just out of curiosity I recently was looking over crime rates in the U.S. and there seems to be a huge burst of crime beginning in the late 1950's and climbing until the early 1990's. What caused such a dramatic up swing?

When I read papers by Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin or George Washington, they use very antiquated words and seem very grandiose or wordy--but they're still much more understandable than other, more archaic English (thou, thine, art, etc.). Is the way these men wrote similar to their spoken conversation at the time?

Furthermore, while I understand (but wouldn't use) most words in their vocabulary, do we commonly use any words that just didn't exist (in their modern sense) back then? (Other than the obvious things like technology).

tl;dr- I can understand their words in writings, but would I understand their speaking, and would they understand mine?

I have read that the average day time temperature on the moon is 101 degrees Celcius, and the average dark side temp is -184 degrees Celcius. The astronauts obviously had insulated suits, but how was the ordeal for them? Any additional information on the matter would be appreciated!

So I've heard the statistic of 1.4% of all American Whites owning slaves or 6% if speaking about Southerners exclusively. Wouldn't that mean that the vast majority of whites were harmed by slavery, rather than benefit from it? I mean, slaves should have driven labor wages down, correct?

Now I'm not saying that whites had it worse, but just wonder if "all whites benefit from slavery" is a myth.

EDIT: North American history.

I recently read The Faithful Executioner and it got me interested in the Holy Roman Empire (and German history before the 19th century). Unfortunately, due to the diversity of the empire there don't seem to be a lot of books on that subject (at least on Amazon).=

I am looking for book suggestions on HRE history whether overviews or ones that focus on a particular time period or location.

I've been listening to the history of Rome podcast, and it seems like the period leading up to the 5 good emperors and the period after the 5 good emperors was horrible.

Why was succession so fraught with difficulties? With so many succession crises, one wonders the difficulties were something inherent to the Roman system of government.

Was Roman imperial succession any less difficult than contemporary Chinese or Iranian imperial succession?

First off, this is not intended to be anti-Semitic in any way... Second, I apologize for the vagueness regarding time period and region.

Anyway, I got on a bit of a mobster kick recently, and realized that violence and loansharking/money-lending tend to go hand in hand. You have to collect your dough from people who don't necessarily have the means to pay you back.

Are there any good accounts of how the Jews (European, before the 1700s, say) were able to collect their money back from lending? As a marginalized people, weren't they at risk of default? Did they form alliances with local "muscle" as it were to enforce payback?

Thanks!

I aware that biblical historians mainly use the synoptic gospels (Mark, Mathew, and Luke) to piece together the life of Jesus, but I was curious if there are any prominent historians or academic movements out there that claim that the gospel of John contains any information about the historical Jesus that is not found in the synoptic Gospels.

I always hear that the Crusades were considered an example of religion gone bad, but I also hear religious types argue that the Crusades were a defensive reaction against oppression and not an example of religion being abused.

What's the real deal? What were the motivations of the Crusades? Was any of it justifiable?

Kennedy did at 1:00 pm on November 22. However, LBJ was not sworn in until 2:36 pm. Was LBJ the acting president on the 22nd, or did presidential succession mean that the speaker of the house was president?

I not again to sources that don`t cite : Mana musa and Islam in africa: Crash course world history 7:40 Wikipida History of africa swahilli coast

I'll admit, I only heard of Eamon de Valera because of the song "Double Dropping Yokes with Eamon de Valera" by the comedy group the Rubberbandits. From what I've read he was a political juggernaut for decades, but how is he remembered and regarded today? What about his time in politics makes him stand out in a positive or negative way?