Is it true that in old portraits (ex. Washington, Napoleon), a hand stuck into one's jacket or vest was a secret signal that the subject was a Freemason?

I'm watching the series of Vikings and king Ecbert of Wessex (ca.770-839) is, in private, doing some interesting research to the Romans that lived on his land before him. Were more English kings doing this and if so, what were their opinions of the Romans? Do we know?

I am reading Xenophon's Anabasis, and as he describes Cryus' army marching East he feels the need to note that when they come to a town it is οἰκουμένη, that is "inhabited." This sounds to me like there must have been lots of empty cities that the army marched past, so that Xenophon felt like he needed to specifically say a town was inhabited.

Did something make people abandon lots of towns? Was he referring to ruins of earlier civilizations? Am I reading too much into this?

I know Charlemagne exchanged relations with Offa of Mercia, and that surprised me as I have this image in my head of the Early Medieval period being one of isolationism. Where does the truth lie?

Large land empires, like Austria-Hungary, the Ottomans, and Tsarist Russia seem to all have built up territory through dozens of wars with their neighbors. It seems that the Nazis doomed themselves by seeking to conquer so much so fast. What was their motivation for this?

Today there are several distinct English accents of native English speakers, including American and Australian. When and why did these distinct accents develop and pull away from the stereotypical English accent?

Did any of the participants in the war, have any demands prepared before the war started or were these demands prepared during or at the almost end of WW1?

This goes for both, the Entente and the Mittelmächte. My main interest here lies with the Mittelmächte though, as they do not seem to be discussed as often.

I mean before the Civil War.

Did both have to go to a local slave registry? Did the slave have to carry around a receipt of freedom or something?

I know this is a big question, but I wonder if the widespread and unprecedented destruction on a large scale of those lands in the centre of Europe, through which many important and long-established trade routes went, had equally large effects on the european trade and trade networks. For example I know the Hanseatic cities remained neutral and were already in decline, but their final downfall seems to have come in the times directly after the war.

I have an old pharmacy bottle with this label under a glass pane and on searching i can only find references to it in old medical texts.

I believe it is wine of anatomy but that search leads to google hell.

So can anyone tell me what the wine is and was used for?

Thanks!

I've frequently seen a story claiming that residents in the LA area were so shocked by the Milky Way that they called either 911 or an observatory. These claims are often taken as fact, but I have never seen a source. Is there any evidence that this actually happened?

Hello. I want to learn about communism and its history. I have heard about Marx and Stalin, but that's about it and i even know little about them. I was hoping to find a book/books that can help me understand communism more AND the history of communist countries (most interested in Soviet). I have no problem with large books, but since i don't know much about communism i would like books that explain, and don't expect me to already know stuff.

Sorry if this does not belong here mods.

I recently watched the film Lincoln (2012) and enjoyed it a great deal, but I was wondering if I could get a little help understanding the historical context of some of the events in the film – mainly the issue of passing the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

I’m from the UK, so although I know a little about this period of US history, some of the details confused me a somewhat. In particular, I was interested in the interactions and motivations of Lincoln, the Democratic Party, Thaddeus Stevens, Preston Blair, and the conservative and radical Republicans.

From what I saw in the film, it seems as though the Democratic and Republican Parties of Lincoln’s day were quite different from the modern parties – with the Republican Party being the more socially progressive, and the Democratic Party being opposed to the Thirteenth Amendment on principle.

The Republican Party seems to agree with the Thirteenth Amendment in principle, but seems somewhat divided, and it seems that Lincoln needed to get Preston Blair and Thaddeus Stevens on board to get their respective wings of the party to vote for the amendment.

I was wondering if someone could let me know if I’ve got the basics of the situation right, and perhaps explain in more detail the positions of the various parties and factions, as well as the personal motivations of Thaddeus Stevens and Preston Blair.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Obviously, I know that none of these nationalities existed during this time period, but I was wondering how culturally uniform or diverse the British Isles were before conquest. I know the people were Celtic but I know there was also a lot of variation in mythology and language, as far as I can see from Wikipedia.

Hi all! I'm sorry if this has been posted before, but I couldn't find any posts about it in my search. Anyway, as the title suggests, I'm looking for a good book (or books) about the Battle of Stalingrad and the events leading up to it. If you have any suggestions, that would be wonderful! Thanks!