In his book, The Mystery of Capitalism, author De Soto claims that Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Finance Minister under Louis XIV, had people executed for economic reasons. Colbert is still a widely admired figure in the French education system, notably for his promotion of French manufacturing, so I a...

I'm working on a historical fiction novel dealing with mid 17th century sailing lanes to and from America and England.

Probably all medieval monarchs wore fur garments when the weather was cold enough. But what seems to be the normal medieval picture of monarch in civilian dress was to wear a long robe with a cloak over it, often made of richly decorated silk. Here is a link to a medieval image of Emperor Frede...

I’m not sure this is the right question for this site, but here goes. If we were able to transport, say, a group of ancient Romans (maybe engineers) to modern times and try to bring them up to speed a bit on modern technology and society, what’s the first concept you would teach them about? Where...

I'm writing a novel that plays in 1945 Vienna. There are characters who want to get from Währing (A in the image below) to the city center (B) undetected. Is this realistic/believable for them to travel this route underground (in the sewage system; occasionally getting to the surface)? My ans...

During the era of the typewriter there were a few kinds of basic designs. The (afaik) most well known is the type bar design, where each key is connected to an individual type bar that hits the paper when the key is pressed, each type bar carries the uppercase and lowercase shapes of a single let...

What positions and statuses did Black Africans hold in Germany in the court culture of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufenup and later courts? According to Germany and the Black Diaspora: Points of Contact, 1250-1914 by Mischa Honeck, Martin Klimke and Anne Kuhlmann Chapter Three Ambiguous ...

I commented, admittedly somewhat tongue in cheek, on @guest271314 's answer to this question - essentially I was saying that we all come from somewhere, but that doesn't mean we are familiar with our (distant) origins. My comment has been deleted, but not the OP's reply, which now makes very lit...