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.
Many moons ago, we were assigned Orientalism for seminar and, prior to class, this guy comes in and says, "What did you guys think of the book? Personally, I think enough has been said on the topic," and then painfully, silently waits for literally any reaction to his Edward Said pun. It felt like it took years for someone to give a, "Hah, that's... clever?" I still think about it and get mad sometimes.
Anyway, I was accepted to a PhD program last month and I get to use the post-9/11 GI Bill to pay for it, so that's nice.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, February 14 - Thursday, February 20
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 7,735 | 72 comments | Of the top 20 tallest statues in the world, 15 depict a Buddha or are Buddhist in nature. How did a religion typically associated with aeseticism and impermanence come to produce such ostentatious art? |
| 6,046 | 243 comments | Did people do blowjobs in the medieval times? |
| 4,021 | 159 comments | After his term as president, John Quincy Adams ran for a seat in the House of Representatives and held it for 17 years. How unique was it for American presidents to run for "lesser," public offices after being president? |
| 2,739 | 60 comments | It is often said here that the Red Army of 1941 was not the same army as that of 1942 which was not the same as 1943. What contrasted these armies that made the latter so potent? |
| 2,706 | 58 comments | When Alexander the Great's generals scrambled for the pieces of his disintegrating empire following his death, was the Macedonian heartland they grew up in considered the richest of the spoils, or a provincial backwater compared to the rich lands of Egypt and Persia? |
| 2,649 | 64 comments | I am medieval farmer. How rich is my vocabulary? |
| 2,596 | 83 comments | In Federalist No. 10 James Madison wrote that direct democracies have generally been short-lived and always been disastrous. What democratic states was he thinking of? |
| 2,430 | 74 comments | [Great Question!] What was social life like within the Iroquois Confederacy? |
| 2,415 | 71 comments | Is there a particular reason why Norse mythology depicts Thor wielding a hammer when warhammers were not a common Viking weapon? |
| 1,944 | 49 comments | I am an American archaeological professor in an Indian Princely State on business in 1935. What's for dinner? |
###Top 10 Comments
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I got WL'd from UChicago so it looks like I'm almost certainly gonna be doing my PhD at Brown unless Stanford pulls through (which I have no hope for)
Has anyone seen these debates around the lack of women's voices in the recent Malcolm X documentary series on Netflix: https://msmagazine.com/2020/02/26/op-ed-an-open-letter-to-the-producers-and-directors-of-who-killed-malcolm-x/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare Raises interesting points about the significant women that influenced Malcolm's life, as well as whose interpretations of that history are being spotlighted.
What are the origins of the Masquerade Carnival?