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.
Don’t forget to spare a thought for some of the fascinating questions that still hope for an answer. Feel free to post your own, or other questions that caught your eye.
/u/zoe_2703 asked What is the history of Astrology and why is it still so popular?
/u/Don_Alosi asked Were WW1 or WW2 actually ever considered "the wars that would end all wars?"
/u/I_walked_east asked Most early Protestants were former Catholics. Were there early Protestants who were former Jews or Muslims or other non-Christians, and what were their experiences like?
Let’s kick back and spend our Sunday relaxing with another awesome edition of the AskHistorians digest! The very best of the fascinating history you’ve been dying to read.
Don’t forget to shower those hard working writers and contributors in glorious upvotes, and feel free to call out any threads that I missed, or even just add your voice to which ones you thought were the best.
Many thanks to /u/sniphist for I specialise in the history of vasectomy in Britain and, more broadly, histories of eugenics, contraception, reproductive rights, and masculinity. AMA!
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 168 - Mandatory Palestine with Naama Cohen.
Some great ideas in the Thursday Reading and Rec!
Join the fun in the Friday Free For All!
/u/Starwarsnerd222 wows us in the Saturday Showcase!
Continuing our traditional of featuring meta threads, a number of users came forward with very important statements.
And that’s it for today readers! Enjoy the wealth, dive into that reading, and I’ll see all you fine folks next week!
Time for another installment of "The Real Questions", where take a look at the wilder side of r/AskHistorians! Here, I give a shout-out to people asking the more atypical questions on this sub: questions that investigate amusing, unique, bizarre, or less common aspects of history, as well as ones that take us through intriguing adventures of historiography/methodology or niche/overlooked topics and moments in history. It's always a wide (and perhaps confusing) assortment of topics, but at the end of the day, when I see them I think, "Finally, someone is asking the real questions!"
Below are my entries for the week - questions with a link to an older response are marked with ‡. Let me know what you think were the realest questions you saw this week, and be sure to check out my full list of Real Questions.