Tried not to give spoilers, but it's a 20 year old show's first season, so I think it's not a big deal. But this little storyline had me confused. Was this something specific to mafia culture? Italian culture? American culture in general?

Islam has an apocalyptic belief in it similar to Christianity, so I wondering if there were ever movements about an imminent end of days. I am looking for specifically a movement where someone picks a day for the apocalypse and the movement is still around when that day passes. I'm am curious if such a thing is purely a Christian thing or if it exists in other traditions. And how the culture at the time shaped the movement before and after.

Hello Historians of Reddit!

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I have recently got into debates where people have claimed that fascism and nazism were/are socialist ideologies. I have heard this argument before, but in my experience it is now more common than ever. Form my understanding of history, this is completely bonkers. I will not go more into detail of what is being said in these claims, as I belive you too have heard it all before. If not, please let me know.

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First of all, how do you go about meeting these arguments as historians? Or even better, am I wrong about this? Secondly, could you recommend any good books or articles about the subject that would be a good start?

A lot of our vets today get mentally screwed because they’re plagued by PTSD but you never hear about it from the warriors of old. You always hear how ruthless and powerful but never really touched upon about them not handling it well, I also wonder if there harsh up bringing is what makes the difference. We as a society now teach love and compassion but Spartans we’re a fighter and warrior society.

I recently learned about the 827 AD Muslim invasion and was hoping to find a good book about the invasion, occupation and/or the Norman conquest after.

An audiobook would be even better but it seems like a pretty specific subject.

This is a common story told about George Patton - I first encountered it in a display at the Patton Museum at Fort Knox when I was younger - and it's generally presented as a true event. The story goes that Patton competed in the Modern Pentathlon in 1912, but came in 5th because he completely missed one of his shots during the pistol shooting section. On further review, it turned out that he was so accurate that he had actually bulls-eyed the target twice, through the exact same hole, causing the judges to completely discount the second shot. If counted properly, he would've won the event, but fate and those judges robbed him of the medal yadda yadda.

I've long assumed there's an element of tall tale to this, part of the myth of Patton, but I definitely believed it when I first visited that museum and read about it. Watching the shooting events in the recent Olympics - where the world's top shooters with modern precision guns are nowhere close to doing this - makes me really dubious that it happened at all.

So is there any truth to the story? Was the event different enough back then that this could happen? Or do we know that it's a myth?

In short, I'd like to learn how social groups of one country were so far apart on serious issues, but instead of ending up with violence, they eventually worked out a solution over time.

Special thanks to the mods for helping me tailor the topic so that it stays within the rules! Apologies for the previous post!

I've always been fascinated by the history of writing, and one of the things I've always read is that some form of writing, or at least record-keeping, is crucial for administering cities and states. With that in mind, did the Mississippian Indian cultures of the pre-Columbian South and Midwest have some form of proto-writing? It seems like at least a partial script, to keep track of tribute and inventory goods, would have been vital to administer a city like Cahokia, with a population of 12,000 to 15,000. Anyone have any good info?

So, I know prostitution in Ancient Rome was relatively common. I’m not sure about the availability or effectiveness of contraceptive methods or abortive procedures, however I’m more interested in what happened to a child when a Roman prostitute carried to term. Was this even a thing or did Roman prostitutes mostly use effective methods of contraception/abort pregnancies? If a Roman prostitute gave birth, did she keep the baby? Would she kill it, or give it up for adoption (if giving your children up for adoption was even a thing back then)?

I know that the origins of the myth come from British soil, but so many authors have re-written their own version of the story, adding their stone to the edifice, that I have found it quite hard to find the oldest source we know of.

Most articles I find online mainly refer to the most popular authors, or let's say authors that are notable in some way.

I am wondering which text actually contains the oldest mention of Arthur.

In the early 20th century, silent movies were all the rave. During the movie, there would be a pianist in the theater playing music to accompany the movie, and any dialogue would be displayed on screen via caption card.

What was keeping the film producers and theater owners from playing the dialogue on a loudspeaker that is synced up with the film? Furthermore, what was stopping them from just having live voice actors speak for the actors on screen?

It just seems to me like this problem was very easy to solve, yet they just had some dude play piano throughout the movie.

This puzzles me, because there is about the same amount of daylight before noon as after (by definition of noon), so this means there is more daylight before the 9-5 workday than after, but I think most people could use more personal time with daylight after they finish work, than before.

I've searched repeatedly for information on this, but I only find information on the 40 hour work week, and why the workday duration is 8 hours, but not why the start time is 9am.

I have a personal theory that the start time was that of office, or even aristocratic, workers, because its very late, long after many labourers would already have started their work day.

Does anyone know what the history behind the 9am start is, and how it became so widespread?

Thank you.

As a 17 year old who loves history a lot it’s basically my everything, is it worth studying history in college? I want to do so but I’m being told not to, I’ve got next year as my final year to decide

I know that the attack on Pearl Harbor technically occurred because the Japanese hoped to paralyze the American navy, which would allow the Japanese Army to make gains in the Philippines and Pacific that could more easily be defended against the subsequent American offensive. But the United States had a much larger economy, and far more people. I couldn't find data for before WWII, but in 1950, the US GDP was about 10 times the size of Japan's. In 1938, the US had about twice the population of Japan. From what I understand, there was disagreement between the American army and navy as to whether the Americans should drive north from Australia, take Papua New Guinea, then the Philippines, and attack the Japanese mainland from there, or if the military should take one tiny Pacific island at a time, build an airfield, and move on to the next one. The US had so many troops and resources at its disposal that both plans were carried out. The Japanese had to have understood that they could not possibly have won a war against the US, right? I understand the strategic value of a preemptive strike, and that Japan did have a successful offensive after Pearl Harbor. But once the US went on the offensive, I don't think it ever lost a battle. And of course, Japanese industry could never have matched the pace of American industry. Why didn't the Japanese hope that the US would stay out of the war as long as possible? Why not attempt to reach a compromise with the US that would allow Japan to hold onto at least some of its empire? What was the Japanese leadership thinking when it attacked the United States?

someone knows any book of the Byzantine empire that they recommend me, especially if it talks about its culture and society