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Some questions people have just don't require depth. This thread is a recurring feature intended to provide a space for those simple, straight forward questions that are otherwise unsuited for the format of the subreddit.
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Was there superstitious fear anywhere in the world for the years 666 and 1666?
Not sure if this is too broad a subject for this thread, or too meta for this subreddit, but....
What do historians think of "pop-nonfiction?" I wound up not pursuing a degree in history (goddamn was my uni's history department underfunded) so most of the reading I wind up doing tends to be broader mass-market nonfiction. Stuff like: Eric Cline's 1177 BC; Tom Holland's Rubicon; Mary Beard's SPQR; Richard Rubin's The Last of the Doughboys; and the ever-widening glut of David McCullough biographies; etc., etc.
But I saw a thread of Twitter folks disparaging this "genre" (such as it is) for various reasons, and I couldn't discern whether they were motivated by legitimate criticism or snobbery. If I'm reading "bad history," what should I be reading instead? Where should I be going to find out if new books are properly researched?
What was the origins of the interservice rivalry between the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, and why was it so intense?
After Franco-Prussian War of 1871, Bismarck met Napoleon III personally, as a POW. What did they talk about? Do we know the details of what they said to each other?
I've got two questions on academia:
Thanks in advance for your answer.
Can anyone verify that a man was sent to a mental hospital in 1932 Germany because he voted/tried to vote for every party available during one of the elections?
MODS: My question was deleted from the main page. Please don't delete it from here because of the following, which is helpful context for the question:
Context: I'm currently reading Eberhard Arnold, co-founder of the Bruderhof movement in Germany. In his major work, written ~1931-35 (he died November 1935), he claims,
"In the great election fights of 1932, one man had to be taken to a mental hospital as a result of his desperate efforts to make up his mind in the utter confusion of his political ideas. That was more than a grotesque and isolated incident. He had made the daring attempt to go along with the convention policies of all parties and all factions. It may well be that he was more sensible and reasonable than the blind mass of voters. How much weaker are the consciences of those who cast their vote without ever having recognized the real nature of their party candidates and party platforms!"
Inner Land, vol. 2, The Conscience, p.65: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/discipleship/conscience
He is sometimes given to writing parables, though the story isn't unbelievable. At the time, he was between the Rhön Bruderhof (Hessen) and the Alm Bruderhof (Liechtenstein), though he was often travelling as well, to the UK and the Netherlands, as well as around Germany. I imagine it's a piece of news that could have easily been sensationalised, so might have happened anywhere in Germany if it did.
I'm reading "Inheritance of Rome" by Chris Wickham, and there's this sentence I absolutely can't parse, I just have no idea what he's saying.
"This physical expansion [of Mercian kings in the 700s] was matched by much clearer evidence for some sort of administrative infrastructure. Royal charters to churches from the mid-eighth century begin to exclude from their cessions three ‘common burdens’, army-service, bridge-building and fortress-building, which were still due to kings; although army-service was doubtless traditional, the other two burdens seem to be new, and had to be organized. In the ninth century, the list of royal officers who no longer had to be entertained by the recipients of these cessions became quite long; the king had a rather larger staff by now."
I think the key word I don't understand is "cessions"; I can't tell who's ceding what to whom, nor can I tell what historical change is happening.
Did the British bands actually play 'The World Turned Upside Down' after the Siege of Yorktown?
I ask in two ways: the first has to do with the question of where this story comes from. The second has to do with the fact that the tune to 'The World Turned Upside Down' was originally that of 'When the King Enjoys His Own Again', a Royalist ballad from the English Civil War. It seems plausible enough that the distinctly less defeatist and rather more 'we'll be back soon enough' song was the intended one, rather than the more dramatically-titled one, given that it would have been played without lyrics. Is there any indication that in fact, the British troops were playing a Royalist tune promising a return, that the Americans chose to interpret as a recognition of their victory?
What is the real meaning of the Celtic triskel? I searched for it and I didn't find nothing
I was looking at the Articles of War for the British navy and I had a question regarding the very first one:
I. Divine worship. All commanders, captains, and officers, in or belonging to any of His Majesty’s ships or vessels of war, shall cause the public worship of Almighty God, according to the liturgy of the Church of England established by law, to be solemnly, orderly and reverently performed in their respective ships; and shall take care that prayers and preaching, by the chaplains in holy orders of the respective ships, be performed diligently; and that the Lord’s day be observed according to law.
Now, does it mean only that they had to provide the services, or that they had to worship with the Church of England themselves? Would it prevent Catholics from becoming officers? Could non-Christians even be in the navy at all, and if yes, would they allowed to practice their religion?
On a statue of Rollo of Normandy, there is writing at the bottom that says "We will remain masters and lords, July 25 885" in French. Is this a quote of Rollo's? And if not, where is this from?
What did colonial Americans call themselves? Were they British, colonials, Americans?
Are there any good books on the history of military rations? Thanks in advance!
Did ancient people exclusively use missionary
As this week's theme is literature, I have a question that's bothered me ever since I read the Flannery O'Connor short story "The Comforts of Home" years ago. A question about squatting.
In said story, the main character remembers this about his father: "The old man had had the countryman's ability to converse squatting, though he was no countryman but had been born and brought up in the city...In the midst of a conversation on the courthouse lawn, he would squat and his two or three companions would squat with him with no break in the surface of the talk." Later on, the main character has a conversation with the town sheriff in which the main character's awkwardness is emphasized by the fact that the sheriff starts squatting in mid-conversation while the main character remains standing.
I have never heard of behavior like this anywhere but in this short story. Did well-off white men in the rural southern US just squat like Slavs in track suits all the time? Was this pan-rural-US, a southern thing, or limited to the region where Flannery O'Connor lived? When did it stop? Is there even any way to track the history of informal manners like this?
Can anyone recommend a book on the history of the development of religion? Not a specific religion but the general concepts.
Did soldiers back then really walked on foot to their destination? Do they have horses to supplement some of the army? Ex: Napoleon and his invasion of Russia.
Do we know when it started to become common for Ulster Protestants to refer to William III as "King Billy"?
There's a compelling seeming theory that Presidents William Henry Harrison, James Polk, and Zachary Taylor all were killed by drinking water in the White House, as the White House's water supply in the 1840's was contaminated with sewage
How did John Tyler (who served in between Harrison and the other two) escape this? Was he lucky? Did he drink other beverages and not water? Did he spend a lot of time away from the White House? Something else?
Would an average peasant in the High Middle Ages know of the politics of their times?
For example, would they know of the signing of the Magna Carta by King John, or of the squabbles between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, of Philippe IV’s aggressions against Boniface VIII?
In Achaemenid times, did Persian Nowruz, Babylonian Akitu, and Jewish Passover all take place at the same time?
So, I recently read through the "Why You Should Not Get a History PhD" and, now that the rose-tinted glasses are removed, is there any "second-best" job for someone that enjoys history?
I'm currently in the last semester of my undergrad and was planning to go on for a MA in History, then PhD, but before all this was content with getting an MA in education and teaching in secondary school-- should I settle for that instead? Not really trying to ask for career advice, more just wondering if the PhD is as useless as its made out to be, even for non-professor jobs.
Were there ever any at least semi-serious plans among the allies to establish a Jewish state on territory ceded by Germany after WW2?
Please direct me to a series of lists of the top ~100 market cap companies in the US for each year since 1850 or so?
A common trope in fantasy is that sharing salt implies certain rights and responsibilities between a host and guests e.g. they agree to do no harm or allow harm to come to one another. Is this based on some real world practice?
What is the familial relationship, if any, between Mary, Queen of Scots and Edward V of England and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury? Namely, what the term would be for their relationship. Cousins thrice removed? Great great uncles? This gets complicated as -without meaning to appear dismissive- the family trees of the Stuarts, Yorks, and Tudors have a lot of 'crossover'.
I ask because I'm writing a ghost story and I've decided to make it agonizingly complex to write by making some offhand references to the relationship between British monarchs that nonetheless require hours of fruitless research. I'm reasonably certain there is a blood relationship between these three, but if I'm wrong do let me know so I can go beat my head against the mantlepiece and rewrite my story.
Otherwise, thanks in advance.
why don't we consider soviet civilian losses during WWII as part of "the holocaust"
When did the name Juneteenth start being used? I can find the origin of the holiday but cant find when the name became commonly used.
Was the creation of the SS state of Burgundy actually proposed in Nazi Germany or is it one of those misconceptions like the Fugu Plan?
How would commonly accepted attractive people of today (like say brad Pitt or Scarlett Johansson) be considered throughout history? Like would they be considered weird or strange or beautiful?
which is older hinduism or buddhism? pali or sanskrit?
Has anyone ever tried to give an articulate defense of the actions of the Fourth Crusaders? I've seen good-faith defenses of Venice's actions during the Crusade, so I'm specifically looking for how participants or later chroniclers justified the actions of western nobles and their taking possession of eastern territories after this specific crusade.
What are some good books about the guild system in Europe? I briefly checked the reading list and didn't see anything explicitly about guilds. My interest is mainly in late medieval and early renaissance, but I could also go for something about the origins of the system. And preferably something not too terribly dense, as all I have in experience with this sort of reading is a rather low effort history minor.
Good books/articles on the history of the internet? I want to immerse myself in the historiography.
Was there ever a Worshipful Company of Slave Traders in London, UK during the period where it was legal?
Did the japanese soldier Hirō Onoda, who was the last japanese soldier to surrender in world war 2, ever meet the Emperor Shōwa, if he did, is it known what kind of conversation were they having?
Did Hirō Onoda ever get letters from the emperor or any other communication from the emperor?
Does anyone know the origin of the swinging arm dance move as seen here (and in many other music videos, movies and TV shows)?
It seems like it's very common in Japanese history for a "power-behind-the-throne" situation to develop (i.e. rather than deposing an emperor or shogun, you force them to become entirely ceremonial and you take a technically subordinate position, but in reality you're in charge).
My totally non-expert view is that this isn't something that happens often in the history other cultures that I have some knowledge of, but I'm wondering if I'm wrong about that?
Is it fairly common throughout history for this to be the way of deposing a ruler and taking power for yourself? Or is there something uniquely Japanese about it?
I have a faint memory of a human experiment a history teacher once told me. It was I think conducted by the Nazis but I cant find it on Google so it might've been someone else. Anyways the experiment was along the lines that a graphite pencil was drawn against the victim's back and he was told that they had burned his back with a burning metal rod or something else very hot.
As the victim couldn't see what had been done to him, he didn't know that they were actually using a normal pencil (which couldn't harm the victim). So the victim got like 3rd degree burns from the pencil because his own brain made him believe that a burning rod burned his back.
Was there ever done an experiment like this or did I dream it ?
Title:18th Century British History: what were 'Pitt's Playing Cards'?
Text: Can anyone remind me what 'Pitt's Playing Cards' were?
They're either the pejorative nickname for the first bank notes (that I think he introduced) or else the name for the blank, bricked up windows that started appearing across the country when he instituted a window tax. I just can't remember which. I have tried googling but this arcane details of history is not mentioned.
When did the Israelites/tribes of ancient Israel become "the Jews"?
What are the essential works on how textual transmission happened in history? So much of history relies on ancient sources but I have a very poor understanding of how, and with what limitations, those ancient sources were filtered, changed, and selected for over the centuries.
Wikipedia has Yaropolk I of Kiev born in 952, and Sviatoslav I born in 943. There is no year range, just those exact years. Did Sviatoslav really father Yaropolk at the age of nine? I see the Russian Primary Chronicle cited as a source, and a footnote challenging another date from it. Are there different years based on other interpretations?
How far back do you have to go to find a common ancestor for Sumerians and Akkadians?
Where did the Chinese hold fist salute come from? It appears in dramas and movies. Was it present in actual history?
Hello, first time here on Reddit, not sure if it is the right place to ask, sorry in advance if it isn’t. I was looking for a “factual” history of Japan, just a simple narration to gain some general knowledge before going deeper. So far I’ve read W. W. Farris’s “Japan to 1600” - which is the first book in your list - and C. Totman’s “Japan before Perry”, but I found them both to be focused more on cultural-economic subjects. I was looking with interest to George Sansom’s history, can this be the one work I was looking for?
Where did the Latin spelling of Huynh come from? How did a name pronounced "Win" or "Hwin" come to be spelled completely differently?
According to Google, Pensacola was Founded in 1559. But if you look up the oldest city in the USA, it says St.Augestine, Founded in 1565. Is Pensacola the true oldest city, or did someone mess up the date?
The user r/kochevnik81 once responded to a the user r/A_kulak (i don't remember his/her name, honestly) that peasants in the soviet union (don't know which territory was specifically) murdered about 25% to 55% percent of all their farm animals in about three months.
That's a huge gap. How do historians know about the statistics for this event in particular? Do historians "know" what happend? Why do the number differ so much?
