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.
What's the best way to answer an old (as in, posted about six months ago) question? If the user has been recently active on Reddit, is it OK to ask them to repost the question to maximize visibility?
Hi. Is there a good reference book (or books) for early hominid prehistory that is relatively up-to-date?
I'm looking for something that will start with the separation of bonobos & hominids, cover the migration theories & evidence of Australopithecus africanus, H neanderthalensis, H sapiens, H erectus, and start to edge toward the time of civilization.
Ideally, the reference will have a bird's eye view & have some published reviews of it (so that I can read other folks' quibbles with it).
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, June 17 - Thursday, June 23
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 3,045 | 61 comments | Would my great-great grandfather have ever eaten a banana? |
| 3,030 | 42 comments | What was the Churches Response to the well-known Rape of Slaves? |
| 2,881 | 74 comments | [Great Question!] Why has Western culture come up with museums and the study of ethnography, while other cultures have simply lived alongside ancient artefacts and buildings for thousands of years? |
| 2,177 | 60 comments | The three wise men in the Bible? Were they Zoroastrian? |
| 1,956 | 86 comments | [Power & Authority] How many rules and procedures of archaeology did Indiana Jones break on screen by the standards of his time and by the standards of our time? |
| 1,952 | 58 comments | How did the Native Americans season their foods? What sorts of spices and flavorings did they use? |
| 1,951 | 73 comments | What are the sources for Ronald Reagan "funnelling crack into black communities"? |
| 1,896 | 57 comments | Why is there not a ‘working class’ representing Labor Party in the United States like there is in the UK or Australia? Why did the labour movement fail to translate to a modern political force in the USA? |
| 1,713 | 13 comments | "The Great Gatsby," was a commercial failure and all but forgotten until the U.S. decided to print several hundred thousand copies and ship them to US servicemen during WWII. Why was this "underwhelming" work featuring unlikeable characters chosen for distribution? |
| 1,713 | 27 comments | Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd used to destroy mortgages when he robbed banks. How likely was it that he actually freed people of their mortgages by doing so in the 1930s? |
###Top 10 Comments
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What is a topic you have always wanted to research/work on but haven't had the opportunity to do for whatever reason?
This isn't really a direct history question. Is "The History of the Ancient World" by Susan Wise Bauer worth the read? I picked it up but then saw some critiques that she may focus on big individuals of history and may treat myths as facts or have some bias.
What is a historical inaccuracy you see commonly in popular media that annoys you but nobody else seems to notice?
Looking for book recommendations on the history of anarchism, preferably from within the anarchist perspective.
Honestly, I'm really trying hard to learn more about this philosophy, and finding it very hard to break into. Which makes sense I suppose, considering...