Today:
You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.
As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.
My thesis proposal for my MA thesis has been approved! Really happy to start researching and getting a head start on everything.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, November 15 - Thursday, November 21
| Top 10 Posts | score | link to comments |
|---|---|---|
| Marcus Aurelius, one of the "five good emperors" and author of 'Meditations', is known to have been addicted to opium; was opium use common among the elites at the time? Would the general public have had access to it? Was there any stigma attached to its use or the dependence on it? | 3,807 | 103 comments |
| Modern Australia is clustered into five cities on the coast, completely ignoring 99% of the land (at least for residential use), did aboriginals also stay on the coast or were they more evenly spread across the continent? | 3,543 | 49 comments |
| Why are so many of the capital cities of most Latin American countries in the mountains? | 2,676 | 128 comments |
| Claudius was declared emperor of Rome by being found behind a curtain after Caligula’s assassination. Given how capable he turned out to be, is it reasonable to think he had no hand in the assassination? | 2,602 | 34 comments |
| Why did Nazis see Slavs and Baltic people as üntermenschen to be exterminated (Generalplan Ost), while there were no comparable plans for peoples of other occupied lands such as Greek, despite Greeks being typically far less “Aryan” in appearance. | 2,222 | 72 comments |
| In the Antebellum South, what was life like for slaves who were too old to work, or who had been crippled and were unable to work? | 1,866 | 47 comments |
| Why did the USA refuse the declaration of the 1954 Geneva Conference which would have permitted the Vietnamese people to participate in a democratic reunification election? | 1,744 | 46 comments |
| What happened to people whose homes were bombed in WWII? | 1,670 | 42 comments |
| Dr Simon Elliott. Today's subject is Roman Britain. My most recent book was 'Julius Caesar: Rome's Greatest Warlord.' | 1,249 | 129 comments |
| The death toll for the Taiping rebellion in the mid 1800s was over 20 million, and yet I almost never hear about the topic. What caused so many deaths in this conflict, and why is it never talked about? | 1,189 | 23 comments |
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Hi friends! I’m doing some heavy research into the imagery used during the European witch trials and would love some sources if you can think of any!
Something I’ve noticed while searching through old posts on here is that a lot of answers I’m finding that are, like, 4+ years older seem a lot less comprehensive, detailed, or simply… they’re shorter. Is this just selection/confirmation bias, or has there been a shift in standards over the last few years that I never noticed?
Anyone remember when /u/davidAOP was active here and replied with fantastic answers about the Golden Age of Piracy? Well on his website he said he was going to publish a book on maritime clothing of 1680-1740, which I was really excited about. But he hasn't made an update since last September.
I just hope he's still alive doing ok and I am still excited for his book to be published.
"Lost all the battles, won the war"
Is there a real life example of such a war? Is such a war the same war as "won all the battles, lost the war"?
Hey, guys I’ve been recently interested in early medieval history, in particular I’ve been very interested in the Anglo-Saxons. However, I feel like I can’t really wrap my head around their culture. We have a modern interpretation of Romans, Gauls, Celts, etc. that give us strong impressions of each culture (for example, we see Romans as ‘civilized’ conquerors, we see Gauls as naked barbarians, etc.) but I feel like I’m not really finding anything distinctive like that for Anglo-Saxons. In this regard, how would you characterize this culture? And how would you do so in comparison to say for example, their ancestors the Gauls, or the Celts which they conquered in England, or the Danes which they fought in England as well?
Hi! I'm looking for some solid editorials from back in the 60s and 70s around U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. Both hawk and dove. Thanks!
Hello historians! I just asked a question here but I'm afraid that it might be deleted for being too broad:
This is my backup question I guess. I'm also interested in any records about how people spoke from any period (earlier than 1500 anyway) or from any region. If you know of a great source about everyday conversations from a different part of the world please let me know!
So is anyone else working their way through the Crown?