I wrote a blog post today ("The Kyoto misconception") that came out of several discussions I had on here about Truman's understanding of the atomic bomb prior to dropping it. While looking deeper into this, I found a target map of Kyoto that I'd never seen reproduced anywhere else before, showing that the hypothetical aiming point for the first atomic bomb was at one point the Kyoto roundhouse, today a steam locomotive museum. (Something that I don't recall having read anywhere else.) I find it eerie to imagine that such a mundane spot could easily have had the symbolism today reserved for the Genbaku dome. I wonder if anyone who works at the museum knows this.

I was asked to post this here, by a very friendly mod;

Within your field of expertise, or favorite subject - what is the best documentary you could recommend?

It helps me fall asleep at night and I thoroughly enjoy it.

Exciting new feature! Once a month we will be presenting the latest crop of newly flaired users to you in this thread. We forget to do June, so this list covers both June and July. We have gained no fewer than 17 experts since May. Here they are for your perusal.

In your field of research where does the money come from? Government grants? Donations? Selling mysterious ancient secrets to eternal life to rich billionaires?

What's the archaeological situation in your country (or region if you live in a gigantic country) like?

I've been doing a lot of reading about the Revolutionary Tribunal, the one that existed in Paris between 1793 and 1795. I've especially been reading about Fouquier-Tinville, the public prosecutor, who is one of the most reviled figures of the time. He seems to have had a single fan ever, despite his own conviction that everyone would realize what a cool dude he was after he was gone. Hector Fleischmann went on a crusade to clear his name, writing god knows how many different hagiographies. I started reading it very skeptically, but he actually has some really good points. The main thing Fouquier-Tinville has been blamed for is his part in the infamous trials during the Reign of Terror, where on average 35 people a day were convicted in the two court rooms during the worst two months, but even before that the trials were moving at a pace that would make it impossible for anyone to have had a fair trial. My spontaneous reaction was that everyone at the time must have understood what bullshit the claims of justice were, and that Fouquier's insistence that he hadn't done anything wrong was just him trying to avoid blame after the fact. I sort of vacillated between that and thinking he had lost his marbles somewhere along the line. But it turns out that he was far from being the only one to believe that justice was being done. Les Coulisses du Tribunal Révolutionnaire is has plenty of examples of letters written by prisoners begging to be put on trial, sure that the tribunal would find them innocent. G. Lenotre's The Tribunal of the Terror also has an anecdote written by a man who was in the Conciergerie, the prison attached to the Tribunal were anyone about to be tried was held, and he says that people would be excited when they were told what the specific charges against them were, because the charges were bullshit and they would obviously be free soon.

I've also been reading about the trial which took place in the spring of 1795, where the former members of the tribunal that had been sitting on it during the Terror were tried. The impression I get is that people see it as a forerunner to the Nuremberg trials, rather than the last of a series of political purges during the Terror, and a cruel irony in that the perpetrators of all these show trials would be given a fair trial themselves. But if you actually read about it, it's actually kind of shocking how blatantly unfair it is. On the surface, the fact that it took 40 days, and the huge amount of witness testimony makes it look like it was a serious attempt at finding the truth and making a fair judgement. Then you look at the actual charges, which were legion, but the actual sentences were based on two articles in the Penal Code, one on conspiring to overthrow the state, and one on conspiring to reestablish the monarchy. There was no evidence at all for either of those things, the testimony mostly had to do with the normal work of the tribunal. There's also the fact that 30 people were tried on capital charges, 15 of whom were executed, which makes 40 days a much less impressive amount of time. Then there's the fact that the National Convention actually changed the law in the middle of the trial, because it became clear that the way it was phrased would lead to an acquittal.

The Nuremberg comparison mostly seems to come up when discussing Fouquier-Tinville's defense that he was "only following orders", but that misses the point that the people whose orders he was following were the same ones who accused him. He had been doing more or less exactly what the National Convention demanded that he would do, and when it turned out that everyone hated the laws they passed, they blamed him for applying them. Of course, it could be argued that the individual members of the Convention were so threatened by the Terror that they couldn't be held responsible for voting the way they did, but the Tribunal was just as threatened, if not more.

I'm working on a writing project and had a few questions about older fabric production. Specifically, I'm curious about fearnaught (aka fearnothing, fearnought, dreadnought, and dreadnaught). It's a tightly woven wool fabric that was used primarily for protective clothing.

I'm curious about how it's woven, and what goes into the process. If you can help, thank you! If not, thanks for trying!

Cross-post from : http://www.reddit.com/r/Fabrics/comments/2cwncr/question_about_weaving/

For many years, when I have to do my taxes, I put that Battleship Potemkin movie on in the background while I get on with it. It is a good movie, but I also like the irony.

Here's my question - what is up with the priest's character? I realize that in 1925, the Soviets would portray clergy as caricatures, but just how far are they off the mark? The beard and robe may be accurate, but he looks like he hasn't seen a comb or bar of soap in ages, and has that crazy-mystic-hermit look. How does this guy's appearance and attitude compare with an actual ship's chaplain in 1905 (the date of the events portrayed)?

Hey all!

The name's Mario, and I have a question for the handsome and well-education population of AskHistorians. What is the best way to find out where the current lines of discussion/debate are happening within the academic field that you're most interested in?

I ask because I'm starting up a website (I loathe the term startup, but I fear it might be appropriate here) that we're hoping to build into the comprehensive digital space for debate, both academic and non-academic. As a student of history by trade, I'm shooting to make history one of the first topics that's covered extensively on our website. So, my question to you, AskHistorians, is: what types of questions would YOU like to see debated, and who would you want to see debating them?

Hey Hey Hey guys, my name is Edward and I'm a student of history, a moderator and contributor over at Genius.com (@MalcolmFleX on site). You may know us for our platform's work on transcribing and annotating rap songs but music in general to bring more context to the song and layers of richness to it by explaining it's lines, if not then ELLO!

Well we've also been working on expanding our project to all of human culture--namely places like history and literature in hopes of not only providing context to historical documents or pieces of the human condition but also to helping drive alternative forms of education about important or relevant topics.

Interested in the nitty gritty foreign policy interests influencing JFK's Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the USSR? Grab my hand on this lovely stroll. Can't understand what the hell Shakespeare is saying but you want to know why he said it when he said it? Join the club. Interested in the conditions that influenced MLK's choice of subject matter or rhetoric in his "I Have A Dream Speech"? Dig in.

We are always looking to expand our community and fill it with people who not only as excited about history as we are but people who are really excited about it. We love you if you love Ernest Hemingway but we really love you if you want to nerd it out and talk about from the social conditions at the time of the piece, biographical and historical influences, the literary devices and the like. We love us some William Jennings Bryan fans but we love us people who might think we're full of shit on something like William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech, and rip it to shit adding new insights (or maybe you like it and do that too, we'll still love that).

Sign up today if you're interested! Inquire if you're not! If you're a teacher interested in it or an expert in the field, let me know too because we got a lil' special process you will have to go through that allows you to take advantage of the platform for classroom lessons or simply letting people know you are a verified expert on the subject.

A little more information here on the site's mission and platform. Feel free to browse through the site also, namely the History/News/Literature forums as they align more with history (but then again, everything on there does). If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

EDIT: Some suggestions from some of our users like:

• JFK's 1963 Civil Rights Address
• Nixon's "Smoking Gun" Watergate Tape
• Honest Abe's "Gettysburg Address"
• Federal Bureau of Investigation's "Suicide Letter to Martin Luther King, JR."
• Watson & Crick's seminal DNA Double Helix hypothesis
• And our work-in-progress list of some classic historical texts

I posted this as a thread a little while back and got slapped on the wrist, so here it is in the free-for-all - what's the most people that have died in a day in history? Reading about the Rwandan genocide (1m in 100 days) and the Rape Of Nanking (300k in six weeks), and thinking about the holocaust, I'm wondering if the last 100 years have been particularly brutal, or if there were actually worse periods in the past - either a specific day or a short period..?

Don't know if I'm framing this question right, but what's the origin/etymology of the term "Soviet?" Does it refer to a region in Eurasia? Is it an ethnic term? Does it have a meaning in old Russian?

In other words, as a loose example - America : Amerigo Vespucci :: Soviet : ????

What are some great resources for multiple aspects of ancient/pre gun civilizations? I've been trying to find a decent site to study the social structures, culture, architecture, and more of pre-gun Japan, China, multiple areas of Europe, and the middle east/egypt.

So I'm mowing my lawn and trimming my hedges today when it occurred to me that before the advent of at least rotary push mowers, groundskeeping must have been quite the feat. Did decorative well-manicured gardens start with the advent of such tools or before them? And if before, how might a plantsman from such an era have gone about the work?

Hi everybody! I have to do a source critique on Livy for my Roman History class, and it's actually my first time using footnotes, so I have a question -- if I am referencing multiple things from the same page, can I use the same footnote number?

I might be an obvious yes, but I'm just wanting to make sure.

up untill medieval times when was the biggest boost in science and why ?

This might be the wrong place to post this. However, can there be an exception to the recent events regarding ISIS questions? I think it would be fascinating to identity the theological basis of their religious beliefs within the schools of thought in Islam and to compare their state-structure with past Caliphates.

This is pretty small but how much did a 1967 Deville cost when it originally came out? I'm watching Shawshank and that seems to be what Andy drives off in and I'm wondering how much it would have cost him.