1 Answers 2015-09-04
I asked a similar question before and received no real answer (just links to other questions from the past that did not directly answer this question). So I'm trying again.
I've read about Chinese/Japanese explorers being quite apt, their cartography being fairly sophisticated as well. It seems to me that the west coast of North America would be "easier" to discover and explore than the east coast. Given that the Bering Strait is so narrow that on a clear day I've heard you can see Alaska from the Russian coast...whereas the "easiest" way to discover the east coast was hopping from Iceland > Greenland > NA, which is a pretty signficant journey compared to say Hokkaido > Alaska. What's more, there have been villages/groups of people on mainland Alaska for 10,000+ years so there would have no doubt been trade opportunities.
How far did the Asian powers explore to their east? What stopped them from discovering/exploring/colonizing the west coast well before 1500?
2 Answers 2015-09-04
Hi, I’m Charles L. Ponce de Leon. I’m a historian at Long Beach State University in California and an expert in modern US cultural history, especially the history of the mass media. My latest book, That’s the Way It Is: A History of Television News in America, has just been published by the University of Chicago Press (http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo12345529.html). It examines the evolution of TV news in the United States from the 1940s to the early 2000s. It focuses mostly on the major networks and cable news outlets, but I also discuss local news and syndicated programming that was notable or influential. To research the book, I watched a lot of TV news, much of it online but also at a variety of archives. And I read a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including social scientific monographs about the multiple functions of journalism and the mass media in American society. I really enjoyed researching and writing this book, and it changed my views about the television news business. Like many people who remember the television news of the 1960s and 1970s, I used to believe that TV news degenerated because network executives forced journalists to make it more trivial and entertaining. But as I discovered (and you will, too, when you read my book), things were really more complicated than this, and in many respects Americans have the television news that they want and probably deserve.
22 Answers 2015-09-04
Taken from wikipedia:
Some older versions of this rhyme had the word nigger instead of tiger:
Eeny, meena, mina, mo, Catch a nigger by the toe; If he hollers let him go, Eena, meena, mina, mo.[3] This version was similar to that reported as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888.[10] It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo":
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo, Catch a nigger by his toe, If he won't work then let him go; Skidum, skidee, skidoo. But when you get money, your little bride Will surely find out where you hide, So there's the door and when I count four, Then out goes you.[11]
It was also used by Rudyard Kipling in his "A Counting-Out Song", from Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides, published in 1935.[12] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century.[3]
Iona and Peter Opie pointed out in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes that the word "nigger" was common in American folk-lore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb.[3] This, combined with evidence of various other versions of the rhyme in the British Isles pre-dating this version, would seem to suggest that it originated in North America, although the apparently American word 'holler' was first recorded in written form in England in the fourteenth century, whereas according to the Oxford English Dictionary the words 'Niger' or 'nigger' were first recorded in England in the sixteenth century with their current disparaging meaning. The 'olla' and 'toe' are found as nonsense words in some nineteenth century versions of the rhyme, and it could possibly be that the original 'Where do all the Frenchmen Go?' (probably originating during one of the periods of Anglo-French warfare) was later on replaced by the earlier version in the United States, using some of the nonsense words
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe
I have several questions:
Are words like "Eeny" "Miny" "Skidum" and "Skidoo" complete nonsense for the sake of creating a memorable delivery? What is the purpose of their usage?
How did the eeny, meeny, miny, moe rhyme begin? Was it a quick rhyme to tell small children, not unlike old pirate songs (ex; sing a song of sixpence, etc.)?
When the rhyme states "If he won't work then let him go" ... " is this implying a slave should be murdered, if deemed unproductive? Released to hunt the slave? Is there historical significance here?
When the rhyme states "But when you get money, your little bride will surely find out where you hide," What is this in reference to?
Why would anyone ever catch another human being by the toe? Or is this also to create a silly rhyme?
In addition to the now better known substitution of 'tiger' for 'nigger' I can tell you as a small child I definitely heard both iterations which is fascinating to me because I'm only in my 20's - so I'm curious about how the split began. I'd also be curious to hear how common each iteration is and what the origin is?
2 Answers 2015-09-04
We know now that the Russian Revolution was going to take place, of course. Is it teleological hindsight to say that the Russians knew it was coming? Was there a similar feeling (that the revolution was coming) in countries where it did not come?
2 Answers 2015-09-04
From what I've read, it seems that the majority of the abolition movement was driven by religious Christians. However, were there any notable abolitionists whom were personally secular or secularly argued against slavery?
2 Answers 2015-09-04
1 Answers 2015-09-04
I'm reading Peter Wilson's The Thirty Years War: A Sourcebook and it mentions various nations that were invited to sign the Treaty of the Hague, including the King of Sweden, the Prince of Transylvania, the Duke of Savoy and various other German officials are invited.
And so was the "Serene Republic of Venice". They seem like a bit of an outlier from the rest. Being predominantly Catholic, but unlike France, without any obvious interest in a war in the Holy Roman Empire, so what prompted the initial signers of the Treaty of the Hague to invite the Republic?
1 Answers 2015-09-04
Today:
You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.
As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.
13 Answers 2015-09-04
The US purchased Alaska in 1867 and British Columbia didn't join Canada until 1871. It seems almost un-American that the US didn't try to connect. Was there any kind of push to connect them?
2 Answers 2015-09-04
1 Answers 2015-09-04
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2 Answers 2015-09-04
Hi all, I'm currently watching Master and Commander and there are a number of red coat soldiers aboard the naval ship. I was wondering how these men were organized, their branch of service, their number, chain of command and their organisational history later on.
Thank you!
Edit: woops! Meant 18th century!
1 Answers 2015-09-04
Some of the guys in my trade union were saying that the Democratic party intentionally made Labor Day separate from May Day to weaken international labor solidarity in America. Any truth to that, and what is the history of labor day?
2 Answers 2015-09-04
The term stone age brings up a mental image of small groups of hunter gatherers wearing animal skins, perhaps living in caves. I was wondering how far from the truth this is.
As far as I'm aware, Meso American cultures had not yet developed metal working (other than gold) by the time Europeans arrived, so they were essentially still in their stone age, yet their civilization knew large cities with advanced infrastructure, agriculture, water management, astronomy and writing. Were there any stone age civilizations of this level in the old world?
2 Answers 2015-09-04
What normally happened when a ruler clearly lost their mental ability to rule say from dementia or something? Did people continue to follow their orders no matter how unreasonable. or were they just placated? I was thinking of European monarchies in the last 500 years more specifically but any other interesting examples would still be cool with me :)
3 Answers 2015-09-04
And also the people are called "boxers" is it because the relation with martial arts?
2 Answers 2015-09-04
8 Answers 2015-09-04
Example: I can see pictures of Burma with RAF P-47C which you may consider more effective in the European theater or Asia/Pacific given their range where you in fact find Spitfires in the same period, which had a more limited range. So you see models in the different theaters that look more like sent there based on a first in - first out basis Was there any real policy to distribute them?
1 Answers 2015-09-04
New Zealand is known be the first self-governing region to have given universal suffrage to women. However, during this time, the indigenous people in European colonies had little rights due to the white supremacy movements. Were the Maori women (or men) really given right to vote, and if not, what were the limitations?
1 Answers 2015-09-04
Preferably from world war 2, and also either from a german or british viewpoint.
1 Answers 2015-09-04
1 Answers 2015-09-04
1 Answers 2015-09-04
At the end of World War II Russia experienced the greatest loss of all the countries involved but they also had the largest population. I've heard many people disregard Zhukov by saying that he just threw men at the enemies. From a military aspect was he a good commander or did he in fact just abuse the sheer amount of men he had at his disposal?
1 Answers 2015-09-04
I am reading a book about Custer's defeat at the Little BigHorn and the author keeps identifying certain individual troopers as a senior officer's striker. "He was Custer's striker." "So and so was Benteen's striker."
The book is A Terrible Glory.
1 Answers 2015-09-04