Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.
And thus we come to the end of August, and one of the final digests of the summer. Buckle in because we’re in for a good time, with an amazing variety of answers on a breathtaking variety of topics. I talk it up, but only because I like to polish gold till it really shines!
Big news everyone! AskHistorians Digital Conference: Live networking sessions are OPEN for registration! This is your chance to come chat with your favorite AskHistorians people!
A new Rules Roundtable XXVII: 'AskHistorians Sucks!' or: How I Learned to Stop Complaining and Go Somewhere Else with lots of good points raised by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov.
Then /u/sumbarbarus joined us for the great I am Dr. Aaron Beek, a classical historian specializing in piracy and banditry in the ancient Mediterranean. Ask Me Anything about ancient Mediterranean skulduggery and associated questionable military actions!
Rehydrate yourself with some good history in TUESDAY TRIVIA: Let's gather around the water cooler and have a nice drink of DHMO as we discuss the HISTORY OF WATER!
Check out the Thursday Reading and Rec.
We’ve got the finest memes and more in the Friday Free For All!
Yay for more happy META threads! Happy 9th Birthday AskHistorians! Thank you to our wonderful community for nine excellent years of doing history, and for many more to come! Now as is tradition, you may get a little rambunctious in this thread.
That wraps us up for the week. Don’t forget to upvote and thank your favorite authors who put so much work into these posts!
I thought this was an interesting question but has no visible answers.
u/screamingracoon asked https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ih5fll/i_am_a_woman_who_lives_in_tudor_england_im_about/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
This is the section to call out those overlooked yet interesting questions that caught our eyes, and our hearts, this week. Perhaps an expert will wander by and see them.
/u/ShieldOnTheWall asked In the Later Middle Ages, how might a monk find themselves expelled from his monastery?
/u/infraredit asked How was the Byzantine Empire so unstable?
Every week I like to identify some of "The Real Questions" of /r/AskHistorians! Here, we honor the more atypical questions that get asked here: the bizarre, abnormal, strangely niche or oddly specific, interestingly worded or built on uncommon premises, or otherwise amusing questions that make me say, "Finally, someone is asking the real questions." We look at little-known customs, unexpected historical anecdotes, unusual cultural traits, and other more unique questions that go beyond the regular brand of sociopolitical history that this subreddit so fabulously covers.
Below are my entries for this week! What do you think were the realest questions?
Does anyone know an article about how Americans became so prone towards circumcision?