Specifically he says that the first roman emperors could walk around the city as if they were just another wealthy citizen who just happened to be in charge of government because they had real power. In contrast he says that as the empire became weaker and weaker symbols like crowns, capes, kneeling and court etiquette became more important in order to create the illusion of power that would protect the little power they actually had.
It seems all very reasonable to me, but is it correlation or causation?, and I wonder if this is true in general, do we see the same pattern in other nations?
1 Answers 2020-01-01
Was searching around and found this unanswered post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/73azc0/the_economy_of_a_royal_court/
So, who pays for lodging in a medieval royal court? Do all employees and guests stay for free? Are the any interesting exceptions to this?
1 Answers 2020-01-01
I know that Washington and Jefferson were... frenemies, to use an anachronism; and that Jefferson had said and written things about Washington that Martha found objectionable. And, to host someone for purely political purposes who spoke poorly about a loved one after that loved one had passed away would be difficult. But, was the visit itself a complete disaster, or was it salt in the wound? Was Jefferson rude to her, or boorish in general? What would make his company so intolerable that a visit would rank worse than the death of -at that time- 3 of her children?
1 Answers 2020-01-01
1 Answers 2020-01-01
Hello I am a non academic, just a curious person. I was just doing some research and stumbled on this piece of writing:
The article (paper?) is a response to work by Rachel Maines which was eventually published in the 1999 book The Technology of Orgasm. Maines' work claims that in the 19th century, mechanical vibrators were used in the medical treatment of "hysteria" in women. As a person interested in sex, gender, politics, health etc, I have seen/heard this piece of information innumerable times so I can vouch for it being widespread. (Also see in the paper bottom of page 34 - 35, 36-37, 40-41.) I have not read this book myself.
From the conclusion:
In a nutshell, this is Maines’ argument: “Massage to orgasm of female patients was a staple of medical practice among some (but certainly not all) Western physicians from the time of Hippocrates until the 1920s, and mechanizing this task significantly increased the number of patients a doctor could treat in a working day” (Maines, 1999, p. 3). This entire claim is false. There is a bit of circumstantial evidence that a few physicians and midwives may have practiced genital massage before the 20th century, but the evidence does not support the claim that genital massage was ever a “staple of medical practice.” When it comes to the second, core part of the argument, that physicians used vibrators to mechanize the process of genital massage to orgasm, there is not one shred of evidence that this practice ever occurred.
... Perhaps her story of persecution in pursuit of truth gave her some immunity from criticism, especially since skeptics might have feared being lumped with puritanical no-nothings.
Rather than conservatism, the 19-year success of Technology of Orgasm points to a fundamental failure of academic quality control. This failure occurred at every stage, starting with the assessment of the work at the Johns Hopkins University Press. But most glaring is the fact that not a single scholarly publication has pointed out the empirical flaws in the book’s core claims in the 19 years since its release.
Looking around the internet, I found a comments thread where some of the contributors argue (among other things) that while the book was published by an academic press, it was not in a peer reviewed journal, so expectations regarding factual basis of arguments should not be so high. So whatever errors made by the author are basically no big deal.
Now this article published in 2018 is criticizing work that looks to have begun in the early 80s.
Do Lieberman & Schatzberg have available to them methods, information, networks, theories or other resources which would not have been available to Maines? (Like is it unfair to hold her work to modern standards?)
Is it pointless to critique such an old work?
Assuming Lieberman & Schatzberg's criticisms are substantial, does this (or should this) demonstrate the level of veracity from an academic press?
I am very curios to know if Maines has seen this article and if so what she thinks of it. Is there a way to know?
Also, I am interested in general thoughts about the hows and whys something like this got published and circulated in an academic-y environment and anything else that would not be apparent to an outsider. Are the discrepancies in interpretation of primary source materials attributable to legit difference of opinion, laziness, confirmation bias, intentional deceit, outside pressures, or ???
I hope this is an acceptable place to post this.
If anyone thinks they can make a briefer, clearer post about this, please be my guest. let me know so I can follow it.
1 Answers 2020-01-01
1 Answers 2020-01-01
Hello, happy new year to the members of "AskHistorians".
I heard President impeachment procedure is ongoing in the United States and the
incumbent President is the third case in US history.
What were the two previous cases then?
1 Answers 2020-01-01
Not sure if this is the right sub for this question. But Canadians and Americans sound much more like each other (generally speaking) than like English speakers in the UK and Ireland. Of course there are different dialects all across North America but generally, they sound notably different from European Anglophones.
Southern hemisphere Anglophones tend to sound much more noticeably "British" than English speakers in North America. Obviously Australians etc. do not sound identical to Brits, but one can hear the similarities and it seems to be a more natural evolution from a British accent than a North American accent. Why is this so? Why did the accents evolve so differently?
1 Answers 2019-12-31
Question for anyone here who might know about living standards in Roman Europe (or Asia minor and North Africa) and living standards in medieval Europe: Would it be accurate to say that there was some drop in living standards once the Roman Empire began to decline and eventually fell? I understand that many educated people detest the idea of a "Dark Age", and I most certainly do not mean to imply that Christianity or some other bogeyman caused such a dark age, but it does seem plausible to me that Europe suffered after the collapse of imperial authority.
For example, economic historians such as Peter Temin and Silver seem to suggest that there was a small amount of growth during roman times due to Roman institutions (the rule of law, contract enforcement, protection of commerce, etc.). This growth did not approach the scale of modern growth of course, but it did mean that Romans, specifically those on the Italian peninsula, enjoyed living standards significantly above subsistence. This seems to imply that, after Imperial authority and its institutions were swept away, life would have gotten worse for many people who used to live in the Roman Empire.
Am I missing something here? Did living standards decline along with Imperial authority, or am I unaware of important evidence? Thanks to anyone who can contribute something here.
1 Answers 2019-12-31
From what depictions ive seen most of the regular foot soldiers, (not knights or men at arms) were wearing sallets without bevors, was this the norm or was there a more common type of helmet?
1 Answers 2019-12-31
1 Answers 2019-12-31
I read something recently that made this claim. The author characterized the hoplites as simple farmers who earned enough to buy a helmet and shield and sword to be able to fight wars for Greece. These hoplites were not the wealthiest Greeks, but they were a major part of the fighting ranks.
Because these hoplites were risking their lives for wars that gave greater wealth to others, this author argued, these hoplites eventually insisted on a more democratic control over Greece and its distribution of wealth. So, the author concludes, democracy in ancient Greece arose in response to increasing concentrations of wealth at the expense of those who demanded greater democracy.
Is this a fair reading of the historical record for ancient Greece?
1 Answers 2019-12-31
1 Answers 2019-12-31
Yeah, so why was organized crime concentrated around the south of Italy and Sicily? Why were most Italian-American mobsters’ ancestral homelands in the south?
1 Answers 2019-12-31
I have just watched the excellent summary of the eastern front 1944-45 by Eastery. What caught my interest is the part at 12:43, where Red Army generals had a decision to make - whether to go towards Berlin or to expand towards the flanks and secure their position. From Wikipedia:
On 31 January, the Soviet offensive was voluntarily halted, though Berlin was
undefended and only approximately 70 km (43 mi) away from the Soviet bridgeheads
across the Oder river. After the war a debate raged, mainly between Vasily Chuikov
and Georgy Zhukov whether it was wise to stop the offensive. Chuikov argued Berlin
should have been taken then, while Zhukov defended the decision to stop.
Would it have been a better decision to attack the Berlin immediately, given that Berlin was undefended?
I am looking for best resources to consider that question and also provide a wider context for the consideration that went into delaying such move and what the consequences of early Berlin capture would be.
I will be very grateful for any pointers - papers, books, authors that would help me narrow down my search and answer that question.
2 Answers 2019-12-31
Meat was usually reserved for the wealthy so how and where did the average pleb get their protein from?
1 Answers 2019-12-31
Greetings. This is old sword (more like "tesák" in czech, which is a type of short, one edged sword similar to saber) of my family, heirloom, you could call it. My grandma, who allowed me to take it and restore it, wasn't able to tell me how long it is in the family. Here is a picture, I've no problem with posting more if you are going to need it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArmsandArmor/comments/ei6tk3/old_family_sword_of_mine/
1 Answers 2019-12-31
Who hasn't heard of Excalibur? Who's heard of any famous spear?
While long ago it's been addressed that other weapons were used more often than swords, to me what doesn't make sense is all the legendary swords from the middle ages and the Viking sagas.
Why would people assign names and legendary value to weapons that were a back up?
1 Answers 2019-12-31
Would I receive some sort of pension or death benefit like modern day military widows? Could I count on help from the church or another charity? Would it be common and acceptable for me to remarry or would I be on my own?
I assume the answers vary depending on the country and time period so feel free to chime in even if your area of expertise is a different region or culture during the middle ages.
2 Answers 2019-12-31
Was the paterfamilias always the oldest male relative? It seems that there would have to be some limit there, otherwise your sixth cousin twice removed who you've never met could hold the power of life and death over you and your children. Or was it simply the oldest man in the immediate household? If so, what happened if he was away for an extended period of time? What if a more senior family member lives just down the street?
I'm really trying to understand how this system might apply to a typical American family today, bearing in mind that most American families do not have the same living situation that most Roman families did. Let's say that I'm a man who is married and has children, and we all live together under the same roof. My father is alive and in good health, but lives hundreds of miles away. My older brother is also married with children and lives in the same town as I do, but in his own home a few minutes away. Is my father my paterfamilias as the oldest man, despite living far away, is my brother the paterfamilias as the oldest man locally, or arm I the paterfamilias over the people who live under my roof (and my father and brother over theirs)?
1 Answers 2019-12-31
Today there is a kind of crazy amount of media connecting quantum phenomena with the supernatural. When did this get started? And how did this particular branch of stuff ranging from scifi to pseudoscience manage to become so universal in popular media?
1 Answers 2019-12-31
It is such a great myth, but I am terribly curious what we know about it today. I know the basics, but I would love to know more details.
1 Answers 2019-12-31
Welcome to TIL Tuesday!
If you are:
this thread is for you ALL!
Come share the cool stuff you love about the past! Please don’t just write a phrase or a sentence—explain the thing, get us interested in it! Include sources especially if you think other people might be interested in them.
AskHistorians requires that answers be supported by published research. We do not allow posts based on personal or relatives' anecdotes. All other rules also apply—no bigotry, current events, and so forth.
For this round, let’s look at: Passengers! Tell me stories about travelling along with someone!
1 Answers 2019-12-31
1 Answers 2019-12-31