Some of you may have already seen this circulating online yesterday and this morning, but a report published by the American Historical Association issued a dire warning about the nature of the field. I'm still taking some time to process the whole thing, so I recommend that you read it for yourself.

I got in to a PhD program!

AAH!

I'm still waiting to hear back from two other schools before I make any decision, but one way or another this means I will be going for a PhD next year. Today is a good day.

So my external grant for research in Zimbabwe (mostly on the British South Africa Company period, 1889-1923) came through. It's enough money to pay for a flight, lodging, and my access applications, so that is a huge load off of my own finances. It's been shocking to me that whether you study a city 50 miles away or the opposite side of the Earth, you get the exact same research funding [from our university], but there it is.

In continuation with my personal project to compile and discuss a "whaling historiography", I continue to dig into our relationship with our whaling past by asking: Why whales?

You may be thinking to yourself, "Ironic, that's a pretty vague and incomplete question!", and you would be right. Like a lot of good theoretical discussions into our studies of the past, it's intentionally open ended.

Why are whales prevalent in various cultures mythology and tradition? Why were whales considered a prized target despite the risks and massive investment to even find them? Why is whaling romanticized in literature? Why aren't whales hunted as much anymore? Why were whales the first species to be the subject of an international regulatory movement? Why are whales propped up as an important symbol of environmentalism?

Why whales? Precisely.

I mentioned in my introductory post that Whaling History has evolved to become as much about the Whales as it has been about the Whalers, yet this is only a recent development.

Whaling History has traditionally focused on the economic-industrial history of our exploitation of whale stocks, outside of this, it has largely concerned itself with presenting the social makeup of whaling crews and their life in the great hunt. It has only been recently that the study of Whaling and Whales has been done in the context of culture and the natural world (and even more recently that we started taking the whales into consideration, which I will explain later). The former enjoys the support of aboriginal studies - where whales continue to hold a place of importance to tribes - in purporting how whales and whaling have remained a part of native life.

Milton Freeman in Inuit, Whaling, and Sustainability suggests that whaling reinforces the social constructs of traditional Inuit society, and whales' importance as a resource earns the animals a seat of great respect and observance in Inuit culture. He provides the personal statements of the Inuit people to attest to the importance of whales - and their hunting - in what it means to be Inuit.

Richard Caulfield in Greenlanders, Whales, and Whaling suggests that the aboriginal whaling and other marine hunting practices provided a leg on which to trade and interact with the various Europeans who traveled to and/or colonized Greenland, allowing the Greenland natives to assert a sort of self-determination in their early interactions with Westerners.

The environmental/scientific history of whales and their relation to human hunting was largely born out of our increased scientific knowledge of whales and the shift in our views of the creatures with environmentalist movements. As we have learned more about their behaviors, their social interactions, their very lives, we have also looked at how whaling has affected them, rather than how whaling has affected human society. Environmentalism has significantly altered how we view whales, our unprecedented humanization of the species changes the perspective from which we view the history of whaling.

This is still a budding aspect of Whaling History, the majority of the current histories tend to cling stubbornly to the aforementioned social/economic histories of nations and peoples who have gone whaling, rather than the evolution of our views of whales and the consequences of whaling on their populations. As well, the majority of this literature is penned by scientific, rather than traditional "historic", authors. As I've mentioned before, the study of whalings' effect on whale populations is important to our study and conservation of whales in the present day.

D. Graham Burnett's The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century provides, what I think to be, the best overview of our scientific understanding of whales and how whaling has effected them, especially in the massive industrial undertakings in the 'modern' whaling age.

The fantastically detailed Whales, Whaling, and Ocean Ecosystems, edited by James A. Estes, provides a collection of scientific and historical analysis on whale ecology, and also reveals the difficulties of providing a "natural history" of a species and ecosystem that we still can only provide estimates and speculation for.

Next week, I will continue my quest to form a Whaling Historiography by examining national and cultural bias in our studies of whaling.

The fact that the Eurymedon vase exists makes me happy in so many ways.

Currently moribund at home with a wonderful flu/bronchitis combination (explaining my massive activity today).

Just for sport, let's try to top each other's weirdly specific factoids about history!

I'll start; the Ezzellini are my favorite Italian family of the communal era, due to their propensity to naming all their male members Ezzellino, which sounds like something an eight-year old would name their bunnyrabit, similar to "Fluffums". The Ezzellini were, of course, major butt-kickers for most of their family history. One wonders if they were compensating for something.

This week's installment of "Better Know an Historian" is now live on the Tumblr, featuring /u/suggestshistorybooks, who really went all out this week!

Does anyone know of any good books on the Han Dynasty? I'm open to all suggestions, but anything on the following would be greatly appreciated:

1. Gender and sexuality during the Han
2. Military history, including tactics, campaigns, and logistics
3. Poetry and literature
4. Han Dynasty law
5. Han social structure, and social dynamics

Thanks!

I'm taking a research seminar in international history this semester, which means I need to stretch a bit out of my comfort zone. One idea I have is to look at the use of ethnic identity, names, and icons in the American Revolution, probably focusing just on the Scots. There were several British provincial/loyalist units raised with specifically Scottish names, like "The Caledonian Volunteers" or "The Royal Highland Emigrants", who fought in basically ethnic costume. I've got a few primary sources lined up, but can anyone recommend any good secondary sources about Scottish identity in the 18th century?

I have some unanswered questions for last year, and since they didn't receive up votes, reddit now won't let me repost them in this sub. I tried last week, I'll try again today. (Also I found another one that never received an answer and added it in.)

Did any ancient cults or religions forbid the drinking of wine?

When and why did it become masculine to not ask for directions?

I heard once in college that "Christianity is the last great invention of the Greeks." How true is that statement?

In Esther and Daniel, it claims a king's decree could not be changed. Was this true in Persia? Other Middle Eastern kingdoms? Anywhere?

How common were unwed pregnancies in the ancient world, say, 2000 years ago? Would an unwed and pregnant Mary have been strange or about as normal as today?

And a new question: How dangerous was the job of cup bearer?

Thanks in advance if I get any answers.

My thesis proposal was accepted by my department, and I am now officially part of the honours program at my university (undergraduate)! I know its not a Ph.D application, but its a big deal for me, and hopefully the first step on a path towards a Ph.D.

And to make the day even better, I found a copy of Lenin's The State and Revolution: The Marxist Theory of the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution. Published in Moscow (1949) at my local second-hand book store.

So Paradox's Europa Universalis 4 is about to get another expansion soon, called El Dorado, which focused on Mesoamerica civilization. I liked the preview so far, and it might give me more incentives to play nations outside of the European sphere, which I found to be not quite interesting so far. Except perhaps Manchu/Qing, conquering that massive Ming Dynasty is fun.

Also game related, I just found out that the design of the first zone of The Talos Principle, a first person philosophical puzzle game ala Portal, is based on Ostia Antica. Before I played this game, I didn't know much about Roman archaeological sites outside of Pompeii. I really like the aesthetic of that place, and now it's on my wish list to visit if I had the chance to go to Italy.

What's the earliest reference to soup or stew? Was there always a distinction?

So in the past few weeks I've had a really interesting exchange with /u/penny_for_thoughts, who is doing some research on the legal status of Jews in Southern Germany and Switzerland in the late middle ages.

Here's the thread, complete with scans of some of the legal documents: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2s3lkn/please_help_analysis_of_medieval_court_documents/

I didn't really have anything flairworthy to say about it, but I enjoyed seeing historical research in action.

Partiuclarly notable is that a lot of books on the history of the area state that the Jews were all expelled by 1448, but /u/penny_for_thoughts has uncovered clear evidence that at least some elite Jews were still living and doing business in the area in 1451.

I'd be especially interested in to hear what /u/gingerkid1234 and /u/peripatos have to say about this case.

I found a copy of an English translation of documents from the Eighth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party at the small non-profit leftist bookstore today. I had to buy it, because this is basically primary sources. YAY!

Has decoding historical human DNA ever caused a radical change in the way historians view a specific person, event or period? I just finished watching Dead Famous DNA, which was mostly an interesting look at fraudulent celebrity bio-matter. Darwin having numerous genetic markers for Crohns disease was the only really significant discovery, which potentially explains his chronic illness, but doesn't change his work. It made me wonder if decoding historical DNA had ever had a significant impact outside of the individual it belonged to?

Asking here because I have no idea how to phrase it more concisely.

Probably question you get asked a lot, but how do you trust or how are you sure that things you read as history are true or that is the only way that particular situation happened ?

So recently I've been getting really interested in Scientific Racism, the history of it & historically why it was deemed necessary especially in WWII/Postwar Germany, How did the views of the German ancestral home become distorted during the Nazi regime from that of their Nordic cousins? In a similar topic of Vikings & the Nordics, What do we have on the dialects of Old Norse?

Another thing I've taken quite an interest in is LGBTQ history especially things like Lesbianism & Bisexuality within Colonial & Revolutionary America & how it was viewed. Bisexual erasure & discrimination from the LGBTQ community itself throughout history (specifically from Gay men, Lesbian women & closeted Bisexual people).

What's the history of the development of gender roles within Gay & Lesbian relationships e.g. assuming "dominant and submissive" roles in sex, butch-femme identities. How different were the LGBTQ communities in West & East Germany treated? How were Bisexual & Lesbian women treated during Nazi & Postwar Germany? (Because I noticed section 175 of the Strafgesetzbuch only criminalizes Gay men)

This is mainly regarding historiography, but what are some good general resources to find obscure primary/secondary sources? So if anyone could give me information on these subjects I'd be really grateful, Thank you :)

I've found some really interesting pieces on Scientific Racism & Homosexuality in Scientific Racism and the Emergence of the Homosexual Body as well as a book about male cross-dressers in Victorian England entitled Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England

Why did the bible had unicorns and dragons in it? Was it an misinterpretation or something else?

Are there any books out there on the spread of the black plague? I need some more good reading after "Buried Alive'

Who are some famous "second sons" in the era of Kings who left their mark on Europe for reasons other than attempted coups? I'm thinking of Henry the Navigator and people like that.