I've been thinking of running a pen & paper RPG set in prohibition-era America, and the overlap between that and the dustbowl is too interesting to pass up. I know the dust storms would reduce visibility dramatically, but I'm curious how dangerous they were to stand in and how long they would typically last. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to today's AMA features 14 panelists willing and eager to answer your questions on Late Antiquity/Early Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, circa 400 - 1000 CE, aka "The Dark Ages".

Vikings are okay for this AMA, however the preference is for questions about the Arab conquests to be from non-Islamic perspectives given our recent Islam AMAs.

Our panelists are:

• /u/Aerandir : Pre-Christian Scandanavia from an archaeological perspective.
• /u/Ambarenya : Late Macedonian emperors and the Komnenoi, Byzantine military technology, Byzantium and the crusades, the reign of Emperor Justinian I, the Arab invasions, Byzantine cuisine.
• /u/bitparity : Roman structural and cultural continuity
• /u/depanneur : Irish kingship and overlordship, Viking Ireland, daily life in medieval Ireland
• /u/GeorgiusFlorentius : Early Francia, the history of the first successor states of the Empire (Vandals, Goths)
• /u/idjet : Medieval political/economic history from Charles Martel and on.
• /u/MarcusDohrelius : Augustine, other Christian writers (from Ignatius through Caesarius), Latin language, religious persecution, the late antique interpretation of earlier Roman history and literature
• /u/MI13 : Early medieval military
• /u/rittermeister : Germanic culture and social organization, Ostrogothic Italy, Al Andalus, warfare.
• /u/talondearg : Late Antique Empire and Christianity up to about end of 6th century.
• /u/telkanuru : Late Antique/Early Medieval Papacy, the relationship between the Papacy and Empire, Merovingian and Carolingian Gaul, Irish Monasticism.
• /u/riskbreaker2987 : Reactions to the Arab conquest, life under the early Islamic state, and Islamic scholarship in the so-called "dark ages."
• /u/romanimp : Vergilian Latin and Late Antiquity
• /u/wee_little_puppetman : Northern/Western/Central Europe and from an archaeologist's perspective. (Vikings)

Let's have your questions!

Please note: our panelists are on different schedules and won't all be online at the same time. But they will get to your questions eventually!

Also: We'd rather that only people part of the panel answer questions in the AMA, so as such, non-panel answers will be deleted. This is not because we assume that you don't know what you're talking about, it's because the point of a Panel AMA is to specifically organise a particular group to answer questions.

i've heard at the time homesexuality was seen as criminal, although there were a few lesbian bars and clubs running...but i know nothing at all. yes, i'm british, i love the 40s and i'm lgbt so i'd like to know how it was back then. :)

It seems that sautéing onions is the first step in just about every savory dish from a wide variety of cultures. How did this process come to be so widespread?

I have read historical New Zealand newspapers from 1897 where reporters casually label Maori's as 'niggers', the same in Australia with Aboriginals, so I am interested in the global view rather than one confined to the United States. Thank you, and I apologize if the question raises any offense.

I have a few questions concerning this topic that I can't find from casual googling.

1. Was the movement stronger in Japan or Germany?
2. Why did it succeed in Japan, but not Germany?
3. Did the US use of the A-Bomb contribute to their greater willingness to pardon war criminals?
4. How did these different approaches affect post-war mentalities in Germany and Japan?

Any sources would be great.

Background: So, I work a customer assistance job overnights, and one of my regular guys that comes in always notices me reading a book and asks me about what I am reading. I am studying anthropology, archaeology, and ancient history, so my knowledge of history is that mostly of the old world. Recently he came up to me asking a specific question about the American Revolution, knowing how much of a history buff I am, and I was, well, stumped, then he asked me another in regards to the American Civil War, again, stumped. It bothered me so much that I remembered so little from my high school American history classes and I that I never delved much farther. So now I have decided to dedicate a couple months and dive into American history. So AskHistorians, what are 20-30 books from European settlement to the American Civil War should I read?

I understand that it's a complex issue and that a range of factors contributed to its decline and eventual fall, but I want to know what your opinion is about the most significant factor.

^^^This ^^^is ^^^my ^^^first ^^^time ^^^submitting ^^^here ^^^so ^^^hopefully ^^^everything's ^^^alright.

I just read the following blog excerpt: "Perhaps most unsettling is the manner in which Western observers fail to note what actually motivates Putin and his country. Let there be no mistake, Moscow’s nakedly nationalist chest-beating is widely popular among average Russians; its opponents represent a distinctly minority view that natives will cheerfully explain is foreign-controlled anyway. We hear much happy-talk about the “irrationality” of Kremlin conduct, that such aggression has no place in our current, advanced age, and that it all makes no economic sense anyway. Historians are aware that remarkably similar language was employed by Western pundits and statesmen in the late 1930s to explain away the increasingly aggressive behavior, including cheerful disregard for international norms, by another leader of a resurgent yet recently defeated power."

Did Westerners think Hitler was irrational?

After reading the rules I am a bit intimidated that this is in the wrong place- but here goes:

What were actual chests from the "golden age of piracy" like? Size, material, etc... Did they have that shape we see in cartoons and such?

Do we know when that sort of hinged box originated?

Thank you.

I was told recently that the Polish were fierce warriors for hundreds of years. I flat out didn't know this and it made me wonder about the accomplishments of Polish people.

A 1940 article in National Geographic reveals some of the incredible riches of princes in India. How did they maintain their wealth during the British Raj?

Just curious, why do nations such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the USA have such differing accents? It seems only logical that they would speak in the same accents considering they are derived from the same language/accent.. Explanations would be appreciated, thanks. :)