professional soldiers of the upper classes. Was this true of militaries in slavic countries? Or were Ukranian, Russian, and similar militaries more similar to those of Steppe, Byzantine, or Turkish militaries?