What did your grandparents tell you about life during the Second World War?
>>1101753
Germans were relatively polite
Everybody listened to the BBC broadcast behind closed curtains
Nobody really knew what happened
Policemen were taken to camps, so great grandfather, who was a volunteer fireman, got enlisted as policeman. Grandma still has his lead-center-leather-covered baton.
When they were liberated, US soldiers gave the children gum and chocolate.
>>1101753
My grandmother, upon learning I was dating an American guy, revealed to me that she was sleeping with an American bomber pilot when she was 14 or 15.
>>1101812
L O N D O N
O
N
D
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How could 60s counter culture even start when America had just saved the world, given rights to blacks, and had gone through the 50s, the pinnacle decade of Western civilisation?
Does this show that people desire something to complain about?
>>1098410
Communist subversion.
>>1098410
>given blacks rights
sure the right to the hose
>>1098410
>mai golden age ruined by hippies
If you are going to discuss history throw off the ideological goggles if you want anyone to take you seriously.
The average person reveals their stupidity and fear when they criticize modern art as being "meaningless" or a "trick." They fear the unknown, that's obvious, but also, it's a total lack of vernacular and ability to understand anything about what you're seeing. If I told you pic related is one of the finest paintings of the 20th century, what would you say? You have no ability to understand what you're seeing on any real level unless you're an art major. But, take a subject like astrophysics, and even if you don't really understand it even on a simple level, it seems like you can. You think about the physics you did in high school, thing bounces into thing, imparts energy, other thing moves. You can think of astrophysics as like that on a larger scale, even if that isn't true it feels true and it feels like you can get a grasp on what astrophysics is. You know terms like inertia, mass, orbit, etc. You have a little vernacular. But modern art is so strange that even if you know a little about color, hue, and weight in compositions, its still so bizarre to you that you recoil reflexively and declare that it must be a joke. There can't be anything you don't know, can't be anything that you could never even come close to understanding. The thought terrifies you. For example, this painting makes me think about how we think of mental space. In my memory of this painting it was airy, the edges of the square were not defined, and when I see it now it makes me confront my preconceived ideas of mental space and of the metaphysical, this painting is giving form to the metaphysical. It's giving form to something we can never see. It's a beautiful paradox. What do you see?
4chan fucked up the picture
>>1110447
>What do you see?
ur mum
What the fuck is even going on. http://www.moma.org/collection/works/80385 here's the link just look at the fucking painting
>>1106086
Generous donations from ashamed oppressors who wanted their money to contribute to a just world of beautiful workers, obviously.
I don't remember where I heard it, but I once saw someone claim that it was to get back at the Whites who defaulted on a number of their debts.
>>1106107
Which explains the massive workers' exodus toward the USSR.
so how the fuck is this a good method of executing someone? doesnt that shit hurt as hell?
why didnt we stick to good ol guillotine?
That's actually kind of an interesting question.
Well obviously the guillotine was never used in practice in America, but the transition from hangings to electrocutions is something I'd like to know more about.
If I had to hazard a guess I'd say it's because public executions were beginning to be seen as...uncouth or distasteful. Electrocutions could be done in a small private areas housed within the prison itself and it also had the upside of not mutilating the body so that it could be returned to a family for burial.
>>1104908
> Electrocutions could be done in a small private areas housed within the prison itself
well a guillotine doesnt need that much space either and people hang themselves inside all the time...
> upside of not mutilating the body
sure? always thought it would leave some burns on the body
>>1104908
Just because the electric chair is a newer form of execution than hanging doesn't make it more humane. The electric chair was used as a propaganda piece by the proponents of direct current to show the danger of alternating current. Electrocution can be easily botched and there's no reason to believe that even a properly conducted electrocution is less painful than long drop hanging.
There are witnesses to the execution by members of the public and the media, so it's not really that private.
What the fuck was his problem?
leave him alone
he tried his best
>>1100283
>"Wow, some crazy troll broke everything and left everyone feeling like shit. Guess I'll try and fix it! Oh shit I made everything worse!"
>>1100441
Not OP obviously but Carter was horrible.
>Castro opens up jails and releases hordes of actual rapists, murderers and thieves to the US
>Cuckter goes full #refugeeswelcome
>in half a year the crime in southern Florida skyrockets to third world levels
He was literally retarded (inb4 muh STEM). I'm not even getting to the entire Iran fuckup, unemployment, deficit spending and stagflation. He's the worst US president in the 20th century at least.
Why was leftism repressed in the US more successful than in Europe?
>>1099272
The instability of the post-WWII period needed strong government.
>>1099272
>Why was leftism<?> more successfully repressed in the United States than in Europe?
Fixed that for you.
What's leftism by the way?
>>1099276
Post-WW1 repressions were more violent and severe
Who was better: Templars, Hospitallers, or Teutons?
Hospitallers purely due to them surviving into the modern era as a Catholic order.
Teutons. They killed dirty Slavs.
Templars were the most powerful and got shit done for the Crusade. They only have one notable screw up. When their commander in the holy lands pressed for an immediate attack. Instead of resting the men, getting more water and supplies, and getting better intel on the Sarcens armies.
French King and the Pope screwed them and the Crusades over some debts and threat to papal power.
I've been struggling to find films with good historical battles.
Please suggest some. It can be from any period. No fantasy or horribly historically inaccurate films.
I have the following movies in my folder, some less historical than others
300 (1 & 2)
Alexander
Ben Hur
Centurion
Dacii
Gladiator
The 300 Spartans
The Eagle
The Egyptian
Troy
Arn the Knight Templar (1 & 2)
Brave Heart
Flesh and Blood
Henry V
Iron Clad
Kingdom of heaven Directors cut
Robin Hood
Valhalla Rising
Master and Commander
Last Samurai
The Patriot
Come and See
Downfall
Enemy at the Gates
Fury
Letters from Iwo Jima
Saving Private Ryan
Valkyrie
>>1103014
>IronClad
That shit is as inaccurate as possible but holy shit it is so over the top its fun. gif related.
If you don't mind TV series then Rome is pretty accurate.
>>1103014
For TV shows
Band of Brothers
Generation War
Vikings
Rome (as mentioned earlier)
Spartacus
I, Claudius (no battles though)
Does /his/ like to talk about Serial Killers?
>>1099866
Apparently not.
Like many angsty teenagers, I used to have a thing for learning about serial killers. Gacy was always the one to disturb me the most
Cossacks were the most awesome Slavic group/society, yet I rarely see them mentioned.
Let's discuss Cossacks!
>>1110840
I don't know much but from what I've read it's like they were the designated pogrom-committers
>>1110840
they were god-tier combined with polish hussars.
>>1110840
Well discuss them then you faggot
don't just say they are cool and expect us to explain why
What did northern European peasants do all winter?
>>1108291
They probably still had work to do other than farming. Hunting, tending to domesticated animals, doing repairs, going to church etc.
>The peasant’s year was divided into two seasons: five months of labour, where 99% of the work was done and seven months of winter. As money was practically unknown in rural France until the late 19th century, there was little motivation to do anything other than conserve energy. It seems in many places, whole families just took to their beds, snug under their hayloft, with a supply of dried and preserved food and their animals in the next room to keep them warm. If anyone died, the corpse was stored on the roof and buried when the weather got warmer.
>There are no reports of British peasants taking to their beds all winter, but this may be a question of diet as much as tradition. Far from the rich provincial fare of cuisine maman that we now associate with rural France, the average French peasant was more to be pitied than envied by their British counterparts.
>>1108365
sounds comfy
What went right?
>>1103979
Communism.
>>1103979
This does not mean anything. Over half of the country is still poor as shit.
A fairly technocratic government, strict expectations of performance from leaders (be it real or fabricated, an abundance of resources (natural, human and material).
Who do you think is the greatest Roman Emperor ever?
I guess I would probably say Trajan, Septimius Severus or Diocletian.
I'm partial to Trajan because he took an empire that was potentially spiraling out of control, and restored its glory to its greatest heights. He also fixed taxes, created welfare programs for the poor, built projects at home and abroad (bridges, harbors and aqueducts), he was kind of like the ancient world Bernie Sanders. He also expanded the Roman Empire, it was huger than ever.
Septimius because he was a military genius and for being such a political mastermind. He was a soldier-emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history. Rebuilt the city of Byzantium which quickly regained its previous prosperity. And what matters the most is that he ruled with the ideal of the overall good of the people in mind, and it seems that much of Roman history after him consists of a gradual and sometimes not so gradual decline downhill thereafter.
Diocletian because he was able to restore order and prosperity after decades of chaos, civil war and depletion. Also, because he started from the bottom and made his way through all ranks. Diocletian was also one of the few emperors who voluntarily gave up their power. What a great guy he was.
Augustus is also good, but too overrated, people who haven't read much don't understand that it's Augustus successors who did most of the work.
Constantine was the absolute worst, everything went downhill when he accepted Christianity
Don't post that Byzantine garbage, that's not the Roman Empire.
>>1102299
>Septimius Severus
gonna have to agree with this
makes me proud of my race
pescenius niger is also fucking amazing
>>1102336
>makes me proud of my race
What did you mean by this?
>>1102299
Charlemagne
Within only 2 years of the havoc that was France's revolution it was able to fend off the combined might of Europe's monarchies
Seeing the fragility of modern post-regime change states like Iraq (especially the Iraqi Army's defeat and dissolution before isis) it seems unfathomable that France would have been able to reorganize so effectively that it did not only fend off the coalition armies, but defeat them and conquer more territory
What was the pivotal factor? was it the revolution's popular support that gave it the morale and swiftness it needed to reorganize? Effective leadership?(of course napolean) how did they do it?
>>1093789
bump
A large part of it was that the French army remained largely as it was during the ancien regieme, one of the largest and most powerful in Europe. They remained mostly supported and organized throughout the chaos. Iraqi forces on the other hand become disorganized and had ridiculously low morale.
The leadership of the Jacobins saved revolutionary France.
Carnot was a member of the Committee for Public Safety, known as the organizer of victory.
Facing invasion on all side by monarchists, the CfPS called for a levee en masse, an entire nation in arms to fight for the Republic.
The People responded to the call.
Committing the industry of France to equip and supply an army was an immense task, but Lazare Carnot and the Committee were up to the effort.
Within a year, in a pre-industrial era, the French defeated the coalition against them.
Liberte.
Fraternite.
Egalite.
