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.
Hello all -
In the spirit of Halloween, I recent posted a video on Four ways to summon a demon in Roman Egypt. Enjoy - and as always, comments and questions are welcome!
Ghost stories! Tis the season for haunted horror tales! Does anyone have any good historical ghost stories? I'm sure we have lots of people who've worked at or been to historical sites, anyone got any stories of their own that happened to them?
u/AncientHistory doesn't post much of his Lovecraft research here, but lately he's been doing a series on Lovecraft's female correspondents, and this week it's a descendant of accused Salem Witch Mary Eastey.
I couldn't pass muster trying to post my question:
Who was the composer, conductor, and leader of a traveling symphony orchestra, who was said to show up uninvited, and coerce towns to pay for the band to perform? This would have been some time within 17th - 19th century, somewhere in Europe.
I heard about this person on PDQ Bach's podcast, he always spoke about music trivia. I would like to read a collection of biographies about musical characters in history. Does anyone know any titles? Or even just a bio or autobiography that talks about the music scene before it went electric?
Does anyone know any good books on the history of occultism?? Thanks!
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, October 23 - Thursday, October 29
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 5,362 | 83 comments | How did the modern genre of fantasy become so heavily associated with the medieval period? |
| 4,672 | 233 comments | [META] American historians who are also parents: how do you address errors and gross oversimplifications presented to your kids as historical fact in school? Do you ever bring it up with teachers? Do you address it with your kids, and if so, how-- without 'undermining' the authority of the teacher? |
| 4,357 | 68 comments | What did happen in the year 1000? Like, 1000 years since Jesus was born and the catholic church was at its height, did some really big celebrations take place or something like that? |
| 4,281 | 99 comments | With fascism being almost universally condemned after the fall of Hitler and Mussolini, how did Francisco Franco's regime continue to persist until well into the mid-70s? |
| 3,907 | 91 comments | How did the polynesians survive out on the open ocean while discovering new lands? Did they have to bring a lot of water? |
| 3,524 | 20 comments | Even though much is lost, the overwhelming majority of public knowledge on Western Phoenician civilization is centred on Carthage and it’s empire. But what do we know about the inner workings of other large Punic polities like Utica in North Africa and Agadir/Gadir in Spain? |
| 3,342 | 92 comments | How long ago was it that the average person would know what year it was (ie., 1774, 1820, 2007, etc.)? |
| 3,228 | 112 comments | So why was Nazi Germany allied to Japan, anyway? |
| 3,004 | 46 comments | When and how did labs and golden retrievers become the classic "family dogs" in the United States? |
| 2,510 | 83 comments | Were psilocybin mushrooms ever traded in Post-Rome Europe, brought there by merchants, or in any way accessible to average folks? Were early colonists ever exposed to them in any way? |
###Top 10 Comments
Any good sources for accurate norse mythology? I know that there aren't too many totally accurate sources but I'm looking for something (book, movie, website, etc.) That is fairly accurate in the beliefs. Currently reading translation of poetic Edda by Jackson Crawford, and am planing on reading the prose Edda afterwards, but from what I've heard these are more preservations of literature rather than preservations of beliefs.
When was the first day of the dead ever?
Do you have a Discord? it would be nice to have conversations about history that are more back-and-forth format than Reddit provides
What are some recently translated works, long awaited as gems but unavailable in English (or any modern language) until the last few years? Thank you.