I am really interested in learning about warfare in the Middle Ages. I want to learn who were the people that fought in these wars.

I understand that the Middle Ages is a broad topic. If I had to narrow it down, I would say I am mostly interested in the Hundred Years War, as this seems to be the most representative of the Middle Ages to a degree.

I want to learn more than just specific battles. I have already watched many of those kinds of videos. I want more of the big picture.

Ideally I want to find audio books or some series of lectures whether It be on YouTube or a podcast or any other media. I want to listen while I commute.

I have searched on YouTube and podcasts and cannot find anything nearly as detailed. I want to spend hours listening to some sort of lecture. The longer the better.

Some topics that I want to learn about are:

Did peasants often fight in wars or did the landowners mostly fight in these wars? What did a typical campaign look like? How often did pitched battles and sieges occur? What did training look like? Who made up the infantry and the missile troops? What did war logistics look like? How were the troops fed? How often did raiding take part in war? Where did mercenaries come from, where they nobles? What did the typical army look like? Was it mostly cavalry? What did the skirmishing phase of a battle look like? How prevalent was the use of missile troops in proportion to the rest of the army? I know the English used longbows but who were these men, how did they become longbow men, did peasants become longbow men? It is my understanding that standing armies were rare, why? Why didn't the Roman standards in the military continue on into the Middle Ages?

Thank you!!!!

TLDR: I am looking for audio books or lectures on war in the Middle Ages, more so than just specific battles but what it was like in general.

Hey all!

I've been absolutely fascinated by this time period and place since I listened to lectures about it on iTunes U from UC Berkeley. Since then I've watched The Great War series on Youtube, anything from Oversimplified and Extra History, and listened to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series on WWI a bunch of times. I'm currently reading the Guns of August (love it) and wanted to see if you could recommend some more resources to learn about the different powers and people of the times. Would prefer less dry and more narrative/people driven media, like Ken Burns docs, the PBS Empire series, and Robert Caro biographies.

Would love recommendations on: Maria Theresa, Habsburgs, Otto von Bismarck, Fredrick The Great, European powers leading up to the Napoleonic Wars and after, Carl von Clausewitz, Catherine The Great, World War I, 7 Years War, the French Revolution, etc.

Not as interested but still intrigued: Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars, British Monarchs (seen a ton of docs on these)

We know that the 4 humors theory of medicine (that lasted ~2000 years) is false and this theory has been completely abbandoned in the 19th century in favour of the germs theory (germs cause diseases and not an unbalance of "humors").

If we know that these theories were false, why did they last so long? Were they even remotely effective to cure symptoms and diseases? What about bloodletting? Didn't people in antiquity notice that this and the other methods for "humor balance" were not effective? (Or maybe I am wrong and they were for a couple cases remotely related to the diseases and they could indeed help with the healing process?)

Was this "classical" theory of medicine (4 humors) of antiquity more effective than, let's say, healing methods of monks?

One of the paradoxes about the CSA was despite being an agricultural society they had trouble feeding their own population/troops during the war. Food shortages became common as the war went on. One reason is because their agriculture was very heavily focused on cash crops such as cotton and indigo which are obviously not edible.

However, they also produced more than 180 million pounds of rice a year as a cash crop before the war. So did rice which isn't associated with traditional American cooking see increased consumption by southern civilians during the war as they experienced food shortages?

I have spent many hours trying to search up information about a US Air Force Bomber that crashed on a golf course near where I live but have come up with very little information after hours upon hours of scouring the internet. (and a trip to the library to look for old news cuttings) I am wondering if anybody could give me some advice of the best place to look to try and find any official records of this crash.

In case anyone is curious, here is what I have researched so far: I had an old friend who told me when he was a kid he witnessed a B-17 Bomber crash land onto a golf course in Churston, England, recalling how loads of oranges that the plane was carrying had scattered onto the course. It took me hours of entering different combinations of words into google to eventually find a reference in a list of serial numbers about a B-17 with the serial number 42-5250 that ran out of fuel during a flight from Morocco and crash landed North-East of the town of Brixham (Where Churston is) on January 12th, 1943. Going off that, I eventually found another reference in a B-17 Master Log Book briefly mentioning the same crash, but also naming a crew member called Lt. A.F. Burch. I eventually found this out to be a man called Armand F Burch but I'm not sure what part of the air force he was in at the time, having found references to both the 12th Air Force and the 8th Air Force. This is the last new info I have found and have now hit a road block after spending ages on google trying to find more with the information I have found. Which is why I am here.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963 there have been a plethora of theories and beliefs about conspiracies surrounding the event that go contrary to The official story.Why are there so many?

How was the adoption of firearms perceived by the rulers of these states?

Was their use perceived as ‘unfair’ or ‘cowardly’ and what was the average soldiers attitude toward adoption of the arquebus?

Were there any groups that felt disenfranchised with its adoption?

Any response is greatly appreciated, Thank you,

A popular trope in westerns is that of the public hanging, often as a setup for the protagonist to either rescue a compatriot or themselves be rescued.

Is there any basis in fact for public hangings in the early frontier communities of the old west? Or were they mostly carried out in private?

My understanding is that most hangings would have involved trees or wagons since the “trapdoor” method wasn’t common until the 1870s.

Likewise, are there any examples of a person being rescued from a hanging?

I’m interested in learning more about the mythology of King Arthur. Knowing that the most well-known stories come from the days of Middle English and before, are there any modern translations or retellings that give a reliable overview of the mythology as it was in that period? All the modern versions I could find were, like other fairy tales, retold and transformed in some way for the writer’s intended audience/purpose. Even a general overview would be great! I’d just love to do more reading besides Wikipedia.

If an older, but still understandable text for contemporary readers exists, that’s fine too.

If my question is already asked, feel free to send me to a previous post! Thanks to anyone who can answer :)

Both Phoenix and Palm Springs are desert cities with lots of space to build suburbs, and they both seem to have cheap land. Why did Phoenix end up growing more at a greater pace than Palm Springs, especially if Palm Springs is more popular culturally?

Additionally, are there examples of countries which became mature liberal democracies, and never went to war since?

(Update: Thanks for all the in-depth responses! It adds some new angles to how I see DPT!)

A quick Google search suggests it might have to do with upper class women traditionally having servants to dress them whereas men generally dressed themselves. However, I couldn't find any articles that cited sources so I was wondering if this answer actually holds up.

I've read many history books about European interactions with Asian kings. But I've always wanted to know how the English, French, Spanish etc communicated with the local kings, especially when they've just landed in a new location, for the first time.

What I want to know is how people interacted with slaves especially in the late republican/ early imperial era. This may be impossible to actually find out, but I’d like to know how free farmers/workers saw slaves. Did they see them as competition or as potential allies, or something else. Perhaps more answerable how did elites view slavery? We’re they as with modern American slave owners in near constant fear of slave uprisings? On the topic of uprisings, do we know how common or how widespread these were?