To maybe make the question a bit easier, say I'm referring to a bastard sword or arming sword or any sword you'd expect a medieval soldier to wield.

The internet isn't giving good answer's and in my opinion it's no but I need differing opinions to get a good answer.

I've been reading about animal magnetism as one of the pseudo-medicine replacements for phrenology. It sounds as lot like hypnosis? But it also doesn't. Wikipedia mentions that it is now "entirely forgotten" and suggests that it held sway only up until the late 1800s. If so, then it surely is different from hypnosis (which continues to do this day).

What exactly was animal magnetism?

And more specifically, since I cannot find anything describing it online, what was a typical "procedure"?

Hello everyone of r Askhistorians

First thank you for clicking and reading my admittedly not very perfect English. (I really tried)

My Question is quite simple, how did we end up with 'Wave–particle duality' of light? I know at first there were two theories 'particle viewpoint' and 'hyguens theorem'. And I am quite sure, there was quite the back and forth which of those two theories is right (because both had some weaknesses). My question would be how exactly this back and forth went. (When where those weaknesses discovered/discussed, maybe even in what order, what weaknesses where discovered and how where those weaknesses refuted by the other side.)

-----Side note-----

I do understand, since this concerns physics and the pros and cons of each theory, I might be in the wrong sub here. If that is the case I would be very thankful, if someone would point me in the right direction.

------Side explanation why this interests me-----

Maybe as a small side note, why I am asking this question, I will hold a lesson in physics in a couple of days and I thought it might be fun giving the children a game in the form of they being scientist of back then and feeding them information step by step via internet and self-written articles. so they can argue which theory is right to end up at the point, where real history ended up as well.

With music being so highly accessible these days it's no surprise that musicians are struggling to make money. However even before Spotify etc musicians were still finding their income was being subtracted from other sources.

My question is, over the last few hundred years have musicians ever been well paid? Like Mozart/Beethoven/John Farland/Bach/whoever else, and the minor musicians of those times?

I read some historical novel set in the feudal Spain which follows the premise that every man in the Middle Ages was a rapist or a potential rapist, that rape was every day life and that it was uncommon for a woman not to be raped during her lifetime. I was shocked, although I know historical novel is just fiction. So I wanted to know more about how common sexual violence really was during the Middle Ages, what historians know about it and how people at the time understood the concept of 'rape' itself.

It seems odd to me that in a setting where Pericles could tell grieving wives/mothers in his Funeral Oration that their greatest virtue would be that nobody ever talked about them for good or ill (i.e. shut up and stay indoors).

​

This isn't just women fighting to protect their kids and things: Medea has an outright attack on the evils and unfairness of life and marraige for women (see extract from the prologue of Medea, 230-251). Did/do other societies where women's rights are strongly curtailed and their voices kept out of the public sphere have similar expressions in art and literature? And do we have any idea how it turned out like this in Athens?

​

Medea extract

Of all creatures that have life and reason
we women are the sorriest lot:
first we must at a great expenditure of money
buy a husband and even take on a master
over our body: this evil is more galling than the first.
Here is the most challenging contest, whether we will get a bad man
or a good one. Besides, divorce is unsavory
for a woman and it is not possible to say no to one's husband.
And when she comes into new customs and rules
a woman must be a prophet of what she could never learn at home:
how best to deal with her marriage partner;
and if we get it worked out well and a husband shares
our life with us, and he bears the yoke without violence,
life is to be envied. Otherwise we are better off dead.
But the man, when he is bored with things at home
he can go out to ease the weariness of his heart.
But we have just one person to look to.
They say that we live a life free of danger
at home while they face battle with the spear.
How wrong they are. I would rather stand three times
in the line of battle than once bear a child.

A random question which I've been thinking about a lot lately. I tried asking on the r/aviation subreddit, but so far I haven't had any luck. So I figured I'd ask here too. Maybe it's a bit specific, but I was hoping that someone might at least have an idea why this was done. (I've been having slight issues with uploading images lately, so I can't provide an example, but a quick Google search of a British or French aircraft from either of the World Wars, the Spitfire for example, will give you an idea of what I'm talking about).

[deleted]

Im Student of Archaeology Researching the Vampir dugout. Why tunnel, how it was Made possible (Tin Food, Logistics). wondering is there any books you would recommend me to read or other sources. Cause i have to back everything up with evidence and Facts, i can not Speculate and Cannot Draw conclusions. its more closely to a forensic Investigation than History Essay. Coffee is my friend

History has always been my favorite subject, but it's not until recently that I've begun actually studying it and reading books in my spare time about various periods as well as taking courses.

However, I've been feeling overwhelmed and discouraged lately by my memory. I don't know if I just have a really bad memory, but I'm having trouble retaining all of this information.

It goes like this: I'll read a history book with little to no notes or annotations and I will not be able to recall specific details, I end up having to refer back to the actual book. So then I started actually taking expansive notes, but then I feel like I'm taking down too many notes. It helps me remember details more but not as much as i want to, plus it's not as fun writing down every detail as it is just reading it.

So what do you do to retain information about history? What are your studying techniques and did you encounter this problem? Am I just a stupid person with a bad memory? I sure hope not but that's what it feels like. Should I do more brain exercises to build up my memory?

I've read in some texts (US ones) that one of the major reasons the French left Mexico was due to the involvement of the US. How true is this claim?