My understanding is England and France failed to form strong tank divisions and relied on WW1 infantry tactics when these clearly had failed in the precursor conflicts to The Battle of France.
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10 Answers 2015-08-12
Most of them don't look like Turks who live in Central Asia.
3 Answers 2015-08-12
Can anyone help me cite this loeb source using chicago style for a footnote? I'm having difficulty....
I'm looking at page 319 and trying to cite a quote written about the omphalos...
1 Answers 2015-08-12
Is it okay to ask for book recommendations on a certain topic if there isn't anything directly on said topic in the book list?
(sorry if it is, read through the posting rules on the side bar but didn't see anything specifically about this)
Edit: since a mod was kind enough to respond with yes, I reckon I'll edit this in case anyone else sees it.
I'm interested in the Qing dynasty, as it coincides my the period in US/European/world history I'm most interested in.
There's a book in the list on the Boxer Rebellion,and I'm currently reading a pretty interesting book on the Taiping Rebellion. I'm more interested in event before this however, maybe pre 1850? Or just a general period/dynasty book.
After I feel like I've exhausted the Qing period, I hope to move into Sun Yat-sen and Chiang and Mao and the 1911-1950 period, but it seems like there's a lot of literature on that time which is a lot easier to find.
2 Answers 2015-08-12
"I am the punishment of God. If you had not comitted great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you"
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I was recently on a tour of Chichen Itza in Mexico, and our tour guide informed us that, despite using round-shaped stones & logs frequently, the Mayans never developed the use of the wheel. Are there any reasons that a civilization that could map the stars & planets, could not invent the wheel? Or was the tour guide giving us false and/or exaggerated information?
1 Answers 2015-08-12
Hey guys,
My question is inspired by this article: http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2010/08/comparing_brazil_and_united_states
It compares the similarities and differences between Brazil and the USA. As a Brazilian, I've always wondered whether so many of our country's problem can be purely attributed to the vestiges of our colonial past. Indeed, we were a colony for over 300 years and we have only been independent for about 180 so far, and a republic for like 130 or so.
There is a 'running gag' in Brazil that the Portuguese are dumb, incompetent etc. With regards to their colonial system, to what extent is this true? I know the British didn't get it right every time (i.e. India, for example, shares many of the problems Brazil has, although it cannot be compared structurally to other British colonies), but the Brits did give us the US, Canada, Australia, etc.
So, my questions is: What elements of Brazil's problems (corruption, economic woes, etc) can be reasonably tied to its colonial past, and what was it about British rule that allowed the aforementioned countries to succeed? Thanks a lot in advance.
1 Answers 2015-08-12
I know that similar questions about the significance and the value of the atomic bomb have been asked, but I'm primarily interested in this specific question. How revisionist/marginal is the suggestion that the Soviet invasion of Manchuria is the true reason for the surrender of the Japanese? What are the best books to read arguing for either perspective? How has the historiography evolved with regards to this question, especially in recent years? If this question is an outright clone of one that's been asked earlier, I apologize. I searched through the archives and couldn't find one that honed in on this specific element to the exclusion of others.
2 Answers 2015-08-12
My mom told me a few weeks ago that Einstein had a lot of help from his wife developing his famous work like special and general relativity, and that his wife doesn't get the credit she deserves.
My mom also said Einstein's wife actually had a higher IQ than Einstein and was smarter.
Can someone help me determine what the truth is in regards to this please?
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Just curious how many known/estimated pirates existed during that 66 year stretch.
1 Answers 2015-08-12
Since cars move forward automatically when in drive, why don't we have dead man's switches on autos?
This made me think of it: http://i.imgur.com/JN9EMVG.gifv
Was going to ask /r/AskEngineers - but figured I'd get assumed answers or variations on "because they don't" there. Figured someone might have actual sources here. ;-)
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I'm seeing the phrase "chattel slavery" only recently, especially with the discussions of the race related shootings in the US, the Confederate battle flag and the Civil War.
Is the reference to "chattel" slavery to distance it from more modern things ("wage slave", "sex slave")? Or historically were there more and additional points along the spectrum which also might include indentured servitude and such?
2 Answers 2015-08-12
When the Etruscans settled in Italy, bringing along the Greek Pantheon - eventually adopted and modified to become the Roman Pantheon, what religion was followed by the natives of the Italian peninsula?
1 Answers 2015-08-12
And why do some historians say that we should take Suetonius' account of Tiberius' character, like Claudius, should be taken with a grain of salt?
1 Answers 2015-08-12
The land contained in the reservation is larger than some states, and they already have a lot of autonomy. What has stopped them from becoming a state? Do they not want to? Is there no political will?
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Hello! I'm an historian at New York University, where I teach courses on modern Latin America, social movements, and democracy. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about Venezuelan politics, past and present, which is the subject of my new book "Barrio Rising" from the University of California Press (http://amzn.to/1J4ryeW).
If you've heard about Venezuela of late, you probably know it's a country mired in turmoil, "whether it’s political battles between supporters and opponents of the late socialist President Hugo Chávez, economic crisis as oil prices plummet, or social unrest as people fill the streets to protest everything from spiraling crime to state violence," as I wrote for the UC Press blog recently. "But thirty years ago the story was very different. Back then Venezuela stood for many as an inclusive democracy in a continent where dictatorship and civil war reigned. Enlightened leaders, strong parties, powerful unions – all spoke of a stable political system that for decades managed to ensure social peace.
Or so it seemed.
As I describe in Barrio Rising, the conflicts that grip Venezuela today aren’t a departure from but a continuation of decades-long struggles over what kind of democracy would take shape after the country’s last military dictatorship fell in 1958. More representative? More participatory? How to combine the two?
These struggles played out dramatically in the 23 de enero (January 23rd) neighborhood, a massive complex of barrios (squatter settlements) and public housing high-rises in downtown Caracas, Venezuela’s capital and largest city. Named in honor of democracy’s founding date, the neighborhood’s history mirrors the nation’s democratic history. Here, as one long-time resident put it to me, “the fight was fierce.” The fight to secure a democracy more responsive to the needs of the nation’s growing ranks of urban popular sectors in what is Latin America’s most urbanized country. It took place as poverty rose amid oil booms, and rose even more amid oil busts. It took place in the streets and in the polls, as residents made use of both formal and informal democratic tools – protest and the vote – to demand accountability from political leaders. And it took place largely out of view of scholarship that focused more on the institutions of democracy than on its everyday, lived experience.
Barrio Rising captures that experience. The questions it raises about the relationship between formal and informal politics extend beyond Caracas or Venezuela. They strike at the heart of debates over what democracy is – and what it should be – in highly unequal societies."
With that as backdrop, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have on the book or on Venezuelan politics more broadly. Thanks in advance!
20 Answers 2015-08-12
It seems like most of the major battles from 1915 onwards occurred from around Verdun north. That leads me to, naively, kind of mentally picture a bunch of Germans and Frenchmen hanging around in their respective trenches near Mulhouse smoking and griping about the weather and not fighting very much.
What was happening in the southern half of the front (The Vosges Mountains, Alsace etc.) from 1915 through 1918? Were they in a state of stalemate (like they seem to be when you read a summary of the war)? What kind of troops held the line - was it held by reservists, did they have fewer artillery pieces and machine guns, etc?
1 Answers 2015-08-12