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.
In partnership with the American Battlefield Trust, we’re proud to announce that we're hosting a Minecraft marathon featuring a recreation of Vicksburg, Mississippi during the American Civil War.
Built from the ground up in Minecraft, you can visit accurate representations of the city during the Battle of Vicksburg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d_qkNbgKXQ
The Battle of Vicksburg benefiting American Battlefield Trust starts on November 11th to 16th at 6PM EST.
For more information to donate or join as a streamer, please visit: https://battleofvicksburg.com/
100% of the donations go towards American Battlefield Trust to preserve historical locations across the US.
I saw the thread asking if AH was opening a mastodon account but I wanted to see if there was more of a discussion about where various community members are thinking of moving to. I don't have twitter myself, but I have several flairs/mods/peoples accounts bookmarked to skim through every now and then, and it'll be sad to probably lose that weekly enjoyment.
What are people here thinking about doing? Who's found sanctuary elsewhere?
What historical reading tangents have you gone on?
I started reading about the Ulster Plantation but then got distracted reading an account of Early Modern Ireland prior to the plantation, almost went further back to medieval Ireland before I got distracted with the Great Famine.
Do you agree with Alan Moore that the recent rise of superhero movies is related to the recent rise of fascist movements?
I've been thinking a lot about video games nominally placed in historical periods (Battlefield 1 in WWI, Ghost of Tsushima during the first Mongol invasion of Japan, Bioshock Infinite in an alternate 1912) and was wondering what would intrigue the /r/askhistorians crowd.
If you had a triple A development budget and full creative control to make a "historical" video game, what period would it be? What genre (e.g. first person shooter vs. role-playing adventure vs. epic strategy simulator)? Would you adhere closely to historical facts or would you lean into other sources (e.g. magic from folklore and mythology, literary fiction like Jules Verne for steampunk or anachronistic technology, urban legends just for fun)? Would there be any educational value to it or would it be purely a thrill ride?
Looking forward to some off the wall thoughts on this.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, November 04 - Thursday, November 10
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 3,511 | 45 comments | Poland was one of the first countries in Europe to officialy decriminalize same sex acts (1932) and to set equal age of consent for gay people (1948) yet now it is the most homophobic country in EU with no partnership recognition. How did that happened? |
| 3,394 | 78 comments | According to his biographer, John Ruskin refused to sleep with his wife and eventually sought an annulment because his discovery that she (and other women) have pubic hair was so repulsive to him, was it normal for an educated Victorian man like him to be so ignorant of female anatomy? |
| 3,364 | 96 comments | How did Switzerland, a landlocked European country, become so well known for fine chocolates when both sugar and cacao are grown far away in mostly tropical places? |
| 2,674 | 55 comments | Why, in the last two centuries, have women become to be considered less sexual than men, if, throughout history, they were believed to have a much higher libido? |
| 2,513 | 22 comments | In traditional Hawaiian culture women would be put to death for eating pork, coconuts, taro, several types of fish, and 67 out of 70 varieties of bananas. What did Hawaiian women subsist off of? Why was there such a drastic limitation on what women could eat? |
| 2,257 | 91 comments | Nowadays we have the concept of "vegging out" (relaxing while doing very little), but it's usually associated with TV/video games/mass media. Did similar forms of relaxation exist before the 20th century and mass media? If so, what did people do to "veg out"? |
| 1,715 | 108 comments | could the American Revolution have been avoided if Britain had given the colonists representation in parliament? |
| 1,669 | 58 comments | [Meta] This is one of my favorite pages on Reddit. But I’ve always been curious - What is the history / origins of r/AskHistorians? How did such a specialized sub get established and maintained? Who are some of the early or influential people who made it what it is today? |
| 1,660 | 49 comments | Why did the nazis adopt the word “aryan” to describe themselves? And how did it come to mean “blonde white”? |
| 1,512 | 116 comments | My father likes to tell me “Black” people taught “White” people how to bath. I recently asked him for context and he explained to me the Moors taught people in Spain, England, and Portugal better hygiene. Can I get some more context on this? |
###Top 10 Comments
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Hey there, very unsure if I'm in the right place but here goes, I found a pebble at the beach, which instantly I knew it was my amulet 💜 it has been carved to leave an arrow' design, as in an arrow for directions. I know they are carved into rocks etc for the same purpose. Does anyone know if pebbles were used for the same? Can I upload a pic? Thank you in advance 😊
Badly worded question incoming: What was name that Japan wanted to give Asia after they established their rule in the Second World War?
I was just thinking, out of the blue, about Putin's history essay about the historical unity of Russia and Ukraine. Is it weird for that kind of world leadsr to drop that kind of essay? Wars don't usually have an essay section, right?