How much would, say, Botticelli's The Birth of Venus have cost the Medici family relative to the income of an average person at the time, and is it possible to approximate that cost in modern dollars?

Apply for flair here!

It has been almost a year since the first AskHistorians Flair Drive and in that time the sub has nearly doubled the number of subscribers, from approximately 148,000 to over 287,000 subscribers.

However, that growth has not been reflected in a doubling of the number of active flaired experts on the sub. We have been fortunate to attract many users knowledgeable in Military History, Medieval History, and Roman History.

But, gaps in our collective expertise remain. We continue to have very few flairs for the Indian subcontinent. Likewise, historians of pre-colonial Africa, Southeast Asia, Middle and South America, and other specialties continue to be rare.

But, we remain committed to the ideal that even well-represented disciplines can benefit from the addition of more experts.

Our first Flair Drive was a rousing success, and resulted in 42 new flaired users from June 17-July 17, 2013. Among those flairs were:

1 Africa flair (yours truly)

11 Europe flairs

3 Art history flairs (including /u/BonSequitur)

6 for History of Religion and Philosophy

4 Middle Eastern flairs

7 Military History flairs

5 North American flairs

1 Australia/Oceania flair

3 flairs in Other category.

(thank you to /u/Estherke for these figures)

So, for the next week, the moderator team is opening our second ever Flair Drive! Similar to last year's drive, this entails:

• Getting those people who consistently provide comprehensive, sourced answers to questions to apply for flair. I particularly want to stress that we would love to have people apply in areas where coverage is thin. With more people applying for flair, the mods can better organize special events like panel AMA's. In the next few days, mods will be messaging people we think make good candidates. But if you know your historical niche quite well and haven't received a PM from one of us, please still apply. Often, good candidates get overlooked in the enormous number of questions and responses in this sub.

• If you have a family member or friend who is a historical buff, tell them about /r/askhistorians, and encourage them to make the necessary 3 posts and apply.

• We will also be contacting the moderators of other subreddits seeking recommendations of particularly knowledgeable individuals, who we will invite to the sub and encourage to make the necessary 3-5 comments to apply for flair.

• Putting a call out to you, the user, for any other ideas on how to recruit more flairs. You may express them here, or you can message the mods.

But /u/Commustar, I don't have the necessary 3-5 comments because nobody asks questions about my very obscure specialty.

Not to worry! You may always make an informative post in one of the daily feature posts (such as Friday Free-for-All or Saturday Sources) and use that comment in your application.

Ok, but I still don't think I will apply. I haven't formally studied history/do not hold a doctorate, and my day job is in an unrelated field/I am only in High School

I will let you in on a little secret. I held off for applying for flair for a long time because I did not consider myself expert enough. I only qualify as an "expert" on African history because I have an interest in it and continue to read and learn about it.

/r/AskHistorians has never insisted that flaired users hold a Masters degree or PhD. Instead, the guidelines on the Panel of Historians threads have always insisted on-

1. Expertise in an area of history, typically from either degree-level academic experience or an equivalent amount of self-study

2. The ability to cite sources from specialist literature for any claims you make within your area

3. The ability to provide high quality answers in the subreddit in accordance with our rules

My historical interests are too broad to fit into one category. Can I apply for Quality Contributor?

Quality Contributor flair is the hardest flair to get, because we do not allow individuals to apply for it. All Quality Contributor flairs have been nominated by members of the community, in recognition for their unique contribution to the sub. If you have noticed someone who consistently posts high quality answers in a wide variety of subjects, or raises the quality of the sub in some other way, be sure to message the mods to nominate them for QC flair.

Here is that link for applying for flair,again

http://imgur.com/a/yUx9F

If this isn't the correct subreddit, or there's a better subreddit for things like this, let me know. Any help is appreciated.

I was watching this documentary about the history of magic, and one of the featured stories about Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin was really interesting.

According to the documentary, some Algerian marabouts claimed to have magical powers and were agitating for a rebellion against France. France called Robert-Houdin out of retirement to out-magician the marabouts, and his supposedly superior magic skills scared them so much they decided not to rebel.

It's a neat story and all, but something seems fishy. The Wikipedia article evidently needs some sources. A quick Google search gives me no scholarly sources to confirm the story, and the best account I can find is from the Fortean Times. Since I can't find a good source, I'm inclined to think that this is a nice little fable to illustrate the supposed superstition and stupidity of colonized peoples.

Anyway, is this story true? Is it exaggerated? What is the original source? Did magic tricks really stop a rebellion?