W00t! I’m on the telly again. CSPAN filmed my talk on US AFV design in WW2 last month. Is on Sunday week, 14:20 Eastern. https://www.c-span.org/video/?433629-2/design-history-m4-sherman-tank-world-war-ii

Well this isnt a new book by any means, but when I was first coming to terms with my passion for American history, one book that excited my passions and has really shaped my focused area of study was, "Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for American Independants" by Carol Berkin. It not only opened my eyes to some of the country's most amazing females, but brought me the insight to look for the groups and people in history who there arent statues of and eho there are not institutions named after, but who played an equal role in shaping history.

Question: what is y'all's opinion on WWII in Colour narrated by Robert Powell? How accurate is it?

Regarding the "gentleman scientists" of ~18th-19th century Europe who published in Latin or Greek, what was their general fluency with those languages? Would they require a translation dictionary or other assistance, or could they write so on the fly? Were they proofread by an editor, or did colleagues mock (or praise) the proficiency of others?

Are there any books that cover topics similar to "The Knight and the Blast Furnace" by Alan Williams that's more affordable?

So if you had a time machine and could go back to any point in history, where would it be and why?

The rules are-

1. Butterfly effect is in play. You won't ruin everything by coughing, but any overt interference will cause ripples in the time stream with unknowable repercussions.

2. There's no translator available, you either know the language or you don't.

3. You are immune to most common diseases because of modern medicine and proper preparation.

Questions from someone who doesn't know shit about history:

What's the current consensus on Dan Carlin's accuracy/interpretations? I love him.

What about Thaddeus Russell's Renegade History? I found myself rolling my eyes while listening to it.

I've heard this statistic about soldiers in war not even trying to shoot the enemy for the most part. How accurate does this seem to be?

I've also heard the narrative that very early man only hunted/gathered for ~4 hours a day or so and otherwise had lots of free time. Is there any research that shows this?

"'In German oder Englisch, I know how to count down, und I'm learning Chinese', says Wernher von Braun" -Tom Lehrer's song about him

Is there any factual basis to that jab, as in any serious consideration of him going to run the Chinese space program next?

I did a week of CRM (commercial archaeology) in Wisconsin last week and I had a blast. Maybe it's because I'm still bright eyed and fresh out of graduate school, but I can't wait to get some more gigs.

What are good historians to follow on Twitter?

Need some reading recommendations. My only deep reading into Classical naval warfare has been Lords of the Sea (whose, on a side note, pottery image of hoplites riding dolphins remains high on my greatest book cover list). Curious if any of our resident Classicists have some leads on Hellenistic/Roman shipbuilding and naval warfare literature.

By extension, I'm very interested in the large period of galley warfare in general, if anyone else (medievalists, Viking historians, Far Eastern historians, etc.) would like to chime in.

After reading military history (with a focus on WW2 infantry combat) for many years, I decided to delve into the warfare of classical ancient Greece. After reading, "A War Like No Other" by VD Hansen, and "A Storm of Spears" by Christopher Matthew, I find that there is an ongoing and contentious debate about actual hoplite combat. I am intensely interested in combat with edged weapons. Can anyone recommend books, about any circumstance, that such weapons were used? Any era...any place or time.

JFK/Kennedy Assassination megathread/roundtable/feature?

Given the document dump (and public coverage of the event) I assume there are going to be a rash of JFK related questions. If you have enough qualified people with free time I think that could be a neat idea.

fans of Grand Strategy Games often use the phrase "paint the map" to describe player attempts to conquer the entire world/a goodly portion of it.

How did cartographers deal with real life "map painters" who were constantly upsetting the map with their conquests.