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.
Hi, I am Klesk_vs_Xaero. I usually post about Italian Fascism and related topics. Or, used to post. This will likely be my last post here on Reddit. Not newsworthy, I know.
But I thought a while about this, and eventually concluded that it was less impolite than to just go.
I have been around a few years, and have counted various interactions with several people, both flaired users and not (hence why I am posting here in the odd chance someone might read it), that I'd characterize as positive. Whether it was a kind word, a comment of encouragement, constructive criticism, an offer to help, or an opportunity to learn something about experiences different from my own – whatever – even if you were just being polite. Thank you.
I had hoped I could end on a higher note. There's a pile of answers I have been working on; maybe, you know, finish one or to. Or try to wrap up that series of recurrent posts that's gone from a week hiatus to, I think, some three years...
I suppose this will do. Thank you again and goodbye.
The online peer-reviewed journal, Shima, has posted an advanced copy of my article, "Morgawr and the Folkloresque (A study of a whopping fishtale). It is a sea serpent on the south Cornish coast. While there were sightings of various things for decades, what occurred in 1976 was a purposeful hoax with photos, concocted by a local artist. Even so, sightings continued, and the Morgawr has assumed a real place in local (and international) folklore.
I address the "folkloresque" in other articles (see my online – FREE! – works at my academia.edu profile. The Folkloresque is a relatively new term introduced in 2016 by the intrepid folklorists, Michael Dylan Foster and Jeffrey A. Tolbert. The word refers to aspects of culture (often expressed in various media), which imitate, draw from, or are otherwise like folklore. Often – as is the case with the Morgawr – elements of the folkloresque can spawn its own folklore (I’m looking at you Slenderman!!!).
We had a META thread a few days back, but ICYMI, AskHistorians has made another foray into the wonderful world of academic publishing, with an article co-authored by u/Historiagrephour, u/Soviet_Ghosts and I having just been published in History:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-229X.13259
It's open access (ie free!), and speaks to some themes that we hopefully all care about - public history, widening scholarly conversations and the post-pandemic future of digital events. We'd love it if you were able to read and share it!
Do you historians have any favorite music from cultures that we (the general public) that we don't really have exposure to?
I was reading this post:
https://acoup.blog/2020/12/18/collections-that-dothraki-horde-part-iii-horse-fiddles/
and I was struck by how little I actually know about the music of the cultures that were (poorly) drawn from to create the dothraki.
I was doing some research on Frederick Douglass for a class, and discovered that when he was working for shipwrights in Baltimore in the 1830s, he probably lived down the street from where my parents lived in the 1970s. I recognised the street name immediately. Fells Point, who knew?
I have a tattoo with his handwriting in it, so I like that extra level of connection to such a fascinating and brilliant man.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, February 04 - Thursday, February 10
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 3,194 | 90 comments | It’s the year 363 and the Roman emperor Julian has just died in modern day Iraq. How long does it take for me, a Roman citizen living in modern day Portugal, to hear about it? |
| 3,089 | 19 comments | In 1974, the CIA recovered the bodies of six Soviet sailors as part of a top-secret operation. The remains were buried at sea with at least an approximation of full Soviet military honours. Are there any other examples of Cold War adversaries treating 'enemy' dead with similar respect? |
| 2,495 | 33 comments | The ancient Roman senate did something unusual — They passed laws limiting the ways in which they could earn wealth, forbidding themselves to trade, offer banking services, or own large oceangoing transport ships. Why did they do this, and how unprecedented was it? |
| 2,487 | 91 comments | How could males be so widespread in the medieval times? Purposefully breeding a horse and a donkey seems to be an awful lot of trouble to create a sterile animal, when the same gestation period could be used to breed more horses and donkeys |
| 2,418 | 91 comments | There are numerous accounts of young men simply showing up in port and "going away to sea". Who hired these untrained youngsters, how were they trained, and was someone with no sailing experience more of a liability or an asset to their captains? |
| 1,900 | 15 comments | [Great Question!] Cahokia lasted until 1350; the Iroquois Confederacy was founded in 1142. Do we have any evidence of interaction between these two cultures? |
| 1,683 | 36 comments | Lincoln didn’t appear on the ballot of ten slave states in 1860. Was this unconstitutional at the time? If not, what’s stopping states from doing it now? |
| 1,670 | 53 comments | I've heard the poet Sappho was supposedly married to Kerkylas of Andros, but that this would translate to "Dick Allcocks of Man Island" - how much truth is there to this? |
| 1,615 | 92 comments | I see a lot of alt-right folks trying to say that the Nazis were socialists. Was this a common talking point after WW2? |
| 1,313 | 8 comments | British monarchs claimed the title of "King of France" until 1801 — did Jacobite pretenders continue to claim this title while in exile in France? Wasn't this a bit awkward? |
###Top 10 Comments
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Greetings! My daughter has indicated that she'd like to study History in college/university so I am doing a little research. I'd appreciate the community's opinions as to:
What are the top (10) private university (or college) programs for History?
Top (10) public universities for History?
Top (10) international (outside of the U.S.) universities?
Thanks much in advance.
ps - I suspect that she'll have a decent shot at admission to some of the best schools.
Did ancient people like those from Mesopotamia have any stories about them being cavemen before cities?
Was the soviet m35 uniform used in late ww2 pretty commonly? Or would the m43 much much more common?