Internet is out for tons of folks up here in Canada-land, so I'm sitting around with nothing to do. So figured I'd throw up a random prompt for any passer bys.

What is your favorite piece of art in history? Pictures, paintings, architecture, whatever really speaks to you as art. What always makes you stop when you see it and just go "Wow, now thats beautiful/fascinating/great/[insert amazement word]"?

I gotta tell you, this is my favorite subreddit of all. It's like a smorgasbord, buffet, tapas bar of mini history courses, all bite sized and washed down with fine wine. Thank you, historians, for sharing these delicious morsels of fascination!

Any tips for non-professional researchers/historians? I do have a background and good understanding of proper research but don’t have the same access I had in academia. Any great tips anyones discovered? I’ve been researching to get a podcast started (finally decided to just do it!) and of course I love the more “off the radar” topics - that seem to be not in English/another language I speak and I’ve been struggling not to break the bank ordering tons of books. Any advice is so much appreciated! Also in case anyone is a specialist and wants to connect I’m currently researching a few topics - •Stille Hilfe in post-war Germany with a bit on its present-day impact on Germany. •Ostraca in Athens and asking why we don’t see voting people out of office/the city in modern times. •Emma B Andrews, her life (or what I can “dig” up) and her role in the Egyptology craze in America.

Didn't get any book recs yesterday but maybe someone has some insights/can make a short comment or point me in the right direction here?? Here's what I said yesterday:

I find it very difficult, as a 21st Century American, to grasp the mindset of (European) post-French Revolution, pre-WW2 monarchists, reactionaries, anti-liberal people like that. There's a lot of books that try to explain fascism but I don't think I've ever seen one that tries to explain other kinds of prewar right wing people. (There's also plenty out there about, say, post-Goldwater conservatives, but it's so different, I don't think it helps.)

I take it for granted that these people weren't thinking of themselves as bad guys and the sort of basic unexamined liberal/Whiggish narrative ("they were just stupid and evil lol!") is very unsatisfying. I feel as though I have a better idea of the ideas of Japanese ultranationalists than I do about European conservatives and that is sort of strange.

I just want to correct something u/dagaboy wrote in this answer the other day — it wasn't a Kino tribute band, we just kind of only had a dozen songs and a third of them were Kino covers. College, you know. Really, if anything, it was supposed to be a ska band, but that semester we only had access to an acoustic guitar, a banjo, a djembe, a flute, and a keytar, and our fifth member couldn't even really play any instruments at all, but we needed a bassist and he wanted to join, so he played the keytar. And that's how we became a Russian folk-ska fusion band with Jethro Tull characteristics.

Later, of course, in other semesters, the drummer and keytarist graduated, I brought an electric bass to campus, we got two other guitarist friends to join, and our banjoist learned the drums, so we became a lot more normal, instrument-wise, at least.

Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap

Friday, July 01 - Thursday, July 07

###Top 10 Posts

###Top 10 Comments

If you would like this roundup sent to your reddit inbox every week send me a message with the subject 'askhistorians'. Or if you want a daily roundup, use the subject 'askhistorians daily'. Or send me a chat with either askhistorians or askhistorians daily.

####Please let me know if you have suggestions to make this roundup better for /r/askhistorians or if there are other subreddits that you think I should post in. I can search for posts based off keywords in the title, URL and flair. And I can also find the top comments overall or in specific threads.

Historians, how do you keep track of all your research / conclusions? I frequently have the feeling I keep mixing things up and I often feel unsure about my historical knowlegde.

Edit: thank you all for your answers! It looks like trusty ol’ reliable sticky notes will be really useful in the future

Can you propose a lineup for a Justice League and a Legion of Doom composed by real historical characters?

I am quite into biographies of historical figures, but as a non-historian it can be difficult finding quality books that have been researched with proper standards and don’t just cater towards the author’s biases too much.

Now, usually I’d pose a question on here for reading recommendations, but I don’t want to be too spammy. Is there any resource that points towards quality biographies?

Thanks!

Edit: I know of the biography list in this sub, but it’s very focussed on US presidents, so looking for a more general resource

How do historians, or researchers generally, find other historians working on the same topic? Like, let’s say I was developing a new theory on a certain obscure topic. How would I make sure my theory hasn’t been thought of before, or that there isn’t anyone currently working on the same thing?

Say I want to not only stay historically informed, but help to promote historical literacy, especially so people will be less likely to fall for politically charged mythistories. What can I do to not only stay historically informed but also help others get interested in history, even if my day job is technically unrelated?