My favorite subject in school has always been history; I loved reading the textbooks. Now that I am no longer in need of a history textbook at school, I can't really find a book that I like that doesn't feel like historical fiction.

As an American, we didn't really learn much about Tudor England, but it was always something that fascinated me… so why not continue the quest for knowledge?

Edit: for clarification

This question was asked in /r/explainlikeimfive but I'm looking for a better, more in depth explanation.

I have always heard the founders didn't want the capital to be apart of a state but never explained why. What benefits did they feel this gave?

So I want to get a history degree (in what I don't know exactly because there are many different time periods that interest me) and I was wondering if there is anything that you can do with such a degree if you don't want to teach or write a book.

I have been watching America: The Story of Us...and it's just ok. It's a bit too jingoistic for my tastes, and the panel of "experts" that they interview is a total joke (I don't particularly care what Sheryl Crow or Donald Trump thinks about president Lincoln).

However, I do like the high production values that the series has when it comes to the visual effects and the dramatizations. Things like that make the subject matter really engaging for me.

I'm looking for series with similarly high production values that don't dumb down the subject matter too much. Pretty much any period of history would be good, but shows about the civil war, the two world wars, and american history in general would be particularly interesting.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

Who organized them? How did they recruit raiders? What were there specific objectives? How did they possibly think they would succeed? How much support did they receive from the US Government?

I have recently been doing some volunteer work for my local historical society and am questioning my efforts. As we move forward in time, am I adding to historical inaccuracies that will hurt future understanding of how things were? Is this inevitable? How do we prevent these inaccuracies from becoming how people view the past in the future?

I have been wondering if I should look into older history books. Are they any more accurate than current ones since they are not as far removed from the time?

I want to do this. It is why I am volunteering. I just want to know how to trust sources and determine what is truth to what isn't and how to not create confusion or flat out lies for the future to believe. Has anyone else had this problem in their field? If so, how was it overcome?

Using the parallel of Barack Obama making clear that the Iraq War was a "dumb war" started by George Bush that he was ending for the sake of his country, why didn't Richard Nixon follow this same path in the early 70s?

As the Pentagon papers came out and revealed that the government had been lying about much of the pretext for the war, it seems like a smart political move - especially for someone as opportunistic and calculating as Nixon - would be to lay the blame for the Vietnam debacle at the feet of LBJ and the Democrats.

Yet Nixon went on to insist that he had achieved "peace with honor" and that the returning soldiers and POWs had not fought, suffered, and died in vain. It just seems strange that he would steadfastly defend the reputation of a war he inherited and campaigned on ending.

Of course if I am misinterpreting anything about this narrative, please let me know as well.

The Italians could see from a neutral standpoint how the war went in 1914 and 1915. The millions of casualties and the stalemate that developed especially on the Western Front.

And then, in 1915, at a point when I assume it was very obvious that it would be a long war and that there could be no quick victory on the Western Front, the Italians enter the war! The results are very predictable, and they ruin Italy.

Why did Italy expect anything positive to come out of joining the war? Wasn't it obvious that a quick victory over Austria-Hungary would be completely impossible? Why could they possibly want to join such a destructive war and not count themselves lucky for staying out of it?

Google turns up nothing.

I recently watched an American Unearthed episode where they look into the idea that America was discovered by the Chinese. In the episode they showed ancient maps which were claimed to have been made by the Chinese admirial Zheng He, which to my untrained eye, and the host seemed to clearly show the american continent mapped in pretty good detail. If legitimate these maps seem like they would be concrete evidence that the Chinese really did travel to America in the 14th century or earlier. So my question if anyone better versed in history who saw the episode could shine some light on whether this should be taken with a grain of salt or if these maps really are concrete evidence of the Chinese discovering America.

In the "Arabian Nights", Typical Arabian lifestyle seems much more glorified than it is today. Specifically women: they are portrayed as beautiful women who are not ashamed to show their bodies, specifically their stomachs. They wore sheen clothes and jewels. (viz. Jasmine in Disney's "Aladdin". That's how the Arabian Nights portrays women). The Sultans and such also seem very rich. Why are things so different? Did the Arabian Nights exaggerate the riches and beauty of the people for ego purposes? Are there other books (the media of the time) that had a different portrayal? I've heard that it had to do with the rise of Islam, requiring women to cover up and show humility. Which makes sense, except that in the "Nights" they are often referred to as Muslims already. Why is modern Arabia seemingly more oppressed and hard than what it was in the past?

Just a quick question! Sounds stupid but did the Soviets fly flags from their tanks? Did anyone fly flags from their tanks? I was wondering whether to put a Soviet flag on my model isu 152 tank destroyer! I imagine it gave a disadvantage. If you answer, then thanks!