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.
Can I post something here that I just wrote, but which nobody is going to see otherwise? After all, today is still this week.
Today I learned that Reddit posts had a max word-count in my three part answer to the question: Were les philosophes responsible for the French Revolution? (Short answer - not really.)
Didn't have much time for reading this past week, so a bit slim, but nevertheless:
/u/kingconani on "The Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered in 1853. How did the Victorian sensibilities of the time react to its very frank depictions of sexuality?"
/u/verrevert on "If Julius and Augustus were to not have created July and August, was the year still 365 days? If not, what was it? And did it change seasons?"
/u/the_howling_cow on "The WW2 German Air Force raised over 20 Infantry Field Divisions from nearly 250k excess airmen to help the Army fight the ground war. Why did the Luftwaffe have so many spare personnel?"
Also that GK Zhukov guy on "The English historian Norman Stone has died. The obituary published in the Guardian is almost unbelievably scathing -- are the claims it makes accurate?" and "Was there an argument about what to call Japanese internment camps back when they were first implemented?" and "In Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost ark they commonly refer to the Germans as the Nazis, would most Americans be calling them by this time already? (1936)"
/u/byzantine_meme asked a well-informed but little-noted question: Were most of the slaves in the Abbasid Caliphate sold to them by the Vikings? As I'm currently finishing a chapter on the topic, I enjoyed the opportunity to summarize some of my findings here!
I wrote about Ottoman naval warfare here
Happy Canada day AskHistorians! I’m back from my mini vacation and its time to work on the digest. Unfortunately, its going to be somewhat more sparse, as I was without internet from Thursday till Sunday. So if I’ve missed some great answers, please please post them up! Because I want to read them.
As per our usual, you should always check out the regular weekly threads!
I missed it last week, so here’s my shout out to AskHistorians Episode 139 - Bibliography of the Damned, on books and the Reformation, w/Robert M. Sarwark
Tuesday Trivia: We Can Build You - The Buildings of History! Had some fantastic responses.
The Saturday Showcase with more /u/Klesk_vs_Xaero.
Otherwise that’s it for me this week. Have yourselves a fine week and enjoy the summer (For the northern hemisphere) or winter (For you fun southern hemisphere people.) weather!
/u/Bigglesworth_ took us on an incredible journey with their incredible answer to "How did Allied Countries' leaders travel to meet with each other during WWII?"
It's one of the best things I've ever read on this sub!