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If any flaired users would be interested in doing something similar in the coming months (I'm hoping to do this once a month), please get in touch!

This bit from Lovecraft caught me this week, a bit of a "what if" scenario:

Young races & nations usually produce the soundest & most vital art. The great vigour & merit of all Indian art-remains, produced at a very early stage of social evolution, proves that the race had very great aesthetic potentialities which might have flowered strangely & marvellously had not its cultural progress been cut abruptly short by European conquest. Had no white men come to America, there is little doubt but that the civilisations of Peru & Mexico would eventually have spread throughout the two continents; taking different forms among different tribes, & developing into a series of great cultures as powerful & as utterly distinctive as those of Egypt, the Tigris-Euphrates valley, Crete, India, or China. There would have been something quasi-Oriental about it, since the Indians are Mongoloids with instincts modelled on the Eastern rather than the European Aryan plan.

• H. P. Lovecraft to Elizabeth Toldridge, 3 Sep 1929, Letters to Elizabeth Toldridge and Anne Tillery Renshaw 103-104

I shared it with a few folks, who were surprised at it's general positive aspect since Lovecraft is known to have been racist - but there are some interesting things relevant to that here. Racism isn't a simple fear, hatred, bigotry, and discrimination toward others; it involves many levels of categorization, misunderstanding, stereotyping, and discriminatory behaviors. Lovecraft for example had relatively little direct contact with any Native Americans (he met some Seminoles in Florida), but recognized that the various First Peoples had distinct cultures (some of which he stereotyped, based on second- or third-hand understanding) and histories. He had a very broad impression of them as "savages" but admired the classical civilizations of the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca for their art and accomplishments (basically, building in stone - very Eurocentric). This contrasted with how Robert E. Howard saw the Aztecs (as a "degenerate" civilization), and formed a minor aspect in their ongoing debate in letters on civilization versus barbarism. Lovecraft was also aware of various attempts to shoehorn Native Americans into various racial categorization schemes, and accepted the general idea of colonization from Asia via the Bering Straight (and later possibly from Oceana, and even entertained the idea of pre-Colombian contact with Phoenicians, though he generally eschewed any idea of early Roman or European contact theories) - hence why he describes them as "Mongoloids" (other legs of that system being Caucasoids, Negroids, etc.)

The extant of Lovecraft's knowledge of the Maya and Aztecs is a matter of debate; it is known he read Prescott's Conquest of Mexico (1873). Given the later interest of Lovecraft's friend and correspondent R. H. Barlow in the Aztecs and Nahuatl, it's always been wondered if HPL had any definite influence in the matter, though the jury is still out on that one, as there doesn't seem to be any direct reference to it.

This company called ArqueoDron made a 3D model of the archaeology site I study in Jalisco, Mexico.

I was listening to a particular rendition of 'We Shall Overcome' that I like a lot: Pete Seeger's version of it as played in East Berlin in 1967 - when I wondered whether there was a story about Seeger's visit to the DDR that was interesting at all. So I ran a quick search and immediately came up a wonderful article by Victor Grossman, who had served as the interpreter for Seeger during the visit. Details Seeger's attitudes towards his audiences, his meeting with Ernst Bloch, and his night at the Volksbühne (Brecht's theatre, run at the time by his widow).

Any suggestions for interesting historical attractions in Vienna that might be a bit "off the beaten path" or otherwise not immediately pop up in a search for stuff to check out?

I completed reading Joe Studwell's How Asia Works : Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region and it was excellent. I will be posting my thoughts on it tomorrow. It goes well with some of my other readings on developmental economics. State Capitalism has been becoming pretty important recently and Studwell gives a good explanation on why some countries succeeded while other didn't even though policies they pursued has some superficial similarities.

I also started reading Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation. It seems pretty good till now.

On a side note, I also caught up with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Enjoyed it but felt it was a little haphazard and quick like the fourth movie.

I made a thread for this question yesterday, but broke the no example seeking question rule in the sub. Because of that I'll be asking it here.

Are there any years in history where we have no record of any notable historical events, or does every year have some point of interest?

I have a question about weddings! Why don't British grooms look at their brides walking down the aisle? How did this tradition evolve and why is it the custom in America for grooms to watch the bride?

I've been researching my ancestors a bit recently and have made it back 16 generations (including myself) with mostly several sources at each step. Here's a few highlights:

• Earliest generations seemed to be shipwrights on the SE edge of England in 1550-1650 range.

• A generation or two later, an ancestor was one of the 9 original purchasers of Nantucket Island. This man died in the King Phillip's War in battle with Indians. His estate was worth £607 in 1677. Anyone know how to tell how much that would be worth today?

• His son married his father's brother's daughter (first cousin -_-) and had also been fined at some point for selling liquor to Indians.

• Much later, Abraham Lincoln had been a guest to my family on the farm several times as he'd travel in Illinois.

I grew up on a Midwestern farm so it's fun to find all this out. Most of my ancestors were farmers in the last few hundred years. They went from England to New England (early 1600's) to North Carolina (mid 1700's) to Illinois (early 1800's). I couldn't find any slave registrations for my direct line, but I'm not sure if I want to dig too far.

I'm wanting to find out more about my family's time in Nantucket and also I'm wanting to go back further in England. Does anyone have suggestions on how to do that? Also, I'd love to see any info on how much my ancestor's estate was worth as a fun tidbit.

Are there any active experts in 20th century South America in this sub? The few questions about the continent's more recent history that I see and/or ask never really get any answers.

How would this sub feel about a "What's a question that you'd love to answer about your field, but has not yet been asked?" thread? I feel like there could be tons of people here waiting for that pitch to their wheelhouse.

Let's say I'm an East German citizen living in a city, I've just finished at the Secondary Polytechnic, and I've just turned 18. How am I informed of my enlistment into the National People's Army? What position would I most likely be assigned to?

What are some examples of democracy (or similar) turned dictatorship/authoritarian in the last 100 years or so? I've been following Turkey lately, and reading The Origins of Totalitarianism.