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.
I did some proper work on a question asking why Poland was spared the ravages of the Black Death (you know, the incredible exceptionalism illustrated in this Wikipedia gif), and guess what? The whole thing turned out to be complete rubbish. Extremely interesting rubbish, though, with lessons for all. Then at the OP's request I added a bit of a masterclass in the research skills I used in answering the question, which I'd really hope they could get something out of, because otherwise it looks as though I may just have done their class paper for them.
u/cthulhushrugged answered my question about supplying Chang'an with food a few weeks ago. I think it deserves more attention than it received.
/u/bigfridge224 did an amazing job answering my question I hear a lot about the everyday use of "curses", charms and other magic in ancient Rome and Greece, some is superficially similar to Voodoo, but I still wonder how the occult was seen in these societies. In the spirit of Halloween can someone tell me?
Having just discovered that I can self-advertise, I wrote a pretty lengthy answer about the effect of the Opium Wars on China's view of its place in the world last week and would love to hear any criticism you guys have for it.
A few from the last week, better late than never:
/u/the_howling_cow answered ""In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26, in Vietnam it was 19." Is this accurate? If so, is there a reason for the difference?" and on "Did anyone in the Allied command structure anticipate how difficult it would be to advance through hedgerows?"
/u/thefourthmaninaboat answered "During WW II, did the allies or axis powers lose any warships or group of warships to weather (rough seas)? If so what if any impact did have on the region they were operating in?"
I'm pretty proud of this three part answer of mine: I am a sailor on a British trading ship in the Golden Age of Piracy. I get attacked by pirates. What do I do?
