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.
So are folks getting exciting for the AskHistorians Conference?! Its coming just next month and we're so close! There's going to be some fantastic stuff.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, September 17 - Thursday, September 23
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 4,100 | 133 comments | The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1852), while often viewed as a tragedy, largely escapes being labelled as a genocide by the academic community. In contrast to this, the Holodomor/Soviet Famine (1932-1933) is actively labelled as a genocide by 16 countries. What are the causes behind this difference? |
| 3,232 | 50 comments | It's thought that Ernest Hemingway killed himself because nobody believed him that he was under consant FBI surveillance. This surveillance later turned out to be true. Just how many people was the FBI surveilling during the red scare years? |
| 3,165 | 22 comments | I'm a traveler in ad1200 going from Lübeck across the HRE to Rome on secular business; Do I travel alone or in a group? Do we camp every night in the woods or am I in a Tavern/Inn every night? |
| 2,863 | 83 comments | In Peanuts, an unseen adult character is shown to GREATLY overreact to the institution of zip codes. Was this reflective of a real thought process that people had at the time or just something that Charles Schulz thought was funny? |
| 2,386 | 68 comments | In "The Parent Trap" (1961), the plot hinges on the two parents amicably divorcing about 14 years prior. Yet, no-fault divorce would not exist for almost a decade. Did couples amicably divorce at this time? And, would this plot point have been scandalous to moviegoers at the time? |
| 2,212 | 35 comments | Cherokee oral history recounts that a hereditary priesthood called the Ani-Kutani ruled over the Cherokee before its massacre in an uprising. What else do we know about this, and is it related to the local manifestation of Mississippian Culture. |
| 2,174 | 143 comments | It Wasn't About Slavery: Exposing the Great Lie of the Civil War by Sam W. Mitchum Jr, historians thoughts? |
| 2,131 | 96 comments | Why is athens still around but not sparta? |
| 1,399 | 33 comments | In the Pre-Industrial world, China seems to have achieved a level of mass production on a scale unseen anywhere else. Is this a simple matter of population and a larger pool of labor, or did China have more advanced manufacturing processes and practices? If so, what did those look like? |
| 1,360 | 64 comments | Were children allowed into Roman gladiatorial arenas? And how young was too young to watch? |
###Top 10 Comments
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With the uptick in questions regarding the Three Kingdoms period, I’d recommend everyone listen to the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” podcast by John Zhu who really does the work of reading the RotTK so you don’t have to. I’m catching up on this one that started in about 2014 and it’s terrific for people like me who have tried to read the book multiple times and have given up.
The Friday free-for-all seems like the best place for my question --
I occasionally see posts in this sub and I wish I could read other non-experts’ thoughts about the topic.
I have looked at the Rules Roundtables and understand the mission of the sub. I can see the benefit of having a curated, tidy space. However, it seems like it would be easy to offer both a tidy, curated space and a space for plebes to discuss the topic.
Each post already has an AutoMod main-level post. Why not just add to that AutoMod post something like “Anecdotes, non-expert opinions and other non-expert thoughts may only be posted as responses to this AutoMod post.” People could chit chat about the topic under the AutoMod post. In the unlikely event that the AutoMod post is the highest rated comment in the thread after serious responses have been posted, one click and a user can instantly hide/ignore all of the chit chat and read the serious responses.
This would allow regular folks to talk about a subject in a clearly-defined and easily ignored space. It would allow people to stay interested and involved in a subject while waiting for an expert to chime in with a real answer.
Am I the only one who would love to have a little space carved out in each thread for non-expert discussion?
What was the most popular haircut during the middle ages for nobles?
Does anyone have a suggestion on a good book on Hungarian history?
what's up with the 1800s in America? i feel like a lot of important things happened that is not at least on my mind and instead most American history focuses on 1900s and colonial.
I'm not sure if this thread is the right place (if not, let me know and I'll repost in a more appropriate place), but I have a pretty big question. I will be writing a bachelor thesis about legal history. I've always loved history and that has only grown since I subbed here about 6 years ago, so getting this assignment is a dream come true in a way and I want to do it as well as I possibly can. However, I only have an academic background in law, not in history and if I've learnt anything from this sub, it's that researching history well is not easy, to say the least.
So, basically, my question is this: how to history? Put differently: how can I learn more about the methods academic historians use? More concretely, I want to learn a more structured, academically valid method of reading and interpreting primary sources and learn about the theoretical framework of writing history (for instance, I want to learn more about terms like 'historical materialism' I've read on here). If it matters, the subject will be slavery and/or forced labor in the Dutch Indies in the 19th century (any reading recommendations on the subject itself are also more than welcome).
I'm more than willing to put in extra effort for this project, so imagine time is no issue. I'd also like to say I'm not under the illusion that I will be able to cram the equivalent of a history major into a single year, but I simply want to get better at it than I am now (which is easy when you're starting from zero :) ).
E: forgot to say that I can only read English and Dutch.
Hi!
I had posted this on r/ask and I was redirected here.
A while ago, I had read this story about a famous person, I believe it was a scientist, who could not figure out which major to choose in college. He ended up choosing whatever came first on the list of subjects the college had to offer. He then went on to come up with many theories and won awards for the same (I am not sure if he won any Nobel Prizes, though). Pretty mainstream guy, I think, because I'm not a science-y person, and yet I have read about this person. I wonder if any of you recall reading this story somewhere and can remember the name of the person in question. Thanks!
Masterbatipn