I suppose that if this is within the 20 year limit, the question would be limited to Israel, post-Soviet states within the first 4 years of existence, South Africa's early program, and US/Russian/Western European actions in the early 90s. While Israel and S. Africa's programs were developed during the Cold War, I'd like to concentrate on regional uses/threats.
Also, I guess I'm disqualifying US threats against Japan during WWII, as I'm primarily interested in a context with the risk of nuclear retaliation.
3 Answers 2014-02-24
I'm currently reading The Guns of August and general mindset on war of that time seems as a short war with decisive battle. How did they actually imagine this decisive battle would occur? Thanks
1 Answers 2014-02-24
For many years i have been misinformed via science fiction (hey some stuff should not be made up) that the library of Alexandria was burned down by unwashed Christian and defended by Heleva (i believe it was) now i have gone to Wikipedia and my mind is more blown. (I have forgiven the author as she is too good a writer to hold the lack of internet against here from years ago and it wouldn't be the first writer to fall prey to urban legends. )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
How in the name of history do we have so many versions of 1 major historical event without a singular answer? Yes i can see 48 BC dispute but like the 642 AD event is based off a 13th century manuscript? (I get why they doubt that one)
So my question is this how can such a major event occur and there be so many different answers in less than 2000 years of history? Or is it that we are deluded to the level of actual knowledge we have as expressed by many different people over the years so many different ways "the Winner writes the history books"
As i was writing this i started wondering if there are other major events like this that are so grey.
Edit Changed Helena to Helva after jaderust made me look up the book name.
2 Answers 2014-02-24
With things like the Der Ring des Nibelungen and many many art paintings of the Norse gods, I am curious why this interest became so popular and prevalent from about 130-100 years ago.
1 Answers 2014-02-24
Wouldn't it make sense to go somewhere closer? Did Belgium have any ties to the rubber industry?
2 Answers 2014-02-24
I read that Beer/Cider/Wine was drunk as water to poor in quality to be drunk in middle ages. But by the 19th century water was clearly a large part of the diet again (as seen from the amount of people infected by cholera in water pumps). When did this shift back to beer to water occur?
1 Answers 2014-02-24
1 Answers 2014-02-24
The Battle of Midway is rightly seen as the turning point in the Pacific theatre of WWII. I've wondered, had the Battle of Midway instead been won (captured Midway) by the Japanese what plans did the allies have if any? According to Wikipedia the Japanese hoped a victory could has brought the US to the negotiations table. Is this realistic?
1 Answers 2014-02-24
Years ago I read an article that argued that he was. What are your thoughts?
1 Answers 2014-02-24
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars etc. We know their names and how they were discovered in the West from the Greeks. Surely the entire world didn't immediately accept the names some people in the Aegean made up. What is the history of the planets in other cultures? and do they still use those names today?
1 Answers 2014-02-24
I know they were all named for states (except for the USS Kearsarge), but how was the specific state chosen? Was it a lottery, or by population, or what?
2 Answers 2014-02-24
A lot of people argue that they didn't exist in this country before the 70s. Can anyone help me find data clearing this up?
1 Answers 2014-02-24
I'm a fellow historian, so this question is a bit more "shop talk" than most. I've hit a rut the past year in my research and writing and am looking for advice at getting out of a historian's version of "writer's block."
For one, I stopped school when I earned my M.A. I have a broad interest in very many areas of history and found it impossible to focus on just one area for so long.
I've always focused on American history, specifically the Civil War and the era from 1898-1920ish. But I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find fresh angles to write about. Every time I start a project I wind up finding books and articles that are doing exactly what I planned to do.
Have I just lost my history muse/mojo? Or does anyone out there know any tricks for kickstarting the inquisitive juices?
1 Answers 2014-02-24
I'm thinking along the lines of Chandlers Campaigns of Napoleon in terms of detail, but hopefully about Wellington or Frederick the Great. It's hard to find a good source for military history books :/
4 Answers 2014-02-24
I know next to nothing about Americas post-civil war history, nor do I know anything about Americas race relations around the time the film was released. I'm quite shocked having seen it so here's a few questions.
If these question should be posted elsewhere please let me know and i'll post them elsewhere.
2 Answers 2014-02-24
I am writing a text on how the evolution of society and warfare is linked, specifically from the middle ages to the modern period. I intend to cover:
To what extent were there "commoners" (i.e. non-knights) on the medieval battlefield? The common perception seems to be that you would bring levied peasants to supplement your numbers, but that seems rather pointless.
Would it be fair to say that the nobles lost a great deal of their influence after the kings established professional armies, given how they (the nobles) no longer were the armed forces of the middle ages? Could you further tie this into the concept of the national state, as the king's expanded influence meant that the people became his subjects rather than his nobles'?
Given the role of the social classes that arose in the 18^th century, could a case be made that they were responsible for countries expanding their colonies? That, to finance your wars, you needed the raw materials and later trade that these brought with them?
Is it correct to say that the American Civil War was fought in a similar manner to the Napoleonic Wars but with "modern" weapons?
Source criticism is a major criteria, so any recommended material, preferably available online, on the evolution of warfare would be greatly appreciated. One of my primarymain sources is A Short History of War from the Air University.
2 Answers 2014-02-24
OK. So watching Monuments Men last week, and now re-sparked by this post I got to wondering about this. One of the more infamous occurrences at the concentration/extermination camps were the collection of gold fillings, wedding bands and other jewelry and so on.
Now obviously some of this was melted down by the Germans and made into gold bars. From what I have been able to find, there was controversy over some of the captured bullion for this reason, as some of it was of suspicious origin, but this fact was ignored, and it was sent off to the various powers who received the former German gold as reparations.
It points out that 1,625 bars of "non-recognized" origin weighing 307,528 fine grams, were included amongst the bars shipped from the Reichsbank to Merkers These made up approximately 18% of the total gold held in the salt mine. The Allies decided that recovered Nazi gold would be returned to claimant nations in equal proportion to their losses - i.e. that approximately 64 per cent of all claims would be met - and hence identifying whether a gold bar belonged to a specific treasury was unnecessary.
But what happened to the gold that the Nazis hadn't melted down? Plenty was recovered still in the form of fillings or rings. In theory, maybe some of the jewelry could be reunited with the former owners, but that seems to be rather hard to do. And it seems crass to the extreme to think that this would have later been melted down, the jewelry of course, but especially the fillings.
So anyways, what I'm wondering is, was any concerted attempt made to reunite jewelry with the original owner or their heirs, and if so, how successful was this?
In the case of gold that couldn't be reunited with the owner, or in the case of items like gold fillings, what was done with them? Were the melted into bullion? Removed from circulation? Or are they all distributed among Holocaust Museums now...?
1 Answers 2014-02-24
2 Answers 2014-02-24
I was reading up on Shinzo Abe and Japanese politics and I found it interesting that the LDP 'lost' and was not able to form a government in 1993, but it didn't take very long for them to come into power again. Wikipedia doesn't have any good info on it and I was wondering if you guys know what led to the downfall and how they were able to get back so quickly
1 Answers 2014-02-24
Hi all,
I'm currently in my second year of university in England, doing history, and soon I will have to be making a choice on what to do my dissertation on (a 10,000 word essay that counts for a large portion of my degree), and the Byzantine empire has come across as something that I think could be very interesting.
I've got 'The New Penguin History of the World' and 'After Tamerlane' which both dip into the Byzantine empire slightly ( I confess to not having read all of either of them, rather bits here and there), but I'm looking for a good introductory book to the subject; something that can give me a solid foundation for building upon.
Thanks
2 Answers 2014-02-24
The only thing I've found is the history the Freemasons themselves use, and it'd be interesting to know if there are any independent sources about the origins of Freemasonry.
1 Answers 2014-02-24