Recommendations:
Heather - The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
Halsall - Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 368-576
Heather favors the external interpretation - that the ultimate trigger of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire were the barbarians...
% of the 2012 vote to Obama/Romney against allocation of Congressman in the 2013-15 House of Representatives. I'll use the percentage of the vote won by Romney against the % of House seats won by Republicans in 2012.
This will only include states with 4 or more Representatives, and if the...
It's simple - break the composite monarchy and create a more integrated system, but don't do it during endless war. Spain at its traditional peak was basically being carried by the finances of Castile alone.
Olivares had the right idea, but he attempted it during Spain's forever war of the...
This isn't ASB, but the POD would have to be much, much earlier.
After conquering the Philippines and establishing the American Empire, the US Navy clashed with the Army as the Navy wanted its primary offshore Pacific base to be developed at Subic Bay. The Army argued that it could not defend...
With Dole, his longevity helps him out - with minimal butterflies, he could conceivably become President as early as 1977 and a contender in any election from 1980 to 1996.
I'm not a Turkish expert, but I did read A Peace to End All Peace. Fromkin argues that the sheer delay of even trying to implement a settlement with the Ottoman Empire ruined the attempt to divide Anatolia as spoils. As the subsequent outcome of events showed after Sevres was signed at the end...
I'm keeping an eye on this. Despite everything going wrong for Olivares, Spain showed remarkable resiliency by not collapsing in the 1640s. I'm curious what the short-term results of the wars will be, though I expect the divergence is too late to save Portugal and too late to give Catalonia a...
The thread consensus that Dems win in 2006 or 2012 is interesting. It suggests one of the two following things:
1. A Democratic presidential win in 2006 will result in the 2008 crash being averted. Or:
2. The 2008 crash still happens with a Dem in the White House, but either the recovery is...
Worst TL:
"Heil mein Führer. Sie sind verhaftet!"
Read the final post in the thread by CalBear as he locks the thread, and then go on and read it from the beginning in its entirety.
I'm a proud owner of this book. :D
I don't think it's likely Putin wins a Nobel Prize.
Yep. It's still pretty dumb, but when the rest of the world sees things like this then it's more understandable:
(Note, it's comparing Bush in 2008 to Obama in 2013. Thus, these aren't honeymoon 2009 numbers for Obama).
It's difficult to say. How does China react to the US being stuck on the ground in Syria?
Do they see the US drawn into another Middle Eastern quagmire as a potential opportunity, or do they see it as a sign that belligerence in the South China Sea will provoke a fight?