Non-religious American here, all of my familial christmas traditions are extremely bizarre: decorate a tree, celebrate a virgin birth, leave out milk and cookies for a chubby reverse-burglar...

How do I make sense of this random madness?!

How did it get like this?!

Flooding certain portions of my social media right now is a text post about the "real" story behind the swaddling cloths Jesus was wrapped in after birth. Ignoring the linking to specific scripture, the copypasta reads:

In the Middle East, people traveling long distances were often met with many hardships and trials on their journeys. In the event of a death in travel, the body could not continue to be transported for many days. For that reason, travelers wrapped a thin, gauzelike cloth around their waist many times. If someone died on the journey, the others would use this cloth, referred to as "swaddling clothes" to wrap the body in before burying them.

Originally I thought this just another inspirational 100% BS chain email type of thing, but some bored Googling revealed it comes word for word from A Theological Study of The Book of Romans by Arch Bishop D.A. Miller. Which sounds somewhat official until you realize there are no citations, no references, and he seems to be the founder of his own ministry where he assigns these books.

I'm not really interested in the religious gloss, but I am curious as to whether there is any truth to the above quote. Was there a history of wearing thin fabric when traveling in case of death? Is this something travelers to Bethlehem ~2000 years ago would have done?

I've been told it changes a few details, but how much? Did William Wallace actually sleep with the French princess or whatever? Was longshanks son a homosexual? Sorry if this as already been asked before

Did the Ostrogoths used pikes or sarissa at any point? Ive been playing Total war: Attila and I noticed they have like 3 different kinds of pike units.

Welcome to the penultimate installment of our series. We are deviating slightly from schedule; because finals week is upon us for many American universities, we will talk about putting all the sources together for a paper now rather than next week.

/u/Thegreenreaper7 will provide an explanation of of the steps required, from choosing a topic, to crafting a strong research question, to writing the thesis. Edit- there was a bit of miscommunication about when this topic would be posted, meaning TheGreenReaper's post won't go up until tomorrow at the earliest. Sorry about that.

/u/Sowser will talk about originality in research papers, and how to make your paper say something new about the area of study.

/u/Sunagainstgold will take us through writing a Historiograpy paper/literature review.

Next Week: the series finishes with a discussion of Troublesome Sources

Alluded to in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, I am curious if there are any sources that otherwise depict or describe the possible fits of Caesar. Additionally, what kind of understanding did people of this time have of conditions like Alzheimer's, Epilespy, Dementia, and so on?

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I'm relatively un-informed on the history of pre-conquistador cultures and civilizations of the Americas, but i always thought that the human inhabitants of this region migrated to these continents via a land bridge connecting Asia to North America. If that were the case, wouldn't there be more developed ancient civilizations in North America? My basis for this reasoning is that NA would have been settled longer than SA, simply because of the proximity to the land bridge. That being said, there are no ancient ruins in NA that even come close to the scale of what the Aztecs and Mayans left behind. Was curious why this is the case.

In the last two episodes king Charles and his daughter Gisla have ben shown wearing masks. Can anyone please explain the significance of them? Are they some religious symbol or some Frank specific custom?

I am currently in the early-stages of working on my final dissertation at university, my first choice for a topic was 'Rhetoric, Love and Laws - How Elite Groups Developed Social Narratives in Democratic Athens.' but was discouraged on this for its broadness as a topic and that it seemed more like a life's work than a ten-thousand word essay. Fair enough. My initial thought process behind this though was that I have no idea what career path I want to take following my graduation in a few months and figured this would fit well if I were to choose to go into law / marketing / writing etc.

Currently, I am figuring out what on earth I can choose as a topic now, but the small voice at the back of my head continues to urge me towards something tailored towards a possible post-graduate career.

Speaking to ex-students of my university, one has used his dissertation topic on rape, prostitution and gender in the Roman empire to land a job working for the British Red Cross working with female refugees, often victims of rape. Others however have suggested that their topics have been completely irrelevant to their current jobs and some have even had to be very selective of what they put onto their CV (specifically a dissertation on sexuality when applying for a job working with children).

I completely understand that regardless of my dissertation topic, I will be able to boast of research, analysis, critical thinking etc skills but is it worth deciding on a topic that is open to certain career paths or work with complete disregard for the voice in the back of my mind?

Bonus question: those who have a Classical Civilisation degree, what career path did you end up taking?

Thanks in advance!

With the end of the Thirty Years War, Europe was ready to rise out of the ashes of confessional based conflict. While the this war wasn’t purely or primarily focused on confessional beliefs, the the world before it was certainly different than that of after. In this new and long 18th century, we see the rise of Dynastic politics and warfare.

This time period also sees multiple revolutions; the seeds of the industrial revolution is planted in Britain while the seeds of philosophical revolution are planted in Spain under Spinoza and picked up by others with the Enlightenment. There is a revolution of governance, with the strengthening of the State throughout most of Europe, a rise of Enlightened Despots that shaped their kingdoms and the nations to come.

Finally, with the change in government and leaders, we have a change in fashion. Courts become centralized and draw power from this centralization but culture also grows from this. We have the rise of famous courts like Sanssouchi or the ever famous Versailles. Culture becomes more focused and wide spread from single points.

While the West has a long history with multiple currents that shape it to the way it is now, these hundred and fifty one years are highly influential and set up contemporary Europe.

Le Dramatis Personae

/u/hazelnutcream ‘s focus is on British Imperial governance at the close of the Seven Years’ War with a focus on the origins of the American Revolution. They also have a particular interest in the place of Britain’s other kingdoms, Scotland & Ireland, and their place within the British Empire.

/u/Itsalrightwithme is focused on Early Modern Europe but with a focus on the Habsburg realms, for today that will be Spain and the Spanish/Austrian Netherlands. He will be happy to answer questions on how Habsburg Spain and it’s successor, Bourbon Spain, reacted to the challenges of the 17th and 18th centuries. n.b. He does not live in the Low Countries.

/u/ColeVintage studies the trade and construction of fashionable consumer goods and how they affected both political movements and their daily life.

/u/alexistheman will be answering questions on His Majesty’s Britannic Royal Government.

/u/elos_ will be speaking about the Spanish and French New World, the genocide of native people’s, and the evils of Colonialism. He may help with mainland France.

/u/Bakuraptor expresses his sincerest regrets that he will not be able to attend as he is traveling.

Finally, /u/DonaldFDraper will express his love for France, particularly the Second Worst part of French history, the ancien regime.

Ask your questions! And we will try our best!

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The Russian Empire had settlements in Alaska, Fort Ross in California, and Fort Elizabeth in Hawaii, as the U.K., French, Americans, Spanish, and Mexicans were each vying for territorial acquisitions in North America, I am curious as to why Russia did not more intensely pursue permanency. Territorial expansion was characteristic of the Russian Empire during the 1700s and 1800s, but appears more concerned about Europe and the withering Ottoman Empire. Did the Russian Empire simply deem North America to be useless? Did they not want to antagonize the other major powers in North America?

Thanks /r/askhistorians !

Especially in the Luftwaffe. Were the aircraft such pilots such as Hans Rudel, given superior rear guns in his JU-87 or armour to protect these more important airmen?

Would be interested to know any religious groups association to the northern lights, but I'm specifically interested in christian pilgrimages that would have sought them out. Also, how was the phenomena explained within a religious context?

How much did medieval/renaissance societies like in Europe know about civilizations such as Rome or Greece? Or has Greek/Roman history mainly been uncovered in the last 200~ years?