Sarcasm just somehow feels modern to me, as if people in older times were always 100% serious about everything, and it's only we in the modern age who can employ sarcasm for purposes of humor, mockery, or disdain.

Obviously this isn't true, yet it's always a shock when I find examples, even from only 50 years ago or so, of people in earlier ages being sarcastic. That got me wondering: What is the earliest documented example in history of somebody employing what we today would recognize as sarcasm?

I can't stand the taste of warm beer (i like to assume i'm not alone), and will turn it down if presented. Perhaps it's because i'm accustomed to it.

Did people used to enjoy drinking warm beer?

During the 12-14th century. How does African kingdoms stack up to the development of the rest of the world. Primarily Europe and Asia.

Like ship building, economy, military, social issues?

If the compromise was to ban slavery north of the southern border of MO, why then were MO, KY, VA, MD, & DE all slave states?

I am aware of the case of Roger Casement exposing the abuses of Leopold's Congo Free State and then being executed for efforts to bring German arms into Ireland.

However, I would like to know what the attitude of the Irish Free State/ROI government and the Irish people towards the rest of the British colonies. Was there sympathy and active campaigning to support efforts at self-rule in India and Africa in the 1930s-60s?

I am also interested in Republican organizations in Northern Ireland, and what links they may have had with anti-colonial movements in the British Empire.

If it did occur, why? How common was it? Did it depend on the immigrants? What countries did this? Or was this all a myth created simply for a story?

Sorry if this has been posted before, search pulled up nothing for me.

In the first chapter of The Worldly Philosophers Heilbroner discusses the origins of the market system. He begins,

First stop: France. The year, 1305.

After discussing the year he moves to a different time,

Next stop: Germany. The year is 1550 odd.

Odd does not appear to be a description of the hear in the usual sense of the word. The discussion paragraphs are not about the oddity of the year. Is it a technical term? My googling efforts were mostly thwarted by maths sites ("is 1550 odd?").

I heard that disillusioned soldiers on both sides of the Western Front spread socialist ideas thereby angering their commanders. Is this true and was it at all significant?

I'm looking for a quote or a paraphrase of some sort.

I minored in history in college, and have always been interested in everything pre gun powder, but I'm especially interested in learning about the transition of humans toward civilization. Any entertaining and/or informative reads about that time period? Early settlement, agriculture, religion, way of life, etc.? Thanks!

So we have an autonomous state with military power (czechoslovakia), presumably a border patrol which marches along the Sudetenland and suddenly a troop of german soldiers are crossing the borders (since the Czechs did not agree to anything). What happens next? The patrols just run away and the goverment does not send any reinforcements? Ceding, de facto, the land to the germans?

thank you.

In the past 400 years or so, it seem as though world power had been dominated by relatively small western countries that used colonies to provide them with raw materials necessary for goods and eventually industrialization.

Looking at WWII, the U.S. appeared to be in a position of tremendous advantage: instead of relying on distant colonies, their natural borders were gigantic compared to most other powers. It seems like this gave the Americans a huge boost to potential locations for major industrial hubs and increased access to diverse natural resources. It looks like there was no way the Germans or the Japanese could even hope to stand a chance against the Americans unless they underwent some serious infrastructural upgrades to their conquered territories.

Is the amount of land controlled a historically accurate way to compare the relative power of states? A related question: were the Germans and the Japanese on a trajectory during WWII to actually make use of and rival American industrial infrastructure and access to resources if they had not provoked the U.S.?

Hello, more of a request than a question but can anyone direct me to some literature/sources on the Latter-Day Saint Church in reference to the First World War? Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated.