I'm reading Les Misérables at the moment and the first book of the second volume (about 200 pages into my edition) is an account of the battle of Waterloo. Can this be taken as historically accurate text? Thanks very much!

Because even early 1900's songs and plays used gay commonly to mean happy; content.

I'm currently reading Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" and I'm a bit confused about all the titles and how they rank. There are barons, princes/princesses, comtes, vicomtes, marquises and dukes. What do they all mean? In the book they seem almost to regard each other as equal and reserve only special regard for people directly related to royalty.

As a follow-up question: could you please explain something about what happened to them? Why did they loose their influence on French politics?

Edit: Can I sneak in another question? Could you guys tell me a bit about the whole "Salon" culture during that time period?

I was reading a great book called On the Beach by Nevil Schute where nuclear war escalated between the superpowers but Australia was not directly attacked.
Do we know if the Soviets had plans to attack Australia or would it have been logistically too complicated or otherwise unnecessary?
Similar question about South America as well- I was thinking if some bigger countries managed to escape the inferno, would they become the new superpowers?

A quick google shows Strand theaters in California, Massachusetts, Manhattan, Maine, Michigan, Plattsburgh, Louisiana, New Jersey, and more. Many of them are old - early 20th century or so, from what I can see online and from my experience going to some of them.

Were they all originally franchisees or part of a chain or something? Or is calling a theater 'Strand' simply tradition - and if so why?

Orange, black, and yellow (in that order) comprise the primary Halloween palette (in the U.S., anyway). Purple/green may be less obvious to people who don't think about this sort of thing, but it's ubiquitous these days, just walk down the Halloween decoration or card aisle at any Walmart. I remember these colors being used as early as the mid-70s, with green perhaps most common as witches' skin and purple for night sky. I'm wondering how far back these design conventions go.

As a side question, what how important was the campaign in general? Was the Axis defeat a significant setback for them?

I've been reading a lot about individual battles fought by US troops during WWII and come across numerous references to reinforced units at pretty much every level from company through division and even a few corps, often with (Reinforced) after the unit name. It seems to occur most often in the Pacific and Marine units, especially are rarely listed without the qualifier. I had assumed they were just over-strength units meant to absorb casualties, but now I'm wondering if they weren't just units that had assets from a higher organization attached. What are these referring to specifically?

I couldn't find this in the FAQ but did the Hundred Years War abruptly end (in 1453) because of the War of the Roses or were there still small-scale invasions to the French mainland?

In particular, how did Imperial China and later Republic of China manage to achieve unity across such a large and diverse geographical area? What factors allow a single nation state to endure at such immense scale, while others fail to achieve stability and cohesion despite being much smaller?

Pretty straightforward - Do we have any documented cases where a person was hogtied or otherwise bound and then secured to the traintracks? Or is this just a complete fiction?

I love learning about history for fun and like watching documentaries but it seems like every documentary produced in the last 10 years is always full of action, intense narrating, inaccuracies, and over-the-top reenactments.

I recently tried watching Mankind: The story of us all from the History Channel and it was completely terrible.

At one point they talked about the Vandals raiding Rome to kidnap the Empress and pillage just because. They didn't mention that the Empress herself requested they come to Rome and depose the new Emperor that murdered her husband and in exchange there would be a political marriage.

The point at which I had to shut it off was when they said that the Vikings lifted Europe out of the dark ages. All they mentioned was that they were great explorers and colonized. Not once did they mention Charlemagne and his contributions to western civilization.

Anyways, I'm finding it hard to find good quality documentaries about history, doesn't matter the time period. I just want to learn.

Can you guys recommend any quality ones?

Particularly how did they measure time in China and Japan before European influence.

Basically I'm writing a story about a fantasy Irish guy and would like to get some knowledge on this topic.

I can't really make everything painfully realistic because that would put my readers off. On the other hand I want to show the contrast between my character and the characters of the "wonderful" medieval setting.

I've heard that the Kievan Rus was the largest country in Europe at the time, but did they take part in the Crusades? If not, what were they up to around that time?