Modern art depicts a lot of famous beauties from back then, e.g. Andromeda, mythical wife of Perseus, or Roxana, wife of Alexander, as white. However, Andromeda / Cassiopeia were from Ethiopia, and Roxana was from central Asia. The Ancient Greeks definitely knew that these women wouldn't have looked obviously European. At the same time, being "pale" as a sign of wealth/staying indoors has been a standard of beauty across many ancient cultures, even before the racial Darwinism stuff of the colonial era.

So how exactly did the Ancient Greeks (or Romans, or whatever) view beauty, especially when involving women of color?

While this might be an incredibly broad question, I am struggling to find any solid website/book/video etc. etc. on the subject of armor, clothing, weapons, any kind of such tools of war.

Before widespread use of televisions and the VHS, it's my understanding, people could only see a movie at the theatre.

A bit delayed due to travel, but better late than never!

My guess is that it has something to do with different metallurgy processes having been available in Europe, but I wasn't able to find a good source to check.

More to the point: if it's not just different access to minerals, what kept China from continuing to be at the forefront of development in this field that was pioneered there?

Despite their cultural significance and influence on the Roman Empire, it seems their writing language was never truly deciphered, and they seem to be a relatively "mysterious" subset of people. Considering other sub-cultures that were conquered are documented in more detail- I'd like to know more about why so little is known. Were they a reclusive people? Was their spoken language never translated either?

To my understanding, there is no longer a Jewish community in Baghdad, a community that has a long history, and was considered to be rich and prosperous. Similarly, Cairo's Jewish community had emmigrated, and most of the Jewish communities of modern day Morrocco and Tunis emmigrated to Israel or France. I was told that Jews in the Muslim world did not suffer from persecution as often and as severily as Jews in Christian lands, and were generally more politically effluent. In addition, I got the impression that traveling between in the Muslim world was easier, so if they could have moved to Palestine prior to the 20th century. Why is the sudden change?

And have there ever been any serious abortion scandals within the Church?

Over the past 25 years (if not more) it's pretty clear that nuclear weapons are seen as the biggest threat to the world (in regards to conflict) with outrage over Iran, North Korea and now Russia all testing and indicating they have nuclear weapons. So why doesn't the US see more backlash or anger over their use of nuclear weapons in the bombing of Japan?

I find it odd that it's not seen as literally one of the worst, if not the worst act of war and one of the worst things a country has ever done. Totally understand a lot of bad things were happening in WW2 but given how many innocent people were killed and continue to suffer to this day it's strange no one really views it this way.

I have been wondering this for sometime. I know what Keel hauling is (the practice of dragging sailors under a ship) but in John Ford's Stagecoach, the banker derogatorily refers to Hatfield as a "keel haul gambler." Did the term keel haul have a separate meaning among gamblers at this time?

I recently watched 'Alatriste' (good film!), and in the last big battle scene, we have two forces of pikemen opposing each other. Instead of closing and hitting home, they kind of stand a few paces apart, pretty much the length of their pikes, and shake them in each other's faces, maybe occasionally thrusting a little bit. A lot of the actual killing though seems to be done not by the pikes, but my a small number of soldiers who duck under the pikes, scuttle to the other side, and stab at the legs of the opposing force with knifes and swords.

I had never considered this possibility before, but after watching the film, well, it kind of makes a lot of sense. So was this common practice for the era, or from the imagination of the screenwriter?

Kropotkin is considered to be one of the key, foundational figures in Anarcho-Communism. He would have been considerably younger than Marx, but he was active in Europe during Marx's later years. I couldn't find any sort of mention of them working together, just that Kropotkin was a member of the IWA.

So, what do we know about their interactions, if any? And more generally, how did they feel about the others' work?

You can use the term feudal to describe a pretty specific and global era in history (minus the Americas) that sandwich between the dark ages and the renaissance, a time of swords and peasant farmers.. but why do we never use the term medieval the same way, is there something specifically European that the term captures which was absent from say China?

Did fashion change in the United States after the Revolutionary War in a noticeable way? Was there a rejection of symbols of aristocracy (were there sartorial signs of aristocracy?)? Did a humble style take hold or did it simply continue as it was before 1776?

More specifically, how did something that was "owned" by Natives become owned by Europeans? What was the process like?

Is bullying a 20th century thing? Or say in the 1800s what were kids bullied for? Was it verbal or physical or both?