With the situation in Afghanistan being what it is there is a popular post on another subreddit that shows an infamous picture or Reagan meeting with the Mujahideen. This got me thinking as to what actually fractured this group, and what relations between the two groups are like now.

This will be my first time posting on this subreddit, so if this post is too short or relatively shallow compared to the other discussions, sorry in advance.

I have a simple question: When and under which circumstances did Republicans and Democrats changed places politically? Considering how Republicans positioned themselves during Civil War and regarding the abolishment of slavery, they can be regarded as the progressive party back then, unlike Democrats, who were rather pro-slavery and held a conservative stance. Today, on the other hand, as we all know, Republicans are more conservative compared to the Democrats, and progressives, liberals, and even social democrats do have a wing under Democratic Party. How did such a radical shift happen?

So, to phrase my question better and give more background to this, I've heard songs from the Civil War Era like "Dixie", "Bonny Blue Flag", and others, but none of them have explicitly racist lyrics from what I can tell. Now, as someone who's half Italian-American and Queer, let me state that I do not endorse racism or bigotry of any kind, this is just a question of curiosity. What I want to know is, did the explicitly racist songs written by the Confederacy:
(A) Get censored in modern times because of modern racial sensitivities.
Or...
(B) Never get written in the first place because the South wanted to focus on the message of "States' Rights" and possibly because they knew the racism made them look bad so they wanted to cover it up.

Personally, given what I know about racial attitudes at the time, I think it's VERY unlikely the confederacy would try to cover up their racism for posterity or to make themselves look more admirable. (I mean during the war, not later when the apologists came out with the whole "States' Rights" argument that's more "popular" with certain kinds of people today.) I mean, the Confederate constitution even explicitly stated how they believed Black people were inferior to White people, and it was the "White man's burden" to teach the other "underdeveloped" races how to be "civilized". Or at least it said something to that effect. One thing that is plainly clear is that they thought Black people were basically savage animals.
So where are all the racist songs? And if I can find them on YouTube (which given YouTube's current policies I probably can't), I'll be sure to cleanse my ears with a good dose of "Union Dixie" afterwards. Haha.

(Also I have a Bachelor's Degree in History yet somehow can't find a job. Please validate my existence and tell me I didn't waste my life getting a "useless" degree. 😅😅😅)

Did Eastern Christians during the crusade joining the templars or hospitallers ever happen? Where there well known crusaders of eastern christian origin?

During the Stalinist Era, Leon Trotsky was one of the biggest targets for Stalin’s paranoia. It even got to the point where people were getting purged merely for having formerly associated with him. With Stalin’s death and Khrushchev’s destalinization program, was Trotsky rehabilitated like many of Stalin’s victims? If so, would he have been talked about in Soviet history classes or would they just not mention him?

It's been pointed out a lot in the present day that Hitler was awfully short, brown haired, and brown eyed for someone championing a race of tall, blonde haired, blue eyed "Aryans." Did this ever come up while he was in power? Did his enemies poke fun like we do today? Did his allies express confusion? Did he have an answer ready? Is my understanding of his understanding of race excruciatingly simplistic?

Is there any archaeological evidence to support the idea that Spartan hoplites had a Λ for Λακεδαίμων on their shields?

I can't remember reading any such description in Herodotus or Xenophon, but it seems quite wide spread in popular culture.

I've seen British Officers wearing a gold plate around their neck in a few shows I've watched. The plate is a sort of crescent shape facing upwards. It is worn by higher ranking individuals. I wanted to learn a bit about them, but was unable to find what they were called from google. Captain Chesterfield from Frontier is one character that wears one. Can someone tell me exactly what they are?

Hello everyone,

My father told me that my German grandfather smuggled letters for the resistance against Francisco Franco in the 50s and 60s. He even got caught once and was in a Spanish prison for four weeks. My father did not have a lot of contact with him, and he must have been very secretive about these jobs, so I don't know much more than his name Otto Axtmann and that he was an architect, who worked for the French in their South-German occupation zone because he was one of the few German architects who wasn't member of the Nazi party

I would love to find out more about him, and the Spanish prison might be a good starting point. Do you have any tips on how to approach this? I hope that there are any digitalized archives available.

And since this is a history sub: can you tell me a bit about post WWII fascistic Spain and how the resistance worked during this time?

I am happy about anything you have for me.

EDIT: I just found the privacy rule of this sub. My grandfather died before I was born in 1988.

And yet, I've only ever heard the description of how European diseases effected the natives, and not the other way around. Even though- from what I've been told- the Europeans had worse hygiene and would rarely bathe, while native americans were cleaner and bathed often. what gives?

Hello,

So right off the bat the reason why I’m asking this is because the movie 300 has made this kinda difficult for me to figure out.

But was the saying “No retreat no surrender” an actual Spartan law or is this an entire things made up from the 300 movie?

I am talking about within one empire. Was it all about the size, bigger coin > bigger money?

I feel this would be a better question for you historians who know more than the average Redditor over at the book suggestion sub.

I am interested to learn more about how Russia, Saudi Arabia (& other middle Eastern countries), Pakistan, USA, UK (etc) all played a role in what's happening to Afghanistan today.

I'd like books:

• what it was like during the time of the conflict. History about the Taliban etc.
• what it's like now, 21st century, how America and other countries are partly at fault for what happened

Thank you.

Hello, I’ve been wanting to learn some more about the Celtic Mythologies as well as the religion of Ancient Scotland. Does anyone have any suggestions for books to read on these subjects(which potentially overlap if I understand correctly)

I saw a post saying soap was created 2800 years ago and im just wondering, how did they have the knowledge to create it and what were the ingrudients?