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.
I have a question I've been thinking about. Why is it that some of the most glorious cities and states of ancient times are now desolate and backward. For example: Mesopotamia is now Pakistan, Babylon is now Iraq, Magadha is now Bihar (India), and Egypt is well, Egypt. What are the factors which have led to this?
Happy Friday folks! Seeing as I'm one among many stuck inside, I thought I'd get a little conversation going. What are some of your favorite historical(ish) movies? Are you a major fan of Kingdom of Heaven? More towards Monty Python's Holy Grail? (It's historical, fite me.)
Throw some titles out so I can find some new stuff to watch!
For the authors out there: I'm starting a series of posts on Medium about various aspects of social history that seem useful or interesting for writing historical fiction or fantasy based closely on a historical period. Basically, AskHistorians posts but written explicitly from the perspective that the reader is figuring out how to handle a situation with their characters. Here's the first one, via friend link so even if you've used up your free articles for the month, you can read it - Don't Fear the Corset.
Hey, Australian with a lifelong interest in American history here.
Was reading about Trump’s current approval ratings (not here to start a political debate) and came across this page which has graphs comparing his trajectory with past presidents.
My question today is in regards to George H.W. Bush. I have rudimentary knowledge of that period, knowing the economy experienced a very bad patch and there was conflict in the Middle East - but how did his approval rating fall to 39% on day 1,160 of his presidency, when just over a year before it sat at an incredibly high 85%.
What was he doing so right around day 780, and what went so wrong a year later?
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, April 03 - Thursday, April 09
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 5,504 | 121 comments | If you bought two loafs of bread in a medieval market, would they just be handed to you, or will you recive some sort of sack or bag? |
| 5,433 | 150 comments | It’s winter 1929. Stocks are crashing. But it’s not clear just how bad it will be. What did the most prepared and aware (or just lucky) individuals do to prepare for the turmoil to come? |
| 4,684 | 107 comments | When did taking shots of alcohol become part of drinking culture? |
| 4,233 | 79 comments | Napoleon was 30 years old when George Washington died. Do we know what these men thought of each other? |
| 3,987 | 42 comments | The Outlander book and TV series presents a fairly high number of rapes or attempted rapes, one occurring in the very first episode - How prevalent was rape around the time of the Jacobite Rising? What were the repercussions for such an act and how did it affect the victims? |
| 3,565 | 115 comments | Did any of the American founding fathers ever hope or predict that one day rights would be extended to blacks, women, or natives? |
| 3,234 | 33 comments | Antipope John XXIII was accused and found guilty only of piracy, rape, sodomy, murder and incest after the more scandalous charges were suppressed according to to historian Edward Gibbon. Was there any merit to the accusations? |
| 3,020 | 84 comments | Was there much debate over naming Israel, Israel, instead of Judea? |
| 2,758 | 46 comments | Shakespeare gives directions for some characters to speak Welsh in Henry IV Part 1. Would the actors have said anything comprehensible or would they instead have performed racist mockery of the language? |
| 2,469 | 38 comments | Why is Baku the only major city on the Caspian Sea? |
###Top 10 Comments
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The Declaration of Arbroath celebrated its 700th birthday this week!
I was looking forward to seeing it displayed at the National Museum of Scotland this summer, the first time in public in 15 years. But the current pandemic has put a halt to that.
On that subject, stay safe everyone.
I see a lot of memes about people upset at how they’re living through a major historical event right now, and it’s occurred to me that how much content is being produced that can be a primary source of life under COVID-19, including content talking about that. It got me wondering: are there any examples of that In history, ordinary citizens writing in their journals or whatever explicitly acknowledging how they might be a primary source (in function, if not necessarily with that language)?
Been through a hellish week. Apparently since we're all stuck in our homes our docents are piling on assignment after assignment. Browsing way too long in Twitter and hearing the laments of fellow students of history major also got me despaired upon my studies, so that doesn't help.
I really don't have anything more to add so for Ottoman History I recommend Harun Küçük's Science Without Leisure , which tells about the "science" that the Ottomans were up to during the 17th century and how the economic condition of the Empire transformed the Ottoman intellectual space. I'll probably write something for Saturday Showcase next week if I can
What group of travelers most probably introduced the tobacco and coca leaf to the Egyptians?