Slightly odd question, might be more about the epistemology of history than a historical fact.

I know people who believe history is progressing by some fixed, static order, almost like unlocking levels in a video game. So they think that the progression of technology is almost preordained, and things like AI, space travel, and climate change are both necessary and unavoidable. It's like a historical or technological determinism.

Of course, I can't imagine that this is right, not only because it's so locked into a Westernized understanding of progress (they always talk about printing press -> factory -> industrial age, etc.), but also because it's ignoring that technologies are designed for specific purposes - for instance, the industrial factory of the 19th century isn't an "inevitability," it's a specific tool designed to create/collect resources in a system that has arbitrary and culturally-specific systems for allocating resources. It's not inevitable, it's a product of its environment.

But people still seem to think that history is marching toward some predetermined technological horizon.

Where did that idea come from? What do historians call it?

If someone could even just point me to the name of this belief system, that would be great. I've read the Stanford summary of the idea of progress, but that's not super helpful - I don't think it's what I'm describing.

Many historians like Koenrad Elst claim this. I however, find the claims absurd because of the lack of reliable sources and because I'd assume the actual population itself to be around that number, back in those days. (given the average world population in regions where it was documented) Another thing that raises questions to this claim is that, if so many Hindus were genocided, how do they have the lion's share of the current demographic in the country?

What's the consensus on this?

After my on-and-off again listening affair with city pop and my enjoyment of anime, I've decided to start researching what the world of real-life Japan was like during 1980s (preceding the Lost Decade) for a future TTRPG campaign that I might start running. Does anyone have a good place to enter into this rabbit hole?

To be more specific, I'd like to focus not only on pop culture/fashion trends, but also economical/political factors. I suppose there will inevitably be some crossover with the rest of the world during the 80s, but I would also appreciate it if I could perhaps find interviews from people that lived during that time (ideally translated, but I could brush up on my Japanese if need be).

I'm reading up on classic Greek theologies and cosmogonies (still in the stages of trawling through free online resources) and it seems to me that the Orphic reverence for Dionsysos threatens the position of other gods, in particular Zeus.

Was sectarian conflict an issue in Greek antiquity?

Are there any books you'd recommend for me on the topic?

To my knowledge, there weren’t any orthodox knight orders, while there were some attacks on orthodox lands. Why weren’t any established?

I am familiar with the concept of white flight & highways destroying neighborhoods, but not with respect to LA. Additionally, I thought it was interesting that a movie made in the 80s would so directly make a reference to the public transportation of the 40s or 50s. In hindsight, this seemed like a reference that I would not have understood as a kid, but adults living in CA would have some preexisting notions about.

Me and some friends were talking in school and one of them said that more soviet soldiers died by other soviets than by the germans. However, I have not been able to find any sources either confirming or denying it, so I ask here.

I’ve been looking for a Sengoku Japan book but I have seen criticisms of Stephen Turnbull, the only person who seems to come up on searches, when it comes to this area as he does not engage well with sources etc. Can anyone recommend a well researched book on the Sengoku period book with good source engagement?

I’m aware that it was an honour from the Senate to the triumvir in the settlement of 27BC, I believe.

I’d imagine that the name-change from Gaius Octavius to Caesar Augustus would be a way to link himself with Julius Caesar officially as his adopted father and heir, whilst Augustus was a name reflecting his virtues as well as showing respect from the Senate and people for him. Augustus’ father was not a exceptionally glorious chap, as I understand it, and so losing Octavius for Augustus added to Augustus’ prestige.

I have been reading through Mary Beard’s Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations in which she discusses various topics. Personally, I’ve never liked Beard’s work and her personality annoys me, but given she is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge, I respect her and I feel like her work should be to a high standard.

My issue with the book is that she says that Augustus dropped Octavius as it was a name associated with murder, such as the proscriptions (Is there a source for this? Beard does not specify anything.) which I’d argue is no more a personal interpretation than what I said about Augustus’ virtues, relationship with Caesar and prestige.

I don’t quite understand the connection, however. Obviously, Augustus was still the same man and it is certainly true that he glossed over his years as Octavian in the Res Gestae, but would the people and the Senate really have thought ‘Augustus is a good man. Octavian killed those senators’?! It seems like a loose connection to me, especially in comparison to the idea of honour and prestige. I know Augustus was appreciative of Cicero later in his life, but is there any evidence to suggest that he changed his name to lose the murderous connotations?

Source: Beard, Mary. Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations (London: Liveright, 2013), 107

Apologies for formatting issues - mobile. Apologies for any slight mistakes.

Edit: Does Beard have something against Augustus? ‘Altar of Peace (for which Altar of Successful Pacification might be a better title).’ (P.199)

Hi everybody.

I recently watched the movie "escape from Pretoria" and I realised I know almost nothing about apartheid in South Africa. ( my mind was blown away by the fact that it actually ended in the early 90s, I never paid attention to the fact that it was so close to us)

Can anybody suggest a few titles on the topic?

Would really appreciate it, thanks.

Besides the cost factor, and the fact that most people don't have access to tin. Did Bronze use for armor and weapons completely dissappear or was it still used as a status symbol? Could it still get the job done if I was a wealthy Roman Praefectus or even someone in the early medeival period and I wanted a bronze helmet or sword just for that bronze age aesthetic look would that have been viable? Is their any archeological evidence of this?

For instance I have heard in Japan, you can get years of prison for personal amounts of weed. What reasons would they have had to ban and harshly punish the use of what was prior considered an innocuous drug in most of the world?

First, I will admit I am not well read on the subject but I do have a few good books (and a lot of documentaries) under my belt. As far as I understand it most of the household names we know concerning the atomic golden age are not the theorists that led to the prospect of unlocking nuclear energy itself but instead were more like the generation of minds that finally had the tools and the opportunity to pull it all together into reality.

It seems that many of the framers of the Constitution thought that slavery would eventually die out. Why did they think that?

Interested in both what this text tells us about the 11th century French views of Islam, as well as of ancient Greek religion.

I'm looking specifically at English townswomen in the thirteenth-fourteenth century. This is a gap in the research I never expected to find, but unfortunately it's also the exact area I need, and there's not a lot of information about it.

I know that medieval society was divided into "those who work," "those who fight," and "those who pray." Women would have all fallen into the "those who work" category, excepting nuns, who were "those who pray." Peasant women of the villein/serf class would have spent their days working in the fields alongside their husband, as well as keeping house and caring for the children. Wives of the nobility would also have been keeping house, overseeing the servants and the accounts. Wives of merchants would have been busy helping their husbands run the business. But what did wives of craftsmen do all day, if they lived in town and didn't have a large household to keep? If a woman was married to a carpenter, or a blacksmith, or a weaver - those who had been apprenticed and trained in their jobs and thus had skills their wives didn't share - what did they occupy their time with? What responsibilities did they have?

What sorts of things would Jesus and Joseph have been crafting? Architecture, furniture, something else?

Would they have had a family business of sorts or would they have been hired help? Was there anything like a trade guild in the region?

Would Mary have helped run things or was work kept totally separate from family life?

It’s only 25 pounds yet has a ridiculously high fire rate and a 2000 yard range. Belt fed machine gun. Extremely lightweight and mobile yet effective.

In comparison to the M2 Browning, that gun has the same range but a half-fire rate and more than triple the weight.

Why not just copy the MG42?