Did they like sports? What did they do on holidays? Hang out with family, or each other? What kinds of drinks and foods did they like?

New York has a bigger population than the next two cities (LA and Chicago) combined. How did it become so big, and why did no other city in the USA reach such large population levels?

I am reading the Autobiography of Götz von Berlichingen, a one-handed knight who lived during the late 1400s and first half of the 1500s. I was struck by his description of losing his hand. He goes into great detail about losing his hand but says almost NOTHING about getting it replaced with an awesome prosthetic hand. I was a little disappointed in how he clammed up about his false hand so I was wondering about the views of mutilation. Was it considered shameful to be maimed or did Götz just find this unimportant? It seems like he is proud that he has been maimed in the service of his lord but seems like he refuses to talk about the actual mutilation or the coping with it. I'm going to be up front with you, I'd really like something I can read and cite... but any help at all is really appreciated. Some of you more knowledgeable folks may be able to steer me in the direction of hopefully a PDF or something I can access on the internet. Note: I am also currently reading Irina Metzler's Disability in Medieval Europe and it has so far shed little light on the area.

Though officers tended to use German for communication, how did multi-linguistic divisions properly communicate with each other? Did they all use German, or was it necessary for most soldiers to be multi-lingual?

How did the Romans maintain their roads? Were there people in urban centers whose job was to repair nearby roads? What about roads away from urban centers? Was this job primarily done by the military, and if so, who within the military (how was this process)?

I hope this makes sense. Any information or literature that's really good about Roman roads would also be helpful.

Was it because of language? Weather conditions?

As per the title, I'm interested to know what ancient civilizations and specifically the bronze age greeks would have used for seating. Was it just a case of wooden blocks, were the seats made into the architecture or did they maybe all just sit on the floor?

How successful were they?

Specific topics or books, and your points for and against would be most appreciated.

An example would be (purely because I read about them today, if there are notable other examples ease use them) the British king George III, who apparently also was "Kurfürst von Braunschweig-Lüneburg", a duchy in the holy Roman empire, and later king of Hannover. His wikipedia article says he never set foot in Germany, so did he get any taxes from these lands, did he decide any policies, did he ever elect an emperor of the holy Roman empire? Would he have if there was an election?

The other example would be Napoleon II, who, after his father had been banished was styled prince of parma and placentia and later duke of Reichstadt. Parma obviously is somewhere in Italy and he held no power over it, so did he actually get any taxes from them? Or was he entirely dependant on his mothers family giving him money? Was there a duke of parma or similar that actually controlled these lands? What did he think of Napoleon Franz calling himself that title?

Later Napoleon Franz's grandfather granted him the title duke of Reichstadt. Rheichstadt was controlled by his grandfather, but what did that actually mean? Did Napoleon from then on out get taxes from Reichstadt? Could he decide anything? If not, what might have been the motivation for his grandfather to even grant him this title?

Thanks for all answers!

I should specify that I'm not asking about parts of medieval Hungary that are now owned by neighboring nations. Would there have been ethnic minority settlements around places like Budapest or Pecs?

The same goes for Romanian villages in Austria, German villages in Slovenia, Slovenian villages in Croatia, etc.

Throughout history, have their ever been any governments that realized they had either failed or were not what the people wanted and removed themselves from power?

Can anyone recommend a few books covering the end of WWII specifically the occupations of both Germany and Japan? Just finished Candy Bombers which gives a glimpse but not much of the story.

Looking for something with little bias...which is most of what I have found.