Britain took de facto control in the 1880s, but only formally did so in 1914, I know, so for the latter, I'd be interested in changes related to both periods, and especially what interplay might have existed between the de jure Ottoman administration of education and the de facto oversight of the British occupiers.

[9 1910s] [43 Egypt] [20 Schooling]

Hi there!

I'm currently writing an essay on the history of music roughly between the 1900s-1930s. The topic is on what cultural and technological events changed music.

An example of a cultural event was to do with racism and how radio hosts would only play white people's music and a technological event would be radio broadcasting.

Just wondering if anyone has anything which would be good to look into?

Thanks in advance!

This past year or so, I've been doing a lot of research that has me looking through various online newspaper archives. noticed that between the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was no shortage of headlines, front page articles, and editorial cartoons making big news about small increases in the prices of meat, dairy products, coffee, and the like. Even adjusted for inflation, the price increases seemed minor; the amount wouldn't raise an eyebrow today. "COFFEE PRICES UP TWO CENTS PER POUND" -- in 1955, the equivalent of 2021 US$0.20 (2021 US$0.44/kg).

During my Generation X childhood and teen years, I don't remember any extensive media attention about changes in commodity prices, except maybe for coffee. Even then, the shifts were big, like a dollar a pound. (1985 US$1.00 = 1955 US$0.25, 2021 US$2.46) Otherwise, news about staple commodity prices was relegated to small columns in the financial pages.

Why did the media give so much attention to these relatively minor price changes? I know household incomes were much lower in inflation-adjusted USD, and that the inflation rate was very low between the 1930s and early 1960s. Were the prices of staple commodities so much lower compared to today (in inflation-adjusted USD) that minor increases were a big deal, relatively speaking? For what it's worth, most of the research I've been doing has been in urban and suburban newspapers in New York state, not Midwestern ag states.

There's more important questions, I know. It's just that the attention given to these price changes seemed way out of proportion to their impact, by today's standards.

Also, did people realize that languages like Egyptian and Phoenician were different from Indo-European languages?

I have a very basic knowledge of Norse mythology and understand that Valkyries take fallen heroes to Odin's hall for a big shindig. The rest go to Hel, a cold place of nothing much.

Is this accurate? Were wives, retired warriors, the infants that inevitably died early, the average people thought to get nothing after death? Is there an alternative concept for these people?

After the christianization of scandinavia tons of their myths were rewritten and new things were added, is Loki one of those new characters? I couldn't find any evidence that he was a thing prior to the missionaries, he also fits the christian archetype of the Devil so there is a lot to be speculated there

Not sure if this question is appropriate for this sub, this has been something I've wondered for a while.

now, we have the masks, distancing, business closures, and the occasional civil unrest. how were the daily lives of europeans changed during the black plague?

If you've read Adam Tooze's The Wages of Destruction, you know a significant portion of the book is spent on Germany's foreign exchange crisis.

It basically goes like this, Germany in the mid 1930s has a trade deficit, significant debt obligations and is starting to be isolated by the world, so has trouble getting enough foreign currency to buy the imports needed to maintain its growing economy (and most importantly, its rearmament).

While I understand the basic mechanics however, one thing I do not understand is why they couldn't acquire more foreign currency through other means than exports, especially since the Reichsmark was nominally pegged to gold.

Is it because there was no centralized FOREX trading hub, because countries tightly controlled the export of their own currencies or because no one wanted to buy Reichsmarks? Was there not a market of speculators wanting to invest in various currencies?

I love Tooze, but this basic question plagues every re-reading of his magnum opus when I get to this section, so please enlighten me!

If our current year is based on the birth of Christ, what would the people of the past have had as a reference, and how did different civilizations around the world determine their years.

Example: what year would it have been during the rule of Constantine (306-337 AD), or even on the other side of the world, during the Middle Pre-classic Maya era (900-300 B.C.), etc

I had heard that Japan was buying oil and metal from the U.S. till just before pearl harbor, was the ship and zero use there built with the resources we sold them and how did they get the finances for this?

The title kind of says it all. Britain is a small island nation with a relatively small population. Conversely, the British empire was enormous, hence the phrase, "The sun never sets on the British empire". How did such a small nation subdue so many people?

My understanding is that officially 6 people died, likely more given the tendency to undercount poor and unhoused populations. And of course, likely even more if you include people who died indirectly as a result of the economic impact (starvation from lost income, etc.).

But 6 people seems absurdly absurdly low, even as an official count. Given how narrow City streets were (and are), I would have expected more people to die from evacuation alone (trampled, crushed by someone's overloaded cart, human crushes, etc). And I know the fire began in the middle of the night in one of the most densely populated parts of one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Given the apparent chaos, I'm surprised there weren't more than 6 fraudulent claims of death (e.g., people using the fire to disappear or people collecting insurance money under false pretenses).

So what happened? What factors kept the official death count relatively low? Were their factors that also reduced the unofficial death count?

It seems that the relatively large and easy-to-track target presented by a lightly armored or unarmored man on horseback would give a significant advantage to infantry, even during the early days of slow firearm reload and firing rates. This seems like it would hold especially true during a cavalry charge on an infantry formation, when the riders would be moving in a relatively close mass straight-on to the enemy. Were there particular tactics that prevented excessive attrition during these maneuvers? Maybe I'm significantly overestimating how vulnerable a horse is to a single gunshot wound? Any responses relating to pre-1914 warfare in any country would be welcome--I'm just trying to understand the general theory.

England is said to have been a global hegemon in the peirod between the the fall of Napolen and the early 19th century, but how much, if at all, did Russia challege England's hegemonic status? Was it akin to the 20th century rivalry between America and the USSR?

My brother, who’s 41, hasn’t read a full size book since high school. Due to a bet/ agreement unimportant to this post, he has agreed to read a full book that I choose. His only stipulation is that it be non fiction. He considers himself a fan of history. A while back we got into an argument about the cause of the civil war. You have heard this argument many times. States rights vs slavery. Is there a good history book that looks at the beginning of the civil war in an approachable way (remember he hasn’t read a book in 20+ years) and that can be agreed upon to be accurate? I’m not asking for the book to make an argument in either direction, just for it to be accurate and nuanced and for it to be written in an accessible style as opposed to academic? Thank you for any suggestions. Also, I apologize for formatting and any errors in this post I am on mobile.

Odd thought occurred to me that even in the 60s and have created nuclear weapons, all our knowledge of space was theoretical, no body had actually been.

So basically in the title, did we get anything wrong about space or the moon that we later discovered upon leaving Earth?

I am doing research on an image found in my work center that shows the dedication of Macdill AFB, Florida dated 16 April 1941. In it, there is a parade formation with a segregated African American unit in the left field of the image with several individuals who appear African American working on laying concrete. I believe this could be the 810th Engineering Aviation Battalion.

The question stems from the historical notes I can find online stating that the 810th was activated on 26 June 1941, 2 months after the dedication of Macdill. Is it possible that the men who would compose that unit were already assembled or was activating a unit essentially the day that some officers and NCOs show up to get the paperwork side of forming a unit done?