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.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, September 04 - Thursday, September 10
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 7,365 | 143 comments | At the time of US independence, the 13 colonies had 2+ million inhabitants, whereas the mother country, Britain, had only 8+ million. How is it possible a colony could grow organically to 25% of home population in such a short time? No other colonial power faced the same power disparity. |
| 6,631 | 26 comments | How did Sigmund Freud’s mother react to his theories? |
| 5,972 | 44 comments | Why did European Bowler hats become part of traditional women's dress for the Aymara people in Bolivia and Peru? |
| 4,527 | 92 comments | Pedophilia of Catholic priests has occurred on a fairly large scale and is an increasingly well known occurrence in the modern day. Was this at all a problem (or a well known one) in Medieval Europe? How often would priests be known to break the Church's rules on sexuality? |
| 4,439 | 93 comments | How did a provocative dance like belly dancing come out of conservative Islamic countries? If it was pre-Islamic, how did it survive centuries of conservative laws for women? |
| 3,895 | 168 comments | Why did people write much more eloquently 150 years ago? |
| 3,561 | 50 comments | I'm a Roman soldier fighting another Roman in the numerous civil wars. Do I feel remorse for fighting and killing my countrymen rather than the "barbarians"? Or is the concept of "countrymen" anachronistic during Antiquity? |
| 2,424 | 35 comments | How did workers during the Industrial Revolution work 16 hour days? |
| 1,500 | 76 comments | What's the earliest water slide we have evidence for? Did the Romans use aquaducts as water slides? |
| 1,377 | 20 comments | What’s the deal with people, including U.S. President Zachary Taylor, dying from eating a ‘surfeit of cherries, and what is the current theory of his cause of death? |
###Top 10 Comments
So some time ago i posted a question, but i realize that i'm more wondering about the casual view, rather than a fully well-sourced and academic level answer.
So let me ask it here, and ask about your views personally, rather than about a "current historians consensus". How do you guys feel about "why the west rules" by Ian Morris? Is his theory broadly accepted? interesting but ignored? or has it been proven wrong?
Any reports on ancient forest fires? I've certainly heard about fires burning cities, but did people note when fires burnt large forested areas?
What are some useful "citizen historian" projects that I can contribute to while I'm stuck at home during quarantine?
I know of the Smithsonian transcription project, and some Googling led me to this list of resources but it seems a bit out of date (and honestly kind of overwhelming).
I'd also love to know any historians on this sub actively use any of these projects for research! Would much rather contribute to something I feel a connection to. :)
I keep asking myself...
Was it just a happenstance of history and an "attractor-effect" with no more systematicity in its more global causal-etiological structure that there were such extraordinary densities of scientific work being produced in particular places at particular times? I'm thinking of Göttingen from Cantor to Hilbert and Weyl, Erlangen for the Klein Program, Lvov/Warsaw from Kuratowski and Łukasiewicz to Sierpiński, Leśniewski and Tarski.
With institutions like the institute for advanced study, things are relatively clear - there were programs specifically planned to create exactly those kinds of circumstances and taking on the scientists fleeing Europe.
But with Göttingen or Warsaw, I keep thinking whether an attractor-effect after an "initial spark" was all it took, or whether there's more causal-etiological structure to understand. Göttingen is sort of understandable, because set-theory was really very new in its rigoros form, and thus intuitively there was little opportunity elsewhere to contribute to its elaboration. But Warsaw? At that point, formal logic, set-theory and topology were already relatively well established - the general framework was there... so how come so many important developments were made by so few people from that one region - when intuitively the pre-established framework would have allowed for similar opportunities elsewhere.
Please feel free to suggest any books on the Northern Ireland conflict. I recently watched this great movie called 71 and am interested in knowing more regarding the situation of that time.
The past few months have seen countless statues dedicated to Confederate soldiers - or slave holders in general - taken down, and names are being removed from universities and public places. Personally, I support these efforts, but I'm eager to see the next generation of names and figures that will replace them.
Are there historical figures that are maybe lesser known that have never gotten their due, and might be worth considering for public commemoration? MLK, Malcom X and Frederick Douglas are all figures who we repeatedly see when America's history of racism is acknowledged. But I'm curious if there are regional figures who also should be considered.
Hi! I'd love some insight from historians on how important understanding history is to understand the political landscape. Could a person demonstrate with an example how lack of historical knowledge may lead to a skewed understanding of current political affairs?
Aside from the end of the world stories, Is the idea of speculating about the future (over a hundred years) a modern concept?
I've been caught up in a little phenomenon that I find fascinating and weird.
Ever since I was a little kid I've had a love for Germany and I don't know why. ImI love the German language and German history, particularly medieval but also the golden age of of empire.
But now being on the Internet, I see I'm not alone but other 20 something Americans have developed this same interest. There's Wehraboos and Kaiserboos everywhere.
Where the hell has this interest come from?