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.
We’ve come to the last Weekend of March, and with it a fantastic crop of history posts. We’ve got special meta posts, some fan favorite regular features, and the hundreds of threads churned out by our dedicated writers. Grab a set, put your feet up, and enjoy some time reading!
/u/Snipahar put in a ton of working and lead the way on Come Read about Women for Women's History Month! The AskHistorians Flairs Have Put Together a Collection of Writings on the Exciting History of Women!
Some fun discussion in the Friday Free for All!
/u/waldo672 dominated the Saturday Showcase with a post on The Army of the Papal States 1650-1870!
How to get good history books without breaking the bank as someone outside the academia?
That’s it for me today! Don’t forget to thank those brilliant writers, and keep your eyes peeled this week for some more fun filled special events!
Time for another installment of "The Real Questions", where we 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.
We also like to take a moment each Sunday to call out some of the interesting yet overlooked questions which caught our eye and fired up our imagination. Feel free to post your own or any others that you want to bring more attention to!
/u/pinkwiggirl asked How is archaeology real?
/u/VelvetPenis asked about the History of Popular History
/u/TheColourOfHeartache asked It's 1862 and I'm an Indian cotton farmer. Am I likely to be aware that the boom in demand for my product is related to the American Civil war? If so do I have any strong feelings about the war?