Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.
This week I enjoyed reading answers by /u/ucumu on the production and use of obsidian and (just today) by /u/tenminutehistory on the dissemination of clocks. Both on topics I'm interested in and was glad to learn more about; and both in different ways connecting changes in how a certain material or item was used to changes in social life.
I'm always so appreciative of people taking time out of their busy schedules to answer my silly questions. This week /u/itsallfolklore dropped some knowledge about how the Transcontinental Railroad did/did not influence migration patterns in the U.S. and lots of people contributed to a nostalgia-inspired question about fast trains in 1885. Thanks, historians!
Busy yesterday, but here we go:
/u/hatmaster12 on "How much better trained was the Praetorian guard than the average Roman Legionary, especially during the times of Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius?"
/u/wizzyhatz on "What did Rasputin actually want? What was his endgame?"
/u/drylaw on "Historians of Muslim Spain: what caused the 1066 A.D. anti-Semitic riots in Granada?" and "At the point of contact in the New World, how long did it effectively take to break the language barrier between Natives and explorers."
This is long overdue, but u/dandan_noodles answered my question, "How did tactics change over the course of the American Civil War?" awhile back.