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.
This subreddit is my favorite. Even though I sometime post, the trepidation of doing so is palpable. The questions and the responses more often than not result in going down a rabbit hole of history and learning, informing and expanding my horizons. It has been especially helpful in this quarantine. So thank you contributors and moderators for sharing and taking time to educate the masses.
Hello all-
Last week, in a fit of cabin fever, I added a short video about travel in the classical world to my ongoing series "Questions about Ancient Greece and Rome (you were afraid to ask in school)." As always, comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
So a historian walks into a time traveling bar...
... and what kind of historical drink are they anxious to try? Is there a particularly fine scotch from yesteryear you've heard amazing things about? What about sitting down for a horn of the finest Norse Mead?
If you could try ANY historical drink or pub food, as made by the people themselves, what would it be!?
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, April 17 - Thursday, April 23
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 6,329 | 186 comments | Within a period of about 15 years, from 220-235 CE, all four major Eurasian powers (The Roman empire, Parthian empire, Kushan empire, and Han dynasty) went into severe decline or collapsed completely. What happened to cause such widespread societal collapse over such a large area? |
| 5,336 | 63 comments | How do I join a trebuchet crew in late medieval France? Is it a family thing, are there interviews? What are some of the risks and benefits of my new career that are maybe less known? |
| 4,897 | 116 comments | How do we know that ancient Greeks/Scandinavians/Egyptians/etc. believed in their gods, and that it wasn't just a collection of universally known fictional characters a la the Looney Tunes, with poems and theme parks dedicated to them? |
| 4,567 | 98 comments | How did "Aryan" come to mean blonde haired blue eyed white supremacists when the Aryan people were part of the ancient Vedic culture, who by geography would not have been white or blonde? |
| 4,149 | 58 comments | [Great Question!] A European ship full of spices successfully returns to her home port. What happens to the cargo next? What does the chain of supply between the ship and the dining table look like? |
| 3,554 | 180 comments | Why are the musical notes named A B C D E F G in germanic languages and when did we started to use this system? Why are they not labeled as Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si like in Latin languages? |
| 3,361 | 191 comments | Was there any point during WW2 when Germany and Japan could have settled, and just be content with what they’d gained? |
| 2,804 | 65 comments | In the 1985 movie Back to the Future, one of the characters arranges to get plutonium from a group of Libyan terrorists who want a nuclear weapon. Were there any groups in Libya in the 1980s actively seeking nuclear weapons, or is this plot point entirely artistic license? |
| 2,577 | 77 comments | In all 50 United States, why do all of them use the presidential system of government instead of a semi-presidential or parliamentary system, and all but one are bicameral? |
| 2,347 | 79 comments | To what degree could ancient/medieval smiths reach the weapon quality that is shown to us in modern entertainment? |
###Top 10 Comments
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So this January I started editing a online magazine attached to a publishing company over here. Basically four essays go up a week.
The focus is on a counter factual history. So an essay may well be on the 1994 South African Elections or the Black Hawk War. The first two thirds of that essay would be to explain the historical situation and the last third would be to look at the 'what if's of how it might have gone differently'. Most of the people contributing work in academia, they have history degrees, they're into this sort of thing. Generally speaking the essay writer is well read and knows what they're talking about.
If any of you would be interested in writing an essay, please feel free to message me, I'd be happy to talk about it and I'd be grateful for any submissions. We'd be looking at 1,000 to 4,000 words per essay though I'd be happy to publish a longer essay in parts. You'd get an audience, a chance to both educate and get your thoughts in order and we might ask if we can publish it in a non fiction anthology in which case you'd be paid royalties.
It's entirely possible that some of the answers here could be cleaned up a little and used as an essay if any of you wanted. Thank you for reading.
My grandma passed about a week ago and I'm going through her things. I found that I'm related to a couple of soldiers that fought in the Revolutionary War. I was wondering if someone could point me to a place to gather more information? The soldiers were Daniel Merwin, who was a private in Capt. Caleb Hales Company, Ct. 1779. And Silas Knapp who was in Hay's company I think from New York. I found out because they have letters confirming that we are related to them from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
What is your most fascinating story from your area of expertise? Reposts/links welcome – I just want to read! :)
I'm reading a lot of Indonesian jurisprudence lately, and I was struck by how often these authors compared the Suharto's regime with Mussolini's Italy. Supomo, of the Indonesian founding fathers and the primary author of the constitution, was an ardent admirer of Mussolini. When Suharto took over, he put a lot of emphasis on all the worst part of Supomo's touch on the Indonesian legal/political system. Most of modern juridical theory-writings here would draw attention to these connections as to shit on Suharto. But I can't find any comprehensive comparison so far--they're all just throwaway factoids.
I find it odd that Supomo set his sight at Italy rather than Germany, given how his own education at Leiden should've made him be more influenced by German political/intellectual currents than Italian one. But this is probably because I don't know enough about fascist Italy to appreciate the comparison between it and Indonesia.
Can anyone recommend me a book or two on the history of fascist Italy? Something focused on its ideology or its political-economy would be most welcome
Question - what happened to the French army after the invasion of France? I assume it was only the British who were rescued at Dunkirk, so did the French just stay?
Can anyone point me in the direction of some good sources about the history of music printing? (COVID-19 has made my research more difficult than normal, so any help is greatly appreciated!)