Thinking of food (as I am wont to do), I wondered about the history of cookbooks and culinary schools. I know there are surviving recipes from long before mass production of books made them something other than a luxury item, and so a few thoughts came to mind:

• Compared to records of other things (inventories, epic poems, religious texts, etc), do we have many ancient records of recipes, or cookbooks?

• Was having written recipes considered something only the very wealthy and powerful would have? I know this is a rather broad question and most contributors here are very narrowly focused, so I'm perfectly happy to hear the answers you may have as they relate to your area of expertise. 

Example: Would a wealthy family of the Roman Republic even have written recipes, or would they just have a good cook? Would the cook/chef even have written recipes?

• When did great cooks/chefs attain a level of professional prestige? When did it become not uncommon for a skilled chef to get "hired away" from where they grew up, moving from employer to employer?

• What can you tell me about the first culinary school we know about? When did they become prevalent (or at least not an extreme rarity)?

• How did the spice trade (especially during and after the Age of Exploration) affect recipes, cookbooks, and culinary schools?

• What is the first cookbook we know of? When did they become prevalent (or at least not an extreme rarity)?

Even if you can only answer one question, I'll be grateful :) Feed my mind /r/AskHistorians!

I'm reading the book "Wilson's Creek" and I keep seeing references to the Missouri State Guard being largely armed with "hunting rifles and shotguns" but the tone of the quote is very negative towards civilian arms. I'm a Civil War buff and a gun nut, but this is a question I cannot come up with an answer for. The only things I can think of are range, load time and the variety of calibers being about the only negative aspects. Any ideas or historical thoughts on this are appreciated.

To my understanding, the IRA (and most affiliate groups and splinter factions, from the 1900s to now)—were Socialist Republicans. I'd say that, after the rebellion against the UK beginning in 1916, they won, aside from the Northern Ireland bit. So then why is Ireland not an official Socialist nation? According to the internet, they are a constitutional republic with a parlimentary system.

Why is this?

Thanks in advance!

Fur in see bi west Spayngne Is a lond ihote Cokaygne. Ther nis lond vnder heuen riche Of wel, of godnis hit iliche. 5] Thogh Paradis be miri and bright, Cokaygn is of fairir sight. What is ther in Paradis

My question is this. Where the people who named cocaine, somehow reembering this poem?

In the game 'Rome: Total War,' whenever you want to take a city for your own faction, you, naturally, lay siege to the town. Most of the weapons you can use to expedite the process make some sense to me, rams, early catapults (in the game referred to as 'onagers' on account of their recoil.) but some give cause for pause. For one, siege towers, which I had never heard of being used before the late middle ages, and even more interestingly, so-called 'sapping points.'

Basically, the idea is that the sapping point is placed in front of some section of the wall, and used to represent some force of yours digging a tunnel under the wall, and burning a large fire to weaken the wall.

Look that logistics of the method mentioned in the game are of little consequence, my question is how the antiquity era waged siege warfare, preferably the methods above, but any other methods that were used in history are certainly a welcome read.

Long story short, my work team has decided to go see the visiting Pompeii exhibit at our local museum as a "team building" day. Seeing as I have a Master's in classics, I was volunteered to put together a short intro to the topic to give some context to the exhibit before we go. But, I also don't have any time to put something together.

Does anyone know of any videos, preferably available for streaming (and for free), 10-20 minutes, that would work?

And is it possible to obtain the recipes?

I understand that communism is considered largely in the U.S. to be an ineffective and generally bad political system (and I agree), but why was the U.S. so aggressive in its policy of global containment? Wouldn't fighting wars to change the systems of government in other countries be considered infringement of national sovereignty? Yes communism may be bad, but why was it the overwhelming opinion in the US that it was the duty and right of the United States to fight it globally? Was it just part of a large power struggle with the Soviet Union?

You hear of these massive amounts of Mongol soldiers using their bows, numbers of soldiers going up to 150,000, and Mongolians in Mongolia using their bows and arrows to hunt all the time. But Mongolia isn't exactly what you would call a place that's good for forestry. How did the Mongols make all of these arrows for the empire and military? Did they ever recycle the used arrows that were still salvageable? Was a fletcher considered to be a sustainable and noble job/lifestyle in Mongolia and the Mongol empire?

So I just started watching Vikings, and I wanted to know (without spoiling too much of the plot) how historically accurate the show is?

Since Denmark basically controls the exit point of the Baltic Sea, how critical was Copenhagen during the Cold War period? Did they contribute to NATO efforts in any way?

I often read that France was still having difficulties rebuilding after the first world war. They had low population, economy, ... How come that Germany, that had suffered probably even more than France, was able to rebuild much quicker?

OK, I went to bed, and woke up (went to work and had things on so now finally having a quick squizz on reddit) to find all these incredible resources! wowowowow! thanks so much guys!! This is seriously overwhelming. my next challenge will be getting a copy of any of these books! :P

When I was little, I was watching a History Channel documentary about the Soviet space program. They showed a series of clips of cosmonauts with melted looking faces. I cannot find any more information on these.

I had a teacher who was a conspiracy theorist who suggested that this was the one time that a spacecraft tried to penetrate the Van Allen Belts, thus resulting in the radiation disfiguring the cosmonauts. I don't necessarily believe that, but I do remember seeing pictures and videos of cosmonauts with severe injuries like I've described.

Tried googling (admittedly briefly) and didn't find anything. Searched here and the only similar question had no responses. Been wondering about it for a bit, so any help would be much appreciated.

I am a non-American from an English speaking country. I have spent most of my life consuming the history of the USA through the eyes of Hollywood. America is regularly maligned for real and perceived injustices, I am curious what a wider historical context will do to this view.

One of the most striking formative narratives I have been exposed to is that of American slavery and black suffrage.

I can only think of a handful of other oppressed populations (Irish occupation for example) that have managed to stay within a nations confines and fight for (and mostly attain) the same level of equality as afforded to the oppressing population.

Immediately groups such as Women, LGBT, Protestants (under Catholic hegemony), European peasants, and children spring to mind but these are not specifically what I was hoping to learn more about.