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https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13tzwg0/sunday_digest_interesting_overlooked_posts_may_28/ | 13tzwg0 | 95 | t3_13tzwg0 | Sunday Digest | Interesting & Overlooked Posts | May 28, 2023 | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/search?q=title%3A%22Sunday+Digest%22+OR+title%3A%22Day+of+Reflection%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all)
Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of [/r/AskHistorians](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians)' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can re... | 31 | 0.89 | null | false | 1,685,278,815 | [
{
"body": "\nI am freshly returned from working in the garden, and what better way to relax then drafting up another majestic episode of the Sunday Digest! Here history dreams come home to be shared by all! Settle on down and dive into the hundreds of great threads waiting to be reads. As always, don’t forget t... | 3 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13qpppa/short_answers_to_simple_questions_may_24_2023/ | 13qpppa | 84 | t3_13qpppa | Short Answers to Simple Questions | May 24, 2023 | [Previous weeks!](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3ASASQ)
**Please Be Aware**: We expect everyone to read the rules and guidelines of this thread. Mods *will* remove questions which we deem to be too involved for the theme in place here. We *will* remove answers which don'... | 24 | 0.89 | null | false | 1,684,944,306 | [
{
"body": "https://preview.redd.it/heql2upziv1b1.jpeg?width=3496&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b105e629155d0f89540246b30d13e43898f8bf54\n\nCould someone please help me identify this? It's from my uncle, i think is an item they give to soldiers in WWII, but it could also be from his father who fought in WWI,... | 3 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13v81qa/how_did_silent_film_makers_deal_with_illiteracy/ | 13v81qa | 22 | t3_13v81qa | How did Silent Film makers deal with Illiteracy? | During the period in which silent films flourished, worldwide literacy rates were still rather low by modern standards. Silent Films, of course, have intertitles which show dialog, explain the plot, etc.
Did silent film makers have to deal with issues regarding illiteracy in the filmgoing public? Were there any speci... | 433 | 0.93 | null | false | 1,685,397,922 | [
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"body": "Here’s a question I may actually be able to answer. A lot of this answer is drawn from my college film studies which is now coming up on a decade ago, so apologies if any of my info is out of date. I think your question may be based on a faulty assumption, namely that silent film was primarily a narr... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13uof8f/why_did_mossad_nazi_hunters_bring_some_captured/ | 13uof8f | 31 | t3_13uof8f | Why did Mossad Nazi hunters bring some captured Nazis back for trial but assassinate others? | I fell down a Wikipedia hole on Nazi hunters and saw that Adolf Eichmann was found, captured, and brought back to Israel to stand trial, but just a few years later when Herberts Cukurs was found, he was executed on the spot. Was there a process within the Israeli government for determining who to bring back alive and w... | 1,733 | 0.96 | null | false | 1,685,346,965 | [
{
"body": "Cukurs was fairly unique.\n\nWas it the _only_ circumstance where a Nazi was killed by extra-legal means outside the war? Not exactly, no:\nmany (no clear estimates, but \"hundreds\") were killed by the Jewish underground in the immediate aftermath of WW2, and the \nAllies essentially looked the othe... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13v1x6i/i_visit_constantinople_during_9th_century_what/ | 13v1x6i | 5 | t3_13v1x6i | I visit Constantinople during 9th century. What ethnolinguistic groups do I meet there? What languages do I listen on the streets? | 87 | 0.92 | null | false | 1,685,383,386 | [
{
"body": "Whilst waiting for an answer, you might enjoy [this earlier one](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9m7row/how_cosmopolitan_was_constantinople_at_the_time/) about late-Byzantine Constantinople by the great u/Guckfuchs",
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https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13v2oij/why_are_canada_australia_and_new_zealand/ | 13v2oij | 40 | t3_13v2oij | Why are Canada, Australia and New Zealand primarily Catholic despite being colonized by Protestant England? Why, on the otherhand, is the US primary Protestant? | 72 | 0.82 | null | false | 1,685,385,148 | [
{
"body": "My antipodean colleagues should be able to add more about Australia and New Zealand, but I believe I am qualified to answer the Canada part of the question. \n\nFirst of all, Canada as a country is defined by its duality. The traditional dualities are English vs French and, you guessed it, Catholic v... | 3 | |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13umvnu/how_did_the_rank_of_emperor_only_become/ | 13umvnu | 15 | t3_13umvnu | How did the rank of emperor only become associated with the East Franks (HRE), not the West Franks (France)? Why wouldn't a French king simply claim Charlemagne's legacy c. 1000? | 142 | 0.96 | null | false | 1,685,341,472 | [
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"body": "I have no access to detailed literature and I hope someone will answer with more depth and references, but since this is a very interesting question, I want to perhaps speculate a bit and expand on the question.\n\nWhen Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day 800 by the pope in... | 2 | |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13ud2s0/have_the_dutch_always_been_unusually_tall/ | 13ud2s0 | 40 | t3_13ud2s0 | Have the Dutch always been unusually tall? | The average man in the Netherlands is over 6’ tall, quite tall by world standards. I learned recently that the supposed shortness of people of the past is generally exaggerated - but have the Dutch always been weirdly tall compared to both their neighbours and the wider world? When did that become a thing? | 554 | 0.94 | null | false | 1,685,312,925 | [
{
"body": "We weren't taller 200 years ago. Mid-eighteenth century, the average height of Dutch (military) men was approximately 165 cm. Well below the European and US average of that time. As to when the Dutch were first tallest. De Beer points out that this is recent. The end of last century. \n\n[De Beer H... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13vab1p/when_i_research_a_scientists_life_and_i_cant_find/ | 13vab1p | 3 | t3_13vab1p | When I research a scientist's life, and I can't find anything besides their work, does it mean they were just a boring person? | *Edit: I am not talking about scientists being "eccentric" versus being "normal". I'm talking about scientists being normal versus being work machines who had nothing else in their lives except for work*
For most scientists, when you research their lives, you find interesting stuff. Newton was obsessed with Alchemy, M... | 4 | 0.65 | null | false | 1,685,403,743 | [
{
"body": "I think the question you need to interrogate is what \"boring\" means. Not all scientists, even brilliant ones, were eccentric. Not even all of the ones you mentioned were eccentric, really. I mean, you define Bohr as \"interesting\" because he played soccer with his brother. That is a pretty low bar... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13v10pb/what_where_the_rules_that_governed_the/ | 13v10pb | 3 | t3_13v10pb | What where the rules that governed the dissolution of the English/British/UK parliament in previous centuries? | According a few different sources that the *Cavalier Parliament* sat from 1661 to 1679, when Charles II dissolved parliament. Since parliament was quite a bit less democratic back then, I guess it does not surprise that the term length was not limited the same way as now.
But what rules specified when an election had ... | 13 | 0.78 | null | false | 1,685,381,167 | [
{
"body": "From Henry III at least, parliament had to be called to recognise a new monarch and to authorise the raising of any new tax. Also, a parliament had to agree to any new laws, and could propose legislation. It had other functions, such as acting as a court and petitioning the monarch for redress of gri... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13uvb24/chile_under_allende_used_project_cybersyn_which/ | 13uvb24 | 2 | t3_13uvb24 | Chile under Allende used Project Cybersyn, which, according to Wikipedia, had an early neural network implementation, to help manage the economy. How did Chileans react to this futuristic control mechanism? | And is there any evidence of other countries considering a similar approach?
Cybersyn is doubly interesting in light of recent AI hype. | 22 | 0.79 | null | false | 1,685,367,729 | [
{
"body": "Where are you getting 'neural network' from the Wikipedia entry?\n\nBayesian analysis is symbolic. That is, you can write out the equations for its conclusions straight, you don't need to expand the neural network and from there try to puzzle out what equations it is actually performing, you already ... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13usi75/what_is_the_history_of_japanese_signage/ | 13usi75 | 3 | t3_13usi75 | What is the history of Japanese signage? | I'm currently in the midst of a six week trip to Japan, and am struck everywhere I go by the creative street signs. Signs that are mundane everywhere else in the world (eg: Don't Walk) are creative and playful across Japan. I am interested in learning more about how this came to be if anyone is an expert. I [found a fe... | 24 | 0.8 | null | false | 1,685,360,566 | [
{
"body": "I can answer a little bit about the art of Japanese Manhole Covers. (If you're still in Japan, make sure you look down at them from time to time; they're wonderful.) Most, if not all of the creative covers are descended from a public works project begun in 1977, designed to garner support for an expa... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13ui4gx/byzantium_used_to_call_itself_romania_wallachia/ | 13ui4gx | 10 | t3_13ui4gx | Byzantium used to call itself Romania. Wallachia (endoym "Țara Românească") used to as well. Were they trying to rival Byzantium, and stake a claim to the title emperorship? | The Byzantines used to call their empire "Romania" (Ῥωμανία). In modern Romanian, the name of Wallachia is "Țara Românească" meaning "The Country of Romania" or "The Romanian Country", and I believe this term does date back to medieval times. Were the Wallachians claiming to be the new Rome, after the sack of Constanti... | 104 | 0.93 | null | false | 1,685,326,594 | [
{
"body": "Ah, an old favorite of mine. You would be surprised of how often this question (or similar ones) [appear here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/rhdv28/why_is_romania_so_roman_they_are_the_only_country/)\n\nAnd no, the name it's not claiming a relation with Bizantium. It's claiming des... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13u6k1b/was_the_holocaust_meant_to_remain_a_secret_forever/ | 13u6k1b | 38 | t3_13u6k1b | Was the Holocaust meant to remain a secret forever? | It’s my understanding that the Nazi government tried to keep the holocaust out of the public’s eye, but if they had won the war would they have publicized it as a great victory or keep it under wraps forever? | 364 | 0.95 | null | false | 1,685,296,177 | [
{
"body": "I'm going to leave the 'what if' part of the question aside and just address the matter of the Nazi cover-up attempts:\n\nAs far as the German public was concerned, the Nazi bureaucracy thought of the holocaust as a point of potential, for lack of a better term, embarrassment. It is important to unde... | 2 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13valqj/what_military_journals_and_periodicals_are_highly/ | 13valqj | 2 | t3_13valqj | What military journals and periodicals are highly esteemed and worth keeping up with? | Just trying to find where the military historians and scientists congregate to share and discuss their work. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated | 0 | 0.5 | null | false | 1,685,404,535 | [
{
"body": "In my purview, the Journal of Slavic Military Studies (once upon a time the the Journal of Soviet Military Studies) is absolutely top notch. It was founded by David Glantz, who of course is one of *the* titans of the field, and he served as editor-in-chief for its first three decades. It has a great ... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13uaite/the_nazis_purged_all_communist_sympathizersleft/ | 13uaite | 8 | t3_13uaite | The Nazis purged all communist sympathizers/left wingers during Hitler’s reign. How did the USSR find the vast number of people required to run the East German state apparatus after WWII? | Given how paranoid Soviets were, wouldn’t any ex-Nazi history automatically disqualify someone from working in the government? | 154 | 0.91 | null | false | 1,685,306,334 | [
{
"body": "The answer can be found by debunking two wrong assumptions baked into your question. The first is that the Nazis managed to purge *all* left wing opposition and sympathisers. This was not the cas. Aside from the fact that people will have ways to hide their sympathies, there were still KPD undergroun... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13v3rsn/what_is_the_earliest_trace_of_the_belief_in_the/ | 13v3rsn | 2 | t3_13v3rsn | What is the earliest trace of the belief in the supernatural, and earliest trace of worship? | As the title states, I'm mainly curious about what the earliest trace of belief in the supernatural is. Also, as the title states, I'm wondering about what the earliest example in human history of worship towards a deity or object/figure of some sort is. | 0 | 0.5 | null | false | 1,685,387,762 | [
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"body": "The earliest hints of beliefs and/or traditions involving the supernatural and ritual are more tantalizing than informative. That's frustrating, but the problem is that those earliest traces are from prehistory, so we do not have any texts to help us to understand what was going on. \n\nEvidence come... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13ut3pp/do_we_know_what_kind_of_noble_titles_there_were/ | 13ut3pp | 2 | t3_13ut3pp | Do we know what kind of noble titles there were in the Mali Empire? | So I know in the empire, Mansa, means King but I couldn't find anywhere the word for Prince, Princess or Queen. Or any of the ranks for nobility?
Do we have any sources on that? Like how the nobility system works in the Mali Empire? | 3 | 1 | null | false | 1,685,362,186 | [
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"body": "Hi,\n\nI think Nehemia Levtzion's Ancient Ghana and Mali, Michael Gomez's African Dominion and Said Hamdun's Ibn Battuta in Black Africa would help you find answers to these questions. For translations of primary sources, Hopkins and Levtzion's Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History ... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13uvy62/is_fustels_the_ancient_city_worth_reading_today/ | 13uvy62 | 2 | t3_13uvy62 | Is Fustel's "The Ancient City" worth reading today? | I'm trying to find a good source for understanding the day-to-day functioning of ancient cities. I realize Fustel's "The Ancient City" is pretty old at this point -- is it still worth reading, or have his arguments fallen out of favor?
If it is outdated, what are better books I could read to understand the nuts and bo... | 3 | 0.72 | null | false | 1,685,369,272 | [
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"body": "There's nothing wrong with it, and there's nothing glaringly wrong. It *is* a bit dated, though. Because any good study of the ancient city will require archaeology, that means a lot of new material culture studies have come out since *La Cité antique* was published.\n\nFor some more recent overviews... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13unnlp/did_the_french_revolutionaries_support_the/ | 13unnlp | 3 | t3_13unnlp | Did the French Revolutionaries support the Haitian Revolution? | The timeline of the Haitian and French Revolutions are complex. The French Republic abolished slavery in 1794, but also fought against the slave revolts? Why would the seemingly progressive Jacobins suppress a slave revolt? Thanks to any who can clear the timeline up | 7 | 0.89 | null | false | 1,685,344,200 | [
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"body": " The relationship between the French Revolutionaries and the Haitian Revolution is indeed complex, and it evolved over time. Initially, many French Revolutionaries, especially those associated with the Jacobin faction, expressed support for the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity espoused... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13u1q18/what_was_the_position_of_the_us_government/ | 13u1q18 | 4 | t3_13u1q18 | What was the position of the US government regarding the 1848 revolutions? We’re there any US politicians who supported the revolutions? Were there any who opposed them? | 89 | 0.93 | null | false | 1,685,283,945 | [
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"body": "Not to discourage more discussion, but there are great answers from this previous question (though more focused on general American opinion rather than the government): https://amp.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4bm7yo/how_did_the_united_states_react_to_the/",
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https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13un8ys/when_were_women_allowed_on_stage/ | 13un8ys | 2 | t3_13un8ys | When were women allowed on stage? | You always hear people talk about how in Shakespeare's time all the roles were played by men because women weren't permitted to be on stage.
when did that change?
And what about in other countries and parts of the world?
Did the early Americas ever have such laws?
The rest of Europe ?
Japan? Etc.
Edit: does anyone... | 6 | 0.75 | null | false | 1,685,342,788 | [
{
"body": "I answered an extremely similar question a few weeks ago. I hope my answer helps:\n\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/12xs6jc/why_were_women_banned_from_performing_in_theather/jhk0n9t",
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https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13u4y3p/what_was_a_kings_swordsman_spadaio_del_re_which_i/ | 13u4y3p | 6 | t3_13u4y3p | What was a 'king's swordsman' (spadaio del re) which I found mentions of in Italian 14th century texts? | Being Italian, and loving old languages, I started studying Old Italian for fun. I have a grammar printed on paper, and also some online resources, such as the [Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini](http://tlio.ovi.cnr.it/TLIO/) (TLIO, 'Thesaurus of the Early Italian Language'), which is an ongoing dictionary pro... | 36 | 0.85 | null | false | 1,685,292,225 | [
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"body": "This question led me down a rabbit hole. After a few hours of searching, though, I didn't turn up much of value. My best guess is that the term refers simply to bodyguards who were trusted to carry unsheathed weapons in the presence of royalty. \n\nThe notes to the edition of the *Vite dei SS. Patri*... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13tvs2r/do_we_know_of_any_major_female_prophets_like/ | 13tvs2r | 24 | t3_13tvs2r | Do we know of any major female prophets like Muhammad and Jesus in history? Why are no major world religions started by women? | 149 | 0.88 | null | false | 1,685,265,002 | [
{
"body": "There are some good answers to this question here... https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1ynvpg/religious_messiahs_who_were_women/, particularly the one from /u/Tourney",
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https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13u6atf/did_max_müller_purposefully_mistranslate_the_vedas/ | 13u6atf | 2 | t3_13u6atf | Did Max Müller purposefully mistranslate the Vedas? | I've heard this claim thrown around quite frequently by a certain subsection of Hindus to justify ignoring western academic work on Hinduism.
The idea, in its most extreme form, is that Müller was supposedly employed by the British to mistranslate the Vedas so that the Hindus could be converted to Christianity.
I m... | 30 | 0.87 | null | false | 1,685,295,516 | [
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"body": "This is a completely false claim. To be really brief, Müller was a sort of Hegelian Christian, and his religious views had many opponents at Oxford. It would have been counterproductive for Müller to mistranslate things, or induce mistranslations, for religious purposes, because there were plenty of ... | 1 |
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/13ucz11/were_the_samurai_the_ruling_class/ | 13ucz11 | 2 | t3_13ucz11 | Were the samurai the ruling class? | I always held the impression that samurai were a kind of middle class in pre-modern Japan. Like European knights, they had less rights and privileges that the aristocratic class they served, but more than common people. I understand that this is all very imprecise and the analogy is imperfect.
However, I started read... | 11 | 0.72 | null | false | 1,685,312,648 | [
{
"body": "Think of Japan as largely being ruled by a military dictatorship following the end of the Heian period. There was an aristocratic class (*kuge*) who had lost power at the end of the Heian period, but we're essentially permitted to continue flitting about in Kyoto like butterflies around the (also lar... | 1 |
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