Q: What do Germans do when the time changes?

A: Adenauer!

I’m new around here, but what the hay, I’ll jump in.

I’ve felt for years now that a comprehensive history of the airline reservation system would be a fascinating read.

To me, SABRE is the Hoover Dam of computer science. The tech that went into the system ties into the Cold War, the rise of microcomputers, Y2K, and the Internet.

Maybe such a book exists?

Maybe this is an OK place to mention something about this sub, or I guess reddit in general?

Since sometime during the latest re-design, despite me still using the "classic" reddit UI, my frontpage changes far too often for my liking, in increasingly poor ways. If I click through to view all the posts in this sub, when i go back to my frontpage, it's dominated by a ton of posts from this sub, most of which have zero comments, or nothing but deleted comments. This didn't used to happen nearly as much. I hate reading all the interesting questions when there are no answers yet! It seems to be predominantly a problem with smaller subs, am I the only one who notices this? Between this and the other issue* i'm about ready to be done with reddit.

*When I view comments in a thread, then go back to my frontpage, that thread often just disappears from the frontpage, and i have to find it in my "recently viewed" box on the right hand side?! WHY, don't reload the dang page every single time!

I lack the sources, skill or time to write a proper, well-sourced post about this, but I recently came across the writings of Procopius, who is a key, well-regarded contemporary source on the reign of Justinian. Bizarrely enough, though, his writings pivot from being respectful of Justinian and Theodora in his History of the Wars to nonsensical libel in The Secret History. For example, here is Theodora giving a speech in History of the Wars, as the court in Constantinople is deciding if they should flee the riot-ravaged city:

My opinion then is that the present time, above all others, is inopportune for flight, even though it bring safety. For while it is impossible for a man who has seen the light not also to die, for one who has been an emperor it is unendurable to be a fugitive. May I never be separated from this purple, and may I not live that day on which those who meet me shall not address me as mistress. If, now, it is your wish to save yourself, O Emperor, there is no difficulty. For we have much money, and there is the sea, here the boats. However consider whether it will not come about after you have been saved that you would gladly exchange that safety for death. For as for myself, I approve a certain ancient saying that royalty is a good burial.

In the tradition of previous antique writers like Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War, this speech (along with the others in the text) was almost certainly an invention of the author. This was a widely accepted convention of classical historical writing, wherein speeches would be created by the historian to encompass what the subject 'probably' said at the time, suiting the angle the historian wished to approach the narrative at hand. So we can presume that Procopius had a fairly high opinion of Theodora's intelligence, having her speak eloquently in this passage. The question then raised is why later Procopius wrote the following in The Secret History as part of an even longer diatribe against the morality of Theodora:

Indeed there was never anyone such a slave to pleasure in all forms; for many a time she would go to a community dinner with ten youths or even more, all of exceptional bodily vigour who had made a business of fornication, and she would lie with all her banquet companions the whole night long, and when they all were too exhausted to go on, she would go to their attendants, thirty perhaps in number, and pair off with each one of them; yet even so she could not get enough of this wantonness... And though she made use of three openings, she used to take Nature to task, complaining that it had not pierced her breasts with larger holes so that it might be possible for her to contrive another method of copulation there. And though she was pregnant many times, yet practically always she was able to contrive to bring about an abortion immediately.

He goes on similarly for some time. The great mystery is what occurred in Procopius' life or in Byzantine politics that caused Procopius to go from writing about a courageous woman who was willing to stand her ground even if it meant death, to a caricature of immorality. There is very, very little known about Procopius excepting that he was an officer assistant to the magister militum (supreme commander of the military) during the 'reconquest' campaigns in Justinian's reign, and that he perhaps was an engineer of some kind (the latter suggested by his architecture-orientated text Buildings).

There is credence to the hypothesis that in fact the speech Theodora gives is not meant to be taken as positive towards her character as in Roman culture it was seen as outside of a woman's role to be assertive, as Theodora is depicted. Women in Roman culture were largely not expected to even be speaking much, so Theodora strongly admonishing her husband and his court is about as masculine as you can get in the eyes of a Roman of the time. To not conform to gender roles in Roman society was not only a social sin but seen as a sign of immorality of person - women are best to be meek, men are best to be assertive. So then, we can perhaps think that what seems to be a contradiction on the surface is actually a condemnation of Theodora's character on both sides.

The dwarf race which at one time inhabited Europe has left few concrete remains, but it has survived in innumerable stories of fairies and elves. Nothing, however, is known of the religious beliefs and cults of these early people, except the fact that every seven years they made a human sacrifice to their god—’ And aye at every seven years they pay the teind to hell ‘ —and that like the Khonds they stole children from the neighbouring races and brought them up to be the victims.

That there was a strong connexion between witches and fairies had been known to all students of fairy lore. I suggest that the cult of the fairy or primitive race survived until less than three hundred years ago, and that the people who practised it were known a witches. I have already pointed out that many of the witch-belief and practices coincide with those of an existing dwarf race, viz. the Lapps. The Devil and the witches entered freely into the fairy mounds, the Devil is often spoken of as a fairy man, and he consorts with the Queen of Elfhame; fairy gold which turns to rubbish is commonly given by the Devil to the witches; and the name Robin is almost a generic name for the Devil, either as a man or as his substitute familiar.

• Margaret Murray, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921), 238

From my current focus of research. Murray isn't somebody you cite for facts these days (and hopefully haven't for decades, at least with regards for witches), but as a signpost in time for "this is a very influential book that people in your area of interest read and riffed off of" so even though it is very unfactual it is also weirdly necessary.

And there is the whole stopped-clock moment because occasionally she gets on a point that is more-or-less correct. There are connections between fairies and witches, and also fairies and ceremonial magic altogether; a friend of mine actually put together a book on a particular grimoire called The Book of Oberon which goes into it in a bit of depth. But there's also a lot of really weird racism (see above libel about the Khond people, and also the old chestnut about Finnish people which...well, you see where folks like Lovecraft got some of their ideas from.)

I have been wondering this for quite some time. It seems like this is the right place to ask.

I have an habit of writing questions on very specific subjects that fascinate me, but which I know are not very likely to get an answer (like questions about my non-English speaking country, or very specific and generally unknown historical events). Some of these have reached the front page of the sub, and some have surprised me by getting fascinating answers; but like I predicted, a lot haven't had that luck and remain without answers despite attracting attention.

At the same time, this broadens the scope of the subreddit, but it also contributes to the outsider (false) idea that most questions in r/AskHistorians don't get any answers.

Is this a net positive for the sub, or is it negative? I know, I know, asking niche questions is allowed by the rules (and if people upvote them, they like it), and I'm doing nothing wrong in that regard. But this is my favourite subreddit and I want to see it thrive, so I don't mind changing my habits a little if that contributes to a better community (even if I also know I am far from being influent enough to have to worry about it; I'm talking about a small number of posts!).

What do you think?

I'm trying to learn more about the ninja and samurai relationship. But I seem to keep finding different answers. I need some directions if possible. Thank you.

This picture was taken of my 4-Great grand father during the Spanish American war. I was told it was him in his infantry uniform, on the back of the photo it says Co. I, 29 Inf. (Not sure if it would help with the uniform search.) I was pretty sure it was a blue top with blue pants but wasn’t sure since I have seen so many different pictures online. Here’s thepicture of him.

Earlier this week, I posted a question that got some upvotes but not a single answer. :(

Am I allowed to repost that question after a certain length of time?

I have been going crazy trying to remember a term I heard for america's historic of the "other", I read a book a while ago that used a term I really liked, it isn't xenophobia or nativism. Can anyone think of it off hand?

EDIT: book was about late 19th early 20th century USA iirc

also, any recommendation on good books about the US "Barons of Industry" influencing foreign power/development, similar to Birn's "Marriage of Convenience"

I was very late last time, so I'll try again this time:

I'm working on a text and I need the quintessential example of an inquisitor who sent people to burn alive.

The inquisitor par excellence is probably Torquemada, but he's mostly associated with torture, am I right?

So who would be the "inquisitor who sent people to burn alive" par excellence?

Thank you very much for your help!

What is happening in russia around 1000BC-0

My nursing PhD has meant a lot of research lately into the history of de-institutionalization, thus institutionalization, and eugenics (which was largely -- though not mostly -- driven by the need to get people discharged from institutions). Very interesting! I've gotten in touch with a nurse historian to I know to see if there's a paper in it, but it's definitely not time for another side project right now...

In the 17th century, how did the Dutch transport porcelain from Japan to Europe without breaking it? I guess the sea was very rough. Also how expensive was this porcelain if I wanted to buy it in Europe at that time? Thank you