1. If I wanted to go visit my brother who is a merchant on the other side of Germany, am I able to do so relatively easily?

2. Am I able to see any Hollywood movies released this year prior to Pearl Harbour? Are German movies purely propaganda or can I go to the cinema to escape the war for a few hours?

3. Speaking of the war, how concerned am I about it? My nephews all seem safe so far.

4. A co-worker made a joke about the war - I'm not a virulent Nazi, but this doesn't seem right. How likely am I to report this person who isn't really supporting the troops like he should.

5. Boy, I'd sure love to take my wife to Paris next spring, any chance of this happening?

Any other insight you can give me about my life, hopes, and daily inconveniences.

In his book, The Farfarers, Mowat provides a semi-anecdotal, but historically detailed, account of the "Albans" of ancient Scotland and their close relationship to the sea, the walrus ivory trade, and the islands beyond Britain (Iceland), and eventually goes on to assert that it was these people who became the first Europeans to travel to the New World. These Ablans, according to Mowat, had established both the existence and natural value of Iceland (Thule) before even the Celtic invasions of Britain and the defeat of Vercingetorix of Gaul. I find Mowat's arguments to be quite convincing, but I am aware that his views are controversial as they contradict the established history of Norse expansion. I am certainly no expert, so I'm just looking for opinions on the matter and wondering if there are others who share his beliefs.

Read through the rules and wasn't sure if this is an overly broad question or not. Sorry if it is. But I'd be very interesting in reading up on anything up on what life would have been like in bronze age Ireland (or Europe in general if reading material specifically about Ireland that's not too dense for a lay person is rare.

Any and all information would be interesting to be honest. The tools, clothes, dwellings, etc people would have had, how they lived and organised, professions that would have existed, any surviving lore and mythology, even what the landscape would have been like and what wildlife would have lived in Ireland during the bronze age.

Sorry if that's too broad a scope.

History books have a reputation of being dry and from my point of view reading a work from 1960 compared to a work from 2012 the difference in the language is minimal except for a few different words being used. So the questions i ask are:

Is the language of history books prone to changes in popular language?

How much has the language changed from the first acknowledged and sourced history book to books of the late 2000s?

I posted this over at /r/askphilosophy, and the folks there didn't know of any really notable philosophers in Ancient Egypt. They suggested I post here as well.

I am interested in Ancient Egyptian history in general. I think it's just fascinating. Recently I began studying the history of philosophy and, when reading about Plato I thought to myself that he might have some contemporaries in another bustling civilizations like Egypt. I didn't find much through some quick Google searches, and was wondering if anybody here might have some answers for me, or sources to suggest I read?

(Mods, sorry if I was supposed to include an X-post label on the post, I didn't see any rule about it in the sidebar or sub. rules, and I posted this almost a week later from the original.)

A friend of mine posted a status on Facebook saying that female depressives were jailed, and treated like wild animals. How much truth is there to this? What books are available on the topic?

If you don't know for the 18th century I'm curious for other time periods and other countries too.

From what I've read about the Roman empire, the shields that soldiers used before the Marian reforms were primarily circular, much like the hoplites of the times.

Then after the reforms, the rectangular scutum became standardised and quite a few documentaries made a point of talking about how effective they were in combat, to the point of insinuating they were the cornerstone of Roman expansion.

But in all the pictures I've seen and what I've read about the late imperial era, the rectangular scutum seems to have disappeared again, replaced by ovular shields.

If the documentaries I've watched are right (it's been a while, I don't remember their names sorry) and the rectangular scutum really was overpowered (for lack of a better term), why was it phased out? Was it phased out?

Is there even any manner of consensus on this? For example, we definitely dig up ancient Egyptians. I'm pretty sure nobody would be ok with digging up an ex-President of the US. Do we dig up Italian renaissance era figures, for example? And if not, how long until it would be considered appropriate?

I guess this a historical ethics question more than anything and I hope this is the right place for it.

What was society's additude towards drug usage then? I know we've all heard stories of opium dens, heroin for soothing crying babies or cocaine in coca-cola, but how was this actually viewed? Was there a distinction between medical and recreational use? And how widely availabile were psychotropics in general?

As a side question, how influential was alcohol in the course of American history? I've been under the impression the taxation of whiskey was a major source of revenue for colonial/early America (with the Whiskey rebellion and such), did it truly play a major role? And, if so, did it continue to be so?

How did the origin of wealth or become rich come about? Was it because some of early man had a skill or objects that others envied and were willing to pay for it?