I was watching a documentary on Netflix regarding the final days of the war, and it got me to thinking about how bad of a call it was to create an eastern front. Was there a strategic reason for doing this? Did they not realize a western invasion attempt was inevitable? It makes very little tactical sense to me to do what they did. I'm just trying to understand why they would take this risk that seems to have ultimately cost them the war.

Self explanatory. Thanks for any info!

This is a hot topic in Serbia, mostly driven by one-century anniversary and attempts to requestion the guilt of this country in starting The Great War.

What are your opinions about this single event that occured on June 28th? Why, organized by whom and with what purpose in mind?

How is this topic teached in US or western Europe and how in other parts of the world? I do not want to go too deep in reasons why war started, I am more interested in this event as one of the key moments of that year.

Thank you.

The recent attention given to saving/returning art and property stolen by Nazi Germany made me wonder about this. You don't see much attention given to the theft of art and property in Palestine.

I've heard the argument that the innovation of gas and electric stoves/ovens was one of the main drivers in the decline in popularity of hiring servants in the European/American middle class, as cooking was now easier, but did it have any effect on the actual food being cooked at home? Did certain foods get less popular, or were any foods invented to use this new technology?

Why was the raid of Dieppe such a failure for the Allies?

I recently learned about the scorched earth method used the Russians numerous times throughout history, and I was curious if these actions would cause problems to Russia's economy as they were burning valuables so they would not go to the invading armies. Or am I wrong about the last part?

Talking about the Sengoku-Jidai in particular. With previous wars in Japan emphasizing personal honor, how did these battles reflect the fighting style from Japan's past? Were ashigaru trained to work cohesively or as more of a sort of rabble?

I find it bemusing that Hitler would want to invade a country that shared a border with a much larger and more powerful country that was also a political and military rival. Could an invasion of France(or some other place that was not bordered with the soviets) have been made in the same year and with similar degree of success?

My daughter is in 6th grade and is slogging through an uninspired textbook. She is an avid reader and super curious. Can you recommend some supplemental reading to make Ancient Egypt come alive for her? Historical fiction, biographies, movies, documentaries?

Thanks so much.

So in one askreddit thread there was a short discussion about drug culture in the past, and the the thing that lead to my question was when someone mentioned that cocaine was invented before LSD. However, besides its early days as a misused pharmaseutical, LSD was the big fad drug before cocaine.

I had heard the term "cocaine glut" before but I was surprised there is no Wikipedia article for it. The closest is the crack epidemic. However, the Crack epidemic started in the early 80's, while cocaine was already flooding into the US in the late 70's.

And since I am not a historian as such myself, I'm operating under a general understanding that the US was in an economic downturn at the time so it feels odd that the demand for a previously expensive and exclusive drug would suddenly skyrocket.

Factors I think you can rule out: Crack's effect on demand, crack profit's effect on US crime org's purchasing power, the Contras (funded by the US until 1984), illuminati

Did they really believe that international warfare would cease, or was it something along the lines of the war being so terrible nobody will want to fight another?

Dear historians. I am trying to do some research on the Cold War, especially the Korea War. Would some of you be so kind enough to tell me what you know about the war(s)? Not to be rude, but I am not looking for books to read, just plain information from historians

Examples of what you could mention: Economy, demographics, technology, politics, spiritual/religious movements, during this timeperiod.

I would also like to know about the Basic causes and primary factors of the eruption of the war.

Thanks!

Hey Folks, I've been on a Netflix historical drama kick lately (Tudors & Borgias). I realize that these shows a chock full of made up stuff but usually there's some parallel event or rumor that inspires the plot of the TV shows.

I'm particularly curious about S2E03 of the Borgias where the French army is ready to siege Rome as revenge for a deception in Naples. They are deterred by newly installed ceramic (fake) cannons on the city walls so the army leaves to plunder other parts of Italy on their way back to France. Thus the farce saves the city from being pillaged.

Is there any basis in truth for this? From what I've read online, there are historical differences in these events. It seems in reality that the Pope had retreated to another castle before the French arrived (in the show he is shown to stay in the Vatican, and forces the cardinals to as well). But what about this story of fake cannons? Why did the French in reality never pillage Rome?

Now, I'm guessing this is entirely made up as the amount of historical differences in the show makes it almost entirely fictional on many accounts, but I'm wondering if there was ever such a farce documented from other battles of the era.

I've got a couple of related questions I guess...

1. I was wondering if anyone has any insight into any interesting history that has been done utilising "big data" - by which I mean, mining huge datasets in a way that has only been possible in the last decade or two? Did any of this sort of analysis overturn any previously prevalent explanations for events?

2. Has any thought been given by historians as to how historians of the future will deal with the huge amounts of data we generate now? Rather than worry about a lack of sources, won't future historians be drowning in billions of tweets, e-mails, even Reddit posts? Has any thought been given to how all of this information might be parsed in a meaningful way?

Hoping this doesn't break the 20 year rule as I'm asking about the practice of studying history, rather than about recent events per-se!