Among my father's effects, I found copies of U.S. Army discharge papers for my great-grandfather. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1849 or 1850. He emigrated to the U.S. in his teens and made his way to California. I'm not sure what he did for his young adult life, but he apparently enlisted in the U.S. Army when he would have been 32 and he served three consecutive enlistments of five years each. His last set of discharge papers shows him at age 47.

The papers are handwritten, fill-in-the-blank forms, and I can't read all the text. The best I can get is:

1. Discharged 10/2/1887 as a private from Captain Edward J. Randolph's company of the [unreadable] regiment of infantry. Discharged was signed by an unreadable colonel at something that looks like "Ft. Knight." Definitely begins with a "K" and has a "g" in there.

2. Discharged 10/2/1892 as a private from Captain [something] Wakeman's detachment of something that looks like the "Corp. Corps," maybe "Hosp. Corps," signed by Captain Wakeman of the 4th Cavalry at Fort Bidwell, which I'm obligated to note is a long way from anywhere.

3. Discharged 10/2/1897 as a private. I can't really make out anything else from this copy except that the discharging captain was at the "San Diego Barracks."

These papers raise several questions that I couldn't answer with cursory research:

1. Was it normal for the Army to take and retain solders of that age during this period?

2. Was it normal to serve 15 years and never rise above the rank of private?

3. What would the Army have been doing in California during this time period? What might take someone from the two extreme ends of California during this period?

4. Was this method of enlistment usual? Did soldiers enlist not in the "Army" as a whole, the way they do now, but in specific detachments and companies?

Any other holes you can fill in or tidbits of information you can offer would be appreciated.

*Edit: Corrected birth year.

Specifically I'm asking about the name of the "Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda", why did they include the propaganda part in naming it, surely anyone with a dictionary and 5 minutes can see that what they were up to? "Peoples enlightenment" sounds much more convincing and altruistic, it's like calling a Mcdonalds a "restaurant for cheap unhealthy food".

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I did some googling on this but it’s difficult to know how slanted left or right a given source is so I’d like to ask a historian. In as unbiased a manner as possible, how much of the poverty or unsustainable nature of large communist governments such as the USSR, China, and to a lesser extent Cuba, can be attributed to trade sanctions imposed by hostile capitalist or NATO affiliated nations? Some? All? None? I’m sure this has been written about extensively so if you know of an informative and unbiased source I am interested.

One of the most striking things to me about the Chinese Revolution is just how little support there apparently was for any type of monarchy following the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Obviously the Qing had lost the mandate of heaven, but the extent to which Yuan Shikai's support fell apart when he tried to become Emperor, and the extent to which absolutely no one seemed to want to continue the dynastic system, seems extreme. Were the Qing just perceived as being really that bad?

Thanks for any answers!

Ancient authors emphasize that Spartan childhood was a continuous, rigorous testing period, starting literally at birth. The child was, by some accounts, doused in wine by its mother. If it survived this test it was then presented to a special commission, which determined whether, from the child's constitution and apparent strength, he or she would be allowed to live. It's life then would be a series of tests of increasing rigor, administered until the child reached 20. Military training commenced from early childhood for both boys and girls, and by the teens the boys were expected to spend a period living off the land. This included thefts and raids directed against the resident serf population, the helots. Marriage was apparently mandatory at age 20, although grooms would continue to live in the barracks. Although I am certain that anthropologists could point to ancient or modern cultures that instituted some of these practices, overall this combination of training-for-life and eugenics seems to be contrary to the human bonding that one expects in most communities. In addition, some accounts of Spartan life are considered to be excessively laudatory and hagiographic. So is there any objective evidence of these winnowing practices by the Spartans, for instance archeological evidence of infanticide, murder of helots, etc?

I understand that a lot of that comes from plundering other nations world wide, taxes for war effort, etc etc, but is that all? How exactly did they make money? Do they get a portion of the country's taxes annually?

I'm specifically referring to the western world.

As we all know, the American rights movements began in the 50s (First African rights, then gay in the early 60s).
But where there any openly pro-gay-marriage-politicians before the rights movements? Were they treated as harshly as abolitionists in the early 19th century?

I’ve read that, on paper, the Weimar Republic was the most modern and liberal nation of its time. How accurate is that statement?

Why didn’t they try to colonize what today is Canada and parts of the US?

"Talk less. Smile more. Don't let them know what you're against or what you're for."

In the musical, this is Aaron Burr's advice to the young Alexander Hamilton. Later Hamilton replies:

"If you stand for nothing, Burr, what'll you fall for?"

These two quotes epitomize the portrayal of Aaron Burr in the musical Hamilton: he avoids giving his opinions, especially on issues of any controversy, lest it hurt his popularity and thus his career. He's in politics not because he cares about the issues but because he cares about his career and the ego boost he gets from having power.

However, according to Aaron Burr's Wikipedia page:

As a New York Assemblyman in 1785, Burr supported a bill to end slavery

and

Not only did Burr advocate education for women, upon his election to the New York State Legislature, he submitted a bill, which failed to pass, that would have allowed women to vote.

This suggests that Aaron Burr was not shy of controversy, as slavery abolition and women's suffrage were highly controversial issues.

These are just two examples, though, and perhaps they are anomalies. I may also be missing context that would change how these examples should be interpreted.

For those who are informed on the subject, what is your opinion on the portrayal of Aaron Burr?

I was looking at an old ad, and realized that's a weirdly specific color for almost everything to be.

Would they have a special cutting board and knife for the cheese? Same with the bread? How did they carry all these accoutrements? How did they keep their food off the ground? How did they keep it dry in case of rain? How did they carry their drinks?

Picnics are logistically complicated enough as it is in today's world of plastics.

While there have been several female military leaders in Chinese history (Liang Hongyu, Shen Yunying, Princess Pingyan, etc), the length of her military career and the nature of the honors given to her (having poems of thanks written by the emperor himself and being appointed guardian of the prince) seem quite exceptional, and I am wondering if there was any discussion of these going to a woman.

She also seems to have been among the most succesful of the Ming generals of that time, is it possible she would have been awarded even higher duties if she were a man? Or did the Ming court typically not promote regional "warlords".

Ken Burn's documentary, "Prohibition," states that by 1830 the average American drank 88 bottles of whiskey per year. Were there measurable collective psychological or cultural consequences to this? Are there any other examples of a nation being comparably gripped by such widespread and socially acceptable addiction to an intoxicant? Additionally, how did American culture shrug off this mass addiction? Was the prohibition period a kind of national intervention?

Its hard to find a good book on this topic that does not turn into an argument against banks and the federal reserve. Im looking for something that gives, as honest as possible, all the pros and cons of the gold standard during this time.

Specifically between 1991-2000 because of the 20yr rule

Hello historians!

After watching the Great War Youtube show and reading Elizabeth Greenhalgh's The French Army in the First World War(2014), I got to wondering, why is Newfoundlandians/Newfoundland soldiers listed separate from Canadians or just British? Why is it a separate 'dominion'/colony and why does UK own it in hoi4 instead of Canada/Dominion of Canada :)?

Thanks

In iranian mythology "rostam" the aryan champion fights "demons" (دیو) in current province of "mazandaran" so that aryans can live in peace i have been told that these "demons" are the people who were already living in parts of iran before aryans came and conquered them. Any idea on who they were ? what cultures did they have ? anything besides the Elamites

This has plagued me for several years. Who is the most likely individual responsible for bestowing Xerxes' name upon him. Himself? His father Darius? Did he have a birth name and then chose Xerxes as a regal name?

I ask as a minor point relating to the notion that in Aeschylus' Persians, Darius insists to Xerxes that he not invade Greece, that war is foolish. This is almost certainly a fabrication, but I would like to know if there is evidence of Darius naming Xerxes, which I understand means 'Warrior' in their tongue.