AskHistorians

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/white_mintgay on 2023-08-18 09:40:33+00:00.

Dear Historians,

For a while now I have been trying to understand more about how history is taught, researched and produced, tasks which are of the utmost importance to the study of history. Whilst I am aware that this is not an 'historical question' this is a question about historiography, which is an equally important part of the study of History. So I've come to reddit for some peer advice/consultation/discussion. I have felt a certain shift on the study of history which, at least in the West, reflects a social shift in favour of history's marginalised voices: women, slaves, workers, peasants, POC, gender based and LGBTQ+ studies, etc. It seems to me that this is fashionable to study and write on. I have found pretty new works of this sort across the different time periods and geographic locations.

However, is that actually the case? What are the current trends in medieval History? Are the old fields of constitutional, military, economic and political studies of history obscure? Is that the case in you field?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/D4NSOME on 2023-08-18 08:53:13+00:00.

Lets look at the battle of Waterloo, for example. The deployment of troops began around 6AM and the fighting finished only at dusk. During all those hours, what would the reserve units (those that would only see action later in the day) do? Would they stand in column or line? Would they kneel? Or setup a temporary camp and sit down?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/Asadleafsfan on 2023-08-18 07:06:23+00:00.

Why did this become the primary siren? Why did they not adopt, for common usage, softer sirens akin to police and paramedic services? Why do we not see hear the same “q siren” in other places as commonly?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/Addahn on 2023-08-17 14:04:38+00:00.

In many dramas regarding the Japanese occupation of Chinese, it’s common to see Chinese collaborators speaking Chinese to the Japanese administrators, but the Japanese administrators speaking Japanese in response. Was this dynamic common in Japanese-occupied China? Would Japanese administrators speak Chinese, or would it be expected that Chinese underneath them speak Japanese?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/inaqu3estion on 2023-08-17 13:34:46+00:00.

Especially in comparison to other deities like Rama, Shiva, Durga, Kali, Ganesh etc.

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/account4ece on 2023-08-18 06:29:11+00:00.

I watched Oppenheimer movie recently. Even though he was the main guy behind nuclear weapon, because his girlfriend was a supporter of communism or he was friends with people who supported it, the USA govt investigated him as they feared he is communist.

I am have high level understanding of what communism is. But I do not understand why does American govt treats anyone who supports communism as a threat to the govt. I have heard my American co workers use “communist” in derogatory way.

why is this?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/quesoandcats on 2023-08-18 05:37:32+00:00.

In the film Battle of Britain, there is a scene where the male commander of an RAF base chastises a female WAAF officer for allowing her subordinates to use the "men's trenches" during air raid drills. Shortly after this, the base is actually bombed and that same male officer takes shelter in a "women's trench" with a group of WAAF personnel.

Were air raid facilities actually segregated by gender like this, and if so when did they finally become gender neutral? The thought of someone getting killed because they had to run an extra 50 feet to take cover in the "appropriate" trench is a little ridiculous

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/HunterAmacker on 2023-08-18 05:08:44+00:00.

I'm very curious about how the news of the attack of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were communicated to troops in the Pacific theater, and how the soldiers reacted to that news.

What records do we have about their impressions on the bombs? Did they get anything more than "we dropped big bombs, war's over"?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/HylianCraft on 2023-08-18 04:59:34+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/TakeOffYourMask on 2023-08-18 03:54:47+00:00.

Original Title: It seems like there was an excessive amount of assassinations of politicians in the 20th century, and that this stopped around the 80s/90s and hasn't flared back up. Is this perception accurate and if so what was going on back then?

Yes, I'm aware that Shinzo Abe was assassinated a year or two ago and that US Congressman was shot during a baseball game and that there have been near-misses with Brett Kavanaugh and Mike Pence. I know it still happens. My question is why it happened so much more in the past and why it happens much less now. In recent decades it seems terrorists and mass-murdering psychos mainly target groups of civilians, even if they have a political agenda, rather than political targets.

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/esor_rose on 2023-08-18 03:28:48+00:00.

First time poster. Please tell me if this isn’t specific enough or against the rules and I will take it down.

I’m wondering how people in medieval times prepared for battle. How would they train, get supplies (weapons, armor, food, etc.), and generally organize to start a war or go to battle? How long would this take? How often would soldiers train before going into battle? I know it probably varies based on the battle and/or war, but what are ranges? I’m talking about weeks, months, years, etc.

Sources are appreciated but not necessary. Thanks!

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/WtRingsUGotBithc on 2023-08-18 02:12:36+00:00.

I imagine I’d be taking a train to New York City, or somewhere else on the Eastern Seaboard, and then traveling to Panama via steamship? How long would this travel take, and what might it be like? Would the ship stop anywhere en route such as Cuba? Thanks in advance for any response!

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/Grilloh on 2023-08-18 00:16:44+00:00.

the egyptians often fought in the middle east or invaded other lands in the african continent, but never tried or conquered anything in europe, why? Stopping to think, they neither conquear many places even in Africa

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/RomanPhilosophy on 2023-08-17 23:43:41+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/Bandit1189 on 2023-08-17 20:58:53+00:00.

If so is there any existing recordings left of any of the calls and since its post ww1 were they used less or more when compared to field telephones. were some of the calls ex imperial era calls or did they make new calls?, Questions such as these fill my head as I had seen a video of a Red cavalier rallying fellow Reds to mount up using a bugle and so it got me curious.

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/BankApprehensive2514 on 2023-08-17 19:58:29+00:00.

Men in the church dominated everything while women were suppressed. If women couldn't be as decadent/bejeweled as men, wouldn't their status have to be shown by what they were allowed to have? AKA, their clothes?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/ChocodiIe on 2023-08-18 03:07:43+00:00.

In the modern age you hear about all these surgeries and fears of being crippled by your 40s and whatnot. It must have been so much worse in the past with so much more manual labor involved whether its construction, farming, and war, and little to repair the body from the damages.

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/parastro on 2023-08-18 00:31:31+00:00.

I’m currently migrating my budget to a paper ledger, which has got me wondering, how did people in the past, specifically in the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe, keep their financial records? Did they write everything down or just major sales and purchases? What did they use the records for? How was it different depending on class? Did they use banks?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/J2quared on 2023-08-18 00:13:34+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/Sneaky_Snake416 on 2023-08-17 23:56:20+00:00.

I’ve heard a lot of theories and speculation, but I can’t seem to pin down a source or an answer that made sense. I’m really curious about it but I don’t know what the right questions are or who to ask. (I am new here, if this isn’t the right subreddit, please let me know. Thank you in advance)

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/SheepShagginShea on 2023-08-17 23:53:51+00:00.

Not trying to undermine his work, as I've only just discovered it. But his revisionist assertions seem utterly absurd to me and are in total contradiction to the several USSR historians I've read. For instance, he claims that "not a single" victim of Stalin's great purge was innocent, and that Stephen Kotkin, in his book Stalin Vol II, lied throughout and fabricated evidence to make Stalin look guilty of crimes.

Furr also claims that the Katyn massacre was perpetrated by the Germans - a claim I honestly didn't think anyone still made, given that Gorbachev and the post USSR Russian government have officially acknowledged that the USSR was entirely to blame.

So do any other modern scholars of Russian history support Furr's claims? I'd fact check the primary documents myself but can't read Russian :(

Edit: wrong flair

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/thepixelpaint on 2023-08-17 23:42:15+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/Fragrant_Towel6319 on 2023-08-17 22:20:17+00:00.

Everybody knows about the Zapruder Film, which is the infamous piece of footage showing the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, but the footage shot by Orville Nix on the other side of the road is hardly talked about even though it shows the grassy knoll. Why isn't this as well known or talked about as the Zapruder film is by the general public?

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/uhluhtc666 on 2023-08-17 21:53:59+00:00.

I recently learned about the Saeculum obscurum, a period during the 10th century that was known for incredible corruption and vice in the Papacy. While the details are quite saucy, I'm left wondering how true all of this is considered by historians today.

I've only read the Wikipedia article, but it indicates much of our information comes from Liutprand of Cremona. He was aggressively opposed to the influence that Roman nobles held over the Papacy of the era and his writings seem to be quite...colorful. Additionally, the two people that are indicated to have had the most power are two women, Theodora and her daughter Marozia. In my amateur historical knowledge, when women gain leadership in male dominated areas the rumors about them tend to be very harsh. Lastly, the quote from Lindsay Brook seems to indicate the period had good administration and reforms.

Ultimately, I'm left with a couple questions. First, how bad was this era for the Papacy? Was it as corrupt as sources indicate, or is it considered exaggeration? Was this more personal corruption, while having successful governance?

Second, if this is exaggerated or invented by our primary sources, what was their motive? Why did they have such an axe to grind about the current situation? What were they trying to change? Thank you for your time!

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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/A_aranha_discoteca on 2023-08-17 21:10:36+00:00.

I was thinking about the Yvan eht nioj episode of the Simpsons and was wondering if there are any documented cases of this actually happening?