I know there were some proponents of the dreadful idea of Western allies not stopping at Berlin and instead declaring war on the Soviet Union. I was trying to think about how strong the two sides were but I became a little stumped, I know on the one hand they were both at their peak levels of production and had their total war systems running efficiently, but on the other hand their populations were exhausted and there was a lot of wear on both sides. So I’m wondering if the two sides were in a strong position to fight more total war or a bad one.

Reading a profile on Lydumila Ulitskaya, and in the article they state that discussion of the Holocaust was banned in the Soviet Union. I would have thought that being on the "right" side of history would have been a propaganda coup for the Soviets. Can anyone shed some light on why it was forbidden?

And a somewhat relevant question: What accent would someone like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Mark Twain have spoke in?

I love Archaeology + History and I work in the film industry. Is there a place I can find opportunities to go work at digs or expeditions and bring my cameras along?

During the civil war in England known as the Wars of the Roses, in what way did Scotland and/or Ireland influence the war or country? Did they act on the chaos in one way or another? Did any lords declare loyalty to one of the houses?

If there were blood connections with the houses involved in the war in England, were there any conflict between houses in Scotland or Ireland due to this?

I am very grateful for any answers. Thanks.

We sign contracts, we sign bank cheques, presidents sign laws. How did we start putting our names on things to "seal the deal"?

In grade school my teacher explained it was because people thought tomatoes were poisonous, and it would poison the actors. And when did this practice begin?

There were a lot of historical inaccuracies I heard in grade school, like how brontosaurus was too big to ever walk on land and had to live in water. That's why it's nostrils are on the top of its head, so it could poke them out of the water to breathe.

EDIT: if like to clarify I'm not talking about hemp, I'm talking about marijuana.

I'm reading a biography of Mao Tse-Tung from 2005 and it is fascinating and the authors have an extensive bibliography from Chinese, English and Russian sources but I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me how accurate this book is? I know that to some extent, Mao's cult of personality still exists in modern China, the covering up of his extensive crimes against humanity but this book swings HARD in the other direction to the point where sometimes it paints him as almost cartoonishly villainous. So how accurate is this book?

• When word reached China, Japan or any other non-European nations, why didn't they all start fighting to colonize the New World?

• Why didn't they go on their own voyages of discovery to discover new places for them to discover and colonize and thus be ahead of the Europeans?

For example, if I was a French peasant in 926, would I have known it was 926? Or was it more like people knew it was between, say, 920-930 but not the exact year?

Hello, I was curios about the plans of this. I read that after WW2 there was talk about England being taken over by the US. Was this ever a serious plan or more of a theory that was to be forgotten?

I've been looking at the first modern (re-)discovery, copy and printing dates of the various national epics and couldn't help but to recognize a craze for medieval poetry in the late 18th century:

1779 Spain - El Cantar de Mio Cid

1782 Germany - The Song of the Nibelungs

1786 England - Beowulf

1792 Russia - the Song about Igor's Campaign

What caused the different publishers in Europe to dig up things that hitherto were considered to be utterly tasteless when compared to ancient examples?

There was a second wave during the springtime of nations with the Finnish Kalavela, the French Song of Roland or the Dutch Lion of Flanders; but here it was already perceived as a part of the nation building process. What has caused the initial wave?

I've just run into cranks and cranks and cranks on the web.

Historians I liked: Louis Galambos , Thomas C. Cochran, Alfred D. Chandler, Franco Amatori

but Id prefer to read someone not associated with the organisational synthesis model.

How were peasants and the poor people treated in their daily lives? Did they have rights, freedom of religion, etc., or were they viewed as horrible people?

Title says it all really. I have a few ideas, but i'm struggling to come up with an engaging topic. Tell me your experiences in writing your dissertation at undergraduate level so that i may gain a wide scope of ideas! Thank you.

EDIT: Thank you all so much for finding the time to post such detailed advice. All your topics sound so interesting, and it's great to see so many obscure topics being discussed and not your average unoriginal subjects that there's already so much on.

I'm feeling pretty strongly on what I want to do. I've decided to look in detail into Welsh nationalism in the 20th century, as it's something i touched upon in a module last year and feel very strongly about. And living in Wales, I have access to an abundance of sources, and people to interview! It sounds broad, but I'm still in early days and I'm yet to pinpoint an area of further research.

Thank you all again! You're all amazing!

I remember reading a really good chapter in one of Robert Caro's biographies of Lyndon Johnson about what it was like in rural Texas before they got electricity. Does anybody know what I am talking about? Or if anybody has any other good sources about what it was like, specifically for women, in places before they got electricity. Thanks!