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.
Is adding or removing the "the" from diseases — "the cancer," "the measles," "the gout" — based on the speaker's age, or is there a longer-term historical trend?
I posted a a blog post this morning about why I switched NUKEMAP from Google Maps API to Mapbox, and why I don't think Google Maps API is a very good development platform for individual academics attempting to do interesting map projects anymore (because they don't care about us and we slip between their institutional cracks, womp womp).
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, December 06 - Thursday, December 12
| Top 10 Posts | score | link to comments |
|---|---|---|
| After the use of Choctaw code talkers in WWI, Nazi Germany apparently sent spies, disguised as anthropologists and art students, to the US to learn Native American languages. However, they failed to learn Navajo. What do we know about this effort? How organized was it and who ran it on the Nazi end? | 3,484 | 36 comments |
| After Jerusalem and Rome, the most prestigious destination for Medieval European pilgrims was Santiago de Compostela, a small city in northern Spain. How did this place become so spiritually significant, and how did this affect the city's secular power? | 3,191 | 36 comments |
| Maybe it's selection bias on my part, but it seems popular Christmas music in the US is heavily represented by recordings from the mid-20th century. Is there a reason for this, and will Bing/Frank/Dean/Nat forever be the faces on the Mt. Rushmore of holiday music? | 2,347 | 48 comments |
| We are Historians from the White House Historical Association here to talk about the history of the White House, its Occupants, and the Association and Its Mission. Ask Us Anything! | 2,018 | 182 comments |
| During the Korean War, both Seoul and Pyongyang were occupied by enemy forces for several months. What do we know about the different occupation policies for these two capitals? Were there attempts to set up aligned local governments, to prosecute enemies of the occupying regimes, etc? | 2,010 | 33 comments |
| Zelda Fitzgerald accused her husband of plagiarizing her work in a review of “The Beautiful and the Damned.” How did the public react to this claim? | 1,908 | 9 comments |
| Has was there a shortage on 100-year-old aged wine/cheese/champagne/etc following the 100th anniversary of the First World War? Will there be another shortage come 2039-45? | 1,675 | 32 comments |
| Who were the "Temple Builders" of Malta, and what happened to them? | 1,597 | 53 comments |
| Was it common for both duelists to die in sword duels? | 1,579 | 58 comments |
| Why are Christian marriages so common in Japan despite the religion's minority status? | 1,464 | 82 comments |
If you would like this roundup sent to your reddit inbox every day send me a message with the subject 'askhistorians'. Or if you only want a weekly roundup, use the subject 'askhistorians weekly'
However, I can do more.. you can have me search for any keywords you want on any subreddit you want. Send a message with the subject ['set askhistorians'](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=subredditsummarybot&subject=set%20askhistorians&message=200%0A25%2C%20rome%2C%20europe%2C%20united states) and in the message: specify a number of upvotes that must be reached, and then an optional list of keywords you want to search for, separated by commas. You can have as many lines as you'd like, as long as they follow this format:
200
50, rome, europe, united states
You can also do ['set askhistorians weekly'](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=subredditsummarybot&subject=set%20askhistorians%20weekly&message=200%0A25%2C%20rome%2C%20europe%2C%20united states) And you can replace askhistorians with any subreddit.
See my wiki to learn more: click here
Please let me know if you have suggestions to make this roundup better for /r/askhistorians. I can search for posts based off keywords in the title, URL and flair. And I can also search for comments.
I am looking to be pointed in the right direction for examples of Colonists encouraging, rewarding, or otherwise enticing local populations to do awful things to themselves and their neighbors.
So I just saw this quote by Nietzsche
"Direct self observation is not nearly sufficient for us to know ourselves: we need history, for the past flows on within us in a hundred waves"
and I was wondering how true it rings. Has history ever taught you about yourself?
For anyone interested in the odder ends of literary history, I have a blog post on editor "Linda Lovecraft" - the pseudonym for popular 70s anthologist Michel Parry for two erotic horror anthologies. The series was apparently popular, but reportedly ran afoul of a story that was a little too transgressive for the period and ended up pulped.
My attention has just been grabbed by the inscriptions on 16th century brass alms plates from Nuremberg.
This one at the Met makes sort of sense; "DERIN FRID GEHWART" and something similar is on this one off eBay. But this one (and one in Serridslev Kirke, Denmark) reads "MIVEHVEMIVEHVE..."? And this one "RAMEWIShNBIRAMEW..."?
Interesting weird stuff.
Is it bad form to DM an expert with a question about their area of expertise?
What are some good resources for me to learn about the gilded age (and progressive era), preferably in an entertaining way? Are there any well made and factual YouTube series? If not, any interesting documentaries?Looking for something reasonably in depth but which would still be enjoyed by a non-historian. Thanks!
Does anybody know good books/internet sites/ sources for me? I’d like to research a bit about the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish history. Thank You!
