That is, books that deal with who the settlers were, what parts of England they hailed from, how their new lives in North America differed from their old lives in England, what were their daily routines, etc.

Edit: Note that by "early English settlers", I mean as far back as the 16th century.

I'm really curious about imperialism but can't find any proper literature. Can any of you guys be of aid and assist me?

I'm currently writing my thesis on female spies in the American Revolution. The biggest problem I have come across is finding primary sources about these women. The Gilder Lehrman Institute and Univ. of Michigan's Clements Library have been a great start in locating some of these sources. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Before alarm clocks, how did people wake up at the same time every day and report to their jobs? How did society function without the ability to wake up and be notified of certain times?

I understand Cyprus gained independence some time after Greece did. Most of the Cypriot population is Greek-speaking and is ethnically Greek. Why did it become a separate state?

As everyone (hopefully) knows, Russia is the largest country in the world. It is almost the size of the United States and Canada added together. Now, I was just fooling around on "Geacron" which is a website that shows the map of the world according to any year in history, when I noticed how fast Russia has expanded its territory. In about 1595, the territory of Russia was confined to within the Ural mountains. However, by 1640, only 45 years later, Russia has expanded all the way to the eastern edge of Eurasia and its territory was almost equivalent to the current Russian territory. How did Russia manage to expand so fast? Has there been any other country that expanded at the same pace as Russia?

I do find his works to be Anglo-centric and generally forgiving of British military tactics. What I am more worried about is whether his understanding of older battles such as Agincourt are more speculation or based on fact. From what I have seen, he references chroniclers and witnesses of battles; why does he and why should we assume that their perspective isn't biased, or is knowledgeable at all? If someone could enlighten me on the validity of their perspectives as well, I would greatly appreciate it.

Did they care for each other's revolutions at all? Were they perhaps inspired by each other?

I have a Cuban friend who I play soccer with and I said "man you must've been born with a soccer ball at your feet" and he said "not really, I only started playing last year, it's all baseball in Cuba" and that made me realize, you never see Cuba in the World Cup, or the DR, but all the great baseball players come from there.

What historical reason caused this difference?

Searching on the internet I've come across different sources offering differing views on the role of capitalism in starting the first world war.

Socialist websites such wsws and world socialism state that capitalism was the main reason leading to the world war. However, the Economist writes that capitalism was not responsible.

It appears that both sources are fairly biased about this topic and I'm looking for unbiased sources.

This is my first post here so I apologize if I'm somehow breaking the rules. Also, English is not my first language so please excuse the grammatical errors.

Hello there.

I'm interested in trying to find a great book that talks about Middle Eastern history and culture, specifically dating anything pre-1900. However, I'd like it to be as non-political as possible; just something that talks about the history and culture of the Middle East and it's people.

I appreciate any tips or advice!

Thanks a bunch.

I would like to know his personal political views especially before he crowned himself as the emperor of France. Was he a traditionalist, or a revolutionary? To me, it seems that whatever he may have been, he concealed his views and just moved along the tide till he came to real power.

While traveling around Asia this summer I kept asking myself how the first European people who ever visited this continent must have felt. I realized I knew close to nothing about how Europeans actually discovered Asia, and after some research on the internet I'm not really satisfied... It seems like the first explorers were Scylax and his companions, but what did they know about the eastern parts of the world at that time? And what did the people in the West knew about people in the East? Was there a sudden mutual discovery or did people slowly learned about each other? Thank you if you take time to answer me :)

It is commonly said that the church began requiring celibacy so as to protect its property from being inherited by the children of priests. One of my (medieval literature) professors even said this. Is this true? Couldn't there have just been laws to protect church property?

At my HS, every senior has to a "senior Thesis," on a debatable topic. I have chosen to argue that the modern order of Christian Service is significantly different than a "Biblical" order of service.

I have found a collection of essays from Christians speaking on this topic (1), but I was wondering where I could find primary or non-Christian sources?

Thank you for your help.

EDIT: Thank you guys so much, I was looking for more sources on this. Really, Thank you so very much.

(1) : Webber, Robert. The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship. Nashville, TN: Star Song Pub. Group, 1993. Print.

I've been trying to create a setting for my stories where the continent has only just recovered from heavy drought about a century ago and the various countries are rebuilding and fighting over food and so on.

I want to have a reasonably fast travel between the various city-states that dot the continent, and, at first, I figured steam engines were a good way to go since I didn't want carts or cars.

How do you get from city-states with limited resources to city-states with a reasonably good rail system. The trains doesn't have to work all the time; they just have to be at the point where they're generally the best choice for transport, despite occasional problems (bandits, breakdowns, track sabotage, etc.)

Also, since I will probably very loosely base the landscape on the many hills of Greece (since I got the city-states idea from them), remember that flat roads may not be common on this (section of the) continent.