As far as I understand, in the months before the crash, the US stock market was slightly more unstable than it had been before, but prices were still rising and people were still investing heavily. What caused investors to start selling their stocks towards the end of October '29 (thus initiating the crash)? Did they suddenly lose confidence in the market? Why? Were there signs of economic decline in advance? If yes what signs were there and how did the come to be?

Looking forward to an answer!

Need books on it bros

Despite the "ethnic cleansing" that occured in the process of the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the formation of the modern nation-states, you still see German surnames in countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary or Romania. Unlike other "legacy" minorities (Hungarians in Romania, Slovaks in Hungary) they don't seem to be considered a foreign ethnic minority or be at the center of any ethnic tensions. Are they descendants of mixed people who were already assimilated to the local language/ethnicity or the descendants of ethnic Germans who chose to stay and assimilate?

It seems kind of silly to me that Jewish deicide was so popular for centuries in Christianity even though the entire Old Testament of The Bible is about the Jews and Israelites being the chosen people of God.

What am I missing? I know I am oversimplifying, but to its core the antisemitic views of Christians throughout history just confuses me.

This isn't just in Catholicism, either. Martin Luther was a vehement antisemite AFAIK.

Any explanation?

For the purposes of this question, I’m talking medieval Europe. I know rivers in cities are typically quite polluted and not drinkable. Did most households have wells? I imagine this may be the case in the country but it seems impractical in the city.

I know this is a bizarre question, but I was randomly curious- I get headaches and muscle cramps if i have just a little bit less water than i’m used to, which on a given day is around 5 glasses. With limited access to clean water I doubt the average medieval european was able to match that. Do we have any evidence discussing historic hydration?

Hi Everyone,

I checked through the recommended reading list and did not see a lot on the topic of early American religious movements, so I thought I’d ask for suggestions from the community. Mormon history is something I’ve long been interested in, but I sometimes have a hard time finding books that are objective and neutral, especially when it comes to early church history. I am not and never have been LDS, and I don’t mind reading the occasional church resource for context, but I’m much more interested in an accurate, academic account detailing the creation of a new American religion, as well as the intriguing journey it’s taken into the modern day. Like a lot of people interested in this, my gateway was Under the Banner of Heaven, which is a book I’ve revisited many times. I also have No Man Knows my History, by Fawn Brodie, on my list, however I’ve not had a chance to read it. Are there any other books in this vein that you’ve enjoyed?

In addition to Mormon history, I’d also love to learn more about early American revivalist movements in general, for example an overview of the Great Awakenings would be awesome. Or histories of the shakers, quakers, Christian utopia settlements, experimental denominations, etc.

Thanks!

I am particularly interested in political history and historiography and want to use that as a topic for my extension history major work. I was trying to find arguments regarding the inevitability of the rise of Nazism in Germany but arguments against that weren't enough to be sustained throughout the essay - any tips or book recs?

Thanks !

When the RN carriers joined combat with the existing USN task forces, laisons were traded to experience anything/everything procedurally so a homogenous methodology could be adapted.

A very strange thing happened, and immediately...the USN adopted the RN method of vectoring intercepts. It is mentioned occasionally and usually as a procedural shift that greatly assisted with kamikaze atracks.

This is fascinating to me. The USN had been operating huge carrier tasks groups and instantly saw that they were wrong. Considering the difficulties admitting much less fixing the mk14 torpedo from the same organization....whats the story here?

I am aware that Romans didn't think of gay or straight in the sense that we do. I presume the change had something to do with the rise of Christianity. Who was the last Roman emperor known to have had a male lover? Did any remants of Roman or classical Greek sexuality continue in the East after the Western empire fell?

i am more oriented toward the daoist tradition, but i believe there is value in buddhism. there seems to be much infighting on r/zen about a few things:

1. is the zen tradition considered a form of buddhism?
2. is meditation worthwhile in the zen tradition?
3. do any old zen texts endorse buddhism or meditation?
4. does the zen tradition have a shared lineage with buddhism?

honestly, there are so many posts with long and confusing formats and words that claim or refute these ideas, but i find myself both hopelessly lost and further intrigued about this debate. i don’t particularly care either way, since i’m not a part of the tradition, but i’m more curious from a purely historical perspective about these questions and i don’t feel i would receive a clear answer on that subreddit due to the apparent sensitivity of the topic.

It’s always impressed me that human civilization managed to figure out pools and hot tubs in antiquity. But then one thing bugs me. Modern pools and hot tubs require a pretty consistent application of chlorine or bromine to prevent them from becoming overgrown with algae and other unpleasant organisms. How did the Romans (or other bath house-maintaining civilizations) prevent their bath houses from getting overrun by gunk?

Obviously there are potentially hundreds of years between the completion of Sahara desertification and the onset of writing in Mesopotamia, but it's close enough that it seems possible that there could have been a "cultural memory" of a "green Sahara" during the earliest stages of writing. Mesopotamia is obviously pretty far from Africa, but historically speaking north African and middle eastern nomads have had contact with one another and seem could have theoretically had contact with Mesopotamian civilizations.

Do scholars believe any early written myths and legends discuss this? It is just astounding to me that the Sahara was relatively lush within a period that could theoretically be in the historical record.

Apologies if this is a dumb question I just got off a Wikipedia deep dive and probably don't have a full story.

After seizing power in 1917 on behalf of the proletariat, what was the Bolshevik attitude towards white collar workers (ie civil servants, engineers, scientists, journalists)? Did they consider these groups to be part of the proletariat?