I know this is a really broad question but bear with me.

Napoleon is considered one of the most important humans to ever live in our pop culture and he's basically synonymous with the "great person". He's up there with Julius Ceaser, Jesus, or Queen Elizabeth in terms of how he changed the world, but I'm not really sure how he did. While Julius Ceaser conquered England, Jesus transformed the world with his teachings, and Queen Elizabeth ensured that England would stay a country and not become part of Spain, I feel like Napoleon didn't do anything other than almost conquer Europe.

What is important about Napoleon? A map of Europe before and after his wars seems about the same. France is the same size. It seems that what's most important about Napoleon is how he sold or lost all of France's colonies and was defeated by the UK. I see how that might have cemented the Anglo dominance over the world, but that doesn't make him a great man at all.

Were his artillery reforms in the other thread the most important thing about him? Or was he important just because he conquered and then lost a lot of land quickly?

I am playing around with some ideas for a cocktail built around what might be available to someone in Pennsylvania around 1780-1820.

Any citrus? If not, what would they have somewhat similar?

Sugar? Molasses, or something like a brown/demerara sugar? Honey?

Tea/coffee/bitter? What could be used to bring bitter to a drink?

Any way to chill a drink? Snow from outside in the winter?

Thanks in advance.

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

Was it simply called that because the conflicts were mostly fought by proxy?

In games and literature there have been many instances of clergy leading troops on the battlefield. Was this a practice that was at all common during the Catholic dominance of Europe? How did priests end up in the position of commanding military forces?

It's not uncommon to hear a pop song using the beat from a rap tune that sampled a jazz ballad based on a folk melody. But surely copying other artists, or at least being very specifically inspired by them, isn't unique to our times or limited to music.

Do we have any interesting examples of plagiarism from the renaissance or earlier?

Alternately, how long has sticky paper been in use for labelling glass- or ceramic-ware?

If a Jewish family settled in 15th century London, would they be reported to the mayor or another authority? Did any Jewish families resist the 13th century expulsion?

Are there any mentions of Jews in England at all between 1290 and 1657?

I just watched a BBC documentary entitled "1945: The Savage Peace" (which can be found on youtube) about " the treatment of German civilians in former occupied countries after World War II, with eyewitnesses and victims recalling the horrors with searing clarity."

Despite being a fan of the BBC i try to be cautious with the documentary as a media for transmission of knowledge (the constraint of the format, target audience, power of images, et cetera). So i am coming here in the hope of getting a clearer and sourced view of this period/those events (who knows, there might be an expert here)

More precisely i would like to know in which country it happened (Poland and Czechoslovakia were mainly mentionned in the documentary), who perpetrated what (how involved was the random civilian?), the implication of the allieds forces and of the russians, the situation/context/reasons, the scope of the killings and how long it lasted.

Please AskHistorians, give me a big (sourced) picture ! (feel free to get broader than what i listed, anything that you feel is important is worth mentionning).

I hope this is the right place for this - /r/History's FAQ stated questions go here. The title pretty much says it all. The background is that I have a Chinese client who gave me a few wide strokes of Chinese history today and got me interested in knowing more. If I can be picky, I tend to like historical non-fiction (ie more "literary" writing) instead of textbook-style information blasts.

Thanks in advance!

I read some things on William F. Buckley, and from what I read it seemed like a lot of the things that he advocated for history seemed to view as wrong. He went back later on a lot of the things, but they were still wrong initially. For example, he seemed to advocate for continued segregation in the South. He supported the Vietnam War. A lot of what I read seemed to be the "wrong side of history," and when I hear him argue, he did seem very intelligent, I didn't get the "OK I disagree with what you're saying, but I understand it and can see your point of view." From what I've seen it's more of "No that's wrong."

The full quote from the film

I too was an Inquisitor, but in the early days, when the Inquisition strove to guide, not to punish.

AFAIK the film is a good adaptation of the book, and Umberto Eco's work is usually well documented.