AskHistorians Archive Observer

Why did people hate Disco Music?

I love ABBA and KC and the Sunshine Band. Why did people hate this type of music back in the day?

2 Answers 2020-01-15

Did the Classical Greeks have any memory of the Hittite Civilization?

If we accept that the Ahhiyawa who are mentioned in Hittite texts are the same as the Mycenaean Greeks then there seems to have been quite a bit of contact between Bronze Age Greece and the Hittites, evidence including documents like the Tawagalawa letter.

Both the Mycenaean and Hittite civilizations ended with the Bronze Age collapse but after a few centuries Classical Greece began to rise. Although these new Greeks had a vastly different culture, there was some degree of continuity in language and religion.

Does anything in Classical Greek mythology, poetry, or literature suggest a memory of the Hittites? Is there any tradition or myth that may have been influenced by that culture?

1 Answers 2020-01-15

What were perceptions in 1945 of the western allies making an alliance with Germany?

I recently read an article about the last days of Hitler's Germany. It stated that "Himmler arranged a secret meeting with Count Bernadette of Sweden" with a view to an alliance between Germany and the western allies against the USSR, and (after the first surrender signing) "The Red Army chief of staff, Gen. I. A. Antonov, virtually accused Elsenhower of arranging a separate peace with the Nazis so that the Western Allies could then make war against the Soviet Union." However, it makes statements that I believe are known to be incorrect, like saying that Dönitz became Führer, so I am not sure of its reliability.

In April 1945 and after, were there any people thinking about Germany allying with the western allies against the Soviet Union? Broken down:

Did Himmler indeed try for an alliance? Did any other German official try or advocate for it?
Wikipedia has an article about Operation Unthinkable, British war plans against the Soviets that would have included "up to 10 divisions of the former German Wehrmacht, re-mobilized from POW status". But lots of plans get made for completeness' sake without any expectation that they were likely -- the US War Plan Red for war against the UK, for example. Is there evidence of what Churchill thought of the plans that he had ordered, or what other British officials thought, about whether they might be used?
Did anyone in authority in the US have such thoughts? Patton? Anyone else?
Did the Soviets actually fear it?

1 Answers 2020-01-15

Did medieval Islamic rulers keep menageries? If so, what animals would have bewn considered exotic?

1 Answers 2020-01-15

Why is Dracula associated with bats if the name Dracul means Dragon in Romanian?

1 Answers 2020-01-15

During the Anarchy, did Stephen and Matilda try and negotiate or use diplomacy to work it out? Did any other countries try to help?

1 Answers 2020-01-15

Why did the US not prevent socialist policies from forming in the Nordic Countries?

Historically, the US has actively shown opposition to communist and socialist movements, such as backing the right-wing dictatorship in Argentina(The Dirty War). Today, the Nordic countries, such as Norway and Finland, are defined by their socialist economic systems. Why did the US never try to sabotage their governments? (I am not opposed to the Nordic countries in anyway, just curious.)

3 Answers 2020-01-15

During the Roman Republic, were generals allowed to enter the city of Rome and keep their rank as general?

I’ve heard that if a Roman general was to enter the City of Rome, if not given permission, they would lose their rank of general.

1 Answers 2020-01-15

Can someone explain the troubles to me?

Hey

So I recently was playing a video game online with some scottish and english guys that i met. At one point someone joined the lobby and started blasting what was apparently an IRA song. The english and Scottish guys got super upset.

I don't know too much about the IRA or the troubles. And when i tried to do solo research, i was overwhelmed by the amount of history. Can you guys help me?

1 Answers 2020-01-15

How did pirates and captain ships learn their basics?

I'm thinking before the industrial revolution and the likes, was there any school? Any practices? Famous books?

1 Answers 2020-01-15

The convoy system worked great against U-boats in WWI. Why did it have to be "relearned" in WWII?

1 Answers 2020-01-15

Is killing looked upon more poorly today than it was in the middle ages?

I've looked it up online and found nothing, it's a simple question really, I imagine that if I did kill someone I'd feel horribly, like a stain on my conscience that would never quite wash off. My question is, was the common mentality different throughout the middle ages and is our view on murder nowadays a product of our modern times, or was it always seen as one of the worst things a man can do? I mean, one of the ten commandments is "thou shall not kill", but it seems to me (and I'm aware that this might just be a common misconception) that it wasn't as big of a deal in medieval times.

Thank you.

PS I swear I'm not a psychopath, just curious...

PPS Sources would be appreciated for me to check it out for myself more in depth

1 Answers 2020-01-14

I'm a homosexual man in Victorian England; how do I navigate sexual and romantic relationships with men while avoiding jail?

1 Answers 2020-01-14

Job market for public history?

What's the job market like for public history? Is it as bad as academia/trying to become a professor, or is it different?

1 Answers 2020-01-14

In Mesopotamia during the first century BCE, would anyone have worshipped Allah?

In an early episode of I Dream of Jeannie, the main characters are transported from 1960s Florida to Baghdad "2000 years ago". The episode was filmed in 1965, so this puts them in 35 BCE. Many of the ancient characters reference Allah in one way or another.

Two questions: does Baghdad exist? And would anyone have worshipped Allah in Mesopotamia at that time?

1 Answers 2020-01-14

Why were medieval armies so much smaller than Ancient ones?

In 1415 Henry V invaded France with 6-9 thousand men. At the battle of Alesia 1500 years earlier Ceaser fielded 60 000 men and he was heavily outnumbered. So what changed

1 Answers 2020-01-14

What period in human history have literacy rates been the highest as a percentage of the worlds population?

According to Our World In Date literacy rates in 2016 are the highest since the year 1800 with it now standing at 86.25% for over 15 year olds.

What were the literacy rates from let's say 1000 years ago? Have literacy rates just been steadily rising over the past 1000 years are has it been continuously rising and falling thought the course of human history?

1 Answers 2020-01-14

How does recording oral history, like for language preservation, affect the culture's ongoing oral tradition? Especially if accuracy means adapting to the present?

I hope that makes sense!

1 Answers 2020-01-14

In 1946, the UK government agreed to sell Rolls Royce Nene jet engines to the USSR so long as they were not used for military purposes. The Soviets rather quickly started putting them into jet fighter aircraft. Could the British government really have been so naive or did they have other motives?

From the Wikipedia:

The Soviet aviation minister Mikhail Khrunichev and aircraft designer A. S. Yakovlev suggested to Premier Joseph Stalin that the USSR buy the conservative but fully developed Nene engines from Rolls-Royce (having been alerted to the fact that the U.K. Labour government wanted to improve post-war UK-Russia foreign relations) for the purpose of copying them in a minimum of time. Stalin is said to have replied, "What fool will sell us his secrets?"

Why would the British government agree to such a sale? The USSR soon developed the MiG-15, one of the most successful and widely used military aircraft in history, using these engines. Could they have been that naive to think the Soviets wouldn't convert them for military use or did they have another motive? For example, would having more intimate knowledge of the engines of their jet aircraft have been worth helping in their development?

1 Answers 2020-01-14

What are good introductory works into the Second Sino-Japanese war (1931-1945), particularly from the Chinese side?

I'm not too familiar with the Chinese theater of WWII - I've read Tuchman's "Stilwell and the American Experience in China" which was extremely negative on the performance of the KMT, but I understand that the book is considered outdated.

I was wondering if there are any good introductory or survey-style English language works for people not too familiar with that theater?

3 Answers 2020-01-14

How were the first trenches of WW1 constructed? Was there a general cease fire from both sides? Were they under constant fire?

Or did they time out construction at night so they wouldn't be seen? Also, how did they choose the location for the trenches?

1 Answers 2020-01-14

How common was marrying for love amongst the European peasantry in the Middle Ages?

As I understand it, marrying for love was uncommon in the nobility due to the importance of securing alliances, inheritances, and family honor.

What was the situation for the average peasant? Were marriages still largely decided by the families, or was it acceptable to marry for love?

2 Answers 2020-01-14

If I were a Roman citizen, fluent in Latin, in the time of Justinian the First, could I directly speak with a Roman from 700 years ago in the time of the Punic Wars?

2 Answers 2020-01-14

In Japan there were Ninjas who served as espionage agents, was there a similar class of agents who served the same role in Europe at the same time period?

1 Answers 2020-01-14

The late 19th century saw the creation of Esperanto, an effort to build an artificial, universal human language to better enable international communication. Was there ever any corresponding effort among deaf peoples to create a universal sign language?

1 Answers 2020-01-14