Get ahold of some books by authors such as Bernard Cornwall, Conn Iggulden, Michael Shaara, Steven Pressfield, Jack Weatherfield who write fiction based on fact and are meticulous in their research. A rather pleasant way to gain a framework of history with a great meany insights and all written in the context of the times.Another author W.E.B. Griffin will provide the same with his personal observations of actual historical figures or interviews with those who knew them and those whose age reached back to the beginning of the 1900's. For example how many know the US involvement in Greece late 1940's or in Africa in the 1960's from the point of view of the soldiers and marines who were boots on the ground.

From there it will be much easier to the straight up historical books.

Many of the professor written books are victims of a. the publish or perish crowd whose views are tainted with some other agenda such as selling required text books.

Insofar as movies are concerned the choices are far more limited. We Were Young And Soldiers and Forrest Gump (really I'm serious) were the only two about Vietnam with any reality or accuracy. One example of a book with accurate quotes from biased and self serving sources is Lam Son 719 about the Laotian incursion in 1971. The author didn't dig near deep enough.

Why limit the models? British use of their lower classes especially on ship's crews in the old sailing ship days, German use of trained infantry regiments rented or sold to other nations, The entire historic Russian and eastern Europe serf system from Tzar to the Commissars, Most of the middle east model as dictated by religion, The result of the always government fettered version of capitalism or socialist union and political party controlled work place, the sponsorship of human trafficking by many governments including our own (by providing the customers on world wide basis for the sex trades) by refusal of those with ability to make a difference to follow through (NOW during the nineties) and support their stated ideals. Limiting the models to southern slaves or Nazis Socialist Fascists is far far to limiting and lest I forget the government imposed slave system model of welfarism as a natural and acceptable condition. Most owners or despots are handed permission by those they own or control as the easier choice or lesser choice requiring the least effort. The most insiduously evil tool in modern society is the welfare check, the big screen tv and the propaganda based model of modern sociology along with a denigrated evaluation of self worth and self respect. One of the results is accepting the more overt forms as acceptable - but not in my back yard. Sorry - the backyard for which I bought the right to pay the government rent

When they have a choice they make a choice in exchange for some feeling for safety without responsibility. A self imposed condition. When they don't have a choice or perceive no choice they either adapt and accept or the exact opposite and choose to improve their condition.By choosing a God or other belief system or after childhood choose to follow an imposed situation (family is a micro version of government) they accept the will of others. The last the choice #4 demands responsibility and action. It's all about accepting the value of self and with it the demands of self respect versus the evaluation of others under the imposed definition called self-esteem. I tried self evaluated condition versus the Good Try constraints imposed by others. Independence versus some form of servitude. From that all other acceptable beliefs follow.