r/AskHistorians • u/AutoModerator • Jan 19 '25
Digest Sunday Digest | Interesting & Overlooked Posts | January 19, 2025
Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
Welcome back friends & comrades, to yet another fantastic edition of the AskHistorians Sunday Digest! We simply cannot be stopped. Every week brings yet more history, in an ever churning cycle that will outlast the stars themselves!
Speaking of stars, don’t forget to upvote & thank all the stars of the sub, those hard working contributors asking and answering questions. Check out some of the weekly features, and any special ones as well!
I am a historian of New York City. Ask me anything about NYC during the 1970s. With /u/ SoundscapesNYC!
Tuesday Trivia: Emotions! This thread has relaxed standards—we invite everyone to participate!
And the Thursday Reading and Rec!
And the Friday Free for All!
And that’s it for me! Once again I retreat to the void to keep lurking and collecting answers. Enjoy the wealth, share it widely, and I’ll see you again next week! Keep it classy out there, and stay safe!
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/thestoryteller69 wrote about Is there an objective basis for the idea I commonly hear in Britain that the British Empire was the most benign of empires at the time?
/u/thethaneofcawdor answered Did the armed forces of the Cold War German republics attempt to psychologically prepare their soldiers to fight other Germans?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/itsallfolklore Mod Emeritus | American West | European Folklore Jan 19 '25
Thanks for all of this. When it comes to the post on ancient gods my answer was secondary to the link offered by /u/Iphikrates.
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
- /u/Red_Galiray did I recently read that Nixon practiced using chopsticks in advance of his visit to China. Is there evidence of earlier US presidents having used chopsticks (proficiently or otherwise)? In the same vein, when did regular Americans really start adopting chopstick use while eating East Asian food?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/Consistent_Score_602 answered To what extent did Germany's decision to divert resources to Greece in 1941 after Italy's loss to Greece impact the timing and outcome of Operation Barbarossa, especially in the context of the Germans getting bogged down in Russian winter?
How involved was the “regular†Soviet military in Soviet war crimes during World War 2?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/EverythingIsOverrate answered Did the USSR remove machinery and dismantle factories in China and move them into the USSR?
How did people use to deal with large amounts of money in the past?
What qualifies as a "choice cut of meat" in the days of Ancient Greece?
Would a tailor or sother craftspeople in small 14th century villages in England also work the land?
How did bureaucratic government work get done in pre-revolution France?
How did bureaucratic government work get done in pre-revolution France?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/Rentstrike wrote about Are there any historical studies on sexually repressive cultures and consequential unintended systematic sexual abuse?
/u/reproachableknight answered What kind of changes occurred in Roman jurisprudence dealing with capital punishment, specifically the death penalty, after the Christianization of Rome (whether in 312-13, 380, or gradually over time)?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/ReelMidwestDad answered I often see demons be given titles (Duke of Hell, Prince of hell, etc) how did medieval Christians (or whenever they started doing this) imagine this?
/u/Rentstrike wrote about How come Europeans brought diseases to the Americas and killed native population, but there weren't native diseases that killed Europeans?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/itsallfolklore Mod Emeritus | American West | European Folklore Jan 19 '25 edited Jan 19 '25
As indicated in the thread, my answer was more of a response to the primary response by /u/JudgmentKey7282.
But thanks for the nod!
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/KiwiHellenist answered Many Greek writers, such as Homer, began their texts with an invocation to the Muses. Was this a stylistic practice, or did they genuinely hold a religious belief that the Muses aided in writing? Did the writers feel "entranced" by the Muses? Did they pray to them before writing?
and did What time period does the rule of the Titans, in greek mythology, correspond to?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/Nashinas answered Was marriage to prepubescent children in the 7th century actually normal/accepted like i am seeing claimed on social media?
/u/Nevada_Lawyer wrote about When classical Greek and/or Biblical texts refer to "the Ethiopians", are they referring to the literal Ethiopians, or are they using shorthand for "the people who are very far away"?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/The_Chieftain_WG answered Prior to joining the Allies, did the US have any contingency plan to retake Europe in the case all other democracies collapsed?
/u/theredwoman95 wrote about I'm a young 12th-century English peasant woman, and, having seen the potential dangers of childbearing, have decided I do not want to conceive. Is this a realistically achievable goal?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/CosmicXCO answered Many first generation slaves from Africa were warriors from martial cultures, with experience in combat and warfare. Were they known to be more rebellious or dangerous then slaves born in the Americas?
/u/Creative-Knee-7061 wrote about Before nationalism created rigid discrete boundaries between nations, was the perception of the national belonging a lot more fluid?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/hamilcar-the-lurker answered On page 352 of Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose", it is mentioned that the Church in Hibernia (Ireland) "invented a new Latin" as contact with continental Europe faded. How true is this?
/u/handsomeboh wrote about In WW2, why did Japan consistently over-estimate the class of US ship they were facing?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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/u/NFB42 answered I don't understand the notion that "the concept of romantic love was invented in the 19th century"? Can someone please explain this? It seems just blatantly wrong?
/u/-Non_sufficit_orbis- wrote about Did the first European settlers on the Southern hemisphere know about the flipped seasons?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/JudgmentKey7282 answered The Champawat Tiger was a tiger in rural India in the early 20th century which is said to have killed hundreds . What evidence is there that this was a single tiger and not something like French Beast of Gavaudan which was supposedly a wolf which supposedly killed hundreds of people?
/u/JudgmentKey7282 wrote about How often did Caesar wear his civic crown?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
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/u/Infinite5kor answered Was Napoleon really more tyrannical than other contemporary European leaders? Weren't they all also monarchs who were trying to expand their power too? How much of the perception of Napoleon in the English speaking world is biased by sharing a language with his main enemy?
/u/Iphikrates wrote about Allegedly Sparta tried to invade Patavium/Padua (Venetia) in 302 BC. Is this true? Why would or could they have wanted to conquer territory so far away from Sparta?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/Overall_Chemist1893 answered Albert Einstein's schedule after moving the USA seems odd and very lenient compared to present-day academia. Was it normal for academia back then to have such lenient schedules?
/u/ParallelPain answered A koku is a measure of "food needed to feed someone for a year" has this unit ever been used to tax the peasants and literally only leave them with a single koku per person? How did they even come up with that calculation?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/Sneakys2 answered After visiting "National Museum of the American Indian": How do Americans View Native Americans?
/u/SocHistOfSoldiersAMA answered I don't understand the notion that "the concept of romantic love was invented in the 19th century"? Can someone please explain this? It seems just blatantly wrong?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
/u/holomorphic_chipotle answered What are good book recommendations for the rise of conservatism, increasing political polarization, and other historical context for understanding how American politics got to where it is today?
How brutal was the Arab Slave Trade? Did they really castrate their slaves?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Jan 19 '25
We also pause for a moment this Sunday to consider some of those fascinating questions that caught our eyes, and captured our curiosity, but sadly still remain unanswered. Feel free to post your own, or those you’ve come across in your history travels, and maybe we’ll get lucky with a wandering expert.
/u/NewtonianAssPounder asked Why were deaths of German immigrants to the Netherlands so high that Thomas Malthus called it “the grave of Germany”?
/u/_dk asked Were there qualms about Japan "stealing" technological know-how from the West during the Meiji Restoration?
/u/PMN19 asked How did Operation Vengeance not alert the Japanese that the US had broken their cipher?