Hi there, this didn't get much attention in /r/history, so hopefully this will be a better forum.

I'm interested in making a short film set in the early 1900's (basically pre-wwI), and I want to find some examples of how ordinary people talked back then. I've heard records and movies from around that era, but I want to find examples of common people talking (not actors acting, or newsreaders newsreading).

Thank you all for reading this.

I've wondered this for a while now; the Hapsburgs were involved in numerous royal families over the European Middle Ages and later, and though I know very little about them, I can't help but wonder if the family went to war with itself while ruling other countries or kingdoms.

Please pardon if I sound like a dolt; the politics of royal families in Medieval Europe are something I know almost nothing about.

I teach a US History survey to college freshmen, and just gave a lecture on WWII. One of my students asked a question I didn't have an answer for: With the German economy so devastated after WWI, the Treaty of Versailles, and a resultant depression, how did they have the resources for invading Poland in 1939?

Thanks for any help!

My parents are both Italian, and both grew up during the 1970s and 80s. My father's from Bologna, specifically, and always goes on about how the Red Brigades destroyed Bologna.

Who were they? What did they do?

I've heard that in earyl America, say late 1700s, early 1800s you had to own land to be eligable to vote. Is there any truth to this? Are there any major differences between voting laws then and now?

Thanks!

There is much talk about how Kennedy would have been regarded if he had lived, and how Reconstruction might have been different under Lincoln, but I rarely hear much about Garfield or McKinley.

So, did their reputations change much in the aftermath of their deaths, or were Lincoln and Kennedy exceptions?

There was a word beginning with J that was used to describe the women who handed out white feathers to men, that didn't go to the front during WW1. I can't find it anywhere. Could anyone here provide me with it ?

Why did Napoleonic-era soldiers armed with muskets stand in perfect squares or lines, completely exposed and out in the open? Wouldn't it have been far more effective to do what modern soldiers do? Meaning staying behind cover, behind trees or mounds, foxholes or whatever is avalible and only peeking out to take pot-shots. In every example I've seen them in, whether in the various wars of Europe to the American revolution, the musketmen just never seemed to make use of cover. Why?

I know that during the revolution a good portion of the fighting force was made up of militia units and the 2nd amendment (all other interpretations aside) allows for a militia so I'm wondering if any militias were called up during the civil war and if they were did they see combat?

So when I was little my dad told me that the Italians were in the war too. He said we kicked the shit out of them because Italians were pussies and that was that. Now that I know a bit more I figure that probably isn't the case. So could someone kind of explain what happened?