A quick shameless promo: /r/VietnamWar is a subreddit that exist for all those who wishes to share links, photographs or engage in discussions about the wars in Indochina throughout the 20th century. While it's a bit more casual than AskHistorians, it still has all the rules you'd expect from here and active moderation. You're welcome to post some links or photographs of your own, or perhaps engage in a discussion about a book you've read. :)

Anyone got any interesting "artist's reconstructions / interpretations" to share? Here's a few representing sites in my area of interest that you may have seen me post before, all by Steven Patricia:

• Poverty Point
• Newark Earthworks
• Troyville Earthworks
• Etowah
• Moundville

When we talk about how nuclear weapons work, we almost always start with talking about the importance of the "critical mass." This is for historical reasons more than anything else, and I think this language (esp. the focus on the word "critical," which means a lot of things in colloquial English) can be extremely misleading to non-experts. I've written this up in a blog post, and also created a nifty little online nuclear fission simulator to help illustrate some of the concepts involved: Critical Mass.

/r/paradoxplaza had some fun trying to emulate /r/askhistorians in this post earlier this week. The top comment and the top child of that comment were spot on, I'd say.

I had purchased some books using my book vouchers, based on /r/AskHistorians/'s reading list and flaired users' recommendations.

• Empire of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler.
• The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
• The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy (special thanks to /u/shlin28 for that recommendation, as this book is absent from the current wiki book lists)

Of all three, the one I enjoyed the most is Empire of the Word. History of languages is not much discussed here in /r/AskHistorians or in public, so learning history from that perspective is quite refreshing and fun. That, and the message that people who learned multiple languages had multiple "hearts" seems to strike a chord with me, who is at least trilingual (Melayu, Mandarin Chinese, English). Kind of make we wonders how many languages do users in /r/AskHistorians/ know?

Not sure if this warrants it's own thread, so I figured I'd try here first.

Question: Has there ever been a relatively large group (town-sized or larger) of people that sincerely believed the world was going to end at an appointed time? If so, how, if at all, did their behavior change as that date approached? If not, what's the largest group of people all in one place who have had that kind of belief?

Thanks!

I have a question but it borders on a bit of conspiracy theory (which I don't believe). The conspiracy theory is that after the Templars were excommunicated and attacked they fled for safe havens, one of which was Switzerland. Hence, the Swiss flag being basically an inverse of the Templar symbol.

Now, I don't believe that bit at all. What did spark my interest was that the theory also said that the large number of Templar knights living there explained how Switzerland went from basically a military backwater to a country that was highly regarded to get mercenaries from. So what did make Switzerland become one of the best places to hire mercenaries from when they don't exactly have a history of attacking countries or being attacked?

I have a question mostly for archivists: How do you/archives in your country gather archival material from private persons and private entities (e.g. firms, NGO's, associations/unions and other civil society organizations)?

I work for the national archives of my own country in its section for private archives, so I am curious as to how other countries handle it.

Taking my early 20th century Shanghai culture in film class is really pushing me to learn Chinese at some point. We watched Oceans of Passion, Heavy Kissing (one of only eighteen films from the 1920s to survive) yesterday and was amused about the original English title Don't Lose Your Husband. I really want to talk about translation differences in the two-page paper I have to write, but I don't know enough Chinese to do that. :(

Is it possible to make a living as a Genealogist? Are there any in the sub working in that field?

Hello, everyone! I am writing a thesis and I would like to cite sir B. H. Liddell Hart, or, to be more specific, his History of the First World War.

I would like to mention specific passages, most importantly the Second Battle of Ypres and the Unwanted Battle at Loos.

I only have the book in Czech. That wouldnt be an issue, but I am writing my thesis in English and would like to be specific - does anybody here have the 1997 Papermac edition and could kindly help me out?

Wilhelm II coronation - who are the persons on his left and right? http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/24/135124-004-63A38A99.jpg