Hi everyone! Following the precedent of our last subfield panel on cultural history, today's AMA will have a bit of a different tone than our regular panels; instead of focusing on a specific period or topic in history, our panelists will talk about their work in a specific subfield of history: economic history. My hope is to give some of our flairs with obscure specialties some exposure, while simultaneously introducing many of you to a subfield of history that you may be unaware of. Think of this panel as a half-AMA, half-workshop: they will all be glad to discuss questions about our fields of research, but they will also answer questions about the nitty-gritty of doing economic history: how does an economic historian conduct their research? What makes their methodological approach distinct from other subfields? What kinds of sources do they use, and in what ways do they use them?

What is economic history? The economic historian Nicholas Crafts has stated that “economic history can be thought of as a search for understanding of the nature of economic activity in the past”. But an economic historian does not simply study the history of markets, money and commerce in the manner of a traditional historian. The methodology of an economic historian is somewhat different, as they must be competent at handling statistical or other quantitative data, and also because they use pertinent economic theories in combination with methodologies drawn from other social sciences, as a historian cannot examine economics as something independent from culture, landscape, politics and society. This combination of quantitative data and a holistic use of historical, economic and other social-science models make economic history a distinct subfield with a fascinating perspective. Without further ado, here are your economic historians; ask them anything!

Here is the list of your panelists:

• /u/Viae : My undergraduate dissertation was on the Indian fur trade in South Carolina in the early 18th century. I'm particularly interested in the ways in which Europeans understood Native American motivations for the trade, and how economic motivations contested with social and environmental factors. I'm happy to answer questions on the intersections between economic and other disciplines, and also specifics of Native American trade with English colonists.

• /u/Enrico_Dandolo: I am a historian of the Middle Ages with a particular interest in commercial history. My specific research focuses on the "merchant republics" of northern Italy and the development of their state institutions (particularly Genoa and Venice). In addition to questions about these cities and their commercial empires, I am prepared to answer questions about the economic transition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages (*emporia and the like), the emergence of urban centers, the "Commercial Revolution," and commercial culture in southern Europe.

• /u/Tiako: I study the ancient economy, particularly that of the Roman empire. The Roman empire was a remarkable period of history, the only sustained tons when the entire Mediterranean basin was unified under a single rule. This lead to public infrastructure, urbanization and elite wealth unheard of before and for some time after. My specific focus is the international trade beyond the borders of the empire.

• /u/SAMDOT: SAMDOT is an enthusiast studying undergraduate Art History. Using a neo-Marxist critical framework, his interests relate to recreating the lives and systems of patronage of Medieval artists. He is currently spending his summer doing independent research on Duecento sculpture workshops and Venetian imperialism as a way of explaining the Byzantinespoila of the Basilica di San Marco. He is also pretty knowledgable about Late Antique/early Medieval appropriations and replications of Roman imperial art.

• /u/idjet: I am a historian of the middle ages who, aside from a main focus on heresy, studies the economic transformation of western Europe through the so-called 'commercial revolution' of the 9-13th centuries. This revolution includes three subjects that interest me: the transformation of early medieval peasantry and slaves into serfdom; the rise of nobility and new property definitions; the development of the high medieval 'new towns' that sprang up in the 12-13th centuries in south-west France and whose formidable engine of cash-creation inspired Edward I ('Longshanks') to import the charter town model from Gascony to England.

• /u/silverionmox: Studied history at Ghent University, focusing on medieval and early modern history. My dissertation is an analysis of the management and yields of the goods of the bailwick Alden Biesen of the Teutonic Order (ca. 1350-1750), based on the orginial bookeeping documents. Lately I've branched out more to art history due to other interests.

How easily would they have been able to make themselves understood whilst speaking their native languages, essentially?

Did vikings won any notable battles? Everyone says how good they were at fighting but the few recorded battles I know about were failures. How good they were at fighting really?

I am in the process of reading The Gallic Wars and am wondering how we have the full body of this fairly massive text. I tried to exercise my Google-Fu and it failed me here.

Was the content of the text passed down through generations similar to say the Bible? If so this seems incredible as the Bible I understand (religious text being passed on through generations) whereas The Gallic Wars is not nearly as "important" through generations and seems like it would not be nearly as likely to be passed on...

Was the text "found" somewhere? Written out on tablets that were dug up?

Really interested in understanding how I can be sitting here reading something this large that was written ~2000 years ago. Any insight would be appreciated as I feel it would help to deepen my reading experience!

I was just wondering if there was ever a time that a mortal killed a god from a polytheistic, ancient religion such as Greek, Roman or Egyptian. By killed I don't just mean banished, made mortal or resurrected I mean full on, no coming back, dead is dead kind of killed.

If there are no times is there ever a legend about ways to kill the gods.

EDIT: The period I'm referring to is 1910-1945, during the Japanese annexation of Korea.

Hello, I am interested in the formation of the personality cults around various figures in modern history by mass appreciation. Whether their intellectual or moral influence on philosophy or history is significant or not, several figures in the twentieth century acquired a significant following of admirers after their death, as well as large-scale passive presumption of profundity in their statements. I want to know if there is a common process of canonisation that takes these figures and others from death to appearing as repasteable and dubious quotations in 'inspirational' books and forums.

Thanks!

Edward the Confessor died in January of 1066 but it wasn't until September of that year that war broke out over his successor. The story of Harold Godwinson defeating the army of Harald Hadrada in Yorkshire then immediately marching his forces one hundred miles South to see off a completely different set of invaders, only narrowly failing, is a famous one, but I've only just come to wonder about how close together the invasions were. Did William know of Hadrada's plans and choose to mount his assault when the Saxons were weakened? I suppose I'm interested in whether information could have propagated that quickly a thousand years ago, but if there was no kind of coordination it's just as interesting how history pivots on such vague chance; if Godwinson had more time to prepare then could the Normans have been seen off?

I'm listening to the audio book of Tom Holland's 'In The Shadow Of The Sword' and he states that there is virtually no evidence from either Roman (Byzantine) or Sassanian sources of the time that there was a religious movement behind the Arab conquests of their empires or the earlier unification of Arabia. Is there really such little evidence and is this unusual for the time? Sorry if I've not understood his point properly.

I've been playing some EU4 and I've come to wonder about this little piece of land to the north of Switzerland that Austria owns. After a quick search in the wiki, I've learned that Hapsburgs originate from it (pardon the tittle, this is an eddit), but it still boggles me, how they managed to grow so large and own so much land a few centuries later? As far as I know Hapsburgs where on most thrones of Europe and some rulers like Charles V, had multiple realms that he ruled (HRE, Spain, Spanish Netherlands and Belgium, Milan etc.), what did the Hapsburgs do to achieve all this from a small county. Was it just a stroke of luck?

It seems to me that those tight-looking uniforms and cumbersome caps and helmets would get in the way and hinder fighting, where they all just for show or was there a practicality to them?

Greetings, historians!

I asked the same question in r/askphilosophy, where they suggested me to try here, since it's about cultural history, so here I am.

My question is about Aristotle's possible heritage in Christian theology in Eastern Mediterranean (including, e.g., Near and Middle East).

Regarding Western Europe, I know he was virtually forgotten until his re-descovery in the so-called "XII century Renaissance", most of all thanks to Arab mediation, and I know about the translation movement in Syria, thanks to which Arabs gained access to Greek texts.

I am at a loss, though, regarding his reception in Christian Theology in the East, especially in the first millennium.

Sure they there was no language barrier like they had it in the West (at least not that strong), but was he influential in the first place? Or was he forgotten like in the West? Or was he basically negletted, in favour of Plato (which would be my guess)? How widespread was his work?

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies and especially to those who can point to reliable academic sources.

What events led the separation of the Churches and the branching into different denominations? And what led to the difference in the attire of the priests, e.g., Orthodox Patriarchs tend to have more ornate and richly decorated robes than their Catholic counterparts?

Here it is: https:/imgur.com/b8AH4UU (from r/mapporn)

Does anyone have the historical knowlei to explain some of the more esoteric jokes here, ie Chamber of Commerce in Florida or Maine's friendly republicans?

Maybe it's our current pessimistic political climate, but I have a hard time believing that any idealism was involved in the decision for independence; that the founding fathers simply could not abide the violation of their natural rights. It makes much more sense that idealism was used as a cover for what the founding fathers stood to gain economically (reading Howard Zinn certainly didn't help this feeling).

So how much of it was actually righteous indignation at the Crown's actions versus pure, unadulterated self-interest?

I am curious to know if you guys will ever come up for a section on biographies for the Master list for people who are interested in major figures of history rather than a certain period of history.