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Made this post in another thread:

>I can't recommend The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright enough, if this subject interests you.

>But if you read it, read the section in the back about his sources first.

>In fact the "Acknowledgements and Notes on Sources" is available on Amazon's preview, save for one page—starts on page 509.

>There's also a documentary that available to stream on Netflix called, My Trip to Al-Qaeda about this book that's highly condensed but still very interesting. Plus it's directed by Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Client 9, Casino Jack and the United States of Money). I still recommend the book over the documentary, though.

There is a great book that reads almost like a novel. It's called O, Jerusalem by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre.

Shows many sides including the internecine rivalries among the Zionists. It's a great read. It reads like a Hollywood epic.

If some of you are unfamiliar with Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, his a ha moment came during the Dreyfus case. He witnessed the antisemitism rampant in Europe where he had previously thought that secular, mainstream Jewry had a place at the table.

Edit - this one here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Jerusalem!

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0671662414

You might want to check out Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer for a very thorough explanation of US redneck culture and its origins. Fischer traces four distinct British cultural folkways as they are transplanted and adopted in the United States. Originally regional, these cultures spread across the country as it expanded.

Fischer explains that Southern backcountry culture is derived from "Scots-Irish" (actually an intermingling of Irish, Scottish, and English) people on the borders of Northern England, Southern Scotland, and in North Ireland from the 1600s.

Some markers of the Southern backcountry culture are honor, clan-orientation, a tendency toward a warrior pride, and supporting willfulness in children. This is a result of the centuries of warfare in the borderlands where the original Scots-Irish settlers came from.

This is quite distinct from, say, Virginia culture, which was all about gentrification, hierarchy, the "gentleman" class, wealthy plantations, and the like. The other two cultural traditions traced are New England Puritan culture and Delaware-valley Quaker culture. All of these traditions are currently still regionally expressed and have spread to varying degrees across parts of the US.

Ehhhhhh while it is rather clear that Hitler was inspired by the killing of Armeniansthere is STRONG evidence that Hitler never made that statement. He clearly took inspiration from the three pashas lead genocide but that specific quote is very unlikely to actually have been said. It is clear that the nazis took inspiration from the Armenian genocide, and later a distorted view of post genocide Turkey (see the book: Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination). But that specific quote is more than likely false. It may represent a sentiment, but it doesnt make it any more true.

Before anyone complains: artistic liberties were taken in the making of this comic.

Wut wut, what is this comic about?

It’s the tapestry of Bayeux, depicting the Norman conquest of England culminating in the battle of Hastings, which resulted in King Harold’s death and William the Conqueror's ascension to the English throne.

There are a few theories as to who commissioned the tapestry, and who made it. I went with the one that says Bishop Odo of Bayeux (William’s half-brother) commissioned it to be made by English artisans.

This guy named Andrew Bridgeford has a theory that the tapestry contains secret messages and insults against the new norman king integrated into the tapestry by sneaky English craftsmen, which amused me enough to make this comic.

I assume that William was actually capable of speaking and understanding Latin, despite what my comic says. However, good Will wasn’t exactly known for being the studious type.

The flags depicted are, in order of appearance: Coat of Arms of Harold Godwinson, King of England. The flag of Normandy, representing William, Duke of Normandy (later King of England).

As nobody actually knows what Harold's Coat of Arms looked like (they didn't record these things back then, apparently), the one I used is the one suggested by Mattew Paris. He's not exactly a contemporary, but pretty much the next best thing . Why not just use the St. George's cross? Because according to Wikipedia, that wasn't in use until roughly 100 years later.

I’m also aware that Anglia is female, yet I kept the “rex” from the original text. England being a girl just didn’t seem right in the context of the romic.

PS: in case this isn't abundantly clear, the translation to the latin tituli is under/next to each section. Except for the last line, obviously, that's pig latin.

There was a book written by a black american economist about how African-American culture is actually a hold over from 18-19th century southern US redneck culture which was itself a hold over from some poor Scottish and some northern English farmer towns who emigrated en masse to the south.

These people became wealthy enough to buy slaves and black people grew up living among their culture, eventually adopting it, with their own adaptations of course, that persisted. Once they became free they eventually brought it with them as they moved into northern inner cities where it became a symbol of "blackness". It has survived longer in it's original form thanks to US social stratification that still exists today in many forms - while the middle/upper southern white culture has more generally merged with the north/west.

So we can still thank Europe for at least a part of black culture.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1594031436

There's a quip in a Charlie Stross novel (The Apocalypse Codex I think) I really like. Paraphrased, it goes like this:

> Any sufficiently advanced form of Calvinism is indistinguishable from Chthulhu worship

>See, now you're trying to add logical thought. That doesn't work very well in academia.

Yeah, those concepts are like that. They only work on a diffuse, floaty level. They all look neat and simple until you look too closely, and discover how problematic they are. Not only the West, but also zones like Asia, Latin America, Africa, etc. They are all problematic in one way or another, and have various definitions depending whom you ask. There is actually a cool book about this: The Myth of Continents.

In your case, a more honest definition of non-western, in the sense used by your professor, would have been "whatever group I, as a White American, do not feel identified with"

Inspired by reading the first half of Forgotten Armies, a book about Britain's WWII in Asia. I was mostly prompted by one passage that mentioned British soldiers stationed in India rioting when they saw some Hindu swastikas used as decorations. Apparently they thought the Indians were expressing sympathy for the Nazis..

As for the first part, it's just a joke about how easily Britain was routed from Singapore, Burma, and elsewhere. The "little fellows" line is in reference to Sir Shenton Thomas, Governor of Singapore who used that term to describe the Japanese who would easily be defeated by the British.

Most Latin learners will recommend you Lingua Latina per se Illustrata with a latin dictionary, online or not. Wikipedia's fine too. It's one of the best ways out there to learn it to a comfortable level, because it gives you true immersion in the language. There's no English past the cover. And then you can practice on random texts you find on the internet, the book should give you a nice idea of Latin grammar and common words, nice enough to keep going on your own without help but a dictionary.

> Where do you getting this from?

Largely from this book.

> Jogaila married Jadwiga to ensure Lithuania gets Christianized and stops Teutonic Order from attacking us, which they didn't, sadly, besides it was great start up path for Polish-Lithuanian alliance since they both had common enemy - Teutonic Order.

That's true as well, and was listed as the second of the reasons given in the book.

> Lithuania was never secondary culture where are you getting this bs? It just what happens when you're smallest of neighbours it was a natural process like in most nations that unify.

...yeah, that's basically what I said. Their position, as the smallest of the neighbors, meant that their culture remained held down by the dominating slavic culture.

Here's an awesome read on the subject. I've used it a fair few times in my economic development courses!

I had a professor in college whose research focused on the formation of federal systems. He looked at Australia at the turn of the 20th century as one example, noting that vulnerable actors in the potential federation demand "costly signals" of intent by the stronger actors to ensure a mutually beneficial arrangement. I'd have to go back and read whether the Perth–Sydney railroad was one of those "costly signals" he was talking about, but it seems to fit the bill.

http://www.amazon.com/Federations-The-Political-Dynamics-Cooperation/dp/0801475244

There was a book about this published recently. Haven't read it but I've seen a few vids of the author talking about it. Interesting, at the very least. I don't think our friends up north are too fond of the idea though.

Thanks man. Also: https://www.amazon.com/Raffles-British-Invasion-Java-Hannigan/dp/9814358851