In the U.S. today most people are buried in their "Sunday best" which usually doesn't represent what they wore during everyday life. Ibn Fadlan's 10th century account of a Rus chieftain's funeral states that special clothes were sewn specifically for his burial (though the body was cremated at the end of it).

I was speaking with my father about some of the current copyright issues and he said that the same fight has (more or less) been going on for as long as he can remember.

FAMILY HISTORY

My grandfather came from Greece after fighting in WWII and the Greek Civil War and rarely talked about his wartime experience. Before he died we convinced him to transcribe as much of his wartime story he was willing to tell, and a part that always struck me was his time with the British army.

He said that after escaping from Greece to Turkey, and his subsequent release from a Turkish prison camp following Turkey's switch to the Allies, he walked into the British embassy and was essentially asked to join the British army to continue the fight. He was then sent to North Africa, where he fought in Tunisia and El Alamein.

ACTUAL HISTORY QUESTION(S)

I'm not looking for anyone to verify my personal family history, but rather whether or not a story like his was common, and what his day to day might have looked like once he started serving under the British army. How were individual Greek soldiers viewed by their British commanders and how did the Greeks fit in as part of the overall British strategy?

I'm doing a research paper (20 pages) on the mythical Golden City, and was wondering if there are any good books that could be recommended. I got Jstor and all those databases for tracking down primary sources (which is likewise a hassle), but I'm mostly having trouble with scholarly journals and books which are limited on the subject of El Dorado.

Basically I'm delving into how Spain misread a native story, and launched fruitless campaigns to find El Dorado with zealous furvor to claim religious superiority over the New World (and to of course fuel their lust for gold). Like the Quest for the Holy Grail renewed in Latin America.

I've read Napoleon's Wars by Charles Esdaile, but I wondered if there was a "best" single volume intro to this time period (along the lines of MacPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom)...

When the Republic of Turkey was declared, the new regime seems to have gone to a lot of effort to intentionally distinguish itself from the Ottoman Empire. The national capital was moved; the form of government was completely revised, and even some forms of traditional dress like the fez were banned.

Yet the national flag continued to remain virtually unchanged. In other situations (including the emergence of new governments during the same era, such as the Weimar Republic in Germany), the adoption of a new flag was a normal part of the transition. Why didn't Turkey do so?

nlahnlah posted that:

"Dueling. As a custom it survived for thousands of years and multiple attempts to outlaw it couldn't snuff it out, but then people started making fun of it and it was gone in a generation. As the historian William Oliver Stevens put it:

'Solemn gentlemen went to the field of honor only to be laughed at by the younger generation; that was more than any custom, no matter how sanctified by tradition, could endure.'"

Is this a commonly accepted reason for why duelling fell out of practice? Why did that "younger generation" laugh at duelling, while previous younger generations had not?

Are there any major instances in history when this event occurred and led to any type of violence or large-scale accusation of adultery?

I'm using China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci as a source for a paper I'm working on. In it, Ricci makes the rather odd claim that in his study of 4,000 years of Chinese history, he had never seen any record of a war of conquest, or even them extending the boundaries of their empire. As an immediate counter, the Yongle Emperor's 21-year occupation of Vietnam a little over 150 years prior springs to mind, so I'm curious--has anyone seen any articles on Ricci that might explain this? Is this a technicality, a result of the dynastic history not having been written yet, Ricci being lied to?

I've been watching the TV series Spartacus the last couple of weeks and it's had me wondering if there were any movements to end or limit slavery in either the Roman Republic or Roman Empire and if so what were their reasons and how did they go about it?

I'd like to have a look at some good historically books about my favorite people in history. I've read the "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and thought It was excellent but I was disappointed that the book ended when he became president.

I'd like to read some books taking up more of his later life, his presidency and his life after that.

Also I would like some good books about Robert Oppenheimer one of my other favorite characters in history. Book(s) covering his life and his own idiosyncrasies.

Hello,

I seem to be having trouble creating narrow questions for historical topics. The best example I can think of is for my History 308 class we're to pick a topic that "looks at a specific aspect of how the United States changed during the antebellum era."

My suggestion to the professor was that I do a topic on "how the US changes ... on the rise of tensions and growth in US military presence prior to the Civil War."

I suppose what I want is did the rise of social tensions regarding slaves and states rights increase US military presence in the 1800's? My goal is to try and figure out how and when the Union and Confederate soldiers started creating their armies and out of what ideals.

This is a pattern for me this semester so far - I am asking questions that I think are pretty narrow "military presence in the US in the 1800's," and I'm being told they're too broad.

After I look at what I've asked it makes sense, but is this just something that comes with time and practice - the more you look into history and ask questions about papers the more of a feel you get for proper questions for research?

Hey fellow historians! I'm currently writing my thesis about the election and coronation of the german and english kings in the Middle Ages. I'm german and I found many sources about the german coronation, but I find it hard to find sources about the english kings.

Was the king actual elected, like in germany, or was it all about inheritance?

I would be so happy if you could give me some tips for literature (in german and english).