Hello all,

I am currently answering this question for an essay but I have become stumped in doing so. Does anyone have any book recommendations/ websites that may help me to answer my question or interesting topics that I could address?

Any other help would be greatly appreciated.

From it's depiction of sex and rape to even the way war is waged and ended.

I have been teaching various seminars in Medieval Philosophy for thirteen years. In 2010, I published Ockham Explained, a book simplifying and explaining Ockham's theology for the intellectual nonspecialist. During his time as a professor, I have written a number of scholarly works on Medieval philosophy, theology, and history. I have presented at conferences from Cairo and Cyprus to Indiana and Louisiana, and has been involved in multiple critical edition/translations. I have an extensive background in manuscript translation and am fluent in both Latin and Koine Greek. I will be answering questions involving the history of ideas in medieval philosophical theology. I am excited to be here.

We typically envision Chinese armies as masses of unorganized peasants. Were ancient Chinese armies during the Qin, Han, Tang ever professional forces?

Been delving into Reformation history recently and I'm interested in learning more about Thomas More. What are some good biographies, both largely positive and largely negative, concerning the man?

This question really comes in two parts. First, is it true, or merely common misconception, that it was common for adults to engage children in sexual acts in ancient Greece? Secondly, children who are exposed to sexual acts have a host of psychological problems when they grow up, at least in contemporary society. Was the same true in ancient societies?

Also, he didn't really elaborate a whole lot on that. If the USSR really did use American parts in their missiles, how did they get them in the first place?

Just curious what caused the difference in societies. Was it the ride of structured religions? Those were around during these time periods but sexuality was still pretty liberated. Was it something else?

Did the first generation who did this get to pick their own last name? Did they all originate from the place they were from? (Ex. Jesus of Nazareth) How long has middle names been a thing? I've been wondering about this for some time and I would appreciate it if someone would clear this up for me. Thanks!

What role did slavery have in the differences in economic yield between the two?

I live in the waaay coastal northeast US (basically an island), and I've been through my share of blizzards. Some of them seem to come out of nowhere, even while glued to the latest accu-weather forecast. They can be absolutely crippling. We have a long history of Natives here (Wampanoag Indians) who must've dealt with it in the past.

Made me wonder if some native tribes who live in similar areas would be able to predict weather in any way. Maybe watching mammals burrow unexpectedly, or birds behaving differently?

Also, what would Natives do during a blizzard? Just wait it out in their longhouse (or whatever dwelling they used) and eat food stores? We're deaths common?

Hope this is the right sub for this question. Thanks.

Scientifically, technologically, politically? Why did we suddenly decide to spend a couple billion dollars to send a craft to the rough edges of space, when we haven't seen deemed it feasible to do it again for the past 30-40 years?

The question came up in my graduate seminar, and the professor did not know (not a military historian), so I thought AskHistorians may be able to answer it.

Modern, and fairly western, framing of the Middle East put an strong focus on the divide between Sunnis and Shiites. I'm curious about the origins of this struggle.

I wonder if this is perhaps due to a western framing influenced by views from the colonization of the middle east. The reason for this is anecdotal evidence suggest that the conflict never was never a religious one but rather a tribal/clan oriented conflict.

Any light shed on the matter is greatly appreciated!

edit: I feel that I should specify that I mean the modern conflict. Not necessarily the Ali vs Abu Bakr issue but rather the modern day struggle that has blossom this last decade. Does it have a historical origin in the Islamic community or is it rather a framing adopted from media?

We refer to the decades of the twentieth and twenty first centuries as being the "twenties" etc, but we don't have any such terms for times before 1920.

Is this because we're so far removed from that time we look at the period in relation to what happened, rather than each decade (i.e. it's the period between this war and that, or the industrial period, or the renaissance), or because there was no cultural habit of counting the decades like we do now before the 20s?

Would an elderly chap in 1898 reminisce over how good things were back in the 60's?

I hope I've made this clear enough.

The value of gold and silver decreased greatly after the discovery of mines in the Americas. Did the USA's independence somehow reverse this? Thank you.

So I watch the movie "The Secret of Kells" last night and it got me very curious about the religion and history of pagan Ireland. Wikipedia makes a bunch of references to Crom Cruach and other Celtic deities but nothing exclusive to Ireland.