I'm helping a friend research a paper topic regarding the Spanish Flu in Philadelphia following World War I. However, he has been hitting a wall when it comes to finding primary sources for these topics. He has tried NYtimes database for articles from that time, but these sources are limited in the type of information they can give. Does anyone in r/askhistorians know of any primary sources in particular that can help him in this regard? In particular the response of Philadelphians to the Spanish flu among the medical community, the municipal government, and the common citizen?

This was posted in /r/askscience as well -- is there a lack of usage for the term blue in records older than 2500 BC Egypt? Is the color blue absent from older records / stories / etc?

Did it collapse upon the advent of Islam, similar to Zoroastrianism, or remain a factor until a later point (or even collapse earlier than the rise of Islam)?

Hey Guys, I'm thinking of doing a comparative study of CIA operations in Tibet and Laos for my dissertation. I was going to use this to reflect on CIA capabilities in the world as part of it and was wondering if you have any recommended reading to look at for its capabilities as I've mainly looked at literature focusing on the actual operations. Please feel free to leave any ideas, discussions or interesting spins on the topic! :)

It puzzles me that the Romans had such a fruitful intellectual platform to build on with their conquest of the Greeks, but there were very few (that I can think of) willing to further develop on the ideas of Archimedes, Euclid, Hippocrates, Aristotle etc.

Of course, I could be completely wrong as there may be Roman pioneers who don't have the luxury of being household names. But they did have some famous regressive mathematical schemes, including architecture based on the premise that pi = 4.

All answers appreciated!

Were Pagans accepting of Christianity, or is this an invention by the show to create a relationship?

By 'tolerant', I mean his relationship with Aethelstan (spelling?) and that fact he's willing to live and fight besides Christians.

As a student, I have always enjoyed learning of past peoples. As I get older, I realize that there seem to be many major historical events that are not covered by basic education. Recently, I have been studying the fall of Rome (outside of school), and I began to read into the various causes of the fall, including the Huns. Of course I knew they were a thing, but I never had really learned about them. They seem to have been a major factor in causing barbarians to migrate south, which makes them at least partially responsible for the fall. So then why, when learning about history, do we never seem to address the Huns? I know that they were a nomadic Asian/Eastern European people who depended on horses . So, I would like to ask the historians of reddit to help me expand my knowledge of the Hunnic people. (For example: Who really were they? What was everyday life like? Why were they considered such tactical geniuses? What was their major impact upon the world? Etc.)

I cannot read the name of an individual who wrote a letter in an original document at the archives. Since I do not want to leave the details out, how do I cite this name I cannot read?

So I noticed there is kind of system in the Merovingian dynasty's names. Supposedly it goes Richomer -> Theudomer -> Merovech -> Childerik -> Chlodovech -> Theuderik / Childebert / Chlodomer / Chlotarius -> ...

It seems like most of the time at least one part of the names goes on to the next generation, with Merovech -> Childerik and some of Chlodovech's children being exceptions. The first three all share mer, then come Childerik and Chlodovech, but then Chlodomer and Chlotarius again inherit Chlodovech's chlot.

At the same time I don't see much of a system in here. So was there any system or was it just a coïncidence? Or is it something in between? Is it something just this dynasty did or was it a practice shared by all / other Germanic tribes?

It seems like letting ships into your ports wouldn't be a big deal for an island country. Why was it such a big deal for the shogunate to sign the treaty?