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.
This past week, I listened to a discussion of Sex in an Old Regime City: Young Workers and Intimacy in France, 1660-1789 between the author, Dr. Julie Hardwick, and Dr. Karin Wulf. It's great, and I think it would be of interest to AskHistorians readers given the highly upvoted questions we've had about historical sex! The book is all about the way that premarital sex among the working classes was sanctioned more than people typically think.
My mug arrived! Thanks to the mods.
On an unrelated note, what's everyone's favourite history-related film?
Hi fellow history buffs,
I'd like to find the best streaming services where I can watch history documentaries. So mind you, I'm not looking for documentary streaming services where there are a couple of history documentaries on offer - and I'm definitely not interested in the pseudo-scientific stuff that is sadly way too common on many documentary channels.
I just subscribed to historyhit.tv recently and it is terrific, highly recommended! So I was just wondering whether I can find some more services like that.
Thank you in advance for your kind help.
Cheers
While most folks wouldn't see much to talk about with regards to H. P. Lovecraft and Black History Month, since he was white as the driven trash and quite racist, the fact is he did live through the Roaring Twenties and was a contemporary to many great African-American artists, intellectuals, etc. and while he didn't have close ties to any of them, he did have some tangential connections.
Warning, all of these links contain quotes with period racist remarks, very NSFW and if you don't want to read the N-word or worse, don't click.
William Stanley Braithwaite was a prominent African-American poet and editor; he is Lovecraft's only known African-American correspondent, although only one letter survives. They are also tied together by their mutual interest in Winifred Virginia Jackson, who was Braithwaite's business partner in the B. J. Brimmer Co., which published the work of some Harlem Renaissance poets. Speaking of which...
Lovecraft in Harlem looks at Lovecraft's understanding of and experience in Harlem. Although he rarely ventured there, Lovecraft was a keen observer and did communicate something of his experiences - and prejudices - to his correspondents.
There's a lot more that can be said about Lovecraft's prejudices and relationships with black people during his lifetime, but if you're morbidly curious, that should give you a peek into his private life and letters on the subject.
So I recently got myself Attila Total War and have been playing as Sassanids to ease in, and after I found a Normal playthrough insufficiently challenging, I restarted on Hard...
...aaaaaand this is what the Great King now faces.
I am a bit worried, considering how much of a mess one stack made of my previously-indomitable giant mass of angry clibanarii noises, and my other stack is like the worst stereotype of 'useless Sassanid peasant levies' ever.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, February 05 - Thursday, February 11
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 5,805 | 233 comments | Jesus Christ preached of an imminent apocalyptic judgment within the lifetimes of his followers. When the world did not end, why were his teachings not abandoned and instead his follower base only grew? |
| 5,625 | 234 comments | If a bodybuilder was to walk around medieval Europe how strange would they look to the average person? |
| 5,020 | 183 comments | In "The Breakfast Club"(1984, Shermer, Illinois), Claire (Molly Ringwald) brings out sushi and soy sauce for lunch. None of the other students have heard of sushi, a clear example to the audience of how prissy she is. Why did sushi for lunch= prissy? Was Japanese food not a staple takeout food yet? |
| 4,592 | 105 comments | What would 1950s America have found obscene about the word "pregnancy" in the context of I Love Lucy's two married characters having a baby? |
| 4,581 | 117 comments | Why are the 12 disciples typically depicted as middle aged men, when they are most likely teenagers/yound adults? |
| 4,072 | 116 comments | Just how different is Olive oil of the Ancient Roman world from the Olive Oil we can find in supermarkets today? |
| 3,253 | 92 comments | How did the English manage to kill almost half of the population of Ireland during the British Civil Wars? |
| 2,928 | 79 comments | Given that the majority of original Italian immigrants to America came from the South, how come most of the popular Italian dishes in America (Lasagne, Bolognese, Baloney, Alfredo/creamier sauce, Pollo/Vitello/Melanzane Parmigiana, Tiramisu) are far more Northern in origin? |
| 2,331 | 19 comments | [Black History] The Manichean prophet Mani regarded AXUM as one of the four great powers of his time, the others were Persia, Rome and China. How much did these three empires know about Axum and what was their relationship with them? |
| 916 | 49 comments | Was Captain von Trapp a fascist? What were the political beliefs of non-Jewish Austrians who were against Nazism and the Anschluss? |
###Top 10 Comments
If you would like this roundup sent to your reddit inbox every week send me a message with the subject 'askhistorians'. Or if you want a daily roundup, use the subject 'askhistorians daily'. Or send me a chat with either askhistorians or askhistorians daily.
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Does anyone have any reading that looks at perceptions of Arabic from western Christendom in the 12th-13th century? I've been reading a lot of Heng and Conklin Akbari, but so far I can't find anything that specifically deals with language! Thanks
Why is the Jewish Sabbath on Friday thru Saturday?
How much would Lot's wife have been worth as a pillar of salt? I know that in Roman times salt was worth its weight in gold, but I can't find anything more concrete about its worth in earlier times within the relevant cultures. I am thinking Lot was given a fortune in exchange for his wife, but it would be interesting to envelope-caluculate just how big it was.
Is the Tiffin Report, the 1815 document that declared Michigan unfit for cultivation, available online anywhere?
