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.
I made a website for browsing old AskHistorians posts!
The website provides random lists of posts. The lists are filtered to make sure they are answered - since this subreddit is so closely moderated, the filter mostly consists of 'not automoderator, not deleted, not meta, not a specified list of other tags, has at least one reasonably long comment that's not a common macro used by the mods'.
I feel like this occupies a different niche to the browser extension and /r/HistoriansAnswered - it provides access to older posts, which are otherwise difficult to read in Reddit.
The site is currently located at a temporary URL - I will get a proper domain later:
http://arran-web.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/index.html
This is still in quite an experimental state. I would be most glad to hear feedback - is this useful? Are there changes that would make it more useful?
(Based on mod feedback, I am planning to add a cutoff date to filter out posts older than 2014, since quality has improved since then.)
This new site is not to be missed! It is a great virtual reality look at what was an 1880s equivalent of a virtual reality - a 360 degree enormous painting of the battle as it raged. The site includes a great deal of research into battlefield photography with many valuable points of interest and other background information. I assisted in the development in a limited way, but the real nod must go to Howard Goldbaum, a true master of this modern media approach to presenting historic sites. - He is also the creative genius behind Voices from the Dawn, which considers the interplay between Irish megalithic sites and folklore (I was one of his reviewers for that site as well).
Enjoy this new release about Gettysburg. Like the nineteenth-century painting, this new website is a remarkable achievement!
My husband gets an r/askhistorians weekly digest on Fridays with the best questions that were answered and pics of Corgis at the end. How do I subscribe to that weekly update in my Reddit inbox? I can’t seem to find it anywhere!
What tourist sites would you recommend for midaeval euro history? Last vacation I visited a lot of Tudor sites in England (slighted monastery, castle where Elizabeth lived, etc), and really enjoyed it, but now I'm interested in older stuff... Considering going back to England, but open to other places if they would be understandable to an English-speaker.
Not a question, but I truly hate talking about politics and history with my family. Especially my cousin who's interested in history but gets his (mis)information from Twitter. He's only 16 and I feel like he's already being brainwashed and has some very questionable views.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, June 25 - Thursday, July 01
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 5,457 | 71 comments | Mass graves of Indigenous peoples keep getting discovered at the sites of Canadian residential schools. Should I expect mass graves to be found at Aboriginal missions here in Australia? |
| 5,053 | 88 comments | My Great-Grandfather's sister went missing in Chicago in 1898 at the age of 14 while walking to her piano lesson. What likely happened to young children like her who were abducted during the turn of the century in large American cities like Chicago? (Her missing person's ad included!) |
| 3,816 | 84 comments | [Great Question!] In the context of slavery in the USA, a lot of focus is given to those working in plantations or in domestic homes. But what about in mining, forestry, fishing, and other industries in America at the time? |
| 3,531 | 48 comments | I am a European King living between 1000-1500, I hear from my spy that my sister is shoved around/abused by her husband the king of Random Kingdom with whom an alliance is beneficial/necessary (hence the marrige). What can I do? Do I care enough to do anything? Is it expected of me to intervene? |
| 2,392 | 60 comments | When did Sigmund Freud’s ideas lose their authority among the public (at least in the USA)? Intellectuals in the postwar period cited Freud constantly, whereas today, most people remember him mainly for his wackier theories about sex with your mom. |
| 2,342 | 50 comments | So, what's the deal with the Merovingian kings, anyway? |
| 2,337 | 35 comments | Who was healthier: a rich city-dweller in 1st century Europe or a rich a city-dweller in 11th century Europe? What about a poor city-dweller in 1st century Europe compared to a poor a city-dweller in 11th century Europe? |
| 1,927 | 70 comments | Why does it always seem to circle around to antisemitism ? |
| 1,805 | 89 comments | In a TIL thread discussing the significance of fire bombing in Japan vs Atomic bombs in WW2, it was claimed that Kyoto was removed from the list of cities to bomb due to the city's cultural significance. Is it true? Why would cultural significance justify not bombing an enemy city at the time? |
| 1,780 | 81 comments | How obvious and well-coordinated were volleys of fire in 17th century warfare? Could well-trained troops reliably learn to just duck when the other guys all shot at once? |
###Top 10 Comments
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####Please let me know if you have suggestions to make this roundup better for /r/askhistorians or if there are other subreddits that you think I should post in. I can search for posts based off keywords in the title, URL and flair. And I can also find the top comments overall or in specific threads.
When the door locks were invented and went into use? How people prevented robbers carrying everything from houses before that?
Is the term "President" used as an official term for the leaders of many other countries because of the USA's use of the term or is that just a coincidence/ misconception?
( I have had this question for a long time since it is taught in US schools that the term "President" was a very humble term when it was first adopted by the US and we were virtually one of the first nations to use the term. However, after seeing how many other countries use the term today and have in history, I've wondered if the term "President" is used in these other countries because of the USA's cultural reach or just by chance).