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.
This morning I published a new article, one about a decade in the making: "An unearthly spectacle: The untold story of the world's biggest nuclear bomb," in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It's about the infamous Tsar Bomba, but attempts to really tell a serious history of its creation (with context, technical details, etc.), but then pivots to talk about the US response to it, which included a secret program to build their own 100 megaton (and bigger) weapons. Lots of links to sources and documents! Multi-lingual research! Whoo! Check it out!
Does anybody have any book recommendations on the history of the Bible? I’m really fascinated by the creation and curation of the books that go into it, and I’d really like to take a deeper look into it. Thanks!
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, October 22 - Thursday, October 28
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 4,156 | 46 comments | Are there ANY notable nude statues from Greek and Roman antiquity times that actually featured the vulva or pubic hair? Why is it that for like thousands of years every sculptor used smooth Barbie anatomy on female forms while spending months perfectly chiseling a penis on male forms? |
| 3,112 | 69 comments | [Great Question!] What is the cultural/historical background of sentient pink blobs in Japanese media (think Chansey, Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Kirby, Majin Buu)? |
| 2,806 | 125 comments | In 1792, France experimented with decimal time, making a day 10 hours, an hour 100 minutes, and a minute 100 seconds. Why did this new standard for timekeeping not take off when so much of the world uses a base 10 system for measuring stuff? |
| 2,742 | 86 comments | [META] [META] Impact of this subreddit |
| 2,223 | 54 comments | Did the US actually honor any of the treaties it made with Native American tribes/nations? |
| 2,216 | 35 comments | How did the Dutch acquire such good relations with the Japanese Shogunate, that only they were allowed to trade and exchange knowledge with them? In 1844, Dutch King William II even sent a letter urging Japan to end the isolation policy on its own before change would be forced from the outside. |
| 1,942 | 133 comments | Why does the People's Republic of China often use such a distinctive naming scheme for its policies? |
| 1,841 | 25 comments | Was the Red Army better at self-reflection than the Wehrmacht? |
| 1,708 | 43 comments | What did Muslim historians during the Golden Age, think of the Greeks and Romans |
| 1,643 | 90 comments | [Great Question!] Are anti-LGBTQ+ laws in African countries a colonial import? In other words, what do we know about (what we would today refer to as) LGBTQ+ individuals and communities in pre-colonial Africa communities. |
###Top 10 Comments
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In 1992 there was a Run that started in Alaska and Tierra del Fuego, meeting in Teotihuacan Mexico, called the Peace and Dignity Run 1992. It was commemorating 500 years of resistance and Native culture since the Conquest. Next year, 2022, will be 30 years from 1992, and the Run will become "history." How do you think the Run will be remembered in history?
For those interested in the resurgence of the neo-Stalinism. There's a tendency among the neo-Stalinists to name the incriminating documents from the Russian and especially the Ukrainian archives fakes (just like the Holocaust deniers do with the Nazi documents). I've published a long rebuttal in Russian to a series of videos dealing with clerical mistakes in the Great Terror (and related) documents, supposing them to be evidence of fakery (especially as the documents come from the SBU archive in Kiev).
Impossible dates (like June 31), wrong years, people shot twice according to the documents and many other points are treated at length here:
First post here, just joined - hi. 36, undergrad in history so I can go on to apply for a Ph.D in the history of medicine. (I could have done it before, but frankly it would have been a waste of time/money/energy.)
I just want to say that after having done some peer reviews of my History of Medicine classmates' essays, I have a newfound respect for my TAs and instructors. How on earth people write an essay so poorly is beyond me.
That said, if anyone has good resources for family recipe books from 17th century England that include treatments for pregnancy, childbirth, women's health - that would be amazing. I have quite a few already for my thesis, but I would never say no to more!
Not really a question or anything, but would AskHistorians ever consider having a pinned thread for people to ask questions about the historical accuracy of pieces of media? I occasionally want to make a thread about the accuracy of a book I'm thinking of buying, etc, but often stop because I don't think they warrant their own threads.
I could of course ask in the Simple Questions/Free for All threads but maybe having a specific topic for this would be a good way to get more discussion around books/documentaries/etc going instead of the occasional smattering in these other pinned threads? +it would have the secondary benefit of becoming a place to quickly look up books instead of asking for yourself for the umpteenth time.
Hi Ask Historians,
Sorry if this isn't the correct place for this. I am thinking about starting a sub that attempts to put together a solution to the Oak Island Money Pit using legitimate investigation techniques from science, logical reasoning and other methods. I'm after a few professional Historians that might be interested in helping.
At this stage I am just toying with the idea. I completely understand that this topic verges pretty strongly into conspiracy theory territory and most professionals don't want to engage. But ... we are all anonymous on here so no one has to know. There is a current TV show that appears to be promoting psuedoscience and arguably, misrepresenting historical events. As far as I can tell, there are very few sites on the web that counter the popular narrative of the island.
What I would like to achieve is to collectively come up with a solution and publish it in the wiki of the new subreddit so there is at least one resource on the web to counter the popular narrative of the island. If that solution has multiple professional contributors, it's credibility would be high. As a secondary benefit, I am interested in expanding my investigative skills, I would like to approach this topic from a number of angles with the assistance of experts and try multiple investigative styles. e.g. The scientific method, logic and reasoned argument, police investigative techniques and any other investigative styles that may benefit the project. There is potential that this kind of cross-polination between disciplines will be beneficial. ... or it might only take 5 minutes to completely lock this one down with no detailed investigation necessary? If it turns out completely impossible to "solve" I'd at least like to document why.
I will be approaching other science focused reddit subs in an attempt to engage other disciplines to see if there is any interest. I'm thinking 2-3 professionals from each discipline would be a good way to limit rogue redditors and the intrusion of pseudoscience.
On another note, I like to have fun with the subject matter, I have engaged in some mostly lighthearted mockery of the show and those who believe it's "theories". I would like the sub to have both serious mystery investigation and fun. If you are down for something like this, let me know.
Hi, I remember reading comments about the origins of Mitsui and Sumitomo (zaibatsu/keiretsu). I thought i bookmarked those posts, but i cant find them and i was wondering instead if the original commenters or anyone has sources explaining their origin stories and business history. I find it interesting and it might be helpful for future research. Google scholar is just cluttered with business analysis or scientific research by various member companies. Please have no concern about the language medium.
I cannot remember if it was archived, by a deleted user, or outside of the original question so this might’ve been why I probably lost track. Thanks in advance for the time!
Can anyone recommend books/articles about how rural Germany was affected by the 1918 flu pandemic? I'm digging deep into the history of interwar rural Germany and am particularly interested in the rural response to the flu. Even just stats breaking down rural vs urban infections/deaths in Germany would be helpful.