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.
Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima so I've been a busy little bee. A few things I've written that came out in the last week:
"Did the US plan to drop more than two bombs on Japan?", National Geographic History — if you are paywalled out, feel free to DM me for a secret link. This is a fairly long article (with nifty maps!) that looks at the US plans for atomic bombing Japan after Nagasaki.
"Counting the dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — how many people died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and how do we know? This article looks at the history of attempts to estimate the human impact of the bombings, from 1945 until the present.
"Hiroshima, Truman and American myth", New York Daily News — a short op-ed about the lessons of the atomic bombing, and how erroneous historical understandings get them wrong
And those of you with Netflix can see me romp around the Trinity site with my old friend Latif Nasser on episode 6 of his show Connected. This was filmed in summer 2019, a million years ago.
And I have at least one more relevant thing potentially coming out in the next week or so... maybe two. Still finalizing those.
If you want my omnibus take on the bombing of Hiroshima, you can read my article on Kyoto published earlier this year, which is basically that.
Hello historians! John Oliver recently dove into how (US) history is taught in schools. It seems that, overall, there's much work to be done in terms of educational reform. I was looking for discussion on the following questions (preferably after watching the video):
Bonus question: Any readings recommended in similar vein to what John suggested? He had asked us to look into:
Even though there's a reply, I welcome further discussion!
Hello all-
I recently finished the last of my three videos on Atlantis. This one debunks the widely-held notion that the Atlantis story was inspired by the Bronze Age eruption of the Thera volcano. You can find it (and its two prequels) on this page.
Have a good weekend!
Has your Ph.D. application been successful?
No.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, July 31 - Thursday, August 06
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 10,108 | 349 comments | The Spanish Flu of 1918 didn't have a vaccine and spread throughout the population, and ultimately about 28% of Americans were infected, but epidemiologists say we need about 70% infected for herd immunity. So why did the flu stop spreading? |
| 5,086 | 114 comments | Did people in the past really have more leisure time than we do today? If so, when did this start to change? |
| 4,855 | 57 comments | The People's Republic of China technically has 8 minor, legally-sanctioned political parties besides the Communist Party of China. What's the history of these parties? What purpose did they serve in a de facto one-party state? |
| 4,755 | 41 comments | [Great Question!] Aelfgifu ("Elf-gift") was seemingly a fairly popular name for noble Anglo-Saxon women. What was the Anglo-Saxon conception of "elves" and how did it play with church doctrine? |
| 4,688 | 74 comments | I was surprised to find out that apparently Mussolini was an avid reader and even considered an intellectual by some contemporaries – whereas today I feel he is often seen as quite simple-minded. How did this image change take place after the war? Has his image even changed at all? |
| 4,174 | 69 comments | I've read that the Mongols destroyed Mesopotamia's canal system, and as a result the population of the region is lower today than it was before the Mongol invasion. What exactly did the Mongols do in Mesopotamia, and why did the population never recover? |
| 4,086 | 119 comments | "Cornfields now are where Troy once was". How do abandoned cities physically disappear and have to be excavated? |
| 3,773 | 211 comments | A quick cursory glance at Wikipedia shows there is a debate on the historicity of Jesus, but not Muhammad among scholars. Is this simply because there are more contemporary non-Islam records of Muhammad versus non-Christians records of Jesus? |
| 3,646 | 128 comments | Bill James said that Donald Trump is the most crude and vulgar President since Harry Truman. What about Truman was so vulgar and did he have a reputation for being particularly uncouth among his contemporaries? |
| 3,466 | 75 comments | Canada’s Defense Minister claims that in 1961, 50 UFOs flew south in formation towards Russia, then flew back towards the North Pole before the Supreme Allied Commander “pressed the panic button.” Is there any record of such an event? |
###Top 10 Comments
I have a minor question about a medieval role: What would have been the title of someone at a castle who recorded and archived historical records? Would a chancellor have been responsible for this task?
How scary is everyone moving to email instead of letters, postcards or telegrams like earlier? There's gonna be no tangible record fo correspondence between famous figures. How is the usage of email being viewed by archivists since widespread use picked up in the early 90s?