My latently racist ex-flatmate used to claim that Black Lives Matter and basically the whole claim of racial discrimination in the US against black people is a made-up whine. He argues that Asian-Americans were even more discriminated against in the first half of the 20th century than African-Americans and yet managed to work their way to the top, so to speak, because of their hard-working nature, which he claims African-Americans lack.

I know it's an unbelievably over-simplifying and generalizing misinterpretation, but I've never been able to present facts that would convince him. Does anyone know of any reliable hard numbers and facts that I could use next time I engage in such a debate?

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I was wondering why sub- saharan Africa was underdeveloped compared to the rest of the world before colonization. I know about civilizations such as Mali, Nubia, and Great Zimbabwe, however I saw someone online saying these civilizations weren't as advanced as those in Europe, Asia, or even Mesoamerica. Is this true? And if so, why??

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Of course each experience was different, but was there a typical narrative fed by Goebbels and the Nazi propaganda machine? Were there many who doubted the official story?

I used the search bar and the FAQ and the questions on this topic aren't addressing what I'm trying to figure out.

I recently heard a take on the Holodomor, admittedly from people that would be considered more or less Soviet apologists (aka Tankies) that the famine was mostly a product of Western propaganda. They claim that the primary sources from the time are deeply flawed, that photos from other events were used as evidence, that accounts from people that weren't in Ukraine at the time were overly relied upon and that one of the main accounts cited by historians was admitted to be embellished by its author.

They make further claims are that the reported number of victims doesn't add up, that the estimates used to gauge the number of deaths are not derived from any scientific methods and that WWI, the Civil War and Soviet reclassification of ethnic groups accounts for the dip in the number of "Ukrainians."

Most damningly, they claim that William Randolph Hearst (who they claim was sympathetic to fascism and well known for "Yellow Journalism" in the run up to the Spanish-American War) was deliberately sensationalist in his coverage of the USSR and largely responsible for pushing the narrative of the Famine in the Western press.

Their final point was also that the story of the Holodomor was generally accepted as embellished or fabricated until the beginning of the Cold War when it was resurrected as a way to tarnish the USSR and placate a number of far-right Ukrainian nationalists that had received asylum in the West.

Help me out /r/AskHistorians. Some of this reminds me of the ridiculous conspiracy theories that surround Holocaust denialism. But, I also know that Western countries were not above pushing narratives that might be less than truthful as part of Cold War propaganda.

So what gives? What really happened in Ukraine and how do we know? What was the impression of it at the time? What sources are reliable? Which are somewhat biased and which can we right off completely?

I just finished the Spy and the Traitor, the book about Oleg Odievsky's defection to the UK (among other things). The author notes that Odievsky is still living in an unnamed safe house in fear of assassination. I have two questions. Firstly, does Russia still follow through the sentencing of political crimes after the collapse of the Soviet? Secondly, assuming Odievsky's fear of assassination is rational, is it sanctioned officially by Russia or from some "rogue" ex-KGB elements?

This post isn't about whether it happened or not that's a different discussion. What I'm asking is why, if there was a library, would people lie about it not existing? What gain would you get for saying it didn't exist? Then you can ask the same question for if it didn't exist. What gain would there be to say there was a library? The lie would be really easy to disprove back then, because you could just go the supposed place and see with your own eyes if it was real or not. Why lie?

I learned in school that there were many competing tribes in West Africa, but they came to be dominated by the successive kingdoms of Ghani, Mali, and Songhai. This seems quite different from the model of Europe where there were several regional powers, like France and the Habsburgs, competing with one another.

With some exceptions, the US-Canada border is mostly determined by the 49th parallel from Vancouver Island to Lake Superior in the West and then by the Great Lakes in the Midwest. The border then follows the St. Lawrence out of Lake Ontario for about 100 miles before cutting across the 45th parallel for about 150 miles until it follows Halls Stream north for a bit. It then seems to be quite random, thought perhaps it runs along a ridge, as steams look to start on either side of the border on google maps. The border then runs with the St. John River for about 30 miles, breaks for 80 miles for some long straight borders on the north side of Maine, follows the St. John River again for 100 miles, has another straight 80 miles before following the St. Croix River the the Atlantic.

I'm terribly curious about how the elements of the US-Canada border formed east of the Great Lakes. The St. Lawrence looks like the obvious border, but I'm sure there's a story as to why it didn't form that way.

Recently I was curious about the traditional Ethiopian Jewish branch of Judaism, with its priests and monks, and its origins. I've looked around and there seem to be two sides to the debate:

• Some people say that the Ethiopian Jews are descended from Ancient Jews who migrated to Ethiopia since ancient days, before Ethiopia was Christian.

• Other people say that the Ethiopian Jews are descended from Ethiopian Christians who decided to not follow the New Testament but didn't have a perfect knowledge of how Judaism had evolved, which explains why they didn't know any Hebrew and had monks and priests, just like the Miaphysite Christians around them.

I also get the idea that this debate is also intertwined with political controversy in Israel.

Which side has the more support?

How did people in civilizations before the popularization of the BC/AD system keep track of years, or were they not interested in ensuring a comprehensive history of their culture?Did the systems that were used differ greatly from culture to culture or was there an unspoken yet universal rule as to how they would keep track of the years?

Maybe I just don't know of specific examples but I so far have not heard of any country using chariots in their armies on medieval age Europe or even Asia. Which is confusing to me as chariots (at least on paper) seem like a great idea.

Was it simply that the Austro-fascist government were nationalists who opposed the Anschluß of Germany and Austria?

I read they moved it to Jan 1st 5 years after the Meiji restoration, but am wondering why 5 years later and any further insight on this change.

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Also, how accurate can books about something as old as the Middle Ages be? How do you measure the accuracy of a book. On Wikipedia, I've seen many facts that were backed up by books but what are the sources of the book itself?

Folks I'm doing research as you see and I need everything you can recommend me on the topics of China, Persia, Egypt, Lybia, Nubia, forming of India and the early stages of it, Summeria, Hittites, Babylon, Mesopotamia, Huns, Mongols, forming of European countries and the early stages of it, first wars. I basically need info mostly from from forming of first civilisations, focused on ancient times, up to early medieval, complete max up to year 1100, I can also hug something about Japan and Korea, but China, Egypt and Persia are the main ones I need info on. I will be greatfull for any recomendations of history books, videos, films, but also interesting but little known facts, some curiosities of the times, and anything you can get me on how those people lived their daily lifes. Faith, laws, getting food, building styles, art styles, how the society worked, how they dressed, eaten, made wars and threw parties. And so on, life and daily life in general.

And don't bother making it simple or short, I like challenges and I have time to go through the informations. I will be really thankfull for everyting you can get me. Cheers.

Hi everyone, I'm writing my thesis on John Dos Passos' depiction of first world war in his novels and I'd like to read a book about WW1 that would help me understand what soldiers went through in the war. Can anyone help me with that? Thank you! :) Edit: Looking for something theoretical, not novels! :)

(The 'Hillbillies' in particular seems to portray its main characters with a certain scorn, which is why I'm wondering about underlying tension)

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