I am an anthropology and history student in university and have come into frequent contact with the idea of "the state." It seems that I have taken the idea of what the state is for granted, but after I read a little of Quentin Skinner's work, I looked deeper into what the state is. Quentin Skinner has a wonderful talk on YouTube about the concept of the state, but relating only to English schools of thought. I was wondering if anyone had any insight into the history of the idea of "the state," or how the state is understood today.

Who did they vote for?

Did the same hold true for Catholic Irish, Scots, Or Welsh?

Romans named the planets after their gods. Did the Greeks call the planets Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Zeus, and Cronus, and were these the names of the gods or the planets first?

Sorry for possibly misleading title, but i can't really sum it up well.

I've heard some stories that in a Hindu-Muslim conflict, the Hindus used lard to lubricate their firearms because it was sacrilegious to the Muslims, and at the same time the Muslims would have used fat from cow to lubricate theirs.

Is there any truth to this story or is it just a legend?

I've looked on Google and Wikipedia, but all I found were Casualties, not total servicemen.

Hi AskHistorians! I'm working on a historical fiction story, set in 9th Century Italy, after the death of the younger son of late "Emperor" Lothair I. However, I'm having trouble finding information about the political and social situation of the kingdom in that time. So I went to CK2 "Old Gods" bookmark, that has a map of 867 Italy with its nobles, dukes, etc. It is accurate by any means? How did the nobility interated with eachother?

In the U.S. it is commonly taught that this was his end goal. They have further promoted this through film and movies. But it doesn't seem logical. What seems more logical is that this is escalating the drama for movies by pitting good vs evil on a much larger scale. I am curious as to what Hitlers public stance was when discussing why they were occupying different areas. It just doesn't seem realistic that they would have the man power to take over and occupy "the world".

What about Bombs of various types? Volley guns? Navel mines?

I get that states may have had there own restrictions, so where if anywhere were such weapons were banned?

If you need to make this more specific, I'm specifically interested in gold's treatment in native North American societies.

Thanks!

The Soviets hated the tsars but called it tsar bomba anyway. Why did they do that?

Some modern writers seem to take humanistic and liberal arts education as two terms for the same thing. But, if humanistic education was established during the Renaissance period, wasn't it supposed to be different from the liberal arts education at medieval universities?

When I picture dinner in medieval England or France for example, I picture a big feast with a table laden with all sorts of food and everybody just digs in and eats until they can't eat anymore.

In the modern western world (i.e. Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand etc.) when we go out for dinner we usually eat several courses. We get a portion of the meal as a starter, as a main course and as a dessert, which are usually combined so the flavours compliment each other. There is also matching etiquette during dinner that seems absent during the medieval period.

How and why did this change occur? Did it happen gradually or was there a culinary revolution?

Lately, I cannot help but notice how the tone about Columbus Day has changed from National Celebration to National Shame. Is this due? I have heard several different things from several different people. Can someone without bias explain this? Some of the evidence is relatively damning. Thanks!

Pictographs are cool and "count" for my question, but I'm more curious about which early games have specific rulesets written and in what form those rulesets were inscribed. Thanks!

This is a question that has been bugging me for a while.

We all know how the "everyone thought the Earth was flat, and that you could fall over the edge" thing is a myth, but whenever someone points out what proves it is a myth, one of the main things I see is references to the calculations of the Ancient Greeks and such, proving that humans knew the Earth was round since very long ago.

But was this not knowledge mainly held by the educated classes?

Whenever I hear these stories, I have a hard time imagining people living in rural areas, and the poor with no access to education having access to this knowledge and treating it like trivial common sense.

Even in the modern day it is hard to get an even basic explanation of how the moon and the tides are related from the average Joe.

I ask because it seems like many European castles today double as museums, and on the whole just kind of feel like novelties. When did they lose their importance, or is that just a misconception on my part?

Re-reading the Hunger Games, it strikes me as somewhat unrealistic that absolutely everyone in the Capitol thinks that people killing each other for sport is a great thing, to the point where the practice continued uninterrupted for 75 years. When I think of modern blood sports, it seems that there is always a group of people who oppose them and customs change.

Did anyone oppose the circus in Rome? Are there any contemporary writings that survive of someone denouncing gladiatorial combat?

More broadly, is the attitude that it is wrong to kill people (or animals) for entertainment a relatively recent invention in western culture?

When Columbus first met the Natives, how did they communicate? Was it just frantic chaos?

In the British Army in WW1, you had to be 18 to join and 19 to be sent overseas. How common was it for underage men (15-17? Younger?) to lie about their age so they could join early? Was it even possible? Can we know?