Just finished it, and loved it.
But, as with every historical interpretation, I can't help but feel there are perhaps different opinions of him otherwise reflected in the show? I never studied US history too much, so I am curious to know if anyones opinion on how accurate it was.
Cheers.
1 Answers 2014-05-08
(Repost as it went unanswered last time)
TL;DR: Was there really 2 separate "crusades" in 1212 that were led by and mostly composed of kids? Some say yes, other say no as "kids" actually meant "poor peasants", don't know who to believe. Also dead people apparently can write.
Warning: poor grammar ahead
I like to pretend that I'm somewhat well read on the events of the first, second & third crusades since I studied these in college, but my understanding of what happened afterward is at best muddy and at worst full of /r/badhistory.
Still, I always believed that in the year 1212, two 12 years old shepherds, one leaving from France and the other from Germany, each assembled a group mostly composed of kids by preaching in their respective country.
These groups then spectacularly failed to reach Jerusalem, the one from Germany losing around 65% of its 20 000 members while crossing the Alps and the french one ending when the 30k or so kids composing it were told to go back home by Philip II
According to a french monk, after this there was 7000 or so kids on the initial 30k who decided to go ahead anyway with that whole "going on a crusade thing" and they supposedly end up being made slaves on the boats of two rich french merchants who told them that they'd help them reach Jerusalem, a few of them died when 2 of the "expedition's" 7 boats crashed during a storm and the remaining kids were then sold.
From my understanding that last part widely recognized as having never happened since we only have that one monk's writing
mentioning it.
(Weird thing I just realized, this story is said by some to have been written between 1260 & 1295 by Alberic of Trois-Fontaine, but he died somewhere around 1252 from what I can see.)
But now I'm reading a little more on it and it seems that no one agree on what really happened or even if it happened at all (see the wikipedia article on this, which I may have used to refresh my memory while writing this). Could anyone shed some light on this for me please?
1 Answers 2014-05-08
This week, ending in May 8th, 2014:
Today's thread is for open discussion of:
History in the academy
Historiographical disputes, debates and rivalries
Implications of historical theory both abstractly and in application
Philosophy of history
And so on
Regular participants in the Thursday threads should just keep doing what they've been doing; newcomers should take notice that this thread is meant for open discussion only of matters like those above, not just anything you like -- we'll have a thread on Friday for that, as usual.
1 Answers 2014-05-08
2 Answers 2014-05-08
Today, it takes 45 or so minutes to drive between Borås and Göteborg on Riksväg 40. Considering that Borås was a sizeable town by 1700, it makes me wonder what the path between Göteborg and Borås looked like during the 18th century. Were there several "roads" between the two cities? Did they go through other settlements (like Bollebygd)? How long did it take to reach Göteborg from Borås? Are there any contemporary accounts of travelling on this path?
1 Answers 2014-05-08
Nowadays we hear about armed revolutionaries fighting to keep their way of life in the now developing world. Were Europeans or Americans ever protesting or fighting to keep the status quo during the industrial revolution?
2 Answers 2014-05-08
I am looking for a selection of accessible, detailed resources for gunpowder weapons for help in some creative writing. Particularly muskets/pistols from the later 18th century, Napoleonic era up to the end of the 19th century.
Sources which document the construction and development of muskets such as rifling and firing mechanism advances.
I have found the Schola Gladiatoria youtube channel excellent for information about the types, uses and development of swords in the era (for example the shift from pipe-backed sabres to the Wilkinson-style blade in the British Army), especially as most of his videos are based on genuine antiques and historical recorded sources of their use, so something like that would be ideal but also books/essays would be a great help.
Thanks
1 Answers 2014-05-08
1 Answers 2014-05-08
Episode 010 is up!
The AskHistorians Podcast is a project that highlights the users and answers that have helped make /r/AskHistorians one of the largest history discussion forum on the internet.
You can subscribe to us via iTunes, Stitcher or RSS. If there is another index you'd like the cast listed on, let me know!
This week's Episode:
Trying something new this week! /u/TasfromTas, /u/AnOldHope, /u/400-Rabbits & /u/caffarelli got together to talk alcohol, reddit, moderator lyfe and upcoming episodes. /u/AnOldHope did an impromptu AMA too, which was hilariously informative.
Please ask any followup questions in this thread. Also feel free to leave any feeback on the format and so on.
If you like the podcast, please rate & review us on iTunes.
Thanks all!
Coming up next week: We have an interview with Shakespeare Gurl on Japanese Pirates!
7 Answers 2014-05-08
My 7th grade English class is reading a book called Lyddie - about a girl working in the Lowell Massachusetts textile mills in the 1840s. The main character is reading a book she really likes, so she "takes a copy" of the pages she's reading and pastes them up on the windows of the mill to read in her micro-moments of spare time. It says nothing about her hand-copying anything - and makes a point earlier in the book about the relative scarcity and cost of paper.
How could she have "made a copy"?
1 Answers 2014-05-08
1 Answers 2014-05-08
I remember that the Greeks would dilute their wine with water, and thought that only barbarians would drink it straight.
I was curious why the Greeks did that. Was the wine that strong? What proof was is?
Thank you, in advance, for your answers.
1 Answers 2014-05-08
I've been listening to Liam Clancy's version of the "Green fields of France", which was a song written in 1976 about the first world war. It got me wondering: what is the oldest anti-war song that we know of? Were there any in classical times, for example?
Wikipedia has a list of anti-war songs. The oldest I see there is "Once to Every Man and Nation" by James R Lowell (1845), which was about the Mexican-American War - could this be the oldest?
7 Answers 2014-05-08
I was reading a text written in the 1720's and a I noticed that throughout the text all nouns were capitalized, as one would in German. Was this common in the past? When did this stop?
Thanks!
3 Answers 2014-05-08
To the best of my knowledge, it's accepted that they were Berbers and Arabs, so why are they often referred to as being black (the scene from True Romance immediately comes to mind)? And when did this perception develop? It couldn't have just originated from the Afrocentrists because Shakespeare obviously predates them by quite a bit, and Othello is portrayed as black (assuming he was originally portrayed like that anyway). Is it just because they were from North Africa and a lot of people didn't/don't know any better?
1 Answers 2014-05-08
I'm writing an essay with the above research question for my history class. I've read a few pamphlets on JSTOR, which seems to imply that at least the British government thought of India as their own Empire, rather than the Empire of the EIC, but other than that I'm a little stuck as to where and what to look for. I'm not as such looking for an answer to this question as such, but if anyone has suggestions as to where a good place to look for an answer would be, that would be much appreciated, thank you!
2 Answers 2014-05-08
Its been said that musashi intentionally showed up late to duels to psyche out opponents (similar to icing the kicker in football), as well as other neat tricks. He is also said to have won 50+ duels, more so than any samurai. How do historians feel about musashi's success(or any fun fact about him)
5 Answers 2014-05-08
1 Answers 2014-05-08
Several friends and I and are wondering about how good looking Cleopatra really was. We searched her photos online and all we got was images on coins. Everyone thinks these coins show her in a bad light and are convinced she is not as good looking looking as history makes her out to be. So, does anyone know the real history of Cleopatra's appearance?
2 Answers 2014-05-08
Simply as an illustrative example, would you consider, say, Caligula a "bad guy", or a person who did x,y, and z that were bad but maybe a, b, and c which were good, or do you strictly approach it from the aspect of, "This is what he did, likely for such and such reasons, which led to these other things happening"
5 Answers 2014-05-08
Can someone please explain the role of the military in Greek society in the Archaic period.
If its possible or easier could someone please provide some sources which explain the militaries role in Archaic Greece.
1 Answers 2014-05-08
Edit: Front page of AskHistorians!
1 Answers 2014-05-08
My understanding of history here is very murky, and this is a glaring hole in my understanding of these pivotal times in Japanese history.
What little I have read seems to point to anti-shogunate forces having grievances against the bakufu's allowance of western influence (ie. Matthew Perry). Yet when the Imperialists take over, the next thing we hear about in the histories is the Meiji restoration - which modernized/westernized Japan at an unprecedented pace.
I feel like there's something I missed here. How did the imperialist forces protest westernization only to turn around and westernize even faster?
2 Answers 2014-05-08
