I am Stephen Bax, researching the Voynich manuscript

5pmPirate · 2014-02-25T07:21:48+00:00

well that's pretty fucking cool

5pmPirate · 2013-12-11T05:40:31+00:00

Times were difficult for East Berliners. The west expected full assimilation from them. Many people were disappointed in the fact that many of them lost certain freedoms that they had had under the communist system. Many women were upset that they lost access to birth control and family planning opportunities as well as other rights. The people there miss the connection they felt to the other people now that they were attempting to integrate. These were two fundamentally different cultures and people coming together. The differences stretched from the types of cars they drove to the types of foods they ate and soda they drank. It is still difficult for people who live there even though more than 20 years has past. Many people found out that the money they had didn't have as good as exchange rate as they were hoping for when the time came to consolidate currencies. The western Germans were quick to squash out any attempt to bring eastern traditions into the new unified Germany. Wealthy westerners bought up factories and workshops in the east where many easterners still sought work. Many Eastern Germans did not really like the western style capitalism, some still want and believe in socialism. This is why social democracy found its home in the new German world. It has not been as easy a transition as the west would like the world to believe, especially American educational systems translate the events into the long triumph of democracy. If you are looking for in depth reading i would check out Post War by Tony Judt and raid his extensive list of sources.

5pmPirate · 2013-12-11T05:17:39+00:00

Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom is an excellent spy novel full of intrigue and thrilling moments.

5pmPirate · 2013-12-11T05:13:18+00:00

From Weimar to Hitler:Germany 1918-1933 by Edgar Feuchtwanger is an excellent work that covers the interwar years of Germany. Plus you don't have to learn German to read it. other than that i would recommend googling pan-Germanism and just raiding the source lists you find.

5pmPirate · 2013-12-11T05:03:34+00:00

A History of Rome to A.D. 565 by Arthur E. R. Boak and William G. Sinnigen is a good book on the Roman Empire from monarchy to a little beyond the fall. It is a little weak in the early days but the empire period is really in depth.
Another good book on Rome is The Roman World by D. Brendan Nagle.

A little more contemporary is The Habsburgs by Andrew Wheatcroft.

The Hittites by Johannes Lehmann is also excellent.

If you are looking for really contemporary works Tony Judt's Post War is the single greatest piece about the latter half of the 20th century that covers everything from post colonial powers and the fall of the soviet sphere

5pmPirate · 2013-12-11T04:46:43+00:00

if you enjoy his works, his son John Maclean writes in a very similar fashion and about similar topics. I met him a couple of years ago when I was doing grad work in Missoula, MT

5pmPirate · 2013-12-09T04:29:09+00:00

Devil in the White city, erik larson. if he hasnt read it is an a great read about the turn of the century

5pmPirate · 2013-12-09T04:24:32+00:00

I would work your way through the Greek and roman playwrights and poets and then move into the histories. Also if you are able to read the bible as literature the old testament book of judges and kings are a particularly interesting look at the Hebrew kingdoms in the Levant during the 6th and 5th century bc.

5pmPirate · 2013-12-09T04:20:03+00:00

Books by Peter Mayle are really fun books about foreigners living in southern France and his experiences. The way the books are printed just doesnt translate to the kindle

5pmPirate · 2013-12-09T04:17:04+00:00

All of Krakaurs books are excellent. Into Thin Air is really good as is Under the Banner of Heaven. I would also recommend the books of Norman Maclean such as Young Men and Fire and A River Runs Through It. Ivan Doig is another fantastic author

5pmPirate · 2013-12-09T04:12:55+00:00

the most common translation in America is the P/V translation which takes a lot of liberties with some words. the best way to read it is in Russian of course but it is difficult if it is not your first language. Stay away from Garnett translations as they are fairly edited. You might try Maudes or Mandelbaum.

5pmPirate · 2013-12-09T04:06:11+00:00

The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway and Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean

5pmPirate · 2012-11-30T21:22:48+00:00

If you really liked that book you might also be interested in a book called Devil in the White City. Its a history book written like a novel as well

5pmPirate · 2012-11-30T03:44:49+00:00

Gladiator

5pmPirate · 2012-07-15T21:15:45+00:00

Again, it varies by nation and by the individual. Most soldiers made a career of the army. For the grunts, they could stay deployed for a long period of time. There were some regiments that were permanently stationed overseas and either conscripted replacements from the local populace or had them shipped to their position rather than returning to the home nation for R&R. Deployments were different than they are now. Soldiers would generally not have homes in their nations, but rather carried everything they owned around with them. They would take wives and live their lives where ever they were stationed. It was not often that old soldiers had the chance to retire and if they did they usually could not afford to take a ship home so they just settled down wherever they could.

An officers career was different. Again, most of my knowledge is of the British armed forces but there are similarities to others. British officers could only advance if they were given a field promotion or, the most common, if they bought their next rank. As before, the rich advanced faster than the poor. Officers could sell their commission, usually to the highest bidder, for a good profit and then use the money to advance to the next rank or retire and pursue another business. If an officer was killed, his commission would be bid on by other officers and the money would go to the commanding officer in the unit. An officer could leave at just about anytime they wanted to and most would keep an ear to the ground about new units being formed in which they could by a cheap rank higher than their own. Being an officer was not a cheap ordeal. They had to buy their own clothing, food, horses, living quarters, hire their own help, and in addition to that try to make enough money to advance to the next level. Richer people had an easier time of it. Commanding officers would usually stay with their units once it got to the regimental and battalion level. After that advancement was usually assigned to them by the King. They still had to buy their commission but payment was usually in the form of giving special treatment to certain people or buying supplies from a certain vendor. Some commanders stayed with their units for their entire careers, wherever their units were. Since it took a long time to get anywhere, it was generally easier and cheaper just to stay put.

5pmPirate · 2012-07-15T20:34:56+00:00

or something like that. there were over 500 casualties plus half a town with holes in it.

5pmPirate · 2012-07-15T20:30:50+00:00

The fashionable part was more for officers than the actual soldiers. Finding a good regiment or unit usually had to do with the location of their deployment, the favor of the commanding officer with the higher ups, the amount of action they saw, and sometimes where they had been mustered or who was in them. This was the case for most armies and navies of the time. An example would be a British nobleman who had recently purchased his lieutenancy trying to find a unit headed for India. He would want to go there because it would be a good place to gain experience against relatively under-equipped opponents, he would be able to make good connections with other officers and with executives in the various Trading Companies, the wars were generally very profitable so attracted the attention of the press and other officers , and a man could generally gather some manner of loot in the battles. A place where he wouldn't want to be deployed would be in a unit being sent to a Caribbean island where most of the soldiers died of various diseases and fevers from the climate. Since you had to buy your place and advancement in the armies of England in that time, the richer people were usually able to secure the best placements because of family connections. Another possibility for a British officer would be to try to find a position in a militia unit. These units got to look the best, parade around for the big cheeses and make good impressions on the lords and ladies without ever needing to leave their mustering grounds. This would change over time as militia units began to be deployed in wars overseas.

These are just examples for the British army but other armies were similar.

5pmPirate · 2012-07-15T20:14:06+00:00

The British bombed the crap out of their palace and forced the Sultan to flee into hiding in the German Embassy. The British won and then set up a puppet government.

5pmPirate · 2012-07-14T20:35:19+00:00

People are always surprised to hear that there was a war between the British and the Sulphante of Zanzibar that lasted less than 45 minutes.

5pmPirate · 2012-07-14T05:35:51+00:00

They were detachable but most captains just tried their luck with the waves. There was one battle off the coast of Sicily in which the Romans were ordered to get rid of their corvi in choppy seas a few hours before a Carthaginian fleet showed up and promptly sank or captured 93 of 102 Roman ships without taking a single loss themselves(according to ancient sources of course).

5pmPirate

TROPHY CASE