From 1882 until 1914, Egypt was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, but this was really in name only, as the British exercised de facto control. I'm less interested though in the actual way things were run by the British, and more interested in what the technical structure was that everyone I guess pretended was still the case but obviously wasn't! How was this all organized, officially?
1 Answers 2019-10-24
Thursday Reading and Recommendations is intended as bookish free-for-all, for the discussion and recommendation of all books historical, or tangentially so. Suggested topics include, but are by no means limited to:
Asking for book recommendations on specific topics or periods of history
Newly published books and articles you're dying to read
Recent book releases, old book reviews, reading recommendations, or just talking about what you're reading now
Historiographical discussions, debates, and disputes
...And so on!
Regular participants in the Thursday threads should just keep doing what they've been doing; newcomers should take notice that this thread is meant for open discussion of history and books, not just anything you like -- we'll have a thread on Friday for that, as usual.
2 Answers 2019-10-24
#1M Census Results and State of the Subreddit
We’ve crossed our t’s, dotted our i’s, and crunched the numbers until there were no more to crunch. So here's a tiptoe through a soupçon of data from our most recent census!
If you’re interested, here are previous results:
We dropped the link to the census shortly after our rollover to one million and closed it after we received 2050 valid responses, which is enough for a quick check-in with the Ask Historians community. We worked through the comments carefully and will make changes where/if we can.
A few people asked if we can get rid of the 20 year rule. No. And here's why.
##First, some highlights
Respondents were split between new and long-time readers: 40% of respondents have been reading AH for less than a month. 45% of respondents have been reading AH for at least a year.
Most pass us by on their way to other subreddits and spend most of their time on other subreddits. A few (3%) of users are on Reddit only for AH.
Most of the respondents are the silent type. 60% have never posted a comment and 64% have never asked a question. On the flip side, people who report they post comments tend to also post questions. (About 20% of people who have posted questions report never posting a comment.)
15% of respondents reported posting a question in the last 30 days. Of those who posted a question, 40% said their question was answered. We asked respondents to rank, on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied), how satisfied they were with the answer they got and 95% rated their answer as 5 or higher.
##Opinions on the mods How are the mods doing?
| All Responses | New Readers (less than one month) ---|---|---- I don't care | 6% | 29% Too lenient | 2% | 0% Much too strict | 2% | 2% A bit too strict | 15% | 17% Just right | 75% | 53%
Several "too strict" people clarified their thinking later in the census. As an example: To be clear - 'a bit too strict' above really is just a tiny amount. You are all doing a fantastic job, I just think the line could be drawn slightly more leniently in some cases.
Are you happy with the moderation style?
Lots of people were curious about the makeup of the mod team. A quick overview:
##Demographics
Speaking of demographics, the results from this year’s census are similar to previous years. A few things to highlight.
##Gender
| All Responses | New Readers (less than one month) ---|---|---- Boy/Man| 81% | 72% Girl/Woman| 14% | 24% non-binary| 2%| 3%
##Location
| All Responses | New Readers (less than one month) ---|---|---- North America| 62%| 65% Europe| 28%| 25% Asia| 4%| 2% Oceania| 3%| 1% South America | 2%| 1%
Less than 1%
Edited on October 25 to update the count with all possible location options
##Language
| All Responses | New Readers (less than one month) ---|---|---- English| 72%| 63% Spanish| 3%| 7%
##Are you a member of a historically marginalized group?
| All Responses | New Readers (less than one month) ---|---|---- No | 76%| 71% Yes| 25%| 30%
The average age of AH readers is 29.
##Social Media
#Highlights from Extended Responses Several respondents express concern about "wasting" mods' time by asking questions. Readers are always encouraged to reach out via modmail. And several respondents seemed unaware of the rules sections on Asking Questions. You can always scroll questions that have been tagged as a Great Question by a mod.
Several respondents raised concerns about the comment count. Two recent developments can help with that.
N > 100 respondents provided feedback about the status of our book recommendation wiki. We will take a look at the lists and pages in the near future.
#Finally, you can see more details about the census results here. Feel free to ask any questions you have or share your thinking in the comments!
36 Answers 2019-10-24
If you go to r/badlinguistics you'll find plenty of examples of people having comically wrong ideas about sanskrit, or you could just google anything related to it and weep for humanity.
Some popular assertions are that it is the origin of all languages, that the vibrations it produces are the same that make the universe, that it has the less ambiguity, that it has the best sounds, that it has the perfect vocabulary, that if you learn how to say them right you can make literal magic. I once even heard someone say that if you say a certain sanskrit word just right you could create a nuclear explosion, and that sanskrit words were used as weapons thousands of years ago in India.
Now, what I to know is where do these silly ideas come from, because there are plenty of cultures that hold some language in very high regard, and you don't see this level of silliness with them. I've seen muslims claim that translating from arabic is impossible, but never that it is magic. I've seen jews claiming that hebrew is magic, but never that it is perfect in every possible way. I've seen people claim that ancient greek or latin are superior to modern languages, but never that their words can cause nuclear explosions.
Are these ideas a revival of old superstitions fulled by the relatively recent hindu nationalism movement?, are these superstitions that have been part from the religion since the start (similar to hebrew in judaism?)?, or even, are they new superstitions?
2 Answers 2019-10-24
Slavery in various forms seems to be about as old as mankind. But do we know if people in ancient cultures like Greece, Rome and Ancient China ever had moral misgivings about it? Or did such empathy simply not exist in a harsher, more brutal age with narrower margins of survival?
1 Answers 2019-10-24
Why isn’t the 7 years war considered as the 1st World war even though a lot of the World was at and there were battles on all Continents except australia?
1 Answers 2019-10-24
Greek Philosophers like Socrates, Plato, etc did teach classes, so were they paid to do that? Was it the governing head of their times giving them money, goods, housing, etc because of what they were doing? In their time of not teaching did they still make money? What are the known "logistics" of Greek Philosophers paychecks?
Also it should be said that Greek Philosophers like Diogenes didn't live in lavish places, but that was more out of his choice because he followed cynicism. But could he have earned money and simply chose not to do that? Alexander the great did say to Diogenes if he needed anything that he could ask, and just turned him down.
1 Answers 2019-10-24
The main aim of the Zimmerman telegram was to bring neutral US into WW1. But after the interception by the British, the US nevertheless went into war. So didn't the Zimmerman telegram serve its purpose? I feel like I'm missing something here.
1 Answers 2019-10-24
More generally speaking, where does the current, newer generation of historians stand regarding "dialectic" History? Are we still working under Hegelian principles, and how is that not "teleological" (my philosophy classes are a long ways behind me now)?
Where does cultural history fit in this scheme?
1 Answers 2019-10-24
1 Answers 2019-10-24
So how true is this? Also what are some of the other worst things that the USSR has done in general?
1 Answers 2019-10-24
In 1187, Saladin conquered the first Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, which ended Catholic control of (most of) the Holy Land, which had been established in 1099 at the end of the First Crusade. European leaders responded to Saladin's conquest by calling for the Third Crusade, which didn't commence until 1189. James Kane and I have recently published a critical edition and translation of what is probably the closest Latin text to the events in question. We are both affiliated with the University of Sydney. It is an anonymous text, but was written, apparently, by a man who was hit by an arrow through his nose, and a piece of metal was left stuck there for some time. Here's a link to the book:
Ask me anything! I'll be here for the next three hours (9am to 12pm Sydney time, which is where I live). Any questions left over I will do my best to get to.
EDIT: I'm off to a talk now. Thanks everyone for your questions! Keep posting and I'll get to as many as possible over the coming hours and days.
EDIT 2: Back from the talk, and ready to answer some more questions! I'll be here for another hour or so before I have to again rush off for class. I've got my green tea in hand (yum!).
48 Answers 2019-10-23
I have a question about the 3rd Infantry Division (US) helmet markings. I am curious as to how common it was for officers to have the white vertical stripe on the back of the helmet and the smaller one on the front while serving with the 3rd ID.
In addition I know that the 7th Infantry Regiment in the 3rd ID also had helmet markings on the rear of the helmet designating the battalion they were appart of with a Spade, Heart, and Club. I am wondering how this would conflict -if at all- with the officers helmet markings since they are painted on the same parts of the helmet.
I am rather stumped with this one as I have struggled to find much information on this
1 Answers 2019-10-23
Citation needed for time period...
1 Answers 2019-10-23
In the early 1000s the Chinese and Muslims had some of the most advanced technology in the world. How did the Europeans become so much more powerful than the rest of the world, allowing them to colonize the world?
1 Answers 2019-10-23
I know this isn’t that important to ask but the reason is people use Islam especially white supremacist to say that black people aren’t really African or black and that they are Arab it’s just apart of a racist trope to say Africans weren’t and still aren’t capable of greatness I know there is a such thing as an African muslim but I’m asking.
1 Answers 2019-10-23
1 Answers 2019-10-23
1 Answers 2019-10-23
In ancient times and even modern day, slaves have been used to mine gold, silver, lead, coal, etc. Why weren't African slaves used in coal mines in Appalachia?
1 Answers 2019-10-23
1 Answers 2019-10-23
I am listening to the Blueprint for Armageddon by Dan Carlin.
He talks about the Battle of Frontiers and how the German forces were penetrating France in the western front. He then goes onto explain the German Army was about 25 miles from Paris, but then they turn left. This exposes their flank to Paris and the French are able to attack. This leads to the Battle of Marne and a major victory for the Allied Forces.
I am not sure if I missed something... but why did the Germans go left and not continue on to attack Paris?
Thanks!
1 Answers 2019-10-23