Now I'm not saying is there anywhere which would say exactly the same, but would every part of both sides suffer an actual direct hit or would the bombs olny hit major metropolitan arias and the damage to rural arias and small towns be limited to radiation exposure?

Hello askhistorians,

it occured to me recently, that the first and second world war, while unique for a lot of reasons, also were probably THE wars when it comes to conscription. Young people who had never dreamed of becoming soldiers before the war were being drafted in droves, in order to fight for their respective countries.

My impression is that, especially in WWII, the majority of the soldiers fighting on either side were previously untrained amateurs, who had no idea about warfare at all beyond the superficial civilian understanding of that subject. It is also my understanding that before the Great Wars, military service was a lot more "dynastic," with children being brought up specifically in preparation for their later military service, meaning that "Soldier" was a proper profession that one dedicated ones life to. The idea of a necessity-based conscription system appears to have been considered an ancient or at least very old-fashioned/emergency-type system prior to WWI. This leads me to believe that the second World War in particular was a war that was uniquely amateurish.

Is there any substantial truth to this idea? Were there other wars (leaving medieval times aside) that were primarily thought by young amateurs who had received only remedial/essential military training? Or is this entire idea nonsense? What literature might be helpful on this topic?

I'm excited to hear your comments and, as always, thank you a ton!

Edit: I'm mostly talking about and interested in Europe.

I saw this on the askreddit "what books changed your perspective" thread. But in the comments, it said that a lot of historians had issues with it. I don't want to read anything that is not true/valid/credible. Thanks for the help.

As in, who's job was it to create and maintain records of family history, as for inheritance or to justify claims?

The Roman survivors of the battle of Cannae were formed into 2 legions and sent to Sicily as punishment for their humiliating loss.

Why was this a punishment? Didn't Rome need every available soldier in the defense of Rome from the seemingly eminent attack by Hannibal?

I hope this is within the rules of the subreddit, sorry if it isn't.

Any Mesopotamia experts know what the Akkadian King Manishtushu's name meant? I can't seem to find this one anywhere. Thank you!

Why is blue associated with the male gender and pink with the female gender? When did people start to make this distinction?

I'm referring to the time period until European colonisation of America

What different kinds of work did common people have or do in 1550s to 1590s Japan?

As the title says, what were some of the key factors... It'd be brilliant if you had sources so I could read up on it further.

This topic has always fascinated me to the point that I was hoping to write some historical fiction, even if just for my own amusement. However, the teacher in me wants my depictions of this time period and the people in it to be as accurate as possible; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I am currently in a materials science class and I am reading about how the strongest and least brittle steels are fabricated. It is actually far more complicated than I had previously imagined.

How did steel workers in medieval times, including those in Europe, Japan and China, know how to make strong and non-brittle steel? Did they understand the chemistry of what they were doing, or was it more of a trial and error trade?

The highest casualty estimate is at 3 million, which for it's time is not that big at all.