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 want to commend /u/thefourthmaninaboat for digging in the graveyard of old unanswered questions and finally giving me an answer to a question I asked 174 days ago here
I'm also curious if there's a record (and possible flair for the record holder) for longest time between ask date and answer. Obviously the hard cap on that is (Reddit's default archive duration) - 1 second. If we can find that record-holder, I suggest a "Gravedigger" or "Necromancer" flair.
There was a question the other day about "non-Israeli Jewish heads of state" that was deleted by the time I got back to it. Unfortunately I don't know the answer to that, but it made me think of Léon Blum, who was Prime Minister of France on several occasions in the 1930s and 1940s (though of course the prime minister in the Third Republic was the head of government, not the head of state).
Blum joined one of France's socialist parties after the Dreyfus Affair and by the 1930s he was the leader of the Front populaire, a coalition of left-wing parties formed to respond to the rise of right-wing parties and pro-fascist rioting after Hitler was elected in Germany. He was Prime Minister from June 1936-June 1937, and, of course, the anti-Semitic fascist parties weren't too happy about it. Blum was almost assassinated at one point.
He was briefly Prime Minister again for a few weeks in 1938, and he was still in parliament when the Nazis invaded in 1940. He was one of the 80 deputies who refused to give Petain full power over the government. As a Jew and a socialist, Vichy France was a pretty dangerous place. He was arrested and imprisoned and, along with the other leaders of the Front populaire, was put on trial and eventually sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.
As a high-profile prisoner, he was able survive the camp. His brother was not so fortunate and died in Auschwitz. He was rescued when the camp was liberated in 1945.
For a few weeks in Decembre 1946-Janaury 1947, he was head of the provisional government before the Fourth Republic was established, so technically he was actually the head of state, however briefly. He died in 1950.
This is a very short summary of his life because I actually don't know very much about him! But when I lived in France, my apartment was on Rue Léon-Blum in Nantes. That inspired me to learn a little bit about him, and so he sprung to mind when I saw the now-deleted question.
Did some of Atilla’s Huns wear their hair in buns?
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, July 10 - Thursday, July 16
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 26,919 | 1,013 comments | [Meta] Askhistorians has a policy of zero tolerance for genocide denial |
| 5,780 | 111 comments | At what point did humans go from building their own houses, to paying someone else to build it, to then building them prematurely in hopes someone comes by needing one? |
| 5,706 | 148 comments | How did the people of France go from executing a king in 1793 to near-unanimously endorsing an emperor in 1804? How was Napoleon able to convince people that his absolute rule was different to the kings'? |
| 5,620 | 65 comments | In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s monster weeps upon hearing about how Native Americans were treated. Was this a common sentiment for Europeans in the late 18th and early 19th centuries? |
| 4,973 | 129 comments | What lead to the transition from the flamboyant pastel colours of automobiles in the '50s and '60s to the drab and tame colours of today? |
| 4,054 | 113 comments | In books and movies, when a knight stays at a tavern, he leaves the next day on a “fresh horse.” How did innkeepers keep track of which horses they owned, and how did they get them back? |
| 3,536 | 53 comments | [Great Question!] Why is Woodstock considered so significant an event in music history and so defining for the counterculture generation? How much of this reputation is due to retrospective mythmaking and marketing e.g. the Woodstock film? |
| 3,464 | 89 comments | Show me negative 3 sheep! At uni, I was doing some math and the lecturer said that before negative numbers were recognised as valid, that people couldn't understand the concept of negative numbers. |
| 3,234 | 40 comments | In Medieval Europe, how much does it cost to get properly fed and/or drunk at a restaurant? Can common people afford the cost? |
| 3,187 | 68 comments | Where did the bizarre nickname "Biff" come from? And why did some parents in the 1940s and 50s apparently start giving it out as an actual legal name to their sons? |
###Top 10 Comments
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holy fuck SHEAR
I'm not an Americanist so I had never heard of this guy before, but apparently he's known for this so who the fuck decided to include him as part of a plenary session?
holy fuck SHEAR
This is a serious question for all historians.
If you could give modern weapons to any historical army in the past in order to change the course of history, who would you give them too and why and how do you predict history would change?
I got a cool present in the mail today! A pendant with Odin and runic inscriptions. Will make a great accessory to wear with my Black Lives Matter pin because SOME PEOPLE have done things that make NORMAL PEOPLE very uncomfortable if they see you wearing runes/heathen stuff alone.
Now, if I could only figure out what the hell it said...Here it is if anyone has any insight.
