The building blocks of the Milky Way halo using APOGEE and Gaia -- or --
  Is the Galaxy a typical galaxy?
  We summarise recent results from analysis of APOGEE/Gaia data for stellar
populations in the Galactic halo, disk, and bulge, leading to constraints on
the contribution of dwarf galaxies and globular clusters to the stellar content
of the Milky Way halo. Interpretation of the extant data in light of
cosmological numerical simulations suggests that the Milky Way has been subject
to an unusually intense accretion history at z >~ 1.5.
