I saw the post on explainlikeim15 but I just wanted academic sources

This might be a bad assumption to begin with, but I’m guessing that it was A LOT harder to the GDR Government to guard the whole frontier than to guard the relatively small (and therefore more controllable) Berlin Wall. Taking that assumption into account, wouldn’t be a lot easier for someone to secretly cross the border than to escape through Berlin? I have always been fascinated by the story of the berlin wall, but still wandered about this...

Maybe there were actually a lot more escapes through the border than trough berlin, but we just don’t hear about that so often because of the berlin wall being a “more interesting” situation?

If someone could enlighten me about this issue, it would be amazing.

Someone made this claim during my class, and I was very surprised by it. I'd never heard anything about state currency. He mentioned that state militias in the Civil War were paid in state dollars, e.g. Massachusetts soldiers would be paid in Massachusetts dollars instead of US dollars.

For my part, I suspect they were paid in scrip because the state couldn't immediately cover their war debts, but I'm not certain of this.

His broader claim was that the US wasn't in a monetary union - with a common currency - until the Reconstruction era (he mentioned 1871).

I have a garbage public school education regarding "U.S. History." I want to learn more about the truths of our country's history in an unbiased way. Preferably in a somewhat brief book--no more than 300 pages.

I am sure there are loads of information regarding this topic, but I want a brief, concise, all-encompassing piece of non-fiction, historical literature that retells our nation's history from the discovery of North America to the 21st century.

Whenever medieval combat is dicussed, people talking about it usually flung in to a rant about how on the battlefield "No Shield=Death." What about people who had two handed greatswords for example, or pole arms like halberd? Was their heavy armor enough to protect them against an arrow storm? How did they stay alive?

(I tried to find a question like mine in the FAQ, but i didn't menage to, so here it goes.)

I have been reading about topics related to ancient Mesopotamia, especially the Sumerian language and cuneiform. Anyone who begins digging around in this literature will immediately note that many of the foundational texts on the languages (and, it seems, the archaeology) are in German.

I haven’t been able to find any accounts of prolonged German colonies in the region (seems like the French were the dominant colonial force in Syria, for instance).

I’m curious to know if there is an explanation for this pattern (if it is in fact a pattern).

Did any of the large middle eastern dynasties of the middle east in the middle ages (Abbasid, Fatamid, Ayyubid) vary greatly from one another, in terms of quality of life, domestic policy, etc.?

Central Powers* sorry about the typo.

As you probably know, Turkey won "War of Independence" which essentially saved Turkey.

Follow up question: Did the signing of Treaty of Lausanne caused any loss of prestige for Italy, Greece, UK and France? How was the treaty seen throughout the world?

It seems the Pacific theater far-more utilized "battle groups" at sea, but such missions as the Bismarks baffle me. Did its leadership seriously think it that formidable?

"South Carolina was the first to leave the Union and form a new nation called the Confederate States of America. Four months later, six other states seceded. They were Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Later Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined them."

That's how we're told it happened. But how? Was it a governor's action? State legislature? Were the votes unanimous? Did the votes or acts have language to them?

Is there any evidence that the father of the Jewish,Islamic,and Christian faith was an actual, historic person?

Basically, did the Nazis ever consider letting Jews or other peoples serve in the military and in exchange they would be able to live in peace after the war was won?

I know this is a bit of a broad question, so I might narrow it down a bit, but I have been wondering this a while. You have groups, like the Anatolian Greeks, the Bosniaks, the majority of the Coptics and Syrian Christians who ultimately abandoned Christianity for Islam (also the Zoroastrians, but that is broadening it up a bit again). However, there were cultures within those empires who did not convert. Like the Coats and the Serbs and the Bulgarians. What was different about these groups that kept them from being religiously assimilated?

Hey! I had a question concerning GDR's economy. I know that a lot of people worked for the leading party, but how did that affect the economy? Because I know there were already ~200.000 unofficial workers for Stasi, ~100.000 official ones and 2.260.000 employees of the SED whereas the population of gdr was 16,43 million.

Most textbooks when I was in school stated this based on the myth of the foundation of the empire. I'm curious to know if there is any truth to it.

I assume that many ancient civilizations built their settlements and cities right on top of previous ones for the sake of convenience. But presumably at some point, someone said "Hey: maybe we should preserve and investigate what came before". When and why did that occur?

In other words, that the crown prince / eventual successor was the product of adultery between the royal consort and some other man. E.g., Joffrey Baratheon from "Game of Thrones," or if say Elizabeth I had turned out to be Thomas Wyatt's daughter rather than Henry VIII's.