Short Answers to Simple Questions | November 27, 2019

by AutoModerator

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Please Be Aware: We expect everyone to read the rules and guidelines of this thread. Mods will remove questions which we deem to be too involved for the theme in place here. We will remove answers which don't include a source. These removals will be without notice. Please follow the rules.

Some questions people have just don't require depth. This thread is a recurring feature intended to provide a space for those simple, straight forward questions that are otherwise unsuited for the format of the subreddit.

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  • Academic secondary sources are prefered. Tertiary sources are acceptable if they are of academic rigor (such as a book from the 'Oxford Companion' series, or a reference work from an academic press).

  • The only rule being relaxed here is with regard to depth, insofar as the anticipated questions are ones which do not require it. All other rules of the subreddit are in force.

corruptrevolutionary

When and why did old steam trains become a integral part of the Christmas aesthetic?

corruptrevolutionary

Was the League of Nations officially disbanded or did people just... stop showing up?

AlexLuis

If there was New England, New Spain, New France, even New Amsterdam, why wasn't there ever New Portugal or New Lisbon?

Vespertine

Does anyone know of a list of medieval Christian fast days outside Lent and Advent?

There are lots of tertiary sources containing summaries such as a list of 3-4 days of the week including Fridays; and which say by some reckonings there were up to 250 in a year. One recent TV documentary gave the precise figure of 242. But the sources for these are never given.

Lists of feasts are also interesting (but less useful for an experiment in controlling social media use!)

Tatem1961

Other than Athens (sometimes), which Greek city states had a government that was considered a democracy?

pablocanof

Hello, I am currently carrying out my dissertation and I am trying to argue in it the effects that slavery has had on modern racial relations in the United States. However, I am struggling to find literature to support my arguments. Can someone tell me some good resources? Preferably accesible online.

P.d. not sure if this is the correct subreddit to ask this so if not please let me know

dandan_noodles

How much would a plain set of clothes for a working class person cost in 18th century Europe? I'm most interested in Western Continental Europe, so France and Germany mostly, but wherever there are figures available, that'd be helpful.

SiddharthKothari93

Did native Americans had contact with other people from different continents (probably Asia) before European discovered America?

MacduffFifesNo1Thane

What is the oldest example (if not available, a historical prominent one not mentioned below) of a musical/theatrical artist disparaging their own works in another work?

This question occurred as I was listening to Gilbert & Sullivan. A lyric in the famous/infamous “Modern Major General” song is that the Major General can “whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pineafore(a previous operetta of theirs).”

CuriousRocketeer

People today refer to decades as discrete entities, and give them names like “the 80’s” or “the 60’s.” When did this practice started? What was the decade refer to in this way? Was there a time when “the 90’s” referred to the 1890s instead of the 1990s?

nbonnii

Did Gorbachev say nonintervention caused the Soviet Union to “crumble like a dry saltine cracker in just a few months”? A quick search of that quote followed by Gorbachev will yield plenty of results yet no citations. Is this a completely misquoted phrase?

Sidaeus

Where did the names for Nazi concentration camps come from?

jimjay

In 1642, when Parliamentary forces ransacked Winchester Cathedral they scattered the bones of King Cnut and various others (including his wife and at least one son) over the floor, mixing them up all the remains. Why? What did they have against Cnut?

ElsinAnders

What sort of information would be censored in WWII mail between American soldiers and friends and family in the US?

GeneralRaam03

What did French people eat during the Nazi occupation

NietzschesMustaches

Can you suggest me a good book on the history of the EU/European integration from a German perspective? Any language works.

0ri00n

What did the ancient Egyptians call lower (north) Egypt?

sdn

What kind of car did Solzhenitsyn drive when he was in exile in Vermont?

Somecrazynerd

What do we know about Early Modern European hatiquette and cloak etiquette? I know that they wore hats much more often than we typically do now, but under what circumstances might they remove them? And the same with indoor cloaks, in either the circular "butt-scraper' style or the wrap-around?

dr_nuthead_420

Help reccomend a good book on the constitutional convention.

sunre625

So from my understanding, Celtic heritage/culture is mainly centered around Ireland/Scotland/(Whales?). Is there an equivalent for England? It’s seems to me that Celtic is basically anything that’s from the British Isles but not England

TheStoicStudent98

Looking for book suggestions regarding the causes of the growth of politicised Islam in the 19th/20th century.

So far I’ve read Mandevilles chapter where he argues about how globalisation played a role. I’ve also read Humphreys book “Between memory and desire: the Middle East in a troubled age”

Thanoslovesyou42

How many people do you estimate wasps have killed in all of history?

Jon_Beveryman

When was the first globe that could reasonably called ‘geographically accurate’ made?

nueoritic-parents

Is the old ‘myth’ about driving on the left side of the road in order to hold a sword true, or at least a legitimate theory? Or is it just what I said, a myth?

Brandwins

Are there any ancient mythologies competitive with the greeks’ in terms of ancient volumes of work?

It seems as if there’s tons written about greek myths, basically nothing of celtic or gallic (non-fragmental) and some ancient middle eastern (Baal, Moloch, but mostly surviving in war propaganda like the bible rather than first party fanatic sources). Is there extensive ancient sourcing for egyptian and nordic myth or is what we know now inferences from surviving artifacts?

TheDesertFoxIrwin

What was the casualties of WW2 categorized as the following?

Axis military Axis civilians Allied military Allied civilians

TH3GHOSTWAFFL3

Did the Russians wear winter gaiters ('winter uniform') during the Battle of Borodino in 1812? Or did they continue to wear summer uniform?

ForgotToLogIn
Lolsforfun

What does an X mean when it has a thicker line on the left (topleft to bottom right) than the right and the ends of the two lines move horizontally to form a hourglass like shape. The hourglass X is framed in a laurel wreath. I know what a laurel wreath is but what is a hourglass X?

______

\\ /

\\

/____\\

Like so.

Berzerker-SDMF

Short question here, would love a reply. Has India since it gained it's independence suffered from famine and if so what was the cause?

willbell

When/in what work did Dedekind introduce the concept of a Euclidean domain?