I keep reading about Hammurabi and others cancelling citizens' debts, and how this was a regular feature of Mesopotamian politics for thousands of years, but I'm having trouble understanding how the credit system could continue functioning despite that. It doesn't sound like the state was making creditors whole (or even that it had the resources to do so) - were these cancellations actually infrequent enough (or the interest rates high enough) that it was still in creditors' financial interest to continue lending money despite the risk of having the king declare a jubilee of some sort and wipe out everybody's debts?

It seems like they just wanted to play dress up.

I'm currently writing a novel set in 1888 Victorian England and I've been told to do a general scope of the period as I am no historian. By this, they mean research major historical events i.e. Wars; plagues; Politics; Industrial Revolution.

But how exactly do I research wars as a non-historian. How do I analyse them and their effect on society? What do I need to analyse that will help my novel feel immersive and not like a history lesson?

Ive heard that if you were shot by a musket, you were far more likely to die of an infection from the bullet than from the actual bullet itself. I've also heard that crossbows had so much power and lethality behind them, they were known to knock an armored knight off his horse.

To me, it would seem like a 100 people with crossbows who could shoot 4-5 rounds a minute would likely do more damage than 100 people with black powder muskets shooting 2-3 rounds a minute.

Also, it seems the logistics of keeping those people with fresh dry gunpowder would be much more difficult than keeping them supplied with bolts.

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For this round, let’s look at: Buddhism! 2500 years of history means lots of trivia and information to share! This week's theme is Buddhism. Let this week be the week you share the story about the people, the faith, the traditions, and the history of the Buddhist religion you've always wanted to share.

I know that at the beginning of the war units of both the confederate and the union army were often composed of men of the same county/town. This led to some tragic episodes where a single town could lose all its young males in a single battle. Did the army leadership put a stop to this or were units in 1864 formed with the exact same criteria?

Lots of early Victorian London institutions were named 'Metropolitan', some remain today such as the Metropolitan Police and the Metropolitan Line. There were many older bodies such as the Metropolitan Board of Works etc, etc.

Today we just use London for most of the modern equivalents, but clearly 'Metropolis' was in official use for quite some time. Did ordinary people call it 'the Metropolis', and when did 'the Metropolis' fall out of common usage?

More specifically, I need the sports sections. I'm doing an assignment for school on NFL history, and it would make my project 100x easier if I could see what journalists who were actually watching these guys had to say about certain players and teams.

I'd prefer that it be free but I'm not opposed to paying if I have to.

Did Marcos really steal from the Nation during his term or did he amass that wealth during his time as a lawyer and getting payed with tallano gold?

Was the martial law just a pretext for extending his rule or was he really fighting against NPAs/insurrectionists.

They said that his rival, Noynoy Aquino, was just a communist spy and stirring up rebellion aginst the government.

Was the people power revolution just a plot by the catholic church and the Aquinos to overthrow the Marcoses.

Is there any foreign comprehensive studies/literature regarding this era? I am having a hard time trusting local testimonies, its so conflicting.

Random I know, but I have a friend who’s into history say he swore he read a few years back that Catherine the Great erased history of the origins of the Russian people. We know of the “Kyivan Rus” origin story, but is there any validity to his memory? He mentioned some quote from Catherine the Great of “If the people found out the truth…” or something like that.

Not serious or anything, but we spent way too long having deep interesting conversation on what could just be head canon 🤣. Any history buffs here can confirm or deny?

I can't find any examples, because every Google query I have about cleaning behind the ears just pops up with a million WebMD articles about ear cleaning.

I was wondering if there was a historical reason why cleaning behind the ears is such a big deal?

This may seem very ignorant, but I was watching the 1973 version of Jesus Christ Superstar the other day and there was several implications that the movement Jesus headed was one that was revolutionary against the Roman occupation, and that Jesus was often the force dampening this revolutionary zeal and chastising members for their eagerness for fighting back.

While I don't really know much at all about the original story as written, I'd never heard this reading of history before.

In some ways in makes intuitive sense as an explanation for the unanimous lethal response by the ruling classes, for Jesus' historical worship as a martyr, and for a potential source of conflict between Jesus and Judas (imagine if you had been successfully building a revolutionary movement and its figurehead starts to talk about being a God.)

But that being said it seems to stretch against the more traditional expressions of the story I've previously heard. Maybe this was just an effort by the director to connect the story with the anti-colonial struggles that gripped the world during the making of the film?

If this is totally wrong, what did the apostles stand for that was deemed so uacceptable by both local royalty and the Roman empire? What did they believe in besides basic human compassion that caused such a phenomenal response?

My understanding is that the FBI spent significant time and resources dismantling the Black Panther Party, up to and including assassinating Fred Hampton. I know there were some incidents where Panthers fought with police, and that their community organizing efforts may have created a significant base of support in certain places, but these incidents seem quite small scale compared to e.g. the CCP that they were influenced by.

Do historians believe that the party actually had - or was even close to having - the influence, membership, and material to actually pose a real threat of revolution in the US? Did Hoover and others within the FBI actually think such a threat was imminent, or did they see their efforts as preemptive?

Everyone has heard the story of how WW1 started, but I have never heard about what countries specific objectives were to continue it, beyond, "Move the front a quarter mile that way!" and the broader "conflict of great powers wanting more power" i.e. What goals, aspirations or misconceptions did countries have that caused the war to continue on for so long?

How did powers foresee the other capitulating? Did they have any political reasons (changing alliances, new countries entering etc.) or economic reasons (resources that feed the war machine, potential expansions of or restrictions to trade) to believe the war would swing one way or the other? What prevented the Central Powers from not seeing their future demise? What inspired their optimism? --Way too many questions, feel free to cherry pick if you have an interesting story...

Basically, what I am getting at is: with most wars it's very easy to understand (wrt both the state-sponsored story and whatever happened behind the scenes) why so many people fought for so long and died. With WW1, I don't see it.

Was this already a hope from the earliest origins of Nazi Ideology (i.e. the 1920s) or was it the result of later development, perhaps not until nearly the very time it actually occurred? To what degree was the genocide the brainchild of Hitler alone, or was it perhaps many or most of the Nazi officials shared in this deliberate intention?

I just watched The Northman movie. A small spoiler: the movie portrays a viking from Iceland who was at one point raided and settled in a region the Land of Rus, which was most likely in the modern-day Ukraine or western Russia. They also operated along the rivers, not the coastline.

This scene surprised me because I've never thought that vikings actually reached that deep into mainland Europe. I've always thought they only operated in Baltic and North sea and didn't bother go to the mainland.

So, how far did the vikings in the Europe? Did they really raid that far into the Eastern Europe?

Today, castles seem to just be giant fortresses but I would like to know how they looked when they were fully furnished. How were they decorated? What treasures were stored there? Are there a few castles that were especially beautiful?

Hi world - I'm not very versed at all in the history of the Western US (~1860-1900) and looking for some starting points. Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne was going to be my starting point - what I'm finding is good deep dives on particular tribes or individuals but wondering if there's any kind of narrative that ties it all together. I had thought to use railroad expansion and the social impacts of that as a spine to organize the research - just wondering if anyone has recommendations. If *not* - then any other works definitely recommended to make sure I don't miss something.

*Edit: to specify further, the ideal work would be something of western railroad expansion (financing, political economy potentially) and social impacts (both on migration patterns and definitely impact on native populations).

Are they still out there?