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.
When and why did white supremacist groups start co-opting ancient Roman symbology? It makes no sense to me.
Do historians ever do consulting for historical fiction novels? If I wanted to get in touch with a historian about a certain time period, what’s the best way to do that? I assume most charge for their time.
What is your favorite historical movie?
This question brings up a lot of memories. I was a couple blocks away on 9/11 and I saw the paper fluttering down before I saw the towers on fire, because my bedroom faced the other way. It reminded me of the ending of Die Hard, a frivolous thought which I will never forget.
To all those who read old historical periodicals for hobby research: do you also happen to enjoy checking ads? Do you have a favorite one? Did you ever learn something relevant from an apparently inconsequential piece of advertisement?
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, April 23 - Thursday, April 29
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 4,805 | 108 comments | In the UK, we can largely roam the countryside without fear of being attacked by wild predators. At what stage in our history did the threat of attack by animals largely subside, and which animals posed the greatest threat? |
| 4,311 | 100 comments | In the 1970s-80s gay culture was for the most part, macho. Hairy chests, beards, mustaches, biker leather, etc. Looking at pictures from back then you see maybe 1 twink/fem out of 100 guys. What happened? When did this switch occur? Was it aids related? |
| 4,202 | 57 comments | As a woman living during the time periods of ancient Greece or Rome, would I live in constant fear of being sexually assaulted due to the normality of sexual assault (specifically men against women) through slavery at those times? When did it stop becoming less of an issue? |
| 3,432 | 113 comments | I'm a Roman merchant sailing home to Pompeii, arriving days after its destruction. Did I see warning signs prior to arrival? Is there a refugee camp where I can find my family? |
| 3,041 | 33 comments | When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536-41, they were portrayed as greedy, immoral, practically brothels, full of fake relics and miracles, etc. How much of this was truth and how much was propaganda? |
| 3,025 | 66 comments | The effects of "shellshock" are widely studied in the modern military, but it must have always been a massive factor in war. How far back were the effects of war on the human psychology documented? And how have views of those struggling with shellshock changed since war began? |
| 2,917 | 55 comments | [Great Question!] I am a noble in a South Nigerian kingdom in the mid-19th century (a few decades before colonization). I have never left my kingdom but I am quite well-off by local standards. What are the living conditions like? How much do I know about the wider world outside West Africa? |
| 2,805 | 34 comments | Did Walter Mondale really believe he could beat Ronald Reagan in 1984 or did he know he was in for a beating but chose to be the party’s sacrificial lamb? |
| 2,798 | 167 comments | What happened to German-Americans collective memory? |
| 2,627 | 88 comments | In Aethelbert's laws in Anglo-Saxon England, #73 says, "If a freeborn woman with long hair misconducts herself, she will pay 30 shillings as compensation." Why did it specifically denote a woman with long hair? Were there women with short hair? Why did they differ? |
###Top 10 Comments
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Do you guys take notes while watching documentaries? I found this PBS Vietnam War documentary I wanted to watch but I feel I have to take note with it as well.
I find this sub fascinating, but I frequently find myself clicking on a post, and there are either no answers yet or the answers provided were not satisfactory and were removed by mods. Is there a way I can flag a topic I am interested in and then receive a notification on when it has been answered?
Debating what to read first, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard, or How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr. Any opinion from people who are familiar with either of these books/authors?
IBM is supposed to have helped the Nazis in WWII. What were the kinds of things IBM provided? What impact did what IBM provided have?
Can anyone recommend a place to start to learn more about FDR in his own words? I’d like to find first hand accounts of him throughout his life as well as any writings or speeches that could provide insight into his actual beliefs and personality as opposed to his public image too if possible.
Also any podcast or YouTube recommendations that cover him would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance and sorry if this is the wrong place for this question.
Were Cajuns ever enslaved? My step-father is of Cajun heritage and he claims that Cajuns used to be slaves during French colonial rule. As evidence, he uses the surname Boudreaux: apparently the "X" at the end was used to denote that the person in question was a slave. Is that accurate?
the Renaissance is fake news because every Renaissance artist is just a Classical-era fan artist, which the Medievals were already doing anyway
Reposting from the SASQ thread: I read in this NYRB article about Nazi plans for Norway that "[t]he Third Reich imported most of the iron ore needed for its armaments and munitions industries from neutral Sweden, and land routes through Norway were the surest way for Germany to acquire that essential raw material."
But how can that be true? The modern land route from Sweden to Germany goes through Denmark, nowhere near Norway, and even then, that's only because of the Øresund bridge, built in the 1990s. Before that bridge, any shipment from Sweden to Germany would have had to go by sea, and at that point why not simply ship from Sweden to Germany's considerable northeast coast, which in 1940 would have stretched all the way to Memel, impossibly out of the reach of the RN? How can a land route through Norway that I don't think even existed be surer than that? Am I missing something?