So I created an account to ask this, was going to make a post about it but saw that this thread exists on Wednesdays - so I figured I'd try it out.

I recently returned to community college, and my World Civ II professor is a bit of a crackpot. He's easily an octogenarian, a socialist (which I have no qualms with, and is not why I stated he's a little off), and borderline deaf. Anyway, about three or four classes ago he told us, within a span of ~ten minutes, that a) Atlantis (as in the ancient, super-advanced but now sunken city, the childhood fairytale) exists and that he's seen proof, b) aliens built the pyramids and he's also seen proof, and c) Hitler didn't die until 1962 in a Nazi colony in Argentina, for which he has also seen proof. At this point I just sort of zoned out, as I couldn't believe I was actually paying to be told this. Then, the next class, while making an aside about Teddy Roosevelt, he said something along the lines of, "...I disagree with him on just about everything, except for the fact that he said he'd seen bigfoot..." and right then I would have burst out laughing uncontrollably had it not been for the frustration I was feeling knowing that this man would be administering tests that I'd be taking. To top it all off, today he said that the Nazis were in contact with evil higher powers (to which, when prompted by myself, he clarified as meaning aliens and extradimensional forces), and that Wernher von Braun has even been quoted as saying as much.

Now, I know that obviously Atlantis and aliens building the pyramids are complete bullshit, and that there's a 99.999999999999% chance that the Hitler dying in 1962 and von Braun being quoted as attributing Nazi successes to evil forces from other dimensions are equally as insane, but as for the latter (especially with it being so fresh in the classes' mind) I was wondering a) is there any sort of chance that an amoral technocrat such as von Braun was actually quoted as saying this (maybe as he was on his way out, so to speak), because a cursory search amounted to nothing on my end, and b) exactly how I could potentially confront him about this absolute ridiculousness that he's been spouting in class, because at this point I don't want to take anything he says - even the things we're being tested on - seriously.

How many times was Caesar stabbed? Numbers being thrown around online seem to conflict. Reports of 60 people being part of the assassination but only 23 or 27 of them actually stabbing Caesar. Which number is correct?

This is a strange question and I apologize if my question is too vague. If it doesn't fit in with the spirit of Short Answers to Simple Questions, please let me know.

I have a relative who sometimes tries to discuss historical topics with me. However, they can be confusing to talk to and often don't have the best sources. Sometimes they get mixed up with conspiracy theories, pseudoarchaeology, etc. So when they try to talk history with me, I usually wave them off.

The other day they approached me with a typically confusing opening gambit: "the Catholic church in France used to have so many members in its archdiocese that they had to import peasants from the Moors."

I know very little about French, Moorish, or Catholic history. Is there anyone out there who would hazard a guess as to what they were trying to tell me?

Is there a reason that President John Tyler is not remembered as a traitor or at least a rebel? During the early days of the Civil War, he sided with the CSA and accepted election to the Confederate Congress, though he died before he could be seated. As one history book I read noted, he was the only President to die an enemy of the United States.

So why isn't he remembered in the same breath as Benedict Arnold? Was there an effort to rehabilitate him? Or did his siding with the secessionists just slide out of the public consciousness?

I'll get it started. In Caesar's Gallic Wars Book 5, sections 28-31, the legates Q. Titurius Sabinus and L. Aurunculeius Cotta have a military council meeting with the tribunes and the centurions of the first rank. Famously, they cannot agree and suffer the consequences of that controversia. Are there other attestations in our sources of a meeting like this, involving a commander and tribunes and centurions?

I asked this in a separate thread but I still can't find what I'm looking for. It might fit better here.

Reading a variety of books on Holocaust denial, I keep coming across vague references to historians who have claimed we should totally ignore it. Lipstadt mentions this in the start of Denying the Holocaust for example. Who has claimed this? Do some academics still support this line of thinking?

Hey. I've been trying to remember for a few days now, but can't seem to recall/google the name.

There was a woman involved in the US space program, and was one of the best mathematicians they had for it. I can recall reading somewhere that at least once, astronauts refused to go through with a launch until she went and check the calculations.

If anyone can tell me who the hell I'm thinking of, that would be wonderful.

Do questions about research techniques belong here? If so, how have others approached large volume searches of old scanned newspapers? (e.g. looking at shifts in opinion on an issue over time). Aside from sheer volume of material to consider, another thing that slows it down is older material being difficult to digitise well, searches often leading to the wrong page, or to the wrong place on a page which is densely packed with small articles that require much zooming in and out to check).

I recently visited a WW2 musuem in Singapore about the Japanese occupation and came across some Japanese textbooks.

Why were the “furigana” texts written in katakana even when in todays usage, it is supposed to be written in hiragana? Come to think of it, i did not even see any hiragana text in the book.

Any good books on a combat history of the Haitian Revolution?

I'm interested in learning about the shifts in Western military strategy/thought from the Medieval period, how it changed with Napoleon, and changed again through the American Civil War into WW1. Can anyone recommend some books/sources that may cover some of this?

Adam Tooze: "Put at its most simple and most cynical, Germany's strategy consisted of exploiting the protection provided by the Reparations Agent to borrow so much from America that the service on this debt made it impossible to transfer reparations."

What does it mean to "transfer reparations"?

Hey.

I've recently been reading about the death of Isadora Duncan, and this image keeps popping up.

So I was wondering: Is this an actual photo of her death? If not, then what is the origin of this photo?

Thanks!

What's the oldest sport that's still played?

Meta: For rule-breaking replies (or posts), there's the "report" link. Should I bother if it's only a few minutes old? Because if moderators are already sweeping through https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ or some other listing at short intervals, reporting something that's at the top of the list would be spammy.

(While I'm asking, if nobody minds answering: Broadly, how is reporting implemented? Is it a modmail, or something else?)

(Hmm, that makes me wonder: Broadly, how is modmail implemented? Is it a PM to every moderator, or something else?)

A lot has been written about encryption during WW2 and before. The ability to send battlefield orders and intelligence privately was seen as a competitive advantage. It seems like speed of communication would also be a competitive advantage. I haven't read anything about efforts to advance compression techniques and technology during this same period. It seems like the history of compression starts with the information age. Were there earlier efforts, war-time or otherwise? Were any of them operational? Successful?

What is the current state of the history of medieval mentalities? Specifically, the medieval experience of time.

I've read Le Goff obviously, and Gurevich, Alfred Crosby, Alexander Murray and Joel Kaye, but, not being a historian, it's difficult to keep up to date.

What is suggested reading if I want to learn about the normans and their rule/conquest within the context of the Kingdom of Sicily?

Good books covering late bronze age collapse?

Is the White House Historical Association a good source for the Askhistorians reddit?

Was there a common dog associated with the mafia/bosses of the mafia? Wondering for a worldbuilding thing I’m doing, there’s a mafia boss who has two big guard dogs but I don’t know what kind of dogs they’d be.

I would like to know when we started measuring time in year numbers, in relation to “BC” etc. I’m sorry if this is an extremely simple question but google couldn’t help. Just to clarify, I know “BC” is referring to the time “before Christ”, but am not sure when years started to be counted and recorded in relation to that.

I'm looking for some books/papers that will give a broad overview of Indo-European "monster" or "nature spirit" archetypes/tropes. I'm sure there's an academic term for this, but I don't know it because I'm just a layman. Forgive me.

Since that might be vague, let me provide a more recent (medieval) example. The Vampyr, Blutsauger, and Nachtzehrer are all regional variations on a theme - a reanimated corpse, usually involved in sacrilege in life or in burial, comes back to feast on the living. Of course, this is limited to a few areas in the German speaking lands, and has a distinctly Christian flavor. I'm looking for tropes that are much older, and more widespread, like the strix/strigae, or the **lem-*, a reconstructed term for nocturnal spirits that would evolve into the Latin lemures and (probably-maybe) form the etymological basis for Lamia.

If knowing my purpose helps: I'm doing this for a personal writing project. I want to construct a setting that feels authentically Indo-European. Doing that demands an understand what the common elements of Indo-European mythology are. This paper has helped, but it focused only on the highest level stuff for Indo-European religion (good read, would recommend). I'm looking for the middling ground of spirits and supernatural that actually fill the world.

I am interested in a 101 on historical, non western-European architecture. (East and Central Asian in particular, but not exclusively.) What would be a good place to get started on that, are there any good, reliable sources freely available online?

What are some of the best historical atlases?

I learned in history class today that $1.00 in 1923 was equivalent to around 4.2trillion marks. How would people buy houses and stuff like that in Germany? Would they bring in trillions and trillions of marks to buy one house?

In many books about early Soviet history there is a discussion about how crowded urban housing was. Why was this the case? Did the urban population explode or were there fewer apartments for some reason?

Currently reading an essay and an important concept is "the mediterranean is exchange", from Braudel.

What does this mean? Is it about how the Mediterranean is important for exchanging goods over long distances?

These days, I've seen many posts on how identity and self-perceived culture has mutated (Roman to Italian, Frankish to French, enslaved people, etc.) and I was wondering if there are 'meta' books in this regard - any scholarly works that deal with the concept of historical or cultural identity? I'd love to read more on the subject, aside from the sources for specific cases.

I am a History student and I enjoy architecture. Would I be able enter a master's degree program in architectural history if I have a BA in East Asian history?

What is the forum ettiquette re. potentially tagging a flaired user whom, you seem to remember from an earlier answer, has access to an [online] archive? This is for a follow up answer to a question I wrote a long answer to myself. Is that okay, or does it unfairly suggest people do work they may not have time for?