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.
Euclid's Elements is traditionally framed as the "second best selling book after the bible". Presumably at one point in the past 2000 years versions of the bible (however we define the collection of gospels composing 'the bible') had to surpass the number of units sold of Elements. My dumb question asks what century would this have taken place? Are there any other contenders for 'best-selling book'? What do the sales trajectories look like in comparison to books like 'the bible' and Elements? If we limit ourselves to the western 'book tradition' does this change anything?
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, October 01 - Thursday, October 07
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 4,781 | 59 comments | On 2 October 1968, the Mexican army killed hundreds of student protesters, 10 days before the Mexico 68 Olympics began. Why is this event mostly ignored in English-language material when discussing the global '68 protests, or even student massacres in general (as opposed to Tiananmen or Kent State)? |
| 3,248 | 39 comments | [Great Question!] Alexander the Great's invasion of India gets no mention in Indian sources, all our knowledge of it comes from Greek sources. Are records lost or did Indian historians consider it unimportant? |
| 3,051 | 81 comments | [Empires] In Egypt Napoleon told his army, "Soldiers, from the summit of these pyramids forty centuries look down upon you." How did he know the age of the pyramids? |
| 2,284 | 34 comments | The Darien Gap of Panama is so inhospitable to human settlement that even in 2021 we still cannot manage to build so much as a highway across it. In pre-columbian societies was it also known as a "border" between empires where few dared to travel? |
| 2,204 | 55 comments | Was New York in the 70s as sleazy and corrupt as it's depicted in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976)? |
| 2,197 | 104 comments | If the Anglo Saxons largely came to Britain from what is now Denmark, why weren’t the Danes who invaded England a few centuries later the same people as them? |
| 1,854 | 63 comments | I'm a medieval townsperson living in Britain (let's say after 1000 c.e). I need to go to the next town over (roughly 50km away) and then come back; how do I organize my trip and what to I bring with me? |
| 1,568 | 22 comments | Shinto is a collection of Japanese folklore traditions and beliefs, that vary wildly depending on their geographical origin. Imperial Japan during WW2 taught children a particular way of Shinto sanctioned by the state, known as "State Shinto". What did this new, uniform belief system look like? |
| 1,349 | 29 comments | I have read that Europeans had no distilled spirits until Arabic distillation technology spread to Christendom via Spain. But it’s easy to accidentally make a rudimentary freeze-distilled brandy simply by leaving a barrel of wine or beer out in cold weather. So how can this be true? |
| 1,133 | 12 comments | The Revolutions of 1848 swept all across Europe, in France, modern Germany, the Austrian Empire, modern Italy, Denmark, modern Romania, and more. What was unique about Europe in 1848/9 that resulted in dramatic continent-wide upheaval rather than uprisings against specific states? |
###Top 10 Comments
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Is there anything medieval similar to The Canterbury Tales?
I’ve read chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France, Beowulf, and sir Gawain, but nothing came close to how fun, diverse and interesting the Canterbury tales are. The tales are also the most interesting to read from a social perspective as they are often rooted more in real life than the others I mentioned.
What do the Qing Empire and Rhodesia have in common? Both of their flags are a pain in the neck to draw
Can anyone recommend textbooks for Military Strategy/Grand Strategy? Something similar to this but with more detail.
I'm walking through a medieval European city, maybe 13th Century. I suddenly have to take a shit. Where do I go?