Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.
3 Answers 2018-11-11
Since modern Hebrew is based on biblical Hebrew I assume that's a possibility.
1 Answers 2018-11-11
1 Answers 2018-11-11
I want to know more about the way in which humans spread around the globe (originally from Africa). Any interesting links or information?
1 Answers 2018-11-11
(Even some contemporary Greeks back then didn't seem to have a singular consensus on whether Macedonians were Greek or not. )
1 Answers 2018-11-11
One hundred years ago today, the First World War came to an end. WWI claimed more than 15 million lives, caused untold destruction, and shaped the world for decades to come. Its impact can scarcely be overstated.
Welcome to the /r/AskHistorians Armistice Day Amateur Ask You Anything.
Today, on Remembrance Day, /r/AskHistorians is opening our doors to new contributors in the broader Reddit community - both to our regular readers who have not felt willing/able to contribute, and to first time readers joining us from /r/Europe and /r/History. Standards for responses in this thread will be relaxed, and we welcome contributors to ask and answer questions even if they don't feel that they can meet /r/AskHistorians usual stringent standards. We know that Reddit is full of enthusiastic people with a great deal of knowledge to share, from avid fans of Dan Carlin's Blueprint for Armageddon to those who have read and watched books and documentaries, but never quite feel able to contribute in our often-intimidating environment. This space is for you.
We do still ask that you make an effort in answering questions. Don't just write a single sentence, but rather try to give a good explanation, and include sources where relevant.
We also welcome our wonderful WWI panelists, who have kindly volunteered to give up their time to participate in this event. Our panelists will be focused on asking interesting questions and helping provide feedback, support and recommendations for contributors in this thread - please also feel free to ask them for advice.
Joining us today are:
Note that flairs and mods may provide feedback on answers, and might provide further context - make sure to read further than the first answer!
Please, feel more than welcome to ask and answer questions in this thread. Our rules regarding civility, jokes, plagiarism, etc, still apply as always - we ask that contributors read the sidebar before participating. We will be relaxing our rules on depth and comprehensiveness - but not accuracy - and have our panel here to provide support and feedback.
Today is a very important day. We ask that you be respectful and remember that WWI was, above all, a human conflict. These are the experiences of real people, with real lives, stories, and families.
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please respond to the stickied comment at the top of the thread.
207 Answers 2018-11-11
I see this question asked a lot as a joke, but this is something that has genuinely interested me. I can’t imagine what Canada has done just because of how little they seem to get involved with the world. Sorry for my ignorance!
1 Answers 2018-11-11
Obviously my education wasn't optimal when it comes to history. World history in particular. I'm in my thirties and it seems like everyone knows way more about, well, all of it than me. I know the big stuff, but I don't even really have a timeline to tack stuff onto. I am really interested in the idea of having a history knowledge base, but where do I start? It seems that everything I read or watch or listen to starts up assuming I already know enough to catch on. What can I do? Where do I start?
2 Answers 2018-11-11
I have read and heard many times recently that the English spoken by the American colonists and the British empire once both sounded the same, and that it was more in line with the way Americans speak it now. I've been told that the upper classes of England adopted the accent to sound more elite and it was just the style of the time. If that is so, where did the regional dialects of England come from? Are they not, as I would assume, older than this?
I suppose the root of my question is; is American english based on just one specific, or a few specific, regional dialects? And if it is, why that / those ones?
1 Answers 2018-11-11
It's a tiny picture, fade and worn as you'd expect for a piece of paper it's age. I was looking to squeeze a little more information out of it, it was found with a rather colourful Poem to my grandmother dated 1919 but I'm not confident enough to say this was taken during WW1. I was hoping for a confirmation of a rough date and perhaps the place where this was taken. He didn't leave many artifacts from the war behind, just a cap inscribed 'Sgt. Cross' that still has it's Manchester Regiment Fluer De Lis on the front.
I never knew the man, he survived the war but died before I was born, my relatives know about as much as I do. It would be nice to a get a miniscule glimpse into his life especially on a day like today. Cheers.
2 Answers 2018-11-11
In his March 1850 address of the Central Committee to the Communist League, Marx states that:
"To be able forcefully and threateningly to oppose this party, whose betrayal of the workers will begin with the very first hour of victory, the workers must be armed and organized. The whole proletariat must be armed at once with muskets, rifles, cannon and ammunition, and the revival of the old-style citizens’ militia, directed against the workers, must be opposed. ... any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary. The destruction of the bourgeois democrats’ influence over the workers, and the enforcement of conditions which will compromise the rule of bourgeois democracy, which is for the moment inevitable, and make it as difficult as possible – these are the main points which the proletariat and therefore the League must keep in mind during and after the approaching uprising."
What sort of organization was Marx talking about, and what makes them "old-style"? Was Marx trying to contrast them to more contemporary organizations that he did not consider objectionable, emphasizing that militias in general were defunct, or just invoking the "bad old days" for rhetorical flair?
1 Answers 2018-11-11
I was wondering if the use of trench warfare was deployed during WW2. If so, please include which countries and why trench warfare did not continue as a major military doctrine after WW1.
1 Answers 2018-11-11
According to Wikipedia, the Latin name for the Roman Republic was Rēs pūblica Rōmāna. Wikipedia also says that the Latin name for the Roman Empire was Imperium Rōmānum. Are these names accurate? And if so, under what context would they have been used? Furthermore, it's my understanding that the early emperors of Rome like Augustus tried very hard to maintain the pretense of a republic. So if they're accurate, when did the Romans start using the name Imperium Rōmānum instead of Rēs pūblica Rōmāna?
1 Answers 2018-11-11
More and more we see people arguing Nazi Germany was a socialist state. Sorry if this opens a can of worms, but I'd like to hear what real historians have to say about this. So, was Nazi Germany a socialist state?
1 Answers 2018-11-11
1 Answers 2018-11-11
I was watching a movie with a "medieval" setting and it occurred to me that whenever you see them in a small village or hamlet they're always working and there's no way that with such a small customer pool, even taking into consideration people coming in from smaller surrounding settlements for fairs and emergency services, could keep them busy/ in business the whole year round. Even using slow times of the year to back-stock common items (nails, hinges, etc) you'd eventually run out of things to do.
2 Answers 2018-11-10
As a great enthusiast of the Gothic novel (particularly in its early stage from the 1760s to the 1820s), I have noticed that the term "Gothic novel" was never actually used in this period. Sure, you had "Gothic romance," "Gothic tale," and "Gothic story," but these terms are never used to refer to works taking place outside "Gothic times" (i.e., the Middle Ages); thus, these designations would exclude most of the now canonical first-wave Gothic novels, including all Ann Radcliffe's novels published in her lifetime (none of which took place earlier than the sixteenth century), Matthew Lewis's The Monk (which takes place at an unspecified time during Spain's colonial period, since a character offhandedly mentions having landholdings in the West Indies), and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (which is set in the 1790s). Furthermore, all of the seven horrid novels mentioned in Jane Austen's Gothic parody, Northanger Abbey, take place in either the seventeenth or eighteenth century. When was "Gothic novel" finally used to describe such works?
As far as earlier genre names go, I know that Charles Maturin used the term "Radcliffe-romance" to refer to his masterpiece, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820; another work that would not have been called "Gothic" at the time, as its earliest scenes take place in the seventeenth century). However, this seems to have been a term particular to him. Would a 1790's or 1800's reader of novels have even considered Matthew Lewis's very supernatural and irreverent The Monk as being in the same genre as Radcliffe's novels with their Scooby Doo plots (i.e., the explained supernatural) and their upholding of middle class propriety?
1 Answers 2018-11-10
The Medieval period is full of interesting and strange weapons. Im currently doing some research for a project and I'm having trouble finding the name of a very specific weapon.
Basically as I undersand it (during the medieval period) after a battle the winning side, or the side left at the battlefield, would go around and kill those who were left alive but who were hurt beyond remedy. As I have heard people would use a sort of "narro sword" or "long spike" that they would insert into the side of the persons torso between the ribbs to pierce their heart and kill them quickly.
First of I'm not sure that this is true, it might just be a tall tale. However if anyone knows of this weapon (or a similar weapon) I would be grateful if you could name it and perhaps direct me to a source on the weapons history.
Thanks a bunch!
1 Answers 2018-11-10
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1 Answers 2018-11-10
Hello there! I do not know how University works on other countries, but here in Brasil I have to do a CCT on my last year in University in order to get my degree.
My plan is to do a paper on the Holocaust, from the German Concentration Camp Soldiers/Guards point of view. What I hope to explain in my paper is how the German military staff felt about the millions of killings and the conditions the POWs where getting.
The main question is knowing if all soldiers, either from SS or Wermach selected to work at the camps knew about what was their porpose was, and if they knew how and why did they comply with it. Was it the brainwashing of the Nazi Propaganda ? Was it sadism ? Was there mutiny among units ? Any cases of guards actively trying to help prisoners ?
Most ex camp guards deny knowledge of any war crimes, the most recent example happened last week. Now, I mostly don't believe them, but in the case they are telling the truth, I would also like to know how did the Nazi regime managed to hide the Holocaust from people literally working on it.
What I need from you redditors is Data, sources, books and anything that I can use to help my research so that I can get my bachelor. Im fluent in English and Spanish and my native language is Portuguese. But I can use Google translator on German texts in case y'all send some.
Thank you.
1 Answers 2018-11-10