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.
Welcome one and all to another fantastic edition of the Sunday Digest! Buckle up, because we have a bunch of exiting stuff this week. Hundreds of the usual brilliant threads and special features as well! #SUPER EXCITING NEWS!
Announcing the AskHistorians Digital Conference 2.0—Once again, right here on reddit!
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 173 - Hunt the Wumpus and Public Computing with Jason Dyer
/u/restricteddata keeps adding onto the fantastic AMA: I am Alex Wellerstein, historian of science, author of the new book RESTRICTED DATA: THE HISTORY OF NUCLEAR SECRECY IN THE UNITED STATES — ask me anything about nuclear history or government secrecy
Get some good book ideas, or ask for some, in the Thursday Reading and Rec!
Fun times in the Friday Free For All!
We haven’t had much of a meta thread in awhile, so heres (serious question) why is the AskHistorians subreddit so full of unanswered questions? You find fascinating requests, enjoy of responses. Just scrolled through more than 20 posts and none are addressed. Is there a need to recruit or court more historians to Reddit? What is a remedy?
That wraps me up for another weekend. While I disappear back to the shadows to lurk the comments, you folks have yourselves a fantastic week, enjoy the threads and I’ll see you next Sunday!
The Digest is also a chance to shout out the interesting yet overlooked questions that caught our eyes, and our hearts, this week. Perhaps they still wait for the attention of an expert or simply didn’t get enough attention the first time round. Feel free to post your own or any others that caught your eye.
/u/Rollswetlogs asked I’m a pre-17th century traveller, what would my experience be like looking for and staying at an inn?
/u/Bem-ti-vi asked What were the gigantic ancient Nigerian ruins of "Sungbo's Eredo?" Are there any other comparable and contemporaneous West African sites?
/u/Kelpie-Cat asked What did poetry readings look like in the medieval Islamic world?
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.
Make sure to check out the big, important news from this week! We're Announcing the AskHistorians Digital Conference 2.0—Once again, right here on reddit!