Not for research, just for pleasure reading. Thanks.

Which periodicals (not counting journals) do you recommend to students of history? My library is re-vamping our history periodicals, and I'm wondering what we might add to Smithsonian, National Geographic, etc. Are there any you found inspiring when you were studying (or deciding to study) history? Are there any you subscribe to now as a professional?

If so how would this have worked?

I watched the movie redcliff which is based on the siege of redcliff during the three kingdoms and noticed that Zhao Yun was also caled Zilong by some. After some quick googling I found out that that was his style name and many men got one when they reached adulthood.

Why would they stop using they family name? Specially since most of them were from important lineages.

And why people in China stopped doing that? Supposedly it was because of the may fourth movement...

I'm really curious on what method they used to remove sediments from the river, and I'd also be interested in info on other forms of hard labor for prisoners in the Victorian era. Thanks!

Please and thank you.

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I just finished Sharon Kay Penman's great historical fiction trilogy about the last Welsh Princes of Wales (with a brief detour to look at Simon de Montfort's rebellion/coup d'etat) and found the books fascinating. I liked them as historical fiction because she devoted sections at the end to stating openly what she'd changed, what she'd imagined, and what she simply could not know.

Anyway, that's a digression. The point is I couldn't imagine what the armies of Llywelyn Fawr, Dafydd ap Llywelyn and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd would have actually looked like - the composition of their forces, what arms and armor they bore. I'd really like to know, so if anybody could help, that would be very appreciated

The actual questions

1. Between 1200 and 1282, what was the composition of a Welsh/Gwynedd army? Obviously this was probably not uniform, so I'm not expecting specifics to each regional leader or decade, but I'm wondering about the split between infantry, bowmen, cavalry (did they even use it? I think I remember reading that the Teulu, or household guard, were all mounted, but I'm not sure about anyone else) etc

2. What would a Welsh/Gwynedd infantryman have carried as his arms and armour during this time period? Did they differ markedly from their English equivalents? Pictures would help if they're available, but a description would give me far more than I currently have in my mind

3. Did Welsh/Gwynedd tactics for warfare differ markedly from English tactics at the time? The books spoke a lot about hit-and-run raids and proto-guerilla warfare, but when/if a Welsh and English army met in a battle, were the tactics the same or markedly different?

Any help would be really appreciated, as I'm struggling to find this information from Google and I am not a good enough amateur historian to know where to look next beyond here

Thank you!

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I am currently researching Unions and Organized labor for an independent study class. While I am sure simple Google searches can turn up a number of different titles, I am very wary of bias. Would you kindly recommend some books, papers, or journals dealing with Organized Labor in the United States of America? Thank you.

Many thanks for clicking!

Robespierre's activity during the Terror would seem to the untrained eye that of a cliché Communist dictator; desperate to protect and renew a revolution against monarchies, in-fighting and external military threats. Certainly his predilection for executions, suspicion and clandestine policing, taken along side his abolition of slavery, remind us of more than a few 20th century Communist leaders. Of course Robespierre was not a Communist, had such a thing even existed. His policies and pragmatism, however, have certainly seen echoes in later Marxist movements.

This being said, how have such movements typically viewed Robespierre and his terrorising of France's conservatives? I believe Pol Pot (himself with a French connection) modelled his Year Zero calendar after that of the revolution in France. Were pre-Marxists like Robespierre viable and/or popular models for later Communism?

This is kind of one of those "you know what I mean" questions to not be taken too literally.

I'm not sure if there was ever a period where no major conflicts were happening in the middle east, but when was the last time there weren't widespread tribal/religious feuds constantly going on like today? ie where most people got along most of the time, or maybe a good standard would be if the middle eastern region was relatively as safe to travel through as areas like Europe today.

IF the answer is still pretty much "never" I have a follow-up/different question on the same line. From my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong), much of the current tribal feuds in the middle east can be drawn back to when the middle east was divided as a result of its involvement in WWI, but was never really patched up or resolved like Europe eventually was.

So is WWI the sort of "beginning" to the major widespread conflicts that still carry on today? Or was it from the introduction of Shia vs Sunni Islam? Or what?

Again these questions should be taken a bit loosely. It's probably hard to say "none of the conflicts today predate WWI" or "no countries were at war from this year to this year" I'm mainly just interested in the general trend of widespread/major conflict in the middle east in relation to modern times. Hope that's clear enough hahah. Thanks for any answers!

What was their reaction to powerful companies like IBM or Microsoft? Was there ever any attempt to compete?

Can this be expplained by an idea of 'national taste'? I have heard people argue that Chilli became widespread in india as a means to mask bad tasting meat, this seems unsatisfactory to me as people surely ate bad meat in early modern Europe. Could the avaliability of spices in the east have meant that asians were more accustomed to strong flavours and as such better prepared to incorporate the chilli into their cooking?