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.
Hello everyone!
As those of you based in the UK might be aware, many historians - including myself - are currently on strike over a range of issues in British Higher Education. I suspect more than a few of our readers study or work at universities that are being affected by this action. But I want to take this chance to highlight to our readers that many of the issues that are causing the strike in the UK - particularly issues surrounding workloads, precarity and casualisation - are issues affecting teaching and research in the Humanities across the English-speaking world and beyond. If you use this site regularly, you are already benefitting from the knowledge and expertise that history as an academic discipline fosters. Please think about ways that you can show your support for its continued existence in turn, particularly if you are currently a student at a British university.
If you want to learn more about the issues causing the strike, I along with several other historians from various UK universities recently wrote about it for History Workshop. I am also happy to answer questions here if anyone has them!
Is uh... is this our Designated Area for expressing appreciation to you brainy contributors, as well as the mod team for keeping this place so neat and tidy? If so, I WOULD LIKE TO DO THAT.
Hello everyone !
A new podcast on Arabic Medieval History and Historiography has just been launched by Ghent University in Belgium. It mostly concerns ongoing research, so it might be a bit specialized, you tell me.
There are very few podcasts dealing with the Medieval Arab World, so here is my broad question : what do you think of this podcast ?
Any thought ?
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, November 22 - Thursday, November 28
| Top 10 Posts | score | link to comments |
|---|---|---|
| Given that Pre-Islamic Arabia was a very women-friendly and sexually "liberal" society, what is the source of Islam's extremely puritanical culture? | 4,773 | 128 comments |
| After Nixon resigned, how long was it before it was widely accepted that he had committed the crimes? How did the general public treat those who had adamantly defended him up until his resignation? | 4,542 | 34 comments |
| Julia, a young Roman woman from the Julius family, is going with her sister Julia to hang out with their cousin Julia, and her two sisters, Julia and Julia. Her uncle Publius' daughter, Julia, may join as well. How do they call each other when they all meet? | 3,524 | 73 comments |
| In Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene 1, Sampson "bites his thumb" at a group of Capulets, which enrages their leader, Abram. Do we know exactly what this gesture looked like? Was it a common insult in Elizabethan England? What did it signify? | 2,877 | 87 comments |
| My grandmother says that basically nobody in east germany wanted to merge with west germany in 1989, they just wanted a right to travel. Is this true? | 2,725 | 80 comments |
| Did medieval cities have addresses like we do today? | 2,365 | 90 comments |
| Why is Marcus Antonius’ name anglicized to “Mark Antony” while other contemporary politicians are still the same. ie Gaius Julius Caesar, Lepidus etc | 2,221 | 60 comments |
| Humans have been living side-by-side with cats for a very long time. What is the history behind litter boxes / designated bathroom areas for cats? | 2,050 | 31 comments |
| How did people react to hearing their own voice when the phonograph was invented? | 1,723 | 65 comments |
| In our time, Henry VIII is seen as a decadent tyrant. In Shakespeare's time, he was a sympathetic figure. Is this a change in values, or was it due to his daughter being the Queen? | 1,683 | 45 comments |
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It looks like this week's Short Answers to Simple Questions thread was just deleted within the last few minutes. (Accidental?)
May I ask my question here instead?
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!)
Hello, I’m trying to look up some information on the Spanish Barb horse.
I got the basic history down as to how the origin of the breed started, but I’m having issues locating a lot of information surrounding the Spanish Inquisition up to when they came in to the Americas. Like I know after a while Spain stopped exporting their horses and had a travel ban but I don’t know when that started. I’ve basic time I have an of events would be incredibly helpful or directing me to our source would be fantastic.The registries information is redundant and the registries are splintered which is not helping at all. And a lot of the information in the breeders word-of-mouth, it seems like it’s independent history sources that I am getting most of my information from
Was there ever a 100 year period without war, famine, or other terrible catastrophies . I’m wondering what was the best 100 year period in history? If there ever was one. Or what might have been the closest period of extending peace and tranquillity?