So how's everyone doing this week? Read any good history books, or have a really good game of something?

I've been slowly working my way through David Abulafia's "The Great Sea". It's quite good, and a very interesting and different look at the Mediterranean, but its also pretty huge. I keep chugging through 50 pages, and then glancing forward to seeing the hundreds of pages left!

I’m currently reading the biography of Harry Truman by his daughter Margaret and came across this quote from Truman’s notes:

“Bess & Margaret went to Mo. at 7:30 EDT, 6:30 God’s time.”

I’ve never heard of any time zone be referred to as “God’s time” before. Which time zone is this, and why does God get to lay a stake on it?

I have a question that I think is too wide reaching for a regular Q, but I can't get it out of my mind so dropping it here in hope of an answer:

How and why were the steppe people of the Eurasian steppe so influential in world history?

I am seeking to fully understand how and why nomadic groups have had such an impact on the sedantry groups that surround them, seemingly throughout history up until the invention of more modern transportation systems.

The Medes, Persians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Cumans, Huns, Bulgars, Turks and Mongols (to name but a few!) have all been hugely influential in world history either through migration or invasion (or both). How did they accomplish this? Why is it nomadic tribes? How far back does this history actually go?

Is there a population factor in the steppe that caused over-crowding and mass movement? Is the answer simply military strength - that sedantry groups had no good answers to the mobility of a people all on horseback? Or is there a historiographic answer here too (that it's only the most successful tribes that get written about and recorded?)

P.S. I've asked mostly about the Eurasian steppe and its influence on Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and China, but I appreciate that there are pockets in the Sahel and in Arabia that are just as influential.

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all doing well. I recently started reading up about world war 2 and I am now very interested about how the policies in the occupation zones in Germany by the Allied Powers were and how they differed from each other. It would be great if anybody could suggest some light reading regarding this.

Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap

Friday, October 09 - Thursday, October 15

###Top 10 Posts

###Top 10 Comments

Has there ever been a historical event that you have studied that made you cry? If so, which one?

Looking for a good book/doc about post-WWII Japanese culture, especially toys, cartoons, video games, film, and how it was influenced by economic situations, culture, population etc.

(I'm not an academic so anything light and casual is fine)

Early last week I wrote an answer where at the end I mention how there are two characters in Greek mythology named Eurydice: the wife of Orpheus who he tries (and fails) to rescue from the Underworld, and the wife of King Creon, who takes over Thebes after his brother Oedipus runs into some family troubles. Which got me thinking: wouldn’t it be an amusing take if someone told the story of Orpheus, but somehow he wound up meeting the queen instead? What would happen, what sorts of hijinks can emerge? And now I kinda want to write this story play or short story. It would definitely require a sense of self-awareness and some fourth-wall breaking in order to work right, as if they know they’re in a story but the myth went wrong.

But why stop there? So I pose the question: what other mythological mixups would you be interested in seeing? Are there any myths (not exclusive to Greek) you’d think would be interesting if a character was replaced with a different mythological character of the same or similar name?
I think what I would do is swap the Eurydices, like I mentioned, and swap King Creon of Thebes with King Creon of Corinth, who Jason and the Argonauts encounter. And you know who one of those argonauts is? That’s right, Orpheus! Imagine that encounter.

Also, has anything like this been done? I haven’t done the research, but I don’t think I’ve heard of it before—but I also can’t be the first person to have this idea. I don’t know if I’ll actually pursue this as a project (probably won’t, to be honest) but it’s a fun thing to think about.

I was just reading the side bar and I think for rule 2 it might be better worded as "Nothing More Recent Than 20 Years Ago, and Don't Soapbox." Do with that what you want.

I was having a discussion recently about US events and none of us could recall any historical instances of executive branches who had more or less lost a major vote of confidence or the equivalent, and then going on to nominate people to top-tier judiciary positions. But none of us have seen any political scientists or historians talking about it this week.

Do any of you have any historic examples of this and if so, what happened? For some reason my brain keeps telling me that it happened in Rome and ended badly, but I can't seem to locate the ruler.

Finally get to ask, what is the largest squandered fortune in history?

Does anyone have any input as to how useful the Cambridge histories are? They seem to cover just about everything in history but not in too much depth.

Vaclav Smil has said that the label "Industrial revolution" isn't very helpful. Instead, there was no single "industrial revolution" just overlapping innovation. Anybody know what kind of stuff he is referencing? I just saw him mention it offhand in a video interview, IDK how to research and learn more about this for myself. Any tips?

Can anyone identify this actor in the linked photo? I need to ID him for work and no one can figure out who he is, though plenty of people think he looks familiar. Reverse image search was also no help. Thanks! https://imgur.com/a/K6J1LfX

Does anyone have recommendations on copper-working among NW Coast groups?

I had a throughout history questions I wanted to ask.

But whatever it was is history now.

edit: I remembered it!

What was the most that was ever decided by a game of chance?