Hi, I'm Dr Mark Shanahan and I'm a lecturer in comparative politics at the University of Reading in England.

I'm booked for an AMA on Wednesday 7 December partly to discuss my new book (Eisenhower at the Dawn of Space) but my expertise includes the formation of NASA, early space race, and what happened the last time a political outsider was elected to the highest office in the United States. I talk about politics and history for a hobby and a living and I'm looking forward to talking to you on Wednesday

Dr Mark Shanahan, Department of Politics and International Relations,

University of Reading, @LeapfrogMark

Thanks everyone - it's 9pm over here....and well nigh time I turned off my PC and headed out of my office...that's if I haven't already been locked into the building. I'll check back later and in the morning and will be more than happy to respond to any later questions that come in. Thanks for making this such fun!

Seeing as so many didn't know about our Tumblr, I present to you:

The /r/AskHistorians Tumblr! (run by yours truly)

Here you'll find a good mix between images from different historical eras (as well as paintings, artifacts etc.) as well as answers from the subreddit. I'm always open to any requests on subjects you'd like me to cover, so don't be shy to get in touch.

If you're a flaired user, why not contribute a few sentences? Perhaps that's that cuneiform tablet you've always wanted to talk about or a great image from the early years of Zambia that you'd like to share with some context. Everyone and everything is welcome. :)

I posted a blog post on the question of unilateral presidential use of nuclear weapons last week; that resulted in a solicitation to write an op-ed for the Washington Post, which went online yesterday and will be in this Sunday's print edition (the Outlook section): "No one can stop President Trump from using nuclear weapons. That’s by design."

This piece, unlike the blog post, actually discusses a possible legislative/policy remedy to the situation. Which, I emphasize, is in principle bipartisan — Trump might be the reason that people are interested in this question at the moment, but really the underlying principles can be applied to any president (because presidents are, for both better and worse, just individual human beings, and first-strike capability with nuclear weapons should probably not be left to the discretion of any individual human being except in the direst of circumstances). It is not too hard to come up with proposals that would preserve deterrent capability and credibility and yet require some kind of explicit requirement for multiple-party consent before first strike use.

The only really critical feedback I have gotten are people who say that existing procedures either probably have some check in place (despite a total lack of evidence and much to suggest the contrary), or that such a thing would be totally impossible/insane (I think both history and reason show this to be extremely optimistic), or that the "incapacitation" procedures of the 23rd amendment already provide for this (for several reasons, I don't think they do). Which is to say, the main objection seems to be "it is unnecessary to do anything more" as opposed to "this is a terrible idea on its own merits" which I think is interesting.

I got a letter from Lovecraft wherein he tells me, much to my chagrin, that Cthulhu, R’lyeh, Yuggoth, YogSothoth, and so on are figments of his own imagination. He says: “The reason for its echoes in Dr. de Castro’s work is that the latter gentleman is a revision-client of mine — into whose tales I have stuck these glancing references for sheer fun. If any other clients of mine get work placed in W.T., you will perhaps find a still wider spread of the cult of Azathoth, Cthulhu, and the Great Old Ones. The Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred is likewise something which must yet be written in order to possess objective reality. Abdul is a favorite dream-character of mine — indeed, that is what I used to call myself when I was five years old and a transported devotee of Andrew Lang’s version of the Arabian Nights. A few years ago I prepared a mock-erudite synopsis of Abdul’s life, and of the posthumous vicissitudes and translations of his hideous and unmentionable work Al Azif (called — some blighting Greek word — by the Byzantine (something) Theodoras Philetas, who translated it into late Greek in A.D. 900!) — a synopsis which I shall follow in future references to the dark and accursed thing. Long has alluded to the Necronomicon in some things of his — in fact, I think it is rather good fun to have this artificial mythology given an air of versimilitude (?) by aside citation. Clark Ashton Smith is (something) another mock anthology, revolving around the black, furry toad-god Tsathoggua, whose name had variant forms amongst the Atlanteans, Lemurians, and Hyperboreans who worshipped him after he emerged from inner Earth (whither he came from Outer Space, with Saturn as a stepping stone). I am using Tsathoggua in several tales of my own and of revision-clients’ — although Wright rejected the Smith tale in which he originally appeared. It would be amusing to identify your Kathulos with my Cthulhu — indeed, I may so adopt him in some future black allusion. Incidentally, Long and I often debate about the real folklore basis of Machen’s nightmare witch cults (referring here, I guess to “The Red Hand” and so on). I think they are Machen’s own inventions, for I never heard of them elsewhere; but Long cannot get over the idea that they have an actual source in European myth. Can you give us any light on this? We haven’t the temerity to ask Machen himself.”

Naturally I know nothing about it, but I’m going to tell Lovecraft if he’ll give me Machen’s address, I’ll write and ask him about it. I’d like to know myself. And I’m going to ask Lovecraft if I can use his mythology in my own junk, — allusions, you understand.

• Robert E. Howard to Tevis Clyde Smith, Sep 1930, Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard 2.71-72

Was meditating on this passage a bit this week - it looks like A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard is going back into print next year, which is one of the most exceptional correspondences in weird fiction in the period - in part because of the correspondents (H. P. Lovecraft, creator of Cthulhu and the Necronomicon, and Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian et al.), but the general completeness of the correspondence, the breadth of the subject matter, the length of the letters - as you can see, they can get fairly dense; this one section includes references to Adolph de Castro (an associate of Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce), Clark Ashton Smith, Frank Belknap Long, Andrew Lang, and Arthur Machen, and relates to stories that include Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," "History of the Necronomicon" and "The Electric Executioner" (revised/ghostwritten for de Castro), Robert E. Howard's "Skull-Face"; Clark Ashton Smith's "The Seven Geases"; Machen's "The Red Hand"; and Long's "The Hounds of Tindalos."

Perhaps more importantly, it's Howard quoting part of a letter from Lovecraft - something he did on occasion, especially in the early part of their correspondence - I think Lovecraft's acceptance of Howard and treating him immediately as a peer was a point of pride for the Texan; one or two of these few surviving fragments are also the only remaining portion of some of Lovecraft's letters to Howard that was accidentally destroyed; I did an article about it in the Lovecraft Annual #10.

It's a particularly dense section, but it does give readers some idea of what these letters could be like - how the artificial mythology of one of the first contemporary shared universes started to come about at its genesis.

My calculations for the agricultural output of Japan from late Sengoku to early Meiji is almost done! Just a few tiny islands to go.

Then I have to paste together a bunch of screenshots and draw borders by hand :(

Any computer/map-making expert can help me?

We finally, after way too long, got the 500K census pushed over the finish line! Check out the results over here.

This is related to a bit of economic history that is not studied as often but it is very important from the impact that it had on the world. I am referring to the economic relations between Japan and United States.

The United States had up until 1980's taken a fairly lax view on Japan's economic policy despite it's fairly negative impact on American economy especially it's Industry. Japan used Industrial policy to develop it's export oriented Industry that had created vast imbalances in form of excess savings in Japan, heavy trade surplus for Japan that made it one of the largest capital exporters in form of foreign direct investment in other countries, over investment and weak domestic demand. The US was becoming very critical of this as this entire policy depended on Japan being a weak country and the US being unquestionably stronger. It was becoming clear that this was no longer the case.

The persistent trade surplus had as I mentioned earlier turned Japan into the world's largest creditor nation in 1985. The impact on the United States was the exact opposite. It had turned into the world's largest debtor nation with it's liabilities increasing from $81 Billion to $831 Billion. This was economically untenable. The ideological aspect was also problematic. Many were questioning whether Japanese State Capitalism was superior to American version. Many stressed upon many features of Japanese models and called upon American policy to start emulating certain aspects of it.

So, what is interesting about this? Well, the Japanese were getting very worried that their core strengths were being recognized and that many people were learning too much of it's secret. Japan employed a trick that Russia would use later (as they did during the recent elections). Use American domestic agenda to influence foreign policy in it's favour. In case of Japan it was the stressing upon racism in American public whereas for Russia it is isolationist tendency on both left and the right. Whenever any article started occurring that stressed upon Japanese differences, the consulate of Japan would respond very quickly stressing that it was racist and exclusionary to differentiate them from the West. They criticized that "revisionist" writers who were "Japan-bashers," a barely disguised euphemism for anti-Japanese racists. The local Japanese consul would keep on denying the charges and claim that there were no structural differences in Japan's economy.This campaign succeeded in silencing many critics. Japan even threatened to sell weapons to China and Russia and this worked until the mid 1980's.

This suited many American policy makers perfectly. They could now attack Japan only on the grounds of artificially weakening currency and not on certain other features like direct government assistance for Japanese companies to compete with foreign ones and use of policy banks to slightly repress markets and financial sector. This went against the American notion that American and Western liberal market Capitalism was superior to State Capitalism. The United States then forced Japan to strengthen the Yen which proved disastrous for Japan. The Japanese Central bank cut interest rates which worsened the excess capacity and sent much of the capital into local construction industry and real estate speculation leading ultimately to the bubble burst from which Japan never recovered.

Another important point. When the US stock market crashed in 1987, Japan directly assisted the US by buying a large amount of stocks stabilizing the financial system. This made the US implicitly dependent on the Japanese government. In 1995, the Japanese government succeeded in forcing the US to allow for weakening of yuan to boost it's exports. There was an implicit threat that Japan would pull out the support that it was providing the US by buying government bonds and other forms of investment. Japan's low-cost financing replaced America's virtual dearth of domestic savings and allowed the United States to run huge external deficits without paying any of the usual costs, particularly a catastrophic loss in value of the dollar, while keeping inflation low and American financial markets buoyant. The US agreed and that had a devastating impact on South Asia leading to the East Asian crisis because many of those countries had their currency pegged to US dollar and were also export dependent. Worse, they had carelessly liberalized their currency markets leading to a disaster.

There is more but does the 20 year rule apply , mods?

References:

The Japan That Can Say No by Akio Morita and Shintaro Ishihara

Japanese "Capitalism" Revisited by Chalmers Johnson

Book reviews take a long time to catch up with publications. That said, I finally saw one for my own book from a big name in our field's #1 journal, and it is unabashedly laudatory. I'm in a very good mood right now. No, I still won't let you borrow any of my books, but it is still a good mood. They like me, they really like me, et cetera.

Today, in /r/EarlyModernEurope, I celebrated two anniversaries, first was the Battle of Austerlitz where Napoleon smashed the old order and changed The Political Landscape of Central Europe forever. /u/dandan_noodles joined in with a casual meme and some small talk about the propaganda effect of the battle, namely "The Sun of Austerlitz".

Second I remembered that today is also the 203rd anniversary of the Coronation of Napoleon, so I posted the famous David Painting and talked about the fallout of the Coronation. Also, isn't David just such a great painter? I love David...

Does Askhistorians have a Youtube presence, either officially or through individual productions from flaired users? It seems like that would be in keeping with the spirit of outreach you guys have. And you know, historical education channels are on the rise these days. (But lots of times it's difficult for the layman to distinguish if those channels know what they're talking about.)

There might be a better section, but since this is a free for all - Can you recommend me some books on the interbellic Germany? The social-political situation post-Versailles in the Weimar Republic and the context that lead to the rise of extremism and, as it always is, with an emphasis on Hitler's speeches.

If i were to go more into detail, i'm interested in Hitler's rhetoric in his speeches and how was it influenced by the treaty of Versailles and the socio-politico-economic situation of Germany at the time. Some historic context would help, obviously. Will be used for a paper so throw everything that fits at me.

As a New Englander I'm pretty embarrassed for not knowing this but...

Why is the geography of Boston so different now than it was during the Siege in 1776? I'm looking at this map and obviously that narrow neck doesn't exist anymore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Boston#/media/File:Siege_of_Boston.Dean.USMA.edu.history.gif

Was water pumped out? Did it recede naturally?

This book, "The Bridge at Andau" by James Michener about the 1956 Hungarian revolution was recommended in another thread, just wondering if anyone has read it? Is it good, accurate etc. Anything that might be better?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_at_Andau

I am looking for a history of the Netherlands in English.

What should I be looking at? So far it appears the big two are volumes written by Schama and Israel. Suggestions?

Edit: If this is something that could factor into suggestions, more traditional/macro authors would be preferred.