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.
Gankom's Fun Discussion Time!
(GFDT isn't a great acronym, we'll workshop it.)
What better place then a history board to ask: How do you get someone into history?
I think its fair to say most people browsing through here enjoy history to some degree. But how do you get others into it? Do you try in the first place? Do you use different methods to show kids some fun history stuff, or maybe send an older relative a book suggestions they might like?
I've been having immense fun recently reading AH posts aloud to some younger relatives. I also quite like Horrible Histories and the songs especially, so we'll put that on to watch all the time. Little things that help grab some imagination and get them in. It starts with big battles, shiny knight armor or rip roaring adventures, and then grows into the more complex and fascinating things.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, May 29 - Thursday, June 04
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 36,117 | 873 comments | [Meta] George Floyd was murdered by America: a historian's perspective on the history of U.S. police brutality against Black people |
| 33,084 | 3 comments | [Meta] AskHistorians is closing to new posts from 8:30 PM EDT to 12 PM EDT tomorrow to protest the reddit admins' providing a home for hate speech. |
| 9,407 | 193 comments | The Chemical Weapons Convention (1993) has prohibited the use of tear gas in warfare, but explicitly allows its use in riot control. What is the logic behind it being too bad for war, but perfectly acceptable for use against civilians? |
| 5,548 | 48 comments | In 1858, the Ottoman Empire legalized homosexuality. What did this look like and how was it received both by the public and by other countries? |
| 4,978 | 115 comments | How have Americans become so prudish toward sexuality yet so open to violence? |
| 4,322 | 146 comments | Why are the French so good at protesting? |
| 3,683 | 126 comments | I'm attached to mercenary Swiss Pike company in the high middle ages. We step through a wormhole and wind up squaring off against a Macedonian phalanx. Forget who wins. Has much changed in the use of a pike? Or are we essentially the same infantry a couple millenia apart? |
| 3,486 | 68 comments | Why did Buddhism flourish throughout almost all of East Asia, but remains an extreme minority in its home country of India? |
| 3,328 | 342 comments | [Meta] Hwæt! We have new Moderators! |
| 3,114 | 39 comments | I have always wondered how the neutral mini countries of Europe (Monaco, San Marino, Vatican, Liechtenstein, Andorra) did in WWII, especially those completely surrounded by the Axis! |
###Top 10 Comments
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Can someone recommend an authoritative and reasonably well balanced pop history on the American Civil War? Nothing too weighty but I don't want to go too pop history (Guns, Germs & Steel for example) either. An example of something I liked would be Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy.
Thank you.
I have a meta question.
I'm interested in making a blog/podcast about a country whose history isn't well known, if at all, in my home country. Howerer, would it be moral to do so?
While I (hope I) know how to do basic historical research, I use multiple sources from various authors, I still fear some errors may miss my eye. And if I were to teach something that's incorrect, I would never forgive myself.
I feel like I read somewhere that there was a period of time where swords were finished by stabbing someone through the heart because they felt like it gave them special powers. I want to say that this was some medieval Spanish tradition.
Or is this all some figment of my imagination or badly remembered story from a fantasy novel?
Who was Joseph Wellington "Jo" Byrn (41st US Speaker of the House)?
I have three minor questions as a follow up to /u/commiespaceinvader's answer to this thread from about 4 years ago:
Did the allies first become aware of extermination camps before they encountered them and dismiss the reports, only to have them confirmed by the troops liberating such camps? or did they believe such reports from the beginning? Or were the liberation of the first extermination camps the first time the allies came across them in any form?
Note that my question isn't about concentration camps in general, but the extermination camps such as Auswitz specifically. The linked thread clearly stated that the regular camps were more or less public knowledge since before the war.