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.
Apparently the entire world has decided for at least one day that it would like to become experts in the history of nuclear secrecy law (for some reason), and if that counts you, you might be interested in knowing that my publisher has marked my book on the history of nuclear secrecy in the USA down by 50% until 8/19/2022. To get the discount, you buy it through their website and use the code SECRET50 at checkout. :-)
The progress for my thesis is going well, hopefully I can finish it by this semester! If I have time, I also write a thing or two in Saturday Showcase soon
Anyway, can anyone help me find the collection/manuscript source for this image? It's a picture of a vendor in Sumatra selling the portraits of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V during the First World War. It's clearly of German publication, but I can't find the original collection/book/manuscript it's in
When and why did US police change from using red and blue lights to just blue lights?
What are some of the best movies and TV series out there when it comes to historical accuracy?
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, August 05 - Thursday, August 11
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 4,553 | 415 comments | [AMA] AMA: Female Pirates |
| 2,911 | 158 comments | Thirty-four years after scribbling E = mc2, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt to warn him the Nazis were turning his famous theory into a nuclear weapon. How did Einstein know this, and did Roosevelt actually read his letter? |
| 2,859 | 116 comments | I'm in 16th century Europe, and dino nuggets haven't been invented yet. What do I feed my children that are picky eaters? |
| 2,837 | 28 comments | The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was inhabited by more than 33.000 people. Between 1987 and 1992, the city was evicted to be demolished. How were the logistics of relocating and re-employing so many people over only five years solved? |
| 2,463 | 56 comments | In 1983, in the midst of the Cold War, the Soviet Air Force shot down a civilian flight with a sitting US congressman on board. Given our image of Cold War tensions being as taut as piano wire, how did this not immediately make the war very very hot? |
| 1,843 | 53 comments | [Great Question!] Ancient Mediterranean piracy was largely wiped out by the Romans in the first century BC. But what about Indian Ocean piracy? With the vast wealth of India, Rome and China crisscrossing the seas from Egypt to Malacca, was piracy a major issue in the region in antiquity? |
| 1,762 | 43 comments | It used to be common for governments to hold open, high-profile competitions for the best solution to some engineering problem. Examples include the longitude competition won by John Harrison, and the naval architecture prizes won by Leonhard Euler. When and why did this stop? |
| 1,427 | 101 comments | When Native Americans were being slaughtered in the 1700's-1800's, did anyone sympathize with them? |
| 1,398 | 74 comments | Recently, I have found out about 100’000 to 200’000 Zoroastrians still exist. But I was wondering how? The Islamic conversions of Iran definitely wouldn’t have let them stay right? How did they avoid religious extinction for so long? |
| 1,131 | 39 comments | Elizabeth I was technically born out of wedlock, due to the annulled marriage of her parents, meaning she could not claim the throne. How convoluted were the legal proceedings to allow her reign to become legitimate? |
###Top 10 Comments
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How long does it take to get an answer to a question or how long before it’s too late to reply with an answer a question?
I find interesting the shift from scholars discussing the meaning of a nation for the purpose of a state to scholars being apart of a populist movement & trying to reach the broader public of Japan during the Meiji to early Shōwa era. It's obviously not easy to record, but to try and understand the slowly built (un)cohesiveness of the people trying to figure out what sort of nation they are or should be is really fascinating!
On the other hand, I might need even more recommendations on nationalism in Japan, even after checking the recommended books on here... I need to research more.
Is anyone knowledgeable on Grecian/Byzantine trade ships during the 15th century? I want to commission a historically accurate art piece, but I don’t know which one to use for it
Is there a Christan sect that believed that everyone is going to hell? Do they still exist?
I just finished my history master's degree, and even though I have a concrete plan on getting to my PhD (I took an intensive language course for my area of study, I am applying for a Fulbright ETA position to continue learning that language in person and get teaching experience), I still feel really nervous that I am going to somehow get stuck and never go back to school again.