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.
Mildly interesting observation... Watching old WWII movies made either during the war or immediately after, the German soldiers all wear WWI-era Stahlhelms, not WWII. I expect they had a stock of them from pre-war films, and then couldn't get newer ones made due to wartime limitations on metal acquisition, so had to just go with the older models, although of course it was also a period where there was less fetishism for accuracy, I suspect.
In any case... Immersion, RUINED.
Ah, tis the time for holiday traditions. Trees, fruit cake, presents, or one of my favorites, the time of year my buildings janitor extensively tells me about the real meaning of Christmas. That it was made up in 1962 as a way of distracting the masses from thinking about the moon landing being a hoax and hide the dome around the Earth.
Which is obviously false. Clearly the earth is more of a disc shape. Thats the optimal shape to be supported by the elephants. Anything else and they'd have trouble keeping their balance on the turtle.
But I digress. What I want to ask the fine and charming denizens of the sub is; What are some of your holiday traditions? Especially this early in the month, what are you starting to do? To get ready for?
I'm currently curating an exhibit on witchcraft, magic, and demonology for the spring (a great follow up to our Christmas displays). I found a very cool 19th century inscription on the back page of our 1492 copy of the Malleus Maeficarum-"This copy possesses much the same interest as would a headsman's ax of that date, inasmuch as it has probably been the direct cause of the death of many persons accused of sorcery."
If you're ever interested on how Theosophy influenced pulp fiction, especially H. P. Lovecraft & co., I recently posted about The Book of Dzyan by Helena Blavatsky.
Hello all-
Last week, I posted my latest video: A Historical Tour of Hagia Sophia. Hopefully of interest to the good people of this sub. As always, questions and comments are welcome.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, November 27 - Thursday, December 03
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 6,171 | 233 comments | [Meta] Do the mods/answerers/askers of questions of this subreddit realise how important they are to armchair historians and those who wish to get better at what they "study?" |
| 5,237 | 123 comments | The American Medical Association acts a bit like a cartel — limiting the number of medical schools and medical school students, and thus the total doctors. Have doctors always done this in the US? Why and when did they start? |
| 4,327 | 77 comments | US consumer protection had a golden age from 1960-1978. Ralph Nader and other advocates successfully pushed for clean water and air regulations, as well as safer cars and other consumer goods. But by 1980 this seems to have stalled. Why did Americans lose interest in the once-wildly popular topic? |
| 4,148 | 59 comments | Did paper airplanes exist before 1903? |
| 3,770 | 236 comments | This may be a dumb question but were there white slaves in the US? (Mid 1800s) |
| 3,223 | 59 comments | Why was one of Nazi Germany's best tank commander, Erwin Rommel, sent to Africa instead of being sent to lead in Barbarossa? |
| 3,079 | 108 comments | Was Genghis Khan considered a pious and moral man by the standards of his religion? |
| 2,700 | 102 comments | As an American English speaker, how far back in time could I go before I couldn't understand people enough to communicate? |
| 1,034 | 16 comments | How long did it take for the world to return to pre-pandemic conditions after the 1918 influenza? |
| 561 | 6 comments | When and why did traditional tattoos disappear in Europe? |
###Top 10 Comments
I watched Die Hard for the first time today, great movie, I can see why my cousins love it so much. But in the movie Hans Gruber mentions some sort of revolutionary movement in Sri Lanka called the Asian Dawn, was this a real event that was happening in the 80s, or was it just made up for the movie?
[sub-promotion]
r/AtheistMyths is a new sub for discussing and debunking popular myths believed in by atheists, myths often repeated as facts, in spite of the consensus among historians.
Any contribution is welcome.
I’m trying to verify a Thomas Paine quote. “The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” I see it posted everywhere, but cannot find the original text. The closest thing I’ve found is "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." From The Rights of Man, Chapter 5. Can anyone help? Thank you!
Can anyone help me track down a quote about how the CSA was prepared for war in spirit only and woefully unprepared in every other way
¿Any book or sources to read about the Niger river? The importance of that river.
I started reading a book " The Language Instinct " by Steven Pinker. I came scross this line
Chomsky is currently among the ten most-cited writers in all of the humanities (beating out Hegel and Cicero and trailing only Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, the Bible, Aristotle, Plato, and Freud)
How can I verify the veracity of this claim ?
