I understand at a basic level that the Cold War and defense spending had a lot to do with this after WWII, but before that, between WWI and WWII, what changed that spurred on the disparity between the US military and the rest of the world?

I have been reading some of the posts in the sub regarding American Civil War strategies and military doctrine as compared to same-era European military doctrine and have become intrigued about what happened that caused the US to catch up. I have also read the book "American Rifle: A Biography" by Alexander Rose and wanted to know what some of you professional historians or subject matter experts thought of this book if you have heard of it or read it.

Thanks!!!

And why is their role never really publicized?

All the research I made told me how great the two countries are and that they should unite, not answering my question.

In many films/TV shows that I've seen (particularly the Untouchables, Boardwalk Empire, and Public Enemies) the Police are often depicted as extremely violent, willing to brutalize, extort, and even torture suspects in pursuit of the law. Was this sort of behavior really acceptable/widespread and if so why did no one complain?

Weird question. But due to not having proper sanitation did even royalty smell pretty bad? I don't know if this is true but I heard that some rooms in the palace of Versailles, spare rooms were used for defecation. Is that true?

Basically some variation of "Jews kill some Chrisitan and use the blood in matzah." What are the origins? How did they survive and what did people think the "motive" was?

Why did Pickett's charge of July 3 fail?

So I was thinking, we always hear about how people in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance would dump their chamber pots on the streets. Did people think this was gross, or did they view it similarly to how we might look at dog shit on a sidewalk? I mean in terms of smells, it just seems like practically everywhere a hundred years or more ago probably smelled like shit.

And then I think about shit like perfume and deodorant. How did these products originate?

If I traveled back in time to the 1940s in the United States, would I think that the average person smelled bad? At what point in history would I find common ground with other regular people on what is an appropriate way to smell?

And sex! It's so weird thinking about two 13th century peasants having sex, if only because I imagine it didn't smell great.

I know this is all scatterbrained, but if anyone has any expertise in odors, smells, fumes, etc., from a historical perspective can you just chime in? I just realized I think of history a lot in terms of what I can see and what I can hear (and even in what I taste) but I never really think about the smellz.

By the end of the first world war the french were starting to produce and equip the Mle 1918 RSC a semiautomatic battle rifle which provided superior combat performance most notably having a greatly increased fire rate over the bolt action Lebel rifle.

why did they abandon the superior gun and then not adopt a semiautomatic battle rifle until after the 2nd world war?

Italy is a mixed bag, and it hasn't been a unified country until 1861. I'm curious about this, since I can trace my roots there.

What I'd like, is if someone could create a timeline sort of, of who's ruled them. It'd be very appreciated.

For example: Rome 0-277, the Gauls: 277-588. The Byzantines: 588-9999. In that format.

Thanks :D

A short background about me, I have recently begun taking History courses at my University. I was raised in America, and as such, I was not brought up with much knowledge of history outside of America. I find all of this fascinating and one little piece of history sticks out to me.

The Congress of Vienna.

We simply glazed over it in class, but could someone give me a great website that can explain the events of it to me in an easier format, or explain it themselves to me? From what it appears, the Congress of Vienna was responsible for creating the Concert of Europe, which in turn led to no major wars breaking out for over 50 years. I feel that that is a considerable amount of time!

Any information would be great. I want to learn it all.

Thanks!

Please be as specific as possible. I'm under the impression that it was more of a sworn oath over an actual piece of paper that was kept in a library somewhere.

I'm curious if it was common for even the warriors to convert? Which would confuse me, because their lives and religion were so intwined with battle, it seems very strange to me that one of these warriors would convert to another religion so easily.

I can see why a religion where only the warriors go to heaven would make Christianity seem appealing.

This is pretty broad, but does anyone know how the average orchestra member lived back in the day? Did they all have to be professionally trained? Did they come from the upper class or were they poor? How many different composers would the average musician play for? Etc etc.

Thanks!

I was reading about the Hungarian invasions, and I think this applies to practically any highly successful nomadic culture that relied on mobile light cavalry like the Mongols or any example. Eventually, the Hungarians settled and the Wikipedia article I was reading mentioned they adopted feudalism and heavy armored cavalry. Why would they adopt some of the military technologies/culture of the people that they just easily defeated?

My friend who lives in the south and I debated about slavery and the context of who was really to blame for the Civil War, he claims that slavery wasn't all that bad and that there were some slaves who actually didn't want to be freed. I thought this was ridiculous and wanted to know if any of you professionals actually know anything about this, or if across the board no slaves were against abolition.

I know they had a few naval skirmishes with the Soviets in the Black Sea, but they actually do something major with their military other than occupy parts of Greece from 1941 to 1944? (I'm not meaning to offend anyone, I'm just inquiring as to what purpose their military served.)