When Places like France and the Netherlands became republics, how did other monachries take this news?

My grandmother is a very intelligent lady, but she's also very religious (which, yes, sounds contradicting). She's always been "defensive" when I make comments about how her European-looking Jesus paintings are inaccurate, or anything regarding anything of that sort.

She's an avid reader and reads about most any topic. She often asks me to get her more information about these things, so I'd like to give her some good books with an unbiased point of view, perhaps not just about Jesus, but also about "demythifying" various points from the Bible with concrete historical facts. Again, she's open minded but I don't think she'd really take anything too seriously if it were somehow literally attacking her religious views, rather than stating it in a neutral way.

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance!

I've seen lots of questions regarding seigies, but I've never heard of what a naval blockade looked liked, or how it worked during the age of sail. How did they work? Would you be able to even see the ships blockading you from land? What exactly went on during a blockade?

I believe I also heard they had a name for it.

I'm particularly interested in the area in and around Monterey, but I wouldn't mind learning about other areas.

Certainly, I've read a lot about beef in California. I know the hides and tallow were important/valuable and that there was a time a great deal was made out of leather. I've read ships arriving in Monterey were very rare in the Spanish era. I know that picked up (along with smuggling) after Mexican Independence.

But what else did people eat? What were the differences in the upper and lower class diets. I've read some about Native American diets, albeit usually from an earlier timeframe, but am still looking for info on peons and upper-class diets. I had the impression meat was not uncommon in a mission-era peasant's diet, but don't know if that's accurate.

What grains were most commonly grown? Did upper and lower classes eat the same grains? I know there were vineyards in the mission era. Olives too, right? I tend to think of those as cash crops, but I don't know if that's accurate. What spices were common? What sweeteners were most common?

I'm sorry if this has been asked before!

Today my grandfather was talking about a neighbour of his who just died, and told me there was a rumour he was working as a male escort during WWII (I didn't ask him to clarify whether he meant escort or escort.) Is there any proof that some men who stayed home provided paid services for women, either just romantic or sexual?

How did women generally deal with fulfilling their romantic and sexual needs when the majority of men would be away? Particularly when they would have more freedom and disposable income than they'd had pre-war? Was there an increase in lesbianism? Cases of entire towns having illegitimate children by one man? Or was it a problem that was just ignored?

I've been learning about Nazi technology a lot lately and while they came up with a lot of advancements during the war, they had a lot of problems putting them into use. They spent billions of dollars in today's money in research and development towards things like the V2 missiles and the ME-262 jet fighters. Had they been put into action, they would have been gamechangers for sure, but both projects produced very limited results.

Or is Islamic extremism a more recent phenomenon?

I'm looking to continue expanding my knowledge of Syria in the 20th century, and these are two glaring weak spots for me currently. I'm just finishing Patrick Seale's The Struggle for Syria which has given me a great handle on the period between independence and union with Egypt (1946-58), and I've also read Seale's biography of Hafez Assad and a few other books on that period (although more suggestions there are certainly welcome).

What I don't know that much about is the French conquest and rule of the country. I'd be very interested in reading about the entire course of events, from their initial interest in Syria to the conquest of Faysal's kingdom, all the way through to the WWII fighting there and the reluctant granting of Syrian independence. I'd also like to read more on the United Arab Republic, and specifically its effects on Syria and Syrian military/political affairs and foreign relations.

Thanks in advance for suggestions!

I know we have a flaired user whose specialty is comic books, but even if they don't see this hopefully someone well-versed in pop culture will.

I know that mutants have long (always?) been an allegory for racial issues in the X-Men comics (and superhero comics generally, no doubt), but of course the concepts of a kid "discovering" he's a mutant during adolescence and either "coming out" or "remaining closeted" cannot be about race. In one of the X-Men movies, there is a scene that makes the connection between these concepts and homosexuality clear (the scene with Bobby Drake's family), and I got the impression from fans that this wasn't new. How far back does it go? How far back in the comics is the manner and timing of one "getting" one's powers established? Has it always been thought of in terms of LGBT struggles? What do we know about these early writers' political beliefs?

I figure it's entirely possible that, depending on the answer, this question may violate the 20-year rule. So as a backup, I'm also curious about the racial themes I mentioned earlier, and how and when that became a part of the X-Men story (and again, presumably superheroes in general).

I'm currently reading material on the Stamp Act. Every time they mention the word effigy I wonder what it would have been made of, looked like, and how you could identify that particular effigy as the intended target and not someone completely different. It doesn't have to be about the American Revolution. I am just as interested in how any other culture would have created an effigy as well.

I've never found a good reason why the Triple Entente alliance forced in the lead up to the first world war as Britain and France were so recently enemies of Russia, both in the Crimean war and the great game. I mean sure they were all looking for fast alliances against increasing German militarism, but they seem like such unlikely allies.

Curious what the founders didn't find important enough to add to the Bill of Rights.

Also, Is there a way to learn Old English?