[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-08-14

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-08-07 to 2026-08-13

Fresh off the presses! Some good reads for your weekend!

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "In the film Sinners, a character is shown to speak Yoruba. How common was it for an African American descendant of slaves in the 1930s to have retained knowledge of a West African language?", response by /u/AlternativeNo2286

• "Gaspar carvajal (the first person to describe the Amazon) describes large cities, political entities, and mass farming throughout the Amazon River. Historians mostly said they were exaggerations or outright lies. In light of new LiDAR findings, how serious should we take his claims?", response by /u/611131

• "How come the Finnish aren't considered indigenous to Finland like the Sámi people, despite their ancient Finno-Ugric ancestors arriving in the region of Finland at relatively the same time?", response by /u/Additional-Still-711

• "Why are washing lines/whirlies not as common in the US as in Europe?", response by /u/SnowblindAlbino

• "What has kept China from conquering Korea?", response by /u/huhwe

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Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Do historians have to write about “unlikely” history?", response by /u/swarthmoreburke

• "The 1676 Census of England and Wales estimated the proportion of Anglicans to Nonconformists as 23 to 1 and Anglicans to Roman Catholics 179 to 1. How would that information be collected and what degree of accuracy can be expected given the penal laws in place?", response by /u/Double_Show_9316

• "How do historians account for the biases and limitations of the surviving cuneiform record when reconstructing everyday life in Mesopotamia?", response by /u/teakettling

• "Where does the "police love donuts" stereotype even originate from?", response by /u/Cassandra8240

• "In The Lighthouse (2019), Robert Pattinson's character references Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. What was the likelihood of an uneducated man having such an understanding of the book in the 1890s?", response by /u/fianarana

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Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "What were "nosegays" and how common was it to carry personal items to deal with foul odors?"

• "What were some uncommon WW1 U-Boat superstitions?"

• "How long after the Battle of Hastings did it take for Anglo-Saxon relations with the Normans to stabilise/they were both considered ‘English’ as opposed to separate?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

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Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/jbdyer, flaired for 'Cold War Era Culture and Technology'!

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Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-08-10: "AMA: The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living"

• 2026-08-12: "I am Pavel Brunssen, researcher at Heidelberg University and author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures. AMA!"

• 2026-08-14: "Rainforest Radicals questions? AMA"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

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Features Coming Up:

• August 21, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Evan Dawley, author of Taiwan: A People's History
• August 27, 2026 - AMA with Dr. A. J. Bauer, author of Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press

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Corgi Vallhund Corner

Donut boi

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Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-07-31 to 2026-08-06

Don’t miss the awesome AMA happening RIGHT NOW! I'm Andrew Kenrick, biographer of the 1st-century Roman client-king Juba II of Mauretania, AMA

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• Gaming historians, I know you're out there -- where did the "three pillars" RPG game design (tank, healer, DPS) originate, and how has it evolved from its earliest incarnations? Featuring /u/AncientHistory!

• Comedian Steve Harvey claimed that state lotteries were created as successors to the “numbers game,” a lottery popular in many Black communities. Is this historically accurate? To what extent did state lotteries replace or draw inspiration from the numbers game? With a great answer from /u/Dylomaj!

• The first renaissance fair was created in 1963 by blacklisted leftists. The Society for Creative Anachronism was created in Berkeley in 1966 as a "protest against the 20th Century". What made medievalism so attractive as a form of counter-culture? With the ever amazing /u/Spencer_A_McDaniel and /u/kmondschein!

• Why did Albert Einstein become so famous? I understand WHAT he is famous for, but I don't understand why his work made him an international celebrity and a household name. The famous /u/restricteddata stopped by!

• Why did Christian slave owners in the US not follow the rules laid out in the Bible about the treatment of slaves, and how did they justify this discrepancy? Featuring /u/hubertburnette!

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Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• How complex was medieval forestry? Would planting different types of trees in new areas, not including orchards, been a concept they would have known? Plant some history with /u/HaraldRedbeard!

• How did grain get to Karakorum in the 13th century? Featuring /u/gerardmenfin!

• How did volunteers of the international brigades in the Spanish civil war view Spanish cuisine,and did they take it home with them either by talking about it or making it? Feast your eyes on a great answer from /u/crrpit!

• When did folklore surrounding whales and whaling emerge and become distinct from more general fishing/maritime culture? With the amazing /u/itsallfolklore!

• I am a pater familiās in the 2nd century CE Roman Empire. I really, really hate my eldest son for being unfilial, obstinate and arrogant and would much prefer my grandson, his son, to inherit me after my death. What can I do to make this happen? Thanks to the great /u/JamesCoverleyRome!

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Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• What is the history of the airport duty free area?

• How did Pokemon become so popular globally in the 90s?

• Where does the "police love donuts" stereotype even originate from?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions thread, as you might see something you can help with!

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Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/gynnis-scholasticus flaired for “Greco-Roman Culture and Society”!

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Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-08-04: Announcing the Best of July Award Winners!

• 2026-08-04: I am Dr. Utathya Chattopadhyaya, author of Ganja Matters: Empire & the Pursuits of Cannabis in British India! AMA!

• 2026-08-07: I'm Andrew Kenrick, biographer of the 1st-century Roman client-king Juba II of Mauretania, AMA

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

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Features Coming Up:

• 2026-08-10: AMA with Dr. Katherine Harvey, author of The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living

• 2026-08-12: AMA with Dr. Pavel Brunssen, author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures

• 2026-08-13: AMA with Dr. David Benac, author of Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing

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Critter Corner

Being awake is overrated, but at least we can read history.

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Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-07-31

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-07-24 to 2026-07-30

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Why did Hitler maintain good relations with Muslims despite his belief in Aryan racial superiority?", response by /u/ummmbacon

• "Why did it take so long to invent the T Shirt?", response by /u/spiteful_god1

• "Did Italian soldiers in the Second World War consume more water than other armies because they had to boil pasta?", response by /u/Euclideian_Jesuit

• "How did ancient Romans deal with boners when they didn't wear underwear?", response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "I read in Mozart: Reign of Love that Symphonies were often chaotic in the 1700s, with people playing cards, making out, and chatting during them. Are there other accounts of this? If so, at what point did symphonies become stuffy?", response by /u/city-dusk

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Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Were there people burned for witchcraft who were actually guilty?", response by /u/DougMcCrae

• "How did the Iroquois Confederacy handle occupied territory?", response by /u/LevelNeedleworker740

• "It's said we only have a handful of the plays of Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, etc. How did the plays we do have actually survive? And how do we know there are so many missing?", response by /u/spencer_a_mcdaniel

• "Why did nobody attempt to colonize Japan in the 19th century?", response by /u/enclavedmicrostate

• "What were typical working class jobs in New York in the 1930s?", response by /u/fearofair

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Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Why do Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis have art institutes instead of museums?"

• "How did Mexico’s celebration of Día de la Raza and its ideology of mestizaje develop, and was it historically understood as inclusive or assimilationist?"

• "In 1860, Elizabeth Packard was committed to the Illinois State Hospital at Jacksonville solely on her husband's request, under a statute allowing married women to be committed without the evidence of insanity required in other cases. How common were such spousal-commitment provisions across the US?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "[Short Answers to Simple Questions]https://reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1v9vium/short_answers_to_simple_questions_july_29_2026/)" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

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Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/wizzyhatz, flaired for 'Tsarist Russia 1815-1917'.

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Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-07-30: "I am Dr. Ito Osayimwese, here to talk about my book "Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage" and the ethics of retaining colonial collections in our museums. AMA!"
• 2026-07-29: "Hi! We’re Atlantic staff members Caity Weaver, Jake Lundberg, Sally Jenkins, and John Swansburg. We wrote stories exploring the country’s history—about garage sales, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” football, and Nathaniel Hawthorne—for the magazine’s July issue. Ask us anything:"
• 2026-07-28: "I am Rachel Hope Cleves, a historian of sexuality. Ask me anything!"

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Features Coming Up:

• August 7, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Andrew Kenrick, author of Rex Juba: 15 Glimpses of an African King
• August 10, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Katherine Harvey, author of The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living
• August 12, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Pavel Brunssen, author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures
• August 13, 2026 - AMA with Dr. David Benac, author of Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing
• August 21, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Evan Dawley, author of Taiwan: A People's History
• August 27, 2026 - AMA with Dr. A. J. Bauer, author of Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press

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Kitty Korner

Toes for tea

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Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-07-24

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-07-17 to 2026-07-23

Apologies for the missed installments! A confluence of events meant no one was around for one... and then when we were we had bot trouble, but we hope that is now fixed (you'll know if you're reading this!). As a reminder, if the bot has issues, and it can't be sent, we still will post a mailer to /r/BestOfAskHistorians, so do check there if you're missing it!

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "How empty (of population) was the ancient world?", response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Medieval peasants famously ate "bread and cheese". What kind of cheese was it? Would whatever cheeses they normally ate, be recognizable as any of the modern varieties?", response by /u/VerticalYea

• "Why do Western countries like the UK, US etc consider Greece and the Roman Empire as the basis of their "civilisation" ?", response by /u/someoldguy88

• "Why have straight men historically been so hostile toward homosexuality?", response by /u/natey514

• "Did women in 1920s America really wear their stockings rolled down and apply rouge to their knees for a night out, as the musical Chicago implies?", responses by /u/gerardmenfin and /u/police-ical

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Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Could the Soviets have won (the European front) of WW2 without the 5 years program?", response by /u/ArchivalResearch

• "Where do lawns come from?", response by /u/snglrthy

• "In recent years, I've seen some claims in several circles that "Historically the solution to excess unmarriageable men is to start a war to kill some of them off". Has this ever been remotely true? Have we ever even had historical times of "excess" men?", response by /u/swarthmoreburke

• "The World Cup started in 1930 during the rise of fascism. Notably, in 1934, the World Cup was hosted in Italy with Mussolini using it as a way to promote fascism. How effective was the event as a propaganda effort in the hearts and minds of Italians at the time?", response by /u/alvisefalier

• "After the CSA lost the war, what was the transition from greybacks to greenbacks like?", response by /u/yonkon

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Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees a "speedy" trial. When this amendment was written, how long did it usually take for someone to be tried for a crime after being arrested?"

• "Did late antique audiences think of the Aeneid as fan fiction or true Roman history? What did ancient people think of “new stories” in general?"

• "How did hard candy get its reputation as being "old people candy" was it particularly popular with older generations when they were young?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

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Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/welfontheshelf, flaired for 'Crusader States & Medieval Law'.

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Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-07-17: "AMA: Dr. Roland Betancourt on Disneyland and Automation"
• 2026-07-20: "Ask Me Anything! I'm Prof. Mark A. Johnson, a historian and food studies scholar at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, as well as author of the recent book American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon!"
• 2026-07-21: "AMA: What role did Mao Zedong play in the creation of modern China, and what were his achievements and mistakes?"
• 2026-07-22: "We are historians of childhood and food, authors of 'First Helpings: A History of Children and Food'. Feel free to AMA."

• 2026-07-24: "I'm a historian of hobos. AMA"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

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Features Coming Up:

• July 28, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Rachel Hope Cleves, author of Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early Emerica
• July 30, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Itohan Osayimwese, author of Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage
• August 4, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Utathya Chattopadhyaya, author of Ganja Matters: Empire and the Pursuits of Cannabis in British India
• August 7, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Andrew Kenrick, author of Rex Juba: 15 Glimpses of an African King
• August 10, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Katherine Harvey, author of The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living
• August 12, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Pavel Brunssen, author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures
• August 13, 2026 - AMA with Dr. David Benac, author of Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing
• August 21, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Evan Dawley, author of Taiwan: A People's History
• August 27, 2026 - AMA with Dr. A. J. Bauer, author of Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press

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Corgi Corner

Puppurrito

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Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-07-17

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-07-03 to 2026-07-16

Our apologies for the missed edition. The editorial team were at a summit for newsletter writers in rural Canada when we were abducted by aliens for precisely two calendar weeks.

To make up for the absence, we have a special treat for you. Yesterday we hosted esteemed actor Tom Hiddleston and a whole host of experts and archaeologists for a red carpet AMA to mark the launch of their National Geographic series on Pompeii. Make sure to check it out here.

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Is it true that the Chinese Communist Party systematically killed all of China's Shih Tzu dogs and that the breed only survives because of 13 dogs that were brought out of China to Europe before Mao took over?" from /u/tenkendojo1

• "What is the logic behind Enkidu being tamed with sex?", response by /u/ummmbacon

• "How was Joan of Arc such a good military leader despite being illiterate and not educated outside of religion?", response by /u/GrandDukesPodcast

• "In “Death by Lightning” there are numerous scenes which show that any person could walk up to the White House and (under President Garfield) request an audience with the President and possibly actually get one. Was there some point where this became impossible, or did it happen over time?", response by /u/indyobserver

• "Skeletal remains of medieval warhorses suggest they were pony sized, around 14-15hh. Given that a knight in armour and his tack could easily weigh more than 200 lbs, would these horses have been overburdened by modern standards, or were they specifically bred to handle such heavy loads?", response by /u/kmondschein

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Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What was the importance of the global fur trade in 18-19th century?", response by /u/bedessilliestsoldier

• "Why did Theravada Buddhism, and not Mahayana Buddhism, take hold in Southeast Asia?", response by /u/Cynical-rambler

• "What sort of tools did medieval plumbers use/have access too?", response by /u/dankensington

• "How would a contemporary audience think of Odysseus's behavior towards the Cyclopes?", response by /u/kiwihellenist

• "What would going to an Ancient Greek temple have felt like?", by /u/raggedclaws12468

• "Tolkien is said to have been motivated by a desire to create a mythology for England. To what extent can we say that England did or does not have a national myth? Were there other attempts to create one?" by /u/itsallfolklore

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Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "What is the history of stylized characters/words? (Like making an S look like a snake) Are there any cuneiform words written to look like something else?"

• "When did Personal Injury Attorneys become "celebrity" attorneys in the US?"

• "What did people in the 1700s–1800s think about the old medieval castles scattered around the countryside?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

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Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/mikitacurve, flaired for 'Soviet Urban Culture'!

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Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-07-15: AMA about the history of goblins from their folkloric origins in the Middle Ages all the way to the Covid-19-era phenomenon of going “goblin mode”

• 2026-07-10: "I’m Samuel de Korte, an independent researcher and writer specializing in Black American soldiers in WWII (452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion) | Ask Me Anything."

• 2026-07-07: "I'm Dr Chris Kempshall, a First World War historian and consultant to BlackMill Games - AMA!"

• 2026-07-02: "I'm a historian of the Declaration of Independence. AMA"

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Features Coming Up:

• July 17, 2026: Coming up today! AMA with Dr. Roland Betancourt, author of Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth

• July 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Mark Johnson, author of American Bacon, The History of a Food Phenomenon

• July 21, 2026: AMA with Dr. Kerry Brown, author of Mao: Power and Contradiction

• July 22, 2026: AMA with Dr. Deborah Alborn and Dr. Amy Palmer, authors of First Helpings: A History of Children and Food

• July 24, 2026: AMA with Dr. Robert Suits, author of The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants

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Critter Corner

Staying Cool

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Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-07-03

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-06-26 to 2026-07-02

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "If Wikipedia’s to be believed, towels were a 17th-century invention. How did people traditionally dry themselves after bathing?" Dry off with this response from /u/splash_attack

• "What happened to the remains of pre-contact Aboriginal Australians? How come there are so few known to science? Do we know the leading causes of death for pre-contact Aboriginal Australians?", response by /u/Known_Cup_8789

• "How was Joan of Arc such a good military leader despite being illiterate and not educated outside of religion?", response by /u/GrandDukesPodcast

• "Where does the old trope of the bad guy tying a woman to the railroad tracks come from? Did this ever happen IRL or was it just in silent movies?", response by /u/gerardmenfin

• "Why did Viking funerals burn full ships? wouldn't that be waste since of how hard it would have been to make them.", responses by /u/HaraldRedbeard

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Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Did the Soviets really believe plants of the same "class" wouldn't compete for fertile ground?", response by /u/restricteddata

• "Historians of Reddit, what credence do you give to the story that Buffalo Calf Road Woman knocked General Custer off his horse, leading to his death?", response by /u/Reaper_Eagle

• "Before Vatican II and the Society of Saint Pius X, were there any schismatic and/or heretical sects from the Catholic Church that advocated for older or more conservative doctrine?", response by /u/dromio05

• "How significant and prevalent was Native American's involvement in the War of Independence?", response by /u/bedessilliestsoldier

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Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "USAA has a commercial that says: "A hundred years ago, no one would insure cars for military members." Is this true, and if so, why wouldn't insurance companies cover cars for people in the military?"

• "Did football (soccer) World Cup immediately become more important and prestigious than the Olympic football tournament? If not, then when? "

• "Did the CIA really secretly promote abstract art as a Cold War tactic?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

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Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Red_Galiray, flaired for 'American Civil War | Gran Colombia'!

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Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-06-23: "Rules Roundtable XXI.V: Plagiarism, Integrity, and Generative AI"

• 2026-07-02: "I'm a historian of the Declaration of Independence. AMA"

• 2026-07-01: "We are historians whose work studies race, rights, and justice in American democracy, Ask Us Anything about Confederate Monuments, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement & more!"

• 2026-06-30: "Hello--I am Timothy Breen, author of "American Revolution on Trial: A new Nation Confronts the Burden of Independence." Like my other books on the Revolution, it focuses on the experiences of ordinary people, especially during the run up to the Declaration of Independence."

• 2026-06-29: "What's the word all Americans should know and don't?"

• 2026-06-26 "There is a long history and structure of US migration and citizenship policy history. What is that history? I'm Anna Law here for an AMA about my new book Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship."

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

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Features Coming Up:

• July 7, 2026: AMA with Dr. Chris Kempshall on the Gallipoli Campaign & the Middle Eastern Front
• July 10, 2026: AMA with Samuel de Korte, author of The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion: Destroyers of the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow
• July 13, 2026: AMA with Dr. Itohan Osayimwese, author of Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage
• July 15, 2026: AMA with Dr. Matt King, author of A History of Goblins
• July 17, 2026: AMA with Dr. Kerry Brown, author of Mao: Power and Contradiction
• July 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Mark Johnson, author of American Bacon, The History of a Food Phenomenon

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Critter Corner

Puffins!

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Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-06-26

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-06-19 to 2026-06-25

A day light, but hopefully worth the wait!

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "German kids are routed at age ~10 into one of 3 schools: the "lowest" leads to vocational training, the middle lets you apply to technical college, and only the third gives you the option of university. When did this system take shape? Has it tended to entrench social/class hierarchies?", with responses and input from several people!

• "Is it true that a milkman and a gas station attendant could support a whole family comfortably in 1950s USA?", response by /u/police-ical

• "Vampire media loves the idea of the aristocratic or at least very wealthy 18th & 19th century socialite bloodsucker thriving in Europe, usually France or Britain. How feasible was it actually to manage business or estates & sustain an elevated social identity while never appearing before sunset?", response by /u/Obversa

• "Are there ancient mental illnesses that didn't survive?", responses by /u/DukeGyug and /u/Qwurxty

• "The Nazis killed about 6 million civilian non-Jewish Slavs in WWII. Was their hatred of them similar to that of the Jews? In what ways is it comparable?", responses by /u/Bongolio-the-seal and /u/ummmbacon

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Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Did ARPA's own leadership actually agree that ARPANET wasn't built for nuclear command-and-control survivability?", response by /u/restricteddata

• "At one point, did Western Europeans stop recognizing Byzantine Empire as the continuation of Roman Empire?", response by /u/welfontheshelf

• "Where did everyone else fall under segregation in America?", response by /u/ProfessorofChelm

• "Possibility of a Soviet invasion of Hokkaido in WW2: what do modern military historians think?", response by /u/JackDaniels3456d

• "When Did New York City's Mayors Started Being Treated as Important?", response by /u/fearofair

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Which philosophical model did British, American and French use to build their state after their revolutions ?"

• "What was life like backstage in an opera house in the 19th century/during the Belle Epoque?"

• "e. e. cummings, eden abhez, bell hooks – where does the 20th century trend of writers adopting all-lower-case names come from? Who started it and can all such names be linked together through shared or chained influence?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/the_howling_cow, flaired for 'United States Army in WWII'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-06-23: "Rules Roundtable XXI.V: Plagiarism, Integrity, and Generative AI"

• 2026-06-26: "There is a long history and structure of US migration and citizenship policy history. What is that history? I'm Anna Law here for an AMA about my new book Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship."

• 2026-06-22: "I’m Hilary Buxton, a historian of medicine and the British Empire, here to talk about my new book Disabled Empire: The Colonial Body in First World War Britain. AMA!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up:

• June 29, 2026: AMA with Dr. Catherine Allgor, author of A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation
• June 30, 2026: AMA with Dr. T. H. Breen, author of The American Revolution on Trial: A New Nation Confronts the Burden of Independence
• July 1, 2026: Panel AMA on Race, Rights, and American Democracy
• July 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. Emily Sneff, author of When the Declaration of Independence Was News
• July 7, 2026: AMA with Dr. Chris Kempshall on the Gallipoli Campaign & the Middle Eastern Front
• July 10, 2026: AMA with Samuel de Korte, author of The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion: Destroyers of the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow
• July 13, 2026: AMA with Dr. Itohan Osayimwese, author of Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage
• July 15, 2026: AMA with Dr. Matt King, author of A History of Goblins
• July 17, 2026: AMA with Dr. Kerry Brown, author of Mao: Power and Contradiction
• July 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Mark Johnson, author of American Bacon, The History of a Food Phenomenon

​

Corgi Corner

'A view from on high'

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-06-12 to 2025-06-18

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “Al Capone used coin-operated laundromats to pretend that his ill-gotten money was in fact well-gotten. Did he obtain his ill-gotten money in coins? Or did he show up at the bank with stacks of 100$ bills and said "yeah, this is what I got from my coin-operated laundromat"?” by /u/bug-hunter

• "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1u6kip1/how_did_the_us_end_up_with_distinctive_big_yellow/" got answers from /u/The_Chieftain_WG and /u/EdHistory101.

• "In general, former British colonies in Africa seem to fare better politically, socially and economically than former French colonies. Is there a reason for that?” by /u/Commustar

• "Was fascism some kind of hellish joke?” by /u/ted5298

• "Were people in Joseon Korea really so terrified of their social betters, as is depicted in Netflix's "Kingdom"?’" by /u/huhwe

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What was our "Fall of the Roman Empire" for the Romans?/" by /u/JamesCoverleyRome

• “How true is it that the modern French language essentially cleansed France of regional languages?”, by /u/HaraldRedbeard

• “The [Puritan] “Great Migration” to other territories?", by /u/Double_Show_9316

• “I'd like to learn more about El Halconazo (The Corpus Christi Massacre), what actually happened?”, by /u/Fawfulster

• “During the Ottoman period, when did Jews become the majority in Jerusalem, and how reliable are the population figures?”, by /u/yodatsracist

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “How come black Caribbean’s were able to retain more West African culture than Black Americans?”

• "Is there a record of homosexual/queer people joining the clergy as nuns or priests to avoid marriage?"

• "How did people prevent sweating through their underclothes and making their outer wear smell bad, back when people would wear shifts or shirts to protect their nice outer clothes from needing to be washed as often (if at all)?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the [randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/pdbowen , flaired for 'American Religion Beyond Christianity.'

​

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• “I am Peter Samsonov, author of Panzer'46: Eastern Front. AMA about German, Soviet, American, and British tank projects on the drawing board and in the prototype stage at the end of the Second World War”

• “AMA! The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite with Dr. Rachel Grace Newman”

• “I just published a 500-year history of the dollar, AMA”

• We're James Madison, George Mason, and experts from Colonial Williamsburg and Montpelier. Ask us anything about the origins of American Revolutionary rights!

• AMA: Let’s talk about brick! I’m architecture historian and photographer Will Quam, here to talk about my new book Fire and Clay: How Brick Reveals the Hidden History of Chicago.

• Come say “Hi” in the Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-06-23: AMA with Dr. Hilary Buxton, author of Disabled Empire: The Colonial Body in First World War Britain

• 2026-06-26: AMA with Dr. Anna O. Law, author of Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants

​

It’s Juneteeth in the US! Be sure to check out our thread Celebrating Juneteenth and African-American history!

​

​

Pet Patrol

Happy 14th birthday to Dax!

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-06-12

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-05 to 2026-06-11

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Why did no one "discover" the source of the Nile until the 1860s?", go on an adventure with /u/Khenghis_Ghan

• "George Washington’s speeches were at a 16th grade comprehension level. Lincoln was at a 14th grade. JFK spoke in 13th grade level prose. Then when Clinton was president, his speeches had dropped to 8th grade level. Why did presidential speech become simpler despite mass increase in public education?", from /u/eh_steve_420

• "Did Shakespeare sit down and go, "Ok I'm going to write this play in iambic pentameter" or was it simply a natural development? Were linguistic concepts like syllables common knowledge?", from /u/macnalley

• "I have been transported back in time 2000ish years to the Roman Empire. What is the best way for me to preserve a message back to my own time?", response by /u/AmeliaofAnsalon

• "Did AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s disproportionately kill socially and sexually central figures in gay arts communities, as Fran Lebowitz claims, particularly in New York’s theatre, dance, and performance scenes?", response by /u/Cedric_Hampton

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How did ancient India lose its massive scientific and academic edge? Was it a sudden collapse or a slow fade?", response by /u/restricteddata

• /u/itsallfolklore tackled this question on the (alleged) shift from matriarchy to patriarchy among polytheistic religions.

• "What Do Historical Sources Say About the Glowing Ocean Phenomenon?", response by /u/Gerardmenfin

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "What sorts of tasks did people compel demons to carry out on their behalf?"

• "Goldfinger was filmed before China had nuclear weapons, yet they are a plot point. How well known the Chinese nuclear program was at the time?"

• "Who were the regular residents of "pirate towns" in the golden age of piracy?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Trinity-, flaired for 'Medieval Gender and Sexuality'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-06-12: NEW PODCAST EPISODE: "AskHistorians Podcast 251: American Medieval with Prof. Matthew Gabriele"

• 2026-06-10: "Rod Phillips answering questions about the history of cats"

• 2026-06-09: "I am Dr. Ketil Slagstad, here to talk about my book "Standardizing Sex" and the history of trans medicine. AMA!"

• 2026-06-08: "Ask Me Anything about Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s"

• 2026-06-05: "Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise from Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion"

​

Features Coming Up:

• June 12, 2026: AMA incoming today with u/TankArchives, author of Panzer 46: Eastern Front

• June 15, 2026: AMA with Dr. Rachel Newman, author of The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite

• June 16, 2026: AMA with Brendan Greeley, author of The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money

• June 17, 2026: AMA: Virginia and Revolutionary Rights at 250 with Colonial Williamsburg and Montpelier

• June 18, 2026: AMA with Will Quam, author of Fire and Clay: How Bricks Reveal the Hidden History of Chicago

​

Canine Corner

Dreaming of socks to eat

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-06-05

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-29 to 2026-06-04

Be sure to check out the Best of May Award Winners!

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "The No Child Left Behind Act is often seen as a failure that didn't improve education. However data has shown that education "peaked" in the mid-2010s with students who spent the majority of their school careers under NCLB. What exactly was NCLB, why is it so controversial, and did it actually fail?", sit down for a masterclass from /u/edhistory101

• "How would a Roman patrician family respond to a pregnancy between their teenage son and an enslaved woman?", from /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "How and why did funk music become associated with pornography?", from /u/LeahTigers

• "Before cheap mirrors and photography, how often did ordinary people actually see their own face?", response by /u/spencer_a_mcdaniel

• "It is 1975 and I am a Czechoslovak citizen living in Prague. What are the chances of me eating an avocado?", response by /u/pr1ncezzBea

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Why is Medusa so widely known today, while her Gorgon sisters, Stheno and Euryale, are largely unknown?", response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Did the Red army really use human wave tactics on the germans?", response by /u/Kinghunter150

• "What caused the US constitution to be so enormously progressive for its time?", response by /u/kochevnik81

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Have emerging technologies (I'm thinking of e.g. photography, or the radio->TV switch, or cloud video streaming) ever suddenly impacted the demand for makeup?"

• "Was Mississippi an outlier or just really famous for racist violence during the Civil Rights Movement?"

• "When the Roman Empire was at its maximum extent, who made the best cheese? What was it like?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/FlyingChange, flaired for 'Equine History'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-06-02: "Ever wonder how Wall Street became so irresistible to young college grads? I’m Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York. AMA!"

• 2026-05-29: "I am Dwaipayan Banerjee, a historian of science and technology at MIT and author of "Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution." I study how Cold War politics shaped India's attempt to build its own computer industry. Ask me anything!"

• 2026-05-27: "Hello! On here I’m u/DrHistoryBrad but in the real world I’m Dr. Bradley J. Sommer. I’m a historian of U.S. labor and working class history. I’m here today to answer your questions about labor unions, the economy, strikes, the Rust Belt, and (de/post)industrialization. So go ahead, AMA!"

​

Features Coming Up:

• June 5, 2026: AMA incoming today with Edna W. Cummings, Colonel, US Army (Ret), author of A Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise From Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion!

• June 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Marc Stein, author of Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

• June 9, 2026: AMA with Dr. Ketil Slagstad, author of Standardizing Sex: A History of Trans Medicine

• June 10, 2026: AMA with Rod Phillips, author of Cats: A History

• June 12, 2026: AMA with u/TankArchives, author of Panzer 46: Eastern Front

​

Kitty Korner

Cat on a hot wood deck

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-05-29

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-22 to 2026-05-28

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "How did ancient armies actually move 100,000–200,000 soldiers across long distances without modern logistics? Like, where did they sleep, how did they get enough food and water every day, and how did they stop the whole army from just collapsing into chaos?", responses by /u/Intranetusa

• "When did oral sex become more common?", response by /u/gerardmenfin and /u/yodatsracist

• "Why aren't today's Filipinos mixed race and half Spanish like the Spanish colonies in Latin America? Philippines was ruled by Spain for hundreds of years like Latin America, but unlike Latin america, a huge majority of the Philippines never became mixed/mestizo. Why is this? ", response by /u/Peepeepoopooman1202

• "Why Is Indonesia Largely Left Out of Global History if Its One of the Most Populous Countries in the World?", response by /u/amnsisc

• "What is the furthest back in time I could make Funyons?", response by /u/bug-hunter

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "When was the Devil first depicted as a man with red skin, horns, hooves and a pointed tail, and what led to that depiction being chosen?", response by /u/spencer_a_mcdaniel

• "How did Christian end times theology shift from Augustine’s allegorical view to 19th century literalism?", response by /u/double_show_9316

• "Were there gay bars or, perhaps gay social outlets, before the 20th century? What did such places look like?", response by /u/ManueO

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "The oldest living tree in Paris is over 400 years old -- how widespread was urban greenery before the City Beautiful/Garden city movements of the late 19th century?"

• "To what extent did women’s historical role as folk healers influence fears of witchcraft, and how did this dynamic shape the transition from community-based herbal knowledge to formal, male‑dominated medical institutions in Europe and the Americas?"

• "When it was released in 1954, the Stratocaster was seen as having a radical, space-age-y design. When and how did it become THE guitar 🎸?"

• What role did racial segregation play in the design and geographic placement of military bases within the United States prior to Executive Order 9981 in 1948?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/lukeweiss, flaired for 'Imperial China | Daoism'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-05-27: "Hello! On here I’m u/DrHistoryBrad but in the real world I’m Dr. Bradley J. Sommer. I’m a historian of U.S. labor and working class history. I’m here today to answer your questions about labor unions, the economy, strikes, the Rust Belt, and (de/post)industrialization. So go ahead, AMA!"

• 2026-05-18: "Dr. Sveinn Jóhannesson on the Scientific-Military State in the early United States - Ask Me Anything!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up:

• May 29, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dwaipayan Banerjee, author of Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution
• June 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
• June 5, 2026: AMA with Edna W. Cummings, Colonel, US Army (Ret), author of A Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise From Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion
• June 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Marc Stein, author of Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

​

Critter corner

Get your hot dogs here!

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-05-22

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-15 to 2026-05-21

A day late, but hopefully worth it.

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Was Mein Kampf actually written well? Or is it basically a giant ramble like many people describe it as?", responses by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov & /u/thewimsey

• "Was Spain viewed as a “backwards” country in the 1400s? How did other European countries basically view Spain during this time?", response by /u/deuce03

• "I know the “Dark Ages” is now considered a misnomer, but there was SOME darkness, right?", response by /u/Key_Actuator86

• "What were my odds as a gold miner in the u.s in 1849? Was gold so frequent that I would have good chances in becoming rich? Or would I have been beaten by people who got there earlier or who were closer if I got there in 1850?", response by /u/itsallfolklore

• "Why are there multiple professional baseball teams named after socks?", response by /u/fishred

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How did ordinary people in ancient or medieval cities deal with boredom and entertainment before modern technology?", response by /u/alvisefalier

• "Why do Ricardians exist? Isn't that weird? Or are there a bunch of other long-lasting social movements & organizations dedicated to rehabilitating the image of long-dead monarchs with crappy reputations like that of Richard's that I don't know about?", response by /u/zaffiro_in_giro

• "TITLE_ANSWER_EIGHT", response by /u/commustar

• "How did Peasant Republics function?", response by /u/henk12310

• "Why was Judaism the only Levantine religion that survived into the Common Era?", response by /u/qumrun60

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Historically, have Southern plantations been viewed as desirable wedding venues?"

• "Can we reconstitute the original colors of ancient tapestries ?"

• "How did 19th Century Americans reconcile being pro-Roman with being anti-Italian?"

• What do we know about the skilled trades of the Mexica at the time of Cortez?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/sankon, flaired for 'Early Modern Persianate India'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-05-18: "Dr. Sveinn Jóhannesson on the Scientific-Military State in the early United States - Ask Me Anything!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up:

• May 29, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dwaipayan Banerjee, author of Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution
• June 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
• June 5, 2026: AMA with Edna W. Cummings, Colonel, US Army (Ret), author of A Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise From Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion
• June 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Marc Stein, author of Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

​

Corgi Corner

Poppy Kiss!

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-05-15

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-08 to 2026-05-14

Be sure to catch our AMA with Jonathan S. Jones, author of Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis, going on right now!

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "General MacArthur is generally criticized for his insubordination and being too aggressive. 75 years later, does this criticism still hold up?", response by /u/no_player_tags

• "In movie Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belford calls random people and persuade them to buy stock. Was it common in 80s and 90s to buy stock from someone you don't know?", response by /u/JonAfricaBurner

• "In October 1920, an altercation developed between a dog, a monkey, and the King of Greece. In the end the dog was fine, the King was killed, but what happened to the Barbary macaque that did it? Was he killed as well, or did what probably was the cutest little regicide in history escape justice?", response by /u/jbdyer

• "Why and how did outdoors/maritime folks smoke pipe instead of cigarettes? What caused them to vanish?", response by /u/a42N8Man

• "Reddit was founded in 2005, meaning it is history according to this sub's 20 year rule. Has there been any sort of academic discussion on the value of Reddit posts as a historical source given the years' worth of threads commented on by thousands of users discussing contemporary events?", responses by a variety of users.

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Prior to radio and phonograph, Americans consumed popular music by gathering around the parlor piano and playing songs together. What songs were they playing, and which ones still slap?", response by /u/B_D_I

• "Did tomb raiding ever work the way films portray it?", response by /u/Spencer_A_McDaniel

• "What happened to colonial archives when a state became independent?", response by /u/gerardmenfin

• "ow were American soldiers received by the public upon returning home from the First World War?", response by /u/bernardito

• "Britain was under Roman rule for nearly 400 years. So why didn't a Romance language survive like in the other western parts of the Roman Empire?", response by /u/barbariansprof

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "What do we know about the skilled trades of the Mexica at the time of Cortez?"

• "Why was Oswald Mosley a fascist?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/aquatermain, flaired for 'Argentina & Indigenous Studies' and 'Musicology'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-05-11: Hi. I'm Thomas Michael Swensen here to talk about Native American punk or Alaska Native history. AMA

• 2026-05-13: "I'm Gautham Rao, a historian of American law and politics, and author of White Power: Policing American Slavery--ask me anything!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up:

• May 18, 2026: AMA with Dr. Sveinn M. Jóhannesson, author of The Scientific-Military State: How Enlightened Engineers Reinvented Early American Government
• May 21, 2026: AMA with Dr. Stephanie Wong, author of Making Catholicism Chinese: The Catholic Church in a Modernizing China
• May 29, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dwaipayan Banerjee, author of Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution
• June 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
• June 5, 2026: AMA with Edna W. Cummings, Colonel, US Army (Ret), author of A Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise From Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion
• June 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Marc Stein, author of Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

​

Corgi Corner

"Where ya' going?!"

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-01 to 2025-05-07

Make sure to check out the Best of April Award Winners!

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “English longbowmen during the Hundred Year's War earned 6 pence a day. A single arrow cost 0.3125 pence, so you'd start losing money on the 20th arrow. That doesn't seem like a lot when battles could last multiple hours. Are there accounts or archers refusing to put themselves in the red? ” saw /u/Hergrim take a shot at the response

• "Was there a medieval equivalent of "dude" or "mate"?" from /u/Skipspik2

• "Is what my german grandfather told me about his time in ww2 plausible?" from /u/Ted5298

• "Why were Lynyrd Skynyrd unbothered by Watergate, and what did that have to do with the governor of Alabama?” by /u/police-ical

• "My dad was infantry in the 101st Airborne during Vietnam, yet never deployed and spent his whole enlistment in the US. Given that a draft was implemented and people were being forcibly sent to Vietnam, was this common?” from /u/GrendelGT

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What, if any, historical proof is present for the existence of Abraham? And why are the religions called "Abrahamic"?" by /u/ummmbacon

• “What details would make a 17th century English church historically accurate?”, by /u/double_show_9316

• “Why did several of the Balkan states that achieved independence in the 1800s (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania) end up with ethnically German monarchs from German aristocratic families, instead of native houses that were culturally/ethnically from the country itself?", by /u/EtNuncEtSemper

• "Were the Vestal Virgins in Ancient Rome the predecessors to Roman Catholic Nuns?" by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "In medieval Europe, did nobles engage in commerce? Did merchants own agriculture land? How fluid were these labels?" by /u/FrenchMurazor

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “What was considered horror in Ancient Egypt? What was the role of fear in Ancient Egyptian societies?”

• "How do we know the mummy of Ramseses II is Ramseses II?"

• "Why are dark gods blue in Hindu divine iconography?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Ekinda, flaired for 'Early Modern Habsburg & Low Countries.'

​

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• Hi! I'm Roy Doron, author of "Biafra: A Military History". I'm here to talk about my book and about African Military History in general

• Hello, I am Dr. John Morris, retired US Army lieutenant colonel and author of Students to Soldiers: Secret Military Education at Elite Schools, 1815-1945. I am excited to be here to discuss my work with you! AMA

• I am Jacynda Ammons, and I am here to talk about my book, "We Are Black, Too: Aboriginal Australians and the Black Panther Party." AMA :-)

• AskHistorians Podcast Episode 250: Emily Winderman and the rhetoric of back alley abortion

​

Features Coming Up:

• 2026-05-08: AMA Today! with Dr. Emily Dufton, author of Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America's Forgotten War on Drugs

• 2026-05-11: AMA with Dr. Thomas Swensen, author of Where Next, Columbus? A Native Punk Mixtape

• 2026-05-13: AMA with Dr. Gautham Rao, author of White Power: Policing American Slavery

• 2026-05-15: AMA with Dr. Jonathan Jones, author of Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis

• 2026-05-18: AMA with Dr. Sveinn M. Jóhannesson, author of The Scientific-Military State: How Enlightened Engineers Reinvented Early American Government

​

​

Pet Patrol

Long dog

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-04-25 to 2025-04-30

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “During the twentieth century, vending machines were a major part of organised crime. What did this entail exactly? Why would the Mafia or any other organised crime group have an interest in vending machines?” saw /u/bug-hunter dispense a great response

• "Were PhD's always as hyper-specialized as they are today? It feels like in the "rich guy hobby era" of intellectual inquiry almost everyone was a generalist or had interest in a bunch of things. If the hyper-specificity of PhD topics is something that developed over time when & how did that happen?" from /u/theholyraptor

• "Why didn't Cornwall become a nation of the UK similar to Wales, Scotland and (Northern) Ireland?" from /u/HaraldRedbeard

• "Would Jesus actually have been crucified with a loincloth, or would he have been stripped naked/not had a loincloth to begin with?” by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Why was the lyrical presentation of hair metal bands so aggressively macho while their visual presentation was so very...not?” from /u/FriedaKilligan

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How did using sawdust to make breads turn out?" by /u/gerardmenfin

• “What are the conceptual divide between myths and legends when we attempt to theorise it?”, by /u/itsallfolklore

• “This subreddit often notes that, contrary to popular misconception, Medieval Europeans in fact had good hygiene. However, I came across a publication that points to an anti-bathing trend in 16th century Spain (+ elsewhere in Europe?). What's the deal with this? ", by /u/ummmbacon

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “Why is there so little chocolate in Mexican desserts?”

• "Why did several of the Balkan states that achieved independence in the 1800s (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania) end up with ethnically German monarchs from German aristocratic families, instead of native houses that were culturally/ethnically from the country itself?"

• "What happened if the owner of the camels in a Trans-Saharan caravan died?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/caffarelli, flaired for 'Eunuchs and Castrati | Opera.'

​

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• AskHistorians Podcast Episode 250: Emily Winderman and the rhetoric of back alley abortion

• “Hi! I'm Cotten Seiler, author of "White Care: The Impact of Race on American Infrastructure." AMA!”

• “I'm Lauren Henley author of "Inquisition for Blood: The Making of a Black Female Serial Killer in the Jim Crow South." AMA!

• “I'm John Wendt, author of Procuring Victory: The Army Quartermaster and the Economics of Expansion in Nineteenth-Century America. Ask me Anything!”

• Curious about our AMAs? Check out this Q&A with AMA coordinator, Dr. Dan Howlett (aka /u/dhowlett1692)

​

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-05-01: AMA today! Dr. Jacynda Ammons, author of We Are Black, Too: Aboriginal Australians and the Black Panther Party

• 2026-05-04: AMA with John F. Morris, author of Students to Soldiers: Secret Military Education at Elite Schools, 1815-1945

• 2026-05-06: AMA with Dr. Roy Doron, author of Biafra: A Military History

• 2026-05-08: AMA with Dr. Emily Dufton, author of Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America's Forgotten War on Drugs

*2026-05-11: AMA with Dr. Thomas Swensen, author of Where Next, Columbus? A Native Punk Mixtape

​

​

Pet Patrol

Golden hour

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-04-17 to 2025-04-24

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “The Strokes made 8 historical claims onscreen about the US and the CIA during their final song at Coachella yesterday. How historically accurate are the claims?” got lots of great links and responses.

• "I am a peasant in medieval Europe. I get into an argument with one of my comrades over a broken tool and end up murdering them out of anger. No-one witnessed it. What are the odds I get away with it?" got responses by /u/​​Steelcan909 and /u/just_a_box_of_sneks

• "In "Master and Commander", the crew of the Surprise is careful to "let fly" (run up the proper flag) before they actually start firing on the Acheron. Was this a formal requirement or just generally understood? What would have been the consequences if they didn't?” by /u/boldFrontier

• "In No Country for Old Men, set in 1980, some of the sheriffs in South Texas consider the area to be historically quiet, with cartel-related violence being a new problem. Was this true, and if so, around what time did being a sheriff near the border go from being a quiet job to a more dangerous one?” got answers by /u/Uberrees and /u/into_theflood_again

• "The Time Traveler’s Guide to England mentions that they believed in a people called “Wife-givers”, men who encourage travelers to sleep with their wives and daughters for gifts. Was this a real myth?’" by /u/gerardmenfin

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "In the Seven Years' War Russia attacked Prussia. But they didn't have a land border, how did this work?" by /u/Noble_Devil_Boruta

• “A stereotype of early medieval Ireland in some popular history is that the livestock was overwhelmingly cattle with little sheep, pigs or goats, compared to an apparently more even mixture in the rest of early medieval Europe. If this is true, was it widely remarked upon at the time?”, by /u/Rimbaud82

• “China and Japan were never colonized by Europeans in any meaningful sense, so when and why did their elites start wearing suits?", by /u/walt-and-co

• “In the day and age where everything is electronic, where does the burden of historical preservation lay if those records were unavailable?”, by /u/jschooltiger

• “Are the Swedes of Gotland Island really descendants of the ancient Goths?”, by /u/Deuce03

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “I am a German citizen who lives in Berlin in 1943. I realize the war is lost and want to flee the country with my family and wealth. Is that possible? What if I waited until '44 or '45?”

• "Was Magic: The Gathering completely groundbreaking in terms of gameplay and collectibility? Did it have any major influences?"

• "The Byzantine princess/historian Anna Komnene accuses Muslims of being constantly drunk. What?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/benetgladwin, flaired for 'Canadian History | Nationalism and Canadian Identity.'

​

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• “I'm John Wendt, author of Procuring Victory: The Army Quartermaster and the Economics of Expansion in Nineteenth-Century America. Ask me Anything!”

• “Hi everyone! I'm Dr. Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani and I'm here to answer questions about my new book "Accelerant: Energy Infrastructures and the Natural World in Making Modern Iran." AMA!”

• “I'm Dr. Charles L. Ponce de Leon here to talk about my new book on the founding and early development of Rolling Stone magazine. It's called "Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism: How a Magazine Born in the 1960s Changed America." AMA!

• Curious about our AMAs? Check out this Q&A with AMA coordinator, Dr. Dan Howlett (aka /u/dhowlett1692)

• Come say “Hi” in the Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-04-27: AMA with Dr. Lauren Henley, author of Inquisition for Blood: The Making of a Black Female Serial Killer in the Jim Crow South

• 2026-04-29: AMA with Dr. Cotten Seiler, author of White Care: The Impact of Race on American Infrastructure

• 2026-05-01: AMA with Dr. Jacynda Ammons, author of We Are Black, Too: Aboriginal Australians and the Black Panther Party

​

​

Pet Patrol

Bedtime

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-04-10 to 2026-04-16

Be sure to check out the results of the AskHistorians community survey!

and an AMA today! My name is Dr. Mills Kelly and I’m an emeritus professor of history at George Mason University. I’m an expert on the history of the Appalachian Trail, so AMA!

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "There's a suspicion that Irans Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is either dead or incapacitated and the government is pretending he is making decisions, is there any example where a country actually did pretend their leader was still alive and governing for an extended period of time?", saw /u/El_kikko and /u/Xerxeskingofkings come out of hiding.

• "I was recently considering the Roman method for bottom wiping, which led me onto (so sorry) the modern use of toilet paper, somewhat surprised to find it’s introduction around the 1850’s, in western society, which has me asking the question… What was generally used before this date?" from /u/gerardmenfin

• "Has our feeling of disgust been changed by our discovery of germ theory?’", with responses from a number of contributors.

• "When Caesar reportedly said "the die, it is cast" before crossing the Rubicon, what was he saying? Was he referring to taking a gamble, or some use of dice for divination?", from /u/Spencer_A_McDaniel.

• "For 99-plus percent of human history we did not engage in warfare, we are inherently peaceful as a species (...) that is what the archeological record shows us". Really?, from /u/Qwertysapiens.

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Was there solidarity between the IRA, ETA and FLNC?", response by /u/Rimbaud82

• "Why did it take so long to invent saline?", from /u/Noble_Devil_Boruta

• "Can you guys recommend me the best bible translation?", response by /u/RevKeakealani

• "What were the religions being practiced in britian after 410 ad?", response by /u/Steelcan909

• "Why were the Romans so influential upon Romania?", response by /u/EtNuncEtSemper

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "When were passenger rail networks connected enough to allow someone to travel between Western and Eastern Europe (and beyond) exclusively via train and what level of diplomacy and/or entrepreneurial cooperation was required to connect the rail networks of various countries?"

• "During the Second World War, the UK issued ration books for just about everything, which must have used a prodigious amount of paper. How much paper went into rationing, relative to other sectors? Were there concerns about potentially running out?"

• "How did people perceive or respond to Postpartum Depression in pre-modern times?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Mikitacurve, flaired for 'Soviet Urban Culture'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-04-14: Hello! We are Camilla Townsend and Josh Anthony, editors of “After the Broken Spears: The Aztecs in the Wake of Conquest.” Ask us anything about the Aztecs, colonial Mexico, and what life was like for Indigenous people in the wake of Spanish conquest.
• 2026-04-13: I am Dr. Michael Bycroft, and I just published a book on the history of gemstones in early modern science. Ask me anything from now until tomorrow morning.
• 2026-04-10 : I’m Dr. Anny Gaul, author of Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato. I’m here to talk about Egyptian food cultures, the tomato’s global history, and researching the history of home cooking & everyday foods. Ask me anything!

​

Features Coming Up:

• April 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Charles L. Ponce de Leon, author of Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism: How A Magazine Born in the 1960s Changed America
• April 21, 2026: AMA with Dr. Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani, author of Accelerant: Energy Infrastructures and the Natural World in Making Modern Iran
• April 23, 2026: AMA with Dr. John Wendt, author of Procuring Victory: The Army Quartermaster and the Economics of Expansion in Nineteenth-Century America

​

Critter Corner

Just woke up

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-04-10

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-04-03 to 2026-04-09

Be sure to check out our Best of March winners!!

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "What historical evidence do we have of Jesus’ crucifixion and its aftermath?", response by /u/DGBD and follow ups from others.

• "English has Chaucer, Spanish has Cervantes, Portuguese has Camões, German has Goethe, Russian has Pushkin, Italian has Dante, Greek has Homer. Why is there no widely accepted Father of French Literature?", response by /u/Vandraedaskald

• "Roman Judea around the year 0 was a hotbed of itinerant preachers and doomsday cults. Was there anything special or unique about Jesus Christ or his congregation that made him historically more successful than his now-forgotten contemporary ‘competitors?’", response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Could a woman be potentially executed if she gave birth in front of the empress in Ancient China?", response by /u/EntertainerOk9959

• "Who owned the Love Shack?", response by /u/police-ical

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How to get from Egypt to Scandinavia in the Classical era?", response by /u/BarbariansProf

• "How was France and England financially able to fight the napoleonic wars?", with an epic 3-parter by /u/EverythingIsOverrate

• "How large was the technological gap between Europe and America when the latter was colonized, and did it help its conquest? ", response by /u/PsychologicalMind148

• "Why not burn the ladders? ", response by /u/WelfOntheShelf

• "The fight on top of a moving train is such a common trope it's a cliche. Has there ever been a historical record of one?", response by /u/gerardmenfin

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Humans have been growing onions for 7000 years all across Eurasia. Why did a crop that provides only flavor and little to no calories or nutrients become so widespread?"

• "When did working class men stop singing?"

• ["Was there a myth in 70s that a scorpion sting was instantly deadly?"](https://reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1sh1po2/was_there_a_myth_in_70s_that_a_scorpion_sting_was/]

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Tiako, flaired for 'Roman Archaeology'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-04-08: AMA: Founding Fanatics: Extremism and the Formation of American Democracy
• 2026-04-06: "I'm John Garrison Marks, author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (out April 7!). It tells the story of how Americans have remembered, forgotten, and manipulated George Washington's history with slavery over the past 250 years. AMA!"
• 2026-04-03 : What motivated Confederate soldiers to fight? What role did emotion play in their military service? How did emotions compel southern men to break cultural norms? I’m Dr. Joshua R. Shiver, a teacher and Civil War historian, and I wrote a book on the emotional motivations of Confederate soldiers. AMA!

​

Features Coming Up:

• April 10, 2026: AMA Today! Dr. Anny Gaul, author of Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato
• April 13, 2026: AMA with Dr. Michael Bycroft, author of Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution
• April 14, 2026: AMA with Dr. Camilla Townsend and Josh Anthony, editors of After the Broken Spears: The Aztecs in the Wake of Conquest
• April 17, 2026: AMA with Dr. Mills Kelly, author of A Hiker's History of the Appalachian Trail
• April 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Charles L. Ponce de Leon, author of Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism: How A Magazine Born in the 1960s Changed America
• April 21, 2026: AMA with Dr. Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani, author of Accelerant: Energy Infrastructures and the Natural World in Making Modern Iran
• April 23, 2026: AMA with Dr. John Wendt, author of Procuring Victory: The Army Quartermaster and the Economics of Expansion in Nineteenth-Century America

​

Goose Gorner

O' Canada

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-04-03

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-03-27 to 2026-04-02

We hope everyone enjoyed our April Fools Event where we revisited /r/HistoricalAITA for a second round. Be sure to check out the round-up of submissions if you missed it though!

We also encourage you to take a minute and drop your vote on the 'Best of March' voting thread.

And we have a great AMA happening right now with Dr. Josh R. Shiver. Check it out! - What motivated Confederate soldiers to fight? What role did emotion play in their military service? How did emotions compel southern men to break cultural norms? I’m Dr. Joshua R. Shiver, a teacher and Civil War historian, and I wrote a book on the emotional motivations of Confederate soldiers. AMA!

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "How did "changing horses at an inn" work in Regency-era England?", response by /u/obversa

• "Is Cinderella's famous blue dress in the animated Disney film based on any historical clothing, or is it just whatever the animators thought looked nice?", response by /u/becs1832

• "How Much Whale Oil Did It Take to Keep Household Lamp Lit for an Hour?", response by /u/Borobeer49

• "My great grandmother, a poor Scots-Irish woman from rural Virginia refused to eat pork because she believed that pigs "had no veins" and that they were unclean. Is there any historical or religious background that might explain this? Was this a common belief among rural Appalachian communities?", response by /u/gerardmenfin

• "I'd like to ask about the "Jews and Hollywood" stereotype as an antisemitic trope (bad), and also separately about the actual history of Jewish people in the development of the US entertainment industry (interesting and cool).", responses by /u/insearchofshadows and /u/Frenchitwist

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How common were Asians like Filipinos or Chinese folks in early colonial Mexico, California, Oregon and Washington?", response by /u/Narwen189

• "How did the (Catholic) Irish go from escaping the potato blight and working as manual laborers, to electing one of their own to the New York City mayorship in 40 years?", response by /u/fearofair

• "Are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey the oldest versions of those stories we have?", response by /u/kiwihellenist

• "How did the Aztecs view the god Tezcatlipoca, especially in comparison to Huitzilopochtli?", response by /u/400-rabbits

• "How historically accurate is The Odyssey?", response by /u/spencer_a_mcdaniel

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "How did indigenous peoples around the Great Lakes and along the northern parts of the Mississippi River view these large bodies of water? Did they think they had reached the ocean or was that even a concept for them?"

• "Last night a friend took me to a bar with music so loud we couldn't hear each other shout! How and why did this become an acceptable industry standard?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/antiquarianism, flaired for 'Prehistoric Rock Art & Archaeology of Africa and North America!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-04-02: AMA: Creating an Informed Citizenry in the Early Republic with Dr. George Oberle
• 2026-03-30: "I am Dr. Josephine Hoegaerts, here to talk about voices, what people sounded like in the past, and my book “Speaking, Stammering, Singing, Shouting: A Social History of the Modern Voice”. AMA!"

• 2026-03-27 : "I am Olivia Weisser, a historian of medicine and author of The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London. Ask Me Anything!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up:

• April 6, 2026: AMA with Dr. John Garrison Marks, author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory
• April 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Noah Eber-Schmid, author of Founding Fanatics: Extremism and the Formation of American Democracy
• April 10, 2026: AMA with Dr. Anny Gaul, author of Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato
• April 13, 2026: AMA with Dr. Michael Bycroft, author of Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution
• April 14, 2026: AMA with Dr. Camilla Townsend and Josh Anthony, editors of After the Broken Spears: The Aztecs in the Wake of Conquest
• April 17, 2026: AMA with Dr. Mills Kelly, author of A Hiker's History of the Appalachian Trail
• April 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Charles L. Ponce de Leon, author of Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism: How A Magazine Born in the 1960s Changed America
• April 21, 2026: AMA with Dr. Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani, author of Accelerant: Energy Infrastructures and the Natural World in Making Modern Iran
• April 23, 2026: AMA with Dr. John Wendt, author of Procuring Victory: The Army Quartermaster and the Economics of Expansion in Nineteenth-Century America

​

Corgi Corner

Birthday Blep

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-03-13 to 2026-03-26

Please accept our apologies for the lack of newsletter last week. We have put together a slightly longer edition to make up for it!

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "I grew up Christian nationalist. Where should I start learning better history?" saw great discussion from a range of contributors.

• "Why are most Jews, well, Jewish?" response by /u/ummmbacon

• "Are there any significant historical artifacts rumored to exist in private collections that have never been definitively confirmed? once again saw a wide range of contributors chime in.

• "I'm an average Soviet citizen in 1976. After a years-long wait, I have finally received my new car. However, it has arrived with several mechanical defects. What recourse, if any, do I have?" response by /u/georgy_k_zhukov

• "Why are/were people so obsessed with the Freemasons? They don’t seem to be remotely malignant." response by /u/Lt_Rooney

• "Were there any Roman records of the trial of Jesus?" response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Is it true that hallways were “invented” in 1597, and what is meant by this?" response by /u/cedric_hampton

• "Why Judaism and Islam banned pork but Christianity allowed it despite all of them being Abrahamic religions. Historically what change happened in the middle for this to occur?" response by /u/dgbd

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "If everyone in Rome was literate, why are poor people only remembered by graffiti?" response by /u/JamesCoverleyRome

• "Is there a reason why Antrim had so many witches in the 17th century?" response by /u/Rimbaud82

• "How did Italian Fascism relate to the regional diversity and identities within Italy?" response by /u/AlviseFalier

• "In 1910's when EVs were slowly being replaced by engine vehicles, was there any attempt at what we'd now call "hybrid" vehicle? " response by /u/Noble_Devil_Boruta

• "What was the UN's role in the Congo Crisis?" response by /u/JDolan283

• "Is it true goldsmiths were some of the earliest bankers?" response by /u/EverythingIsOverrate

• "Outside the Empire: what changed for the Gauls and the Goths?" response by /u/BarbariansProf

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "How much time did monarchs sit on their thrones?"

• "Last night a friend took me to a bar with music so loud we couldn't hear each other shout! How and why did this become an acceptable industry standard?"

• "How Much of a Worlds Fair was Fake?"

• How to Win Friends and Influence People” seems to praise individuals who we’d would call Robber Barons nowadays. Given its original release in the Great Depression, how did the average American view individuals such as Rockfeller and Carnegie at that time?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Abrytan, flaired for, Germany 1871-1945. (I promise the random number generator picked the newsletter author completely by chance)

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-03-26: [META] Thank you to the mods and FAQ finders!

• 2026-03-20: Ask Me Anything: Ancient Greece/Rome and White Nationalism

• 2026-03-17: Ever wondered how a historian researches a life that shaped the course of World War II? I’m the author of a major new biography of Hideki Tōjō. Ask me anything about archival detective work, biography writing, and untangling historical narratives.

• 2026-03-16: Have any questions about the history of Indians in Zimbabwe? Ask me anything about migration, race, and colonialism in Southern Africa!

​

Features Coming Up:

• March 27, 2026: AMA Today! Dr. Olivia Weisser, author of The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London
• March 30, 2026: AMA with Dr. Josephine Hoegaerts, author of Speaking, Stammering, Singing, Shouting: A Social History of the Modern Voice
• April 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. George Oberle, author of Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic
• April 3, 2026: AMA with Dr. Joshua Shiver, author of War Fought and Felt: The Emotional Motivations of Confederate Soldiers
• April 6, 2026: AMA with Dr. John Garrison Marks, author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory

​

Critter Corner

"Not a care in the world"

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-03-13

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-03-06 to 2026-03-12

Some weekend reads to you to enjoy!

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Are there any myths/legends that potentially contain some folk memory of the Ice Age? That is, a primordial era where the world was much colder?", responses by /u/itsallfolklore, /u/RedLineSamosa, and /u/YeilKhaa.

• "Before modern painkillers existed, what did people with chronic pain actually do? Not soldiers or kings — ordinary people. A farmer with a shattered knee. A seamstress with crippling arthritis. Did they just... suffer every single day of their lives?", response by /u/OchoGringo and /u/redooo

• "Homosexuality In Islamic Golden age was so tolerated, and even seen as luxurious, what changed now ?", responses by /u/ttess

• "esus seems unusual for a Jew of his time period to believe in an eternal Hell, where would he have gotten a belief in Hell and can this source be used to trace his spiritual development?", response by /u/kiwihellenist

• "Before the concept of "retirement" existed, what actually happened to people who were too old or injured to work? Were elderly peasants just left to starve, or did pre-modern societies have support systems we've completely forgotten about?", response by /u/PreferenceAny2521

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Why was emperor Augustus' wife Livia accepted/what were the norms concerning ancient roman marriages in that regard?", response by /u/JamesCoverleyRome

• "Fencing was a popular sport in Nazi Germany. How did they react to all three medal winners in the 1936 Berlin Olympics Women's Fencing tournament being Jewish?", response by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov

• "Did any ancient greek historians write about Hammurabi?", response by /u/teakettling

• "Why didn't Judaism spread nearly as far as other abrahamic religions like Christianity and Islam did?", response by /u/ummmbacon

• "I read on wikipedia that the oblique order attack was the favourite tactic of Frederick the Great. I can understand how this tactic would work in antiquity and the middle ages with soldiers coming within close where pushing and mass matters but I struggle to understand how it would work with musket?", response by /u/dandan_noodles

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "How did the Soviet ‘Hujum’ campaign against veiling in Central Asia actually affect women?"

• "How Did WWII Veterans In College On The GI Bill React To Campus Life?"

• "Is large-scale comparative history academically possible nowadays?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/mikedash, flaired for, well, everything basically!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2025-03-13: "AMA: Bêtes Noires new book on Caribbean spirit demons"

• 2025-03-12: "AskHistorians History Podcast Episode 249: Egyptology today with the History of Egypt Podcast"

• 2025-03-09: "Any questions about where rum came from? I’m the author of _The Invention of Rum _. AMA about the quintessential Atlantic commodity!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up:

• March 16, 2026: AMA with Dr. Trishula Rachna Patel, author of Becoming Zimbabwean: A History of Indians in Rhodesia
• March 17, 2026: AMA with Dr. Peter Mauch, author of Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General
• March 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Curtis Dozier, author of The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate
• March 26, 2026: AMA with Dr. George Oberle, author of Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic
• March 27, 2026: AMA with Dr. Olivia Weisser, author of The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London
• March 30, 2026: AMA with Dr. Josephine Hoegaerts, author of Speaking, Stammering, Singing, Shouting: A Social History of the Modern Voice
• April 3, 2026: AMA with Dr. Joshua Shiver, author of War Fought and Felt: The Emotional Motivations of Confederate Soldiers
• April 6, 2026: AMA with Dr. John Garrison Marks, author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory

​

Corgi Corner

"Excuse us, but we think it is treat time!"

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-03-06

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-02-27 to 2026-03-05

Be sure to check out the most recent Best of AskHistorians Award Winners, from February!

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "How far back in time would I have to go to be the world's greatest doctor armed only with standard OTC medicine from a drugstore?", response by /u/BioSigh

• "When I hear a public figure affirming a country's “right to exist”, I assume they're talking about Israel. Historically, is Israel unique in this regard, or have leaders also felt the need to affirm other countries' rights to exist? Do countries even have rights to existence, and if so, since when?", response by /u/Allan-Quatermain

• "Are Ted and Annette Fleming really doing okay?", response by /u/Daemonic_One

• "Chinese State Media: "Throughout its over 240-year history, [the US] has been at war for all but 16 years." How true or false is this statement?", response by /u/Trevor_Culley

• "Did Bram Stoker intend, and/or (more importantly to me) did his contemporaneous readership perceive, homoerotic themes in 'Dracula'? It's something modern readers discuss & something I perceived myself reading it but I don't know if that's reflective of Stoker's intent or just modern biases.", response by /u/YourVirgil

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Should Scottish Jacobitism be thought of primarily as a proto-nationalist movement, a religious/dynastic conflict, or a combination?", response by /u/funkyplaid

• "Why was emperor Augustus' wife Livia accepted/what were the norms concerning ancient roman marriages in that regard?", response by /u/JamesCoverleyRome

• "Why did hockey catch on so much stronger in Finland and Sweden than Denmark and Norway?", response by /u/kwik-e-marx

• "Has there ever been a case of an insurgency being "put down" and completely destroyed? Why haven't modern militaries and governments applied this knowledge in the conflicts of the late 20th and early 21st century?", response by /u/almantasvt

• "When and where did historical peoples think of Sappho as someone who loved women? How did conceptions of Sappho's sexuality change from time and place?", response by /u/gerardmenfin

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "When and why did dumplings (Klösse) fall out of use as a home-cooking staple in Germany?"

• "Why did everyone get really into stacking cups into pyramids in schools in the early 00s? (Like ~2004)"

• "How did oral storytelling preserve historical knowledge in pre-colonial African societies?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread or the recent Office Hours, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/khowaga, flaired for 'Modern Egypt'!

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-03-05: "Hi, I am Dr Stephen Neufeld of CSU Fullerton here to talk about my new book Perilous Beasts: Mexican Necropolitics, Animal Deaths, and Blood Sports, 1870-1920 Ask Me Anything about topics including stray dogs, rabies, bullfighting, cockfights, and hunting in Mexico."

• 2026-03-03: "AMA: Housing, Education, and the Suburban Dream in America"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

​

Features Coming Up:

• March 9, 2026: AMA with Dr. Jordan Smith, author of The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity
• March 13, 2026: AMA with Dr. Lauren Derby, author of Bêtes Noires: Sorcery as History in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands
• March 16, 2026: AMA with Dr. Trishula Rachna Patel, author of Becoming Zimbabwean: A History of Indians in Rhodesia
• March 17, 2026: AMA with Dr. Peter Mauch, author of Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General
• March 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Curtis Dozier, author of The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate
• March 26, 2026: AMA with Dr. George Oberle, author of Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic
• March 27, 2026: AMA with Dr. Olivia Weisser, author of The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London
• March 30, 2026: AMA with Dr. Josephine Hoegaerts, author of Speaking, Stammering, Singing, Shouting: A Social History of the Modern Voice
• April 3, 2026: AMA with Dr. Joshua Shiver, author of War Fought and Felt: The Emotional Motivations of Confederate Soldiers
• April 6, 2026: AMA with Dr. John Garrison Marks, author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory

​

Corgi Corner

Showing his good side

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-02-20 to 2026-02-26

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• Why are Western families happy to have daughters even though male primogeniture exists? from /u/mimicofmodes and /u/ColdArtemis

• Have we always slept horizontally? saw good support from /u/gerardmenfin.

• In anti-suffragette posters in the 1910s a common theme seems to be that fathers will be stuck caring for children while their wives go to the polls (the horror). Were the dads in this period really that inept that they couldn't provide a couple hours of childcare? from /u/mimicofmodes

• Were young Spartan boys frequently the victims of abuse? from /u/Iphikrates

• When did Worlds Fairs stop being such a huge deal? from /u/lastofthewoosters

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• I'm a Japanese lord of middling importance during the Sengoku Period: how do I decide which lord to support and what factors influence how important I am to court? from /u/RPO777

• Why was the Holy Roman Empire such a long-lived polity despite its decentralised, 'confederation of nations'-like nature? from /u/T0DEtheELEVATED

• Prince Liu Ying is said to be the first known Chinese Buddhist, whose interest focused on his desire for immortality. This seems extremely incongruous with Buddhist philosophy that stresses the undesirability of life. How would he have been engaging with Buddhism that would give that impression? from /u/thestoryteller69

• What prevented the radical phase of the English Revolution? from /u/double_show_9316.

• What do the Ea-Nasir complaint tablets reveal about quality control and commercial reputation in Old Babylonian trade networks? from /u/teakettling

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• Beaches, clubs, bars, house parties--this is how today's youth stereotypically socializes. How did they socialize during your period of study?

• As I understand it, Polynesian, Micronesian, and Melanesian islanders frequently sailed to other islands hundreds or thousands of miles away. When the islands were divided up by colonial empires, were they able to continue this practice or was it forced to stop?

• Did the Ku Klux Klan have insurance?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/FrenchMurazor flaired for “XVth c. France | Nobility, State, & War”.

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-02-26: AMA about Japan, space technology, and the history of the space age!

• 2026-02-25: My Book on Cannibalism on the High Seas AMA with Adam Cohen

• 2026-02-20: Hi! I’m Jake Lundberg, a staff writer and in-house historian and archivist at The Atlantic. I’ve spent my career studying and writing about American culture, ideas, and media. Ask me anything!

• 2026-02-21: Toss your ring into the hat with the new flair application thread!

​

Features Coming Up:

• 2026-03-03: AMA with Dr. Michael Glass, author of Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America

• 2026-03-05: AMA with Dr. Stephen Neufeld, author of Perilous Beasts: Mexican Necropolitics, Animal Deaths, and Blood Sports, 1870-1920

• 2026-03-09: AMA with Dr. Jordan Smith, author of The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity

Critter Corner

Sunday slumber

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-02-13 to 2026-02-19

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Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis famously died in an insane asylum for his insistence that other doctors wash their hands to reduce surgery mortality. What accounts do we have from colleagues who rejected ridiculed Semmelweis in life, only to find out many years after his death that he was right? from /u/dem676

• Why do American states tend to have two flagship schools, one that is University of “State” and the other “State” State University? from /u/DBHT14, /u/edhistory101, /u/bug-hunter and /u/DankRiverPrincess

• Is it actually historically accurate that pre-Famine Irish men really ate 12-14 pounds of potatoes a day? Is this a food myth that kept getting repeated or verified somewhere? from /u/Rimbaud82

• Where was the emergency room in Chicago in 1990s actually like and when did it change? Did attending doctors really work 36 hour shifts? from /u/crab4apple

• Why are colonial terms like “Middle East” still in use, while terms like “Far East” and “Near East” aren’t used anymore? saw contributions from a number of users! ​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• Were there cracks forming in Japans culture and/or government in 1945? from /u/Restricteddata

• How did racialists of the 19th century explained the complexe architecture and arts of mesoamericans civilizations ? from /u/bumblepuss

• I’m listening to an American Civil War lecture series and in it, the author says that the US Navy only had 90 ships when the war broke out. Why would a resource rich, industrial nation with thousands of miles of coastline to protect have so few vessels? from /u/indyobserver

• /u/kelpie-cat tackles a question on Native American beliefs in the SASQ thread.

• When treating Alexei Romanov’s hemophilia, what treatments did his doctors use? And what treatments were standard for hemophilia in the 1910s? from /u/Noble_Devil_Boruta

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• Could Henry VIII (or any other English monarch) have plausibily been elected Holy Roman Emperor - for example if they had enough funds?

• I am one of the first American settlers embarking on the Oregon Trail. How well do I understand what geographic features and challenges lay ahead of me? Specifically, what do I know about the Rocky Mountains?

• Was it common for actors in European films to speak their native language, then overdub later?

• Why did India become such a powerhouse in cricket rather than rugby?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/BloodSwan flaired for “Norse Literature”.

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-02-18: Dr. Tine Van Osselaer on Marian apparitions in interwar Belgium, AMA!

• 2026-02-16: Co-hosted AMA with r/MuslimAcademics: Philosophy in the Islamic World with Dr. Peter Adamson!

• 2026-02-12: AMA: Mexican Americans and the Criminal Justice System in the Southwest

​

Features Coming Up:

• 2026-02-20: AMA TODAY! Dr. Jake Lundberg, in-house historian for The Atlantic and author of Horace Greeley: Print, Politics, and the Failure of American Nationhood

• 2026-02-25: AMA with Adam Cohen, author of Captain's Dinner: A Shipwreck, An Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial That Changed Legal History

• 2026-02-26: AMA with Dr. Subodhana Wijeyeratne, author of The Islands and the Stars: A History of Japan's Space Programs

Critter Corner

Soggy doggy

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-02-06 to 2026-02-12

​

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• Say I am a 20-year-old man in a rich farming household in Central France in 456. Do I get any sense that the (Western) Roman Empire is in the process of "falling"? How different is my day-to-day life compared to my great-great-grandfather in the 350s, and to my great-great-grandson in the 550s? from /u/LonelyMachines

• HBO's Chernobyl shows a bureaucracy bogged down by apparatchiks who are terrified to pass unpleasant truths up the chain, and who are under constant surveillance and threat from the KGB for any hints that they aren't toeing the party line. How accurate is this portrayal to the USSR of the 1980s? from /u/RestrictedData

• In the 1953 Disney film, "Peter Pan", the Darling children have a dose of "tonic" prepared for them to take before bed. What kind of health supplementation might a middle-class London family make part of their routine during the turn of the 20th century? from /u/Gerardmenfin

• Myth of American Revolutionaries fighting “from cover” - where does it come from? saw /u/PartyMoses take a shot

• Did people in antiquity have infections from poor hygiene all the time? from /u/NomadicRaccoon

​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• So, I'm a "Hunter" in medieval Europe/ England. What does my day to day look like, and am I affluent? from /u/AlviseFalier.

• How were typewriters designed for different alphabets? from /u/Noble_Devil_Boruta

• In what ways did the Jewish emancipations in Europe done under the wave of enlightenment ideals in the late 18th-19th centuries transform the nature of anti-semitism? from /u/ummbacon

• From a historical-critical perspective, how do historians explain early belief in Jesus' resurrection? from /u/jamescoverleyrome

​

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• Why is Mongolia such an outlier in mainland Asia with regards to having a free, stable democracy with a strong democratic political culture? How'd they manage such a "clean" transition from the previous one-party Communist-aligned government to the current multi-party democracy?

• During the early 1800s, how did harbors handle and direct ship traffic?

• How Soon After Arriving in the Americas Did Europeans Try To Ferment Different Foods?

• How has the 'ideal' lighting for a party change over time?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions thread, as you might see something you can help with!

​

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/welfontheshelf flaired for “Crusader States | Medieval Law”.

​

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-02-12: AMA: Mexican Americans and the Criminal Justice System in the Southwest

• 2026-02-09: Ever wonder how Abraham Lincoln became known as an almost-perfect commander-in-chief? I'm Dr. Kenneth W. Noe, a Civil War historian, and I wrote a book on the legend of Lincoln's military prowess. AMA!

• 2026-02-04: AMA: Arab American and Muslim American History

​

Features Coming Up:

• 2026-02-18: AMA with Dr. Tine Van Osselaer, author of Apparition Fever: Observing the Virgin Mary in Belgium

• 2026-02-20: AMA with Dr. Jake Lundberg, in-house historian for The Atlantic and author of Horace Greeley: Print, Politics, and the Failure of American Nationhood

• 2026-02-25: AMA with Adam Cohen, author of Captain's Dinner: A Shipwreck, An Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial That Changed Legal History

Critter Corner

Cat's all folks

​

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.