askhistorians

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Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, served as Secretary of War under two presidents. Was he viewed as qualified because he served on Ulysses S. Grant's staff for a few weeks at the end of the Civil War? Or was military service not seen as particularly important for the position?	7
The battle of the bulge happened because Eisenhower wanted to turn the German Blitzkrieg against them by giving ground and then enveloping the enemy from all sides. How successful was this plan? Were the allies able to flank the Germans and attack them from the rear/sides?	7
Did varying incentives lead some societies to have a bride price paid by the husband's family and others to have a dowry paid by the wife's family?	7
With the growth of Christianity, the church came to own huge tracts of land and wealth that were usually no longer taxed. How big of a problem was it that the Roman Empire and its successor states? Was part of western military troubles based on the loss of this tax revenue?	7
Was Cromwell's invasion of Ireland the UK's first colonial effort? How many Irish Catholics were displaced to make room for Cromwell's Protestant settlers? How big of an impact did the displacement have on the country?	7
How did slavery become illegal in much of Europe over the course of the middle ages, only to become legal again, at least in the colonial possessions of those European powers, but the late 1400s?	7
In Robert Harris's Cicero Trilogy, Cicero rises to the top by outsmarting everyone. In book two, he struggles to keep up with the brilliant moves of Julius Caesar. Is reading Julius Caesar's incredible success as a result of being able to outthink opponents a reasonable interpretation of events?	7
The US Navy ambushed Japanese fleets twice in two months at Coral Sea and Midway. Did the Japanese suspect the Americans were listening in on their communications? Did they think the Americans were just lucky or tactically prescient?	7
What did the gold Spain took from the New World get spent on?	7
Was the practice of public civility among US politicians a 20th-century aberration?	7

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