query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1 value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Why are Rabbits kidnapping humans in middle age paintings? | [
"Additional question on the same page: [Why are there Knights fighting snails?](_URL_0_) bored monks?"
] | [
"What drugs were popular in 19th century Britain?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Where can i find information about France in the late 15th-early 16th century? | [
"One of my personal favorites is *Autumn of the Middle Ages* by Johan Huizinga. It's a little before your time period (the 14th and 15th centuries) and concentrates exclusively on the Duchy of Burgundy, but it is a great cultural history of the common and noble in that time and place."
] | [
"Yes. Slavery in Rome was not tied to race/skin color like it was in the United States during the 1700-1800s"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
How accurate is “The Crown”? | [
"[Here is a link](_URL_0_) to a recent thread about the show's accuracy, which itself contains links to examinations of specific details from *The Crown*. (Thanks especially to /u/knoperope for combing the archives!)"
] | [
"One of these is not like the others."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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Can you recommend a book on the Luddites for a non-historian? | [
"The 'ultimate' (?) book on the subject may well be EP Thompson's classic *The Making of the English Working Class.* The book is enormous. Somewhere around 1000 pp. Thompson is a man of the left and it shows -- hell, it's the point of the book. The conclusions are at least a little dated (book is from the early '6... | [
"Just asked this in the other sticky, but maybe this is the better place for it: Does anyone have any good book recommendations about the Nigerian Civil War or about Biafra as a country?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Literature:"
} |
Is it true that in the 50's the average man could provide for his family by himself? (In contrast to now, where both man and woman seem to need to work to provide for the family) | [
"Hello all, AskHistorians is a place where people with questions about history can get answers from those with expert-level knowledge in the field. Thus, we ask that questions be limited to a specific historical context. However, we don't have an *infinite* supply of experts. We allow some leeway in context (\"Midd... | [
"It used to be that even the most modest wages matched up with the average cost of living (not always of course, but definitely more often). In the 40s and 50s, a person could support a family, buy a house, and have a car by working one job. However, wages have not kept up with inflation. Because of the rising cost... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
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Any good alternatives to Zinn's A People's History? I'm looking for something less biased | [
"David Graeber, while he doesn't present a full history of people in the modern world, has done tons of work in anthropology that would interest you (he's an anarchist). Fortunately, he's also considered one of the world's finest anthropologists whose work both on anarchist anthropology and regular anthropology are... | [
"Do you mean the history of the country of Mexico (1810-present), or do you also want a book that cover the Viceroyalty of New Spain and/or pre-colonial Mexico? For the former- I liked *Mexico's Crucial Century* and *Mexicans in Revolution* as a whirlwind introduction (mostly political history) to the period of 181... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why was "tearing your clothes and putting on a sackcloth" such a big deal in biblical times? | [
"It's a ritualized expression of mourning, sadness, or repentance. I don't know if we can really come up with anything deeper than that, societies invent stereotypical ways to experience these things, and there may be no better reason for the tearing of the cloth than there is for a 21st century American to wear bl... | [
"Christians view the Bible as a progressive revelation of God's will for mankind. Abraham started out as a nobody but God picked him to be the father of Israel, who would be God's witness to the world. Abraham repeatedly screwed up (passing off his wife as his sister TWICE so the king would take her as a concubine ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why did the San Francisco Bay area have so many military installations closed compared to other areas on the west coast? | [
"I'm not aware of any special political reasons above and beyond the fact that politicians will always try to bring benefits to their constituencies. Perhaps others can comment if this is the case. As far as I am aware, San Francisco was and is militarily significant primarily because it has an excellent natural ha... | [
"Well, while it did meet the requirements set forth when they were looking for a site, the reason is mostly political. Lyndon Johnson had just become President and lobbied hard to have it located in his home State of Texas. It also makes a certain amount of sense to distribute operations between Florida and Texas r... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
When did the corporate ladder structure we're familiar with today (For example: C level executives - > Junior executives - > Vice Presidents - > Directors - > Managers - > Staff) become standard in Western businesses? | [
"Henri Fayol was the first person to create a comprehensive theory about management. In his book, General and Industrial Management, he describes a pyramid hierarchy for management, similarly to what we see in the corporate world today. About the same time, Frederick Taylor published his book The Principles of Scie... | [
"- The Board of Directors is elected by the shareholders. They are in charge of key strategic decisions for the company - The Chairman of the Board is \"in charge\" of the board of directors. He will often lead BoD meetings and have more direct interaction with the company day to day - The Chief Executive Officer (... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Not sure is this is overly broad, but, I recently read that the founding of the United States had profound legal implications for the concept of "property rights." Can anyone narrow down some concepts or resources I might use to learn more? Or possibly give a light overview? | [
"It didn't really, and I'm not sure who is arguing that, but if you clarify your question I would be happy to go into more detail. Property defined as the idea that an individual has an exclusive right to the use and enjoyment, up to and including the destruction of a given item, person or piece of land has been a ... | [
"I would really like to know a good book on the philosophy of history, or a place where I could learn more to contribute about the philosophy of history."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
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In Christianity, from where the thought "love and fear our lord" originates from? | [
"Many times when followers of the Abrahamic faiths say \"fear of God,\" they mean it in the sense of reverence rather than what we think of when we hear the word \"fear\" (being afraid and cowering). The [Catechism of the Catholic Church](_URL_3_) describes the fear of God as one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spir... | [
"both put together are the Bible, the old testament is before Jesus was born and talks about all the rules we are expected to fallow and what the consequences of these rules are it is quite similar to the Torah ( Jewish religious text) and even the Quran(muslim religios text) The new testament is after Jesus' bir... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
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How well did cowboys in the 1800's know other parts of the world? | [
"Census data consistently demonstrates that western states were often more international, per capita, than many of their eastern counterparts. Of course, a \"cowboy\" could be far removed from the urban settlements where foreign immigrants often settled, but it was a fluid society, and it is reasonable to assume th... | [
"So when and where did playing cards as we know them come into being anyways?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How did schools detect plagarism before the Internet? | [
"A friend of mine, a modern-languages teacher, was marking exams in the pre-internet days and thought he recognised a passage in one, so looked it up in several text-books and discovered that it had been plagiarized from a text-book that he himself had written. This is not just an (amusing) anecdote. One very impor... | [
"To be a little less specific, what did people think the future in general would be like before the Industrial Revolution?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
How are the conflicts between Napoleon (and the other pigs) and the other animals relatable to the ones Stalin faced during his reign? | [
"The most glaring comparison is the relationship between Napoleon and Snowball. Napoleon is Stalin, while Snowball was Trotsky. This can be seen in a few ways. 1. Snowball(trotsky) wants to spread the revolution outside the farm, while Napoleon(Stalin) wants to focus on internal issues. 2. Snowball is described as ... | [
"The noble idea that mankind should work together in equality, each giving according to his ability, and receiving according to his needs. Unfortunately, it has historically been implemented by people who thing that they are more equal that others. A great read on the mentality behind Soviet communism is Animal Far... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What was Napoleon really trying to accomplish | [
"While /u/Iustis does give some good points, the only thing I can really add is that Napoleon's true interest was survival. The interest of Napoleon was to maintain the survival of his throne and the House of Bonaparte. Yes, he placed his family on thrones but this is more of a \"I'm taking care of my family\" rath... | [
"He kind of orchestrated and led the native coalition and Spanish troops that defeated the Aztecs, who were the most powerful state in Mexico at the time. I'm not sure what you are going for here."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
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When someone gets yelled at or verbally disciplined by their boss, they might say, "He read me the Riot Act today." What are the origins of this phrase? | [
"If you don't get answers here, you might consider x-posting to /r/etymology, a sub which specializes in word origins"
] | [
"It means that people often don't appreciate you for doing something good, or are even outright hostile. For instance, you hold the door open for a women and she calls you a chauvinist pig who thinks she can't open the door herself. Or you pick up a wallet that someone dropped, and they accuse you of stealing it. ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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What was white American reaction to the assassination of MLK? | [
"King was not particularly popular with the general public during his lifetime. [From Gallup](_URL_0_): > In 1963, King had a 41% positive and a 37% negative rating; in 1964, it was 43% positive and 39% negative; in 1965, his rating was 45% positive and 45% negative; and in 1966 -- the last Gallup measure of King ... | [
"A related question were there public figures at the time who were apologists that tried to justify for the actions of the Japanese military at Pearl Harbor?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
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Thursday Reading & Research | March 15, 2018 | [
"So, I've heard this is the go-to place for reading and book recommendations. I asked a question recently about rationality and its history and decided to read *How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind*. On third chapter right now and enjoying it a lot, but I wish there was more on pre-Cold War rationality/reason, which I ... | [
"It's a bit unclear what you're interested in. (Early US education? Mann? Cremin's perspective?) But here are some resources that may help: > Binder, Frederick M. The Age of the Common School: 1830-1865. New York: Wiley, 1974. > > Glenn, Jr., Charles Leslie. The Myth of the Common School. Amherst: University of M... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Literature:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Literature:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
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What are some often overlooked long-term effects of WW 1 on Europe? | [
"You might consider consulting an environmental history of WWI. Folks don't typically think of the environmental effects of a war, such as deforestation (caused by industrial demand for timber) or pollution (caused by the need for massive amounts of industry)."
] | [
"Would you mind clarifying the question a little? Are you asking if the American participation in the Vietnam War is responsible for the recession of communism *now*?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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In the history of Arrakis, there have been an improbable number of recorded deaths of a man allegedly named Duncan Idaho, in the service of the Atreides. Why is this? Is this an alias, or is there just one person who is improbably good at escaping death? | [
"The Duncan Idaho is a folktale's character of the last Fremen, it was developed using early Fremen figures from Zensunni mythology. He's the Ultimate Hero of Fremen mythology, a kind of messianic figure. So the numerous sightings of Duncan Idaho can be compared to the apparitions of the Virgin Mary on the Earth of... | [
"Remember that relative to the proportion of people in galaxy, only a tiny, insignificant amount wield the Force, even during the height of the Republic before the Clone Wars. Now imagine after Vader killed most of them off. Even if they were alive before the Clone Wars, chances are most have never encountered a Je... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
How were physical ailments, such as severe lower back pain, dealt with by ancient hunter-gatherer societies? | [
"Hi there -- while we've approved this question for now, as it deals with prehistory you may want to ask r/AskAnthropology as well. Thanks!"
] | [
"I think it's because before the invention of modern medical care people had to have a keen sense of their health based on things like odors. It's an instinct left over from that time 10's of thousands of years ago. You're not disgusting. Those impulses allowed your ancient ancestors to live longer and spread their... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text about Psychology:"
} |
Did Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus have a cognomen prior to "Magnus"? If so, what was it? | [
"His father held the cognom 'Strabo,' which means 'cross eyed' (Pothecary,1999). As his father was a relative new comer to the higher tiers of the gens Pompeia, they may not yet have acquired a particular familia epithet/cognom, and held them in the traditional sense of being named for a characteristic or deed. I w... | [
"It stands for *Publi Filio, Publi Nepoti* meaning \"Son of Publius, Grandson of Publius\". For Lucius Cornelius Scipio, he was the son (so P.f) of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. He was the grandson (P.n.) of Publius Cornelius Scipio. Marcus Licinius Crassus was the son of Publius Licinius Crassus and the gra... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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I am traveling from Hangzhou to Constantinople on the silk road in 1348. How long does it take me? What route do I take? What am I selling/trading? Is a journey such as mine even realistic? | [
"hi! there's *lots* of room for more input here, but thought you might get something out of these posts that relate somewhat to the experience of traveling the silk road. I've omitted posts addressing *what* is traded - run a search on \"silk road\" to find more * [Was the Silk Road a one-way street?](_URL_4_) * [W... | [
"Do you have a period you specifically want to know about? This is ranges from slightly different to totally different if we're talking about Asia Minor and Syria circa 333 B.C., Italy in 216 B.C., Gaul 500 A.D., Palestine 1066 A.D., Brandenburg in 1630/31 A.D., Silesia in 1740 A.D. or Sedan in 1870. I'm sure we co... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
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} |
I am a merchant on the Silk road, what is a day on the journey like? | [
"There's a bit of a misunderstanding of what the silk road actually was, it was a web of different trade routes taking all kinds of things across Eurasia. You wouldn't be a trader going from China all the way to Europe, you would most likely be a camel driving trader in central asia selling your wares on to the nex... | [
"What does the Pope handle on a day to day basis?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
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[For everyone] I'm looking for examples of riots that were started for reasons we now find ridiculous... | [
"I'd like to think that a hundred years from now we'll find any and all sports-related riots like the [Vancouver Stanley Cup riots](_URL_0_) completely ridiculous, but I'm not sure I have that much faith in people."
] | [
"I get it. And I hope someone here explains it well. If not, watch this: _URL_0_ But explanations and history aside, it seems to me that everyone, in my experience at least, seems to think that now it is dumb. Why doesn't it go away? what would it take? Why wouldn't it just get phased out or go away completely? I c... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
How well received was the Aaron Burr biography "Fallen Founder"? | [
"Nancy Isenberg is a perfectly legitimate historian. And most biographies are sympathetic. It's hard to write a biography without at least exposing a \"villain\"'s humanity. It wouldn't be a good biography if it didn't do that, I think. I read that book several years ago, and don't remember anything glaringly wron... | [
"I'm currently reading the *Dead Zone* by Stephen King, which is pretty good, but I'm planning on reading something more historical soon. For the past couple of years I've made a habit of reading one long presidential biography a year, and this year my in-laws gave me a crap ton of them, so I have to choose which o... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Literature:"
} |
Why are permanent UN Security Council positions still dictated by WWII Allied power status? | [
"This breaks the 20 year rule, but to answer you they're pretty much still both not allowed to conduct or participate in offensive military operations. For Japan its in their constitution, and for Germany its mostly just self-imposed nowadays (pre-1991 may have been a different story) Germany participated in its f... | [
"There isn't really an established procedure to this - it all depends on what the war was about and what the winning country wants out of it. After World War I, the victorious Allies imposed a bunch of punitive measures against Germany and the other defeated Central Powers. After World War II, the victorious Allie... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Did people really bomb the sky? | [
"The google phrase you might want is \"rainmakers 19th century\" onee example; \" In the late 19th century, the U.S. Congress hired retired Brigadier General Robert Dyrenforth to conduct experiments in Texas. He believed that rain could be created by firing cannons and launching balloons that were loaded with explo... | [
"Now you too get to see the terrible deleted comments! Welcome!"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
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Russell Brand said this on Late Night last night... | [
"I'm terribly sorry, but given the highly political nature of this question, as well as the fact that many of the studies done on this violate the 20 year rule we have in place, we are going to have to remove this. /r/Ask_Politics and /r/AskSocialScience would be better suited venues for this discussion."
] | [
"Am I the only one who yawned when reading this post?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
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Did Southern white folk ever fail a literacy test? | [
"It should be understood that literacy tests etc. were tailor-made to exclude African-Americans from polls. Many southern states were clever enough to employ \"grandfather clauses\" in addition to literacy tests. These clauses essentially ensured that the scenario you pointed out never occurred. > [The grandfather... | [
"I'd like to hijack this and ask a follow up question: What sort of laws did the Romans have regarding treatment of slaves as opposed to the USA?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
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After seeing an example of a Roman latrine I have to ask: Were ancient people really completely comfortable just defecating and urinating in front of each Other? Do we know of any instances of embarrassment or shame or humor about this situation being brought up? | [
"As a follow up I heard it said several times that the Romans would use urine as mouthwash. Is there any truth to that?"
] | [
"There is no sexual component in peeing, no. But there is a sexual component in purposely showing your genitals to other members of the public. The thing is, it can be very hard to gauge the motive someone had when they were peeing in public. Were they genuinely desperate and couldn't wait, or are they peeing ther... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
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} |
How realistic were the "life expectancy" statistics for NATO troops along the Iron Curtain, particularly the Fulda Gap? | [
"There is a Gwynne Dyer series called 'War', it's on YouTube, and the episode you need to watch is called 'Keeping the Old Game Alive'. He interviews NATO troops, following them during exercises. This very issue is discussed by various soldiers, and indeed many profess the understanding that once the Soviet tanks r... | [
"Since nobody else has mentioned it, I frequently hear about conscripted forces being used to man the defenses at Normandy. Is this true? What is the ratio of conscripted to german troops?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
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How did Roman merchants protect themselves when traveling, especially beyond the borders of the empire? | [
"As a follow up, did Roman citizenship carry and weight outside the borders of the empire? If a Roman was in, say, Persia or India would local authorities be reluctant to treat the merchant poorly/demand bribes or something, out of fear that the Romans might do something?"
] | [
"It was a long process, really, filled with poor leaders and horrible economics. The empire itself physically ended after barbarians invaded and looted Rome several times. In 432, the Roman government sent out a letter to its various provinces as a notice along the lines of \"Don't expect any help from Rome anymore... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
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How often did citizens of the Soviet Union actually get to explore western countries? Stories keep popping up on reddit about soviets being overwhelmed by the amount of goods in American supermarkets. | [
"Not often. Certainly it's true that Soviets who did make it to the west were surprised by material abundance. Leon Aron's biography of Boris Yeltsin talks about how shattering it was for Yeltsin to see an ordinary Texas supermarket. Keep in mind that Yeltsin had been a member of the Soviet elite--a member of the P... | [
"Because those of us with parents or grandparents that immigrated from communist countries have heard many times their first impressions of a US grocery store."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer about history:",
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Why has the American legal system developed to be much harsher on criminals than the legal system in other western countries? | [
"Short answer, [the war on drugs.](_URL_2_) Longer answer, [mandatory sentencing](_URL_1_). The US drug trade is quite financially lucrative, since there are so many willing or easily convinced buyers. This motivates large-scale dealers to grow a criminal network within the US to sell their product at the retail le... | [
"They are. Abandoning a child is a criminal offense in every state in the US and in every other Western nation that I'm aware of."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
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Testing a Theory: When did the Middle Ages Begin and End? | [
"I think I have a pretty standard view of the question. I consider the Middle Ages to start in 410 AD with Alaric's sack of Rome. While Rome was no longer the capital of the Empire, the sacking (the first in about 800 years) was a major shock and, literally, the end of an era. The Middle Ages ended with the Fall of... | [
"1. The First Salute by Barbara Tuchman 2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown 3. The Civil War by Shelby Foote 4. Reconstruction by Eric Foner 5. The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman 6. Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch 7. Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War by John Ellis 8. The... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
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} |
How credible are Rick Atkinson books on WW2? | [
"It is a very credible series, in fact it's one of my main go to books when people ask for recommendations on that topic (American operations in the ETO and MTO during WWII). He's not a historian by trade (he's a former journalist with the Washington Post) which some people might take issue with, but Atkinson did a... | [
"Well, if you want general history books about the US from the right and from the left, then read *A People's History of the United States* by Howard Zinn (left) And from the right, *A Patriot's History of the United States*."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
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What is the significance of Gobekli Tepe? | [
"I believe one theory about its historical significance is the idea of religion (its the oldest known religious site) being a strong factor in humans changing from a hunter gatherer to an agrarian society because they wanted to settle down and be close to their religious sites. [The world’s oldest temple suggests t... | [
"If you are genuinely interested in the epipaleolithic/pre-pottery neolithic transition and the ancient near east, you might want to start with Ancient Turkey, by A. G. Sagona and Paul E. Zimansky, 2009. Of interest might also be J. Cauvin's 2001 The birth of the gods and the beginning of agriculture. More specific... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
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} |
Recommendation for books about Vikings. | [
"Hiya! Check out my recommendations [here](_URL_0_) and let me know if you have any questions. I'd probably start with Sawyer's *Oxford Illustrated History* or Winroth's [*Age of the Vikings*](_URL_2_), which are both pretty good introductions. Then, if you'd like to dig a bit deeper, Brink and Price's *Viking Worl... | [
"Are there any good introduction books to historiography in general? JFK in particular? Thank you"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
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Recently, the president of Turkey claimed that Muslim sailors arrived in America in 1178. Does this claim have any evidence behind it? | [
"hi! not discouraging further responses here, but fyi, there was a discussion about this yesterday * [Recep Erdogan just claimed Muslim sailors discovered the Americas circa 1178. Is there a history of such claims?](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Considering how strong of an isolationist tradition Japan has I find this very unlikely. The journey from Japan to Southern California would have been unprecedented, as the only journeys remotely comparable came about a century after the author dates the supposed arrival of the Japanese in America, with Zheng He's... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
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Why do they always qualify shootings as the n^th deadliest in **modern** US history? | [
"Looking through the search results is fairly depressing how frequently this question gets asked. Not that it is a bad question just that it seems to be continuously relevant. There are a couple good answers in two different posts, but many of the posts go unanswered. The first goes into the various tragedies and p... | [
"Gun homicides have fallen in half from 1993 to 2013...it was 7 per 100,000 and now it's 3.6 per 100,000. Source _URL_0_ Belive it or not, the US is actually much safer than it was 25 years ago."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
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"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How important was Allied Lend-Lease to the USSR during WW2? Approximately how much of the gear in use by the Red Army was supplied by the other allied powers? | [
"There's more to be said on the topic; you might like to start with some previous answers in the FAQ section Economy, Industry, and Lend-Lease. * \"In WW2, who had greater industrial capacity, the Americans or the Soviets?\", _URL_2_ , by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov * \"Soviet industrial might between 1940-1945?\" at _URL_1... | [
"It was hard for them to work together due to the huge geographic distances between them. There were some long range submarine cargo missions, supplying things like rubber and tungsten. And some designs for aircraft ended up in Japan too. When Japan attacked the US, Germany declared war on the US in the hope that J... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about history:"
} |
Did the gold rush in California cause the rest of the world to become (for lack of a better word) jealous at the seeming good fortune of Americans? | [
"I'm sure someone will be along soon with more info but, just to keep things in perspective, at the time, most of the actual circulating money in the U.S. was *Mexican silver* (which kept coming for centuries, as opposed to Cali's flash-in-the-pan) and the States' prime export was cotton and other raw materials far... | [
"Surviving long enough that you can then steal the land from the native Americans who helped you survive. The one case where Americans should have been worried about immigrants coming in and destroying the culture."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
In Norse stories, what was 'red gold'? | [
"> I doubt that this is what the Norse were referring to given Freya's tears of red gold and the gods covering Ótr's pelt with red gold. Why? I'm not familiar with the Norse context, but I do know coins, and every numismatic reference I've come across for red gold is referring to rose gold, that is, a gold-copper a... | [
"Originally it was Woden's day lots of the days are named after Norse gods Thor's day Freya's day or Moon day and Sun day."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
When and why did the U.S. and the UK establish friendly relations? | [
"hi! additional info is welcome, but fyi, there are a few posts on this in the FAQ that can get you started * [Anglo-American Relations](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
A country's heritage is lost, and now in the possession of another country. What can be done? | [
"Well there are some examples of repatriation you may be interested in. Aboriginal remains in the British natural history were sent back to Australia after a legal battle. Parthenon marbles of Greece are in the UK which came from Athens were controversially sold by powers in charge of Greece of time. This dispute i... | [
"They once used to have their country and they believe it could be better if they had it now. I am also pretty sure that as they are a rich region, they pay a lot to the central government and get little in return."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
John Wilkes Booth as an actor... | [
"John's brother, Edwin Booth, was very, very famous, at least as famous as a pre-Hollywood actor could be. [Statue in the park](_URL_0_) famous. I've heard various accounts of how famous John actually was. Somewhere between \"oh hey, it's that guy\" and \"fairly famous.\" Either way, he wasn't an unknown. If you w... | [
"Overall, a bad person. Hitchens does a great job dissecting why... Mother Teresa: Hell's Angel - _URL_0_"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Turkish Delight: I had the real version the other day for the first time. How much does American candy owe to Turkish Delight recipes? | [
"I'm American (from New York) and I've never heard of anything called \"Turkish Delight\" other than Lokum. Could you link a picture or something?"
] | [
"Once people stopped thinking the tomato was poison (the leaves of the plant look a lot like deadly nightshade, and in fact the two plants are in the same family) the American Italians quickly adopted it and brought it back to Italy. A Dutch man in Boston invented Dutch Processed chocolate, and the Germans brought ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
META: Trying to track down particular article by someone in U.S. embassy in ~1960s Moscow | [
"[SOVIET REALITY SANS POTEMKIN by Gertrude Schroeder](_URL_0_) It was a CIA report, declassified and released in 1996 by the CIA Historical Review Program."
] | [
"This may get buried, but I really hope it gets noticed. This is an answer to your question posted on Reddit a month ago by a person living in Syria _URL_0_"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What "Secret agent 007" style of spycraft and gadgets actually existed in the cold war? | [
"Someone already answered this question, but I think you should be aware of places where you can see some this stuff up close. If you're in the US: [International Spy Museum](_URL_5_) in Washington D.C. In the UK: [Imperial War Museum](_URL_6_) has a spy exhibit. It's a hop skip from Elephant & Castle. Both are abs... | [
"I recently listened to a podcast that was about the British operation ‘Mincemeat’ in WW2. Can anyone recommend any books/websites/podcasts that are about British or American secret missions that involved out of the box thinking? Edit: does not specifically need to be about WW2."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Literature:"
} |
What was the purpose of a Grand Tour in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? If I was a young nobleman on my Grand Tour, where would I go and what would I see? | [
"hi! you'll find a few more morsels of info in these threads * [What was life like as a university student in 19th century Europe?](_URL_2_) * [When tourism in the modern sense begin? Has it always been common for people to go on 'vacations'?](_URL_0_) * [At what point did the buildings of Ancient Rome stop being j... | [
"So when and where did playing cards as we know them come into being anyways?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How long would a typical 'grand tour' of Europe have lasted for a young aristocrat during the 18th century? | [
"Somewhere between six months and two years, with the lower end of that range being more frequent. I literally came up with this answer by finding a copy of John Ingamell's *Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800* and scanning through a couple pages of the entries, and seeing what trip lengt... | [
"The Middle Ages is a pretty huge period that spanned centuries, so you might want to refine your question. The daily life of a monarch in the 8th century was incomparably different from that of a 16th century one."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Can someone explain the less obvious insults in "the reply of Zaporozhian Cossacks"? For example why is "macedonian wheelwright" seemed to be treated as equally insulting as | [
"1.The answer is a parody on the letter of Mehmet II who presents himself variously as an overlord or the king of Macedonia. 2.Dmytro Yavornytsky suggested wheelwright (kolesnik) was slang for someone who speak overwrought nonsense (okolesica) rather than one who makes wheels (koleso). 3.There are more than 10 diff... | [
"In what Russians wrote about themselves there is no fatalism, but there is concept of \"Avos\". \"Avos'\" is used in the same sense as the Arab \"insh'allah\" (or, say, Spanish \"ojalá\") - \"let's hope that...\" and when Russians are asked why they're doing completely doomed things it's said they do it on \"Avos'... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why space ships and rocket ships? Why not rocket planes or space planes? | [
"You might have better luck in /r/linguistics/ or similar. \"Plane\" refers to fixed-wing aircraft. It is a rather small category that distinguishes itself from other kind of aircraft. \"Ship\" and \"craft\" have become more general terms. \"Craft\" (i.e., spacecraft), more than \"ship\", has seen adoption in techn... | [
"Fighter jets are air breathing. There is no air in space. For the same reason, there's no sonic boom in space either."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How did specialist traders and Artisan get along before money? | [
"Patronage. Your patron provides for you. That said, labourers in Egypt and Mesopotamia could also be paid in standard measures of grain, or other commodities in later periods. It did get a bit impractical sometimes, though, which is why coinage was adopted for urban economies."
] | [
"How successful have you been with everything but YouTube?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Roundtable #21: "Be Kind...Remind!" - The Mod Approved Guide to Never Miss an Answer | [
"It's more of a firehose approach, but another way to find new answers quickly is to go to _URL_0_ , which shows all comments in the sub. I don't browse it that often, but when I do I often see answers I might not have noticed otherwise."
] | [
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Typing "Hitler" into the Brazilian Immigration Card index takes you to a record for one "Rudolph Hitler", born 25/1/45, son of Eva Braum. | [
"Well /u/Dubstripsquads flagged me (I don't appreciate the term \"Hitlerphile\" btw, we prefer the term Hitler-realists). I really don't know what to say. Hitler escaping to some South American backwater is a common enough feature in conspiracy theories....which leads me to believe this is a fake, probably intende... | [
"I'm not sure if IMDB is a reputable source, but according to it, [Henri Delannoy](_URL_0_), who played the Captain of the rocket, lived until 1976."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
How long have people fried food? | [
"Pan fried or deep fried? How do we count fatty meats that render heavily and fry themselves over dry heat?"
] | [
"How long has it been since you quit?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
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} |
How did Kim Il Sung begin to implement the Juche ideology on a population that was old enough to remember life before the Korean War? | [
"Someone asked [a similar question](_URL_0_) in a [/r/WorldNews thread earlier today on Kim Jong-un's New Year address to North Korea](_URL_2_), and I hope [my answer](_URL_1_) helps somewhat. In short, the single most important element to keeping the North Korean population well-behaved was probably the system's p... | [
"They blamed others for it ~ specifically they blame the United States. The North Korean propaganda machine is strong and has instilled in the heads of the populace that the American imperialists are out to get North Korea and are responsible for even the smallest things such as lights flickering. The cult of Kim I... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about History:"
} |
Book recommendations for Russias colonialism/expansion east? | [
"I did a historiography on Russian colonialism in Siberia. /u/treebalamb flaired moderator, who's expertise is in Late Imperial Russia | USSR helped with some of my selections. Some of the better books from it I'd recommend: Bassin, Mark. *Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the ... | [
"Hi! you might be interested in some of these earlier posts * [Did the Soviet union ever take advantage of the racial tensions in cold war america? particularly with blacks in the south?](_URL_7_) * [How did (or did) the USSR use the US's Civil Rights movement and issues like Jim Crow as propaganda?](_URL_8_) * [Ho... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
On Paddy Griffith: Was the American Civil War the "last Napoleonic War" | [
"Griffith's claims have some truth to them, but you shouldn't accept them uncritically either. He's well respected in his field, and taught at Sandhurst, and is in a small way a pioneer in the study of battle tactics. However his work on the American Civil War does overturn conventional wisdom. Plus he ruffles feat... | [
"On this topic, how accurate is the description of life at the front, in \"All Quiet on the Western Front\"?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What language is most useful? | [
"This is entirely up to what you're trying to study, really. You really don't need it in Middle School (unless you're in one of the areas with a large ESL population, in which case I'm guessing Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, or Thai would be handy for you to communicate to the students with) I speak English,... | [
"It has a few different meanings in different contexts. What setting are we talking about?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage about finance:"
} |
How did the United Kingdom go from being one of the United States's most hated enemies to being one of its most trustworthy allies? | [
"Follow up question: is it accurate to describe the UK as the 'one of the most hated enemies' of the new United States? Was there really that much animosity between the two states? After all, a significant minority of US citizens were Loyalists and the countries shared a significant amount of commonalities, languag... | [
"Just because a few very wealthy, individual Saudi citizens give money to or otherwise support groups with ties to terrorism is no reason for the U.S. government not to have a strategic alliance with the Saudi Arabian government."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How did people keep their books before the invention of the double entry accounting system? | [
"> My question is how the hell did 8th century merchants keep track of their wealth before modern accounting? How did owners of great capital in the past keep track of everything they owned? It is a great question and I would like to piggy-back on this and ask - is this assumption (that is, that double-entry bookk... | [
"Electronic bookkeeping was not the first time balances were written down rather than represented with physical objects. Did you think that when I deposited $50 in a bank in 1950, that exact $50 bill was kept in the vault until I asked for it back? No, they took the bill, added it to their stash, and added 50 to th... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Best digital collections of historic materials? | [
"[The Fordham Internet History Sourcebooks](_URL_1_) are pretty much go-to in terms of finding major/commonly-assigned primary documents in simple text format. The faculty in my department use Fordham docs a ton in assigning readings. I use the [Public Records Office of Northern Ireland](_URL_0_) online selection, ... | [
"What if you want a printed version of what was said?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Archiving:",
"pos": "Represent the post about Archiving:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
In Battlefield 1 the military phonetic alphabet is quite a bit differnt as we know it today (Apples instead of Alpha, Butter instead of Bravo, etc). When was it changed into what it is today? Why was it changed? Or does Battlefield's version have no basis on historical reality? | [
"Yes, this is based in history. The British went through numerous versions of the phonetic alphabet and during the WWI period, it was indeed Apples, Butter, Charlie, Duff, etc. [Tables here](_URL_0_) Due to issues with differences in the phonetic alphabet, and difficulty in pronouncing certain words, after WW2, the... | [
"So when and where did playing cards as we know them come into being anyways?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
[Meta] Why I'm leaving this subreddit | [
"I come to this subreddit to see actual experts answer questions, in their own voice, with their own analysis and expertise, and with a willingness to engage with me, personally, if I have further questions to ask. That's what AskHistorians *is*. You seem to want it to be something else. It isn't that thing. I hope... | [
"You asked this yesterday. You already know the answer, it's in one of your bullet points down the bottom. Go post this on some political subreddit because this isn't appropriate for ELI5."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
In the 1962 would the Soviet space program & NASA have still been using technology than ran on vacuum tubes instead of transistors? | [
"In 1962 both tubes and transistors were in use. The transistors of that time were still quiet limited in sensitivity, power and frequency. Even today an application that needs high power and high frequency, like a broadcast station, will use vacuum tubes in the final stages. If you want a more thorough answer you ... | [
"It looks like this man is using an early model IBM Selectric Typerwriter. They were introduced in 1961. As for the helmet, I have no idea what it is, but it looks like vacuum tubes are decorating it. Solid state circuits replaced vacuum tubes during the 1960s and narrows this photo down to the early 1960s."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
In World War Z, one of the characters claims that the population explosion in China was because Mao thought it was the only way to win a nuclear war. Is there any truth to this? | [
"The Chinese government did encourage rapid population growth because they thought it would be beneficial for their economy and army. After the Century of Humiliation the new communist government wanted to rapidly become powerful and more people meant a greater labor force. It seems like this claim is inspired by s... | [
"Diverting large amount of resources away from social programs and helping their people to instead increase their military is how most countries become superpowers including the USSR and the US, the US just started in a better place, so the money they diverted wasn't enough to kill its own people. Developing nuclea... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment about World Affairs:"
} |
I am a proud member of the Soviet Union, and I have answered the call to defend the Mother Land against the Facists in WWII. What is the extent of my training, and what is my fate? | [
"Ah, the popular view of the Red Army; questions along these lines pop up every now and then. You'll be most interested in u/Georgy_K_Zhukov's [answer on blocking detachments](_URL_2_), which also addresses several other matters along the way - namely, your question 2 and part of your question 3. The remainder of y... | [
"Mainly because the Soviets took control of Poland and there was very little the US could do without starting another war."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If entrance into gladiatorial games was free to citizens, how then was money made by gladiators and lenistas? | [
"Well during the republic era it was funded by two primary sources, the state or often an aedile. So fundamentally it was state funded, much like the free grain. Animals, gladiators, chariot races were all brought to the masses and paid for out of the state's or aedile's coffers. Following the fall of the Empire th... | [
"Corollary: did Romans have a 'golden age' of gladiatorial games, when the competitors were seen as the best and most entertaining, compared to other iterations in other periods?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How would Sherlock Holmes' drug use be understood by the audience of the time? | [
"What drugs were popular in 19th century Britain?"
] | [
"To be a little less specific, what did people think the future in general would be like before the Industrial Revolution?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How and when did we start using the term 'Fuck You'? | [
"Steven Pinker suggests it's derived from \"(God) damn you\", and morphed to \"Fuck you\" along with many other phrases when increased secularization made religious swearing lose its punch. As an English phrase, it's nongrammatical and as such not wishing someone anything. source: Stuff of thought / or _URL_0_"
] | [
"No, that's why it's called American Sign Language."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Is there any merit to the theory, presented on QI, that the 'teacup' is partly responsible for the limits of Chinese technological advancement? | [
"It is worth noting that the form of the teacup on the image is a European style, based (possibly) on Chinese hot wine pourers. As you may guess from that sentence, the Chinese certainly had wine. The images, are also Japanese, not Chinese. To be honest, I'm not entirely certain how to respond to this besides sayin... | [
"If that were the case they would have likely become the dominant form of colver, since that's kind of how evolution works."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
How did Vikings and Lapps deal with gnats and mosquitos? | [
"This doesn't address Scandinavia specifically, but you might be interested in [this earlier answer](_URL_0_) about the *ubiquity* of little itchy things in medieval Europe and how people just had to deal."
] | [
"Yes, it teaches you to stay the hell away from mosquitoes, the single deadliest animal on Earth for humans."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Graduating from undergrad soon. What papers should I download before I lose access? | [
"Might be worth checking the [books and resources list](_URL_0_) to see if there's any works recommended there that you can download. Some Universities also have an alumni access policy, where you can still access ebooks in the library or use their JSTOR subscription, so it might be worth doing a little research on... | [
"It is up to the college, and generally speaking they do expire over time. You couldn't drop out and expect to come back 20 years later to pick up exactly where you left off."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
In regards to the USA being the "saviours" in World War One. (x-post from ask history) | [
"The American forces and the transfer of forces from the Ottoman front provided needed reinforcements (although following Russia's exit from the War the Germans were able to similarly redeploy troops.) At that point in the war resources of all kinds were running dangerously low within Germany, as things like coffee... | [
"Think of it as a world court essentially. If a conflict were to arise between multiple countries inside or outside of national territories. This was to help aid in reducing the chances of another future world war. The main goal being disarmament after WWI _URL_1_ The above is more detailed. *Edit* Wikipedia has so... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
I live in 12th century Paris, what do I do with my garbage? | [
"You throw it out of your window onto the street, where it is collected by men and brought to waste mounts outside the city gates. There also was a sewage system which led to the river Seine, the same river from which people got their drinkwater by the way. Either way, it was a mess. People did realise that waste, ... | [
"How can you look out your window and still see the interior of your house?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
What would the frontier experience be like for women in the first wave of American settlement in Colorado? | [
"I'd suggest a couple of first-person accounts. All should be available from used book sources online: * **Emily The Diary of a Hard-Worked Woman** , by Emily French. It's from 1890, a bit later than the \"first wave\" of Colorado settlement, but shows just how terrible conditions could be for a divorced woman in t... | [
"To be a little less specific, what did people think the future in general would be like before the Industrial Revolution?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Monday Methods: "So, I heard you'd like to go to Grad School..." Grad School Admissions part 1: Should I go to Grad School and under what conditions? | [
"Did anyone have any experience with applying to either an MA or PhD program without any (or any good) faculty recommendations? Unfortunately the history portion of my degree seemed to churn out different professors year-on-year so I'm not sure, if I were to apply to grad school, if I have any obvious professors I ... | [
"Question 1: Am I a celebrity? * Yes: Move onto question 2 * No: Who gives a shit about you? Question 2: Do I like to look terrific in photographs? * Yes: Move onto question 3 * No: Use your iPhone for nude selfies Question 3: Do I mind being raped? * Yes: Call Annie Leibovitz * No: Terry's your man!"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Who had the first home internet connection? | [
"I'm not sure who the individual was, but \"In 1989, first ISPs were established in Australia,and the United States. In Brookline, Massachusetts-based The World became the first commercial ISP in the US. Its first customer was served in November 1989\" Source: _URL_0_"
] | [
"What if you want a printed version of what was said?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Wednesday What's New in History | March 29, 2017 | [
"I am going to forgo my typical post full of links this week as I am attending the annual Society for American Archaeology conference. I will make a mega post next week. If you can't wait until then, please check out /r/archaeology. It's where I get all the links from anyway."
] | [
"It's a bit unclear what you're interested in. (Early US education? Mann? Cremin's perspective?) But here are some resources that may help: > Binder, Frederick M. The Age of the Common School: 1830-1865. New York: Wiley, 1974. > > Glenn, Jr., Charles Leslie. The Myth of the Common School. Amherst: University of M... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
How come in North American colonial political cartoons there is almost always a dog present somewhere in the artwork? | [
"Could you provide an example of what you are referring to? I don't think I've ever noticed dogs in early American political cartoons, but I do know that dogs both domesticated and semi-feral, were common fixtures of both urban and rural life in the 18th century. Dogs in art could imply both servility or loyalty, ... | [
"IIRC, the Donkey was due to Andrew Jackson being called a jackass during the campaigning. He took it in stride and started using it as a symbol. It stuck ever since. As for the elephant, there was a drawing done at some point in history. It was of the donkey in disguise (I believe a wolf clothing?) scaring zoo ani... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Why doesn't Kuribayashi get the same treatment in the historical community as Rommel? | [
"I think if we're looking for a Japanese version of Rommel then it has to go out to Tomoyuku Yamshita also known as \"The Tiger of Malay.\" He executed a masterful campaign reaching down the Malay peninsula towards Singapore and then inflicted Britain's greatest defeat arguably in history while being outnumbered al... | [
"I believe that may just be a result of his military service. The same thing happened to Solid Snake."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
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"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
I found a very positive account of Hitler's health reforms. Is it accurate or nonsense? | [
"In his book, \"The Nazi War on Cancer\" (Princeton University Press, 2000), Robert Proctor demonstrates that physicians and medical researchers in the Third Reich were at the vanguard of cancer research. He also suggests that researchers in Nazi Germany were the first to draw a correlation between tobacco and lung... | [
"As a Brit, I've certainly not come across the idea that it was accidental. Quite the opposite. Where is that interpretation taught?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Have the petroglyphs found on the Keweenaw peninsula of Michigan been proven to be legitimate? (Carved thousands of years ago?) | [
"I have friends in the UP from L'Anse and have gone up there fairly often. I hadn't heard about the petroglyphs. Can you provide details or a link ad hopefully pictures? I'll ask for you."
] | [
"There was a game called chunkey. It involved rolling a round stone on the ground while participants either shot arrows at it or threw spears. I used to be an archaeologist, and found one on a site that dated to around 1000 ad. This particular stone had a circle engraved in it that was about 2 inches in diameter. T... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
The Second part of Massachusetts. | [
"Vermont was part of New York; it declared independence from the state in 1777, while the Revolutionary War was going on, because NY's governor refused to acknowledge some land claims there. _URL_1_ No idea how Massachusetts ended up with two non-connected sections, but Maine was made a separate state in 1820 as pa... | [
"There was E in my ele. middle school career. Michigan."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
Why do Presitents have dogs? What about cats or birds or lizards or fish? | [
"Believe it or not, there is [a Presidential Pet Museum](_URL_0_). Presidents have had dogs, cats, horses, birds, fish, cows, goats, a turkey, roosters, opossums -- even alligators. Now, I'm cheating a bit. The Presidential Pet Museum's exhaustive list includes animals kept by presidents at all times of their liv... | [
"The *real* question is, why do we think puppies and kittens are *way* cuter than babies?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
I'm an ancient Greek looking to hire mercenaries. Where do I go, and how much does it cost? | [
"Related question: What if I want to become a mercenary? What do I do?"
] | [
"Do you have any more info that could be helpful? Where did you find it? Is it a family heirloom, and if so, where-ish do you think your ancestors were 100ish years ago? Anything that could help steer people in the right direction would be great."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
While I know America wasn't really "founded on the Ten Commandments," what were our laws based on? | [
"It was based on English [common law](_URL_0_), the substantive customary law of England imported by the colonists. (Note that this is different from “common law method”.)"
] | [
"Because many of the settlers that landed in what is now the USA were puritans and other forms of Christian. And while there were Jews, Muslims, Atheists, etc the overwhelming majority were Christian. Not to mention many of the laws in the USA being based around (what many feel are) Christian religious values, such... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Thursday Reading & Research | April 26, 2018 | [
"I’ve had the idea that India today, as a democratic nation, is somewhere at the point the U.S was in the guilded age. I see a few common themes — the corruption, the industrial urban landscape, and the rise of a middle class. Is there any substance to this comparison?"
] | [
"It's a bit unclear what you're interested in. (Early US education? Mann? Cremin's perspective?) But here are some resources that may help: > Binder, Frederick M. The Age of the Common School: 1830-1865. New York: Wiley, 1974. > > Glenn, Jr., Charles Leslie. The Myth of the Common School. Amherst: University of M... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Literature:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Literature:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Soviet pilots in the Korean War | [
"The Soviet pilots were not to overfly any enemy territory, so none were captured, -- look up the location of \"Mig Alley\". Also, I read this from certain Chinese source: some of the Soviet pilots were given Chinese or Korean IDs, and they all had to leave any items that can link them to Soviet Union back at home... | [
"Catherine Merridales Ivans War. It describes the experiences of ordinary soldiers of the red army in the second world war."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Korean war:. American bomber defected? | [
"None of [the publicly-listed losses for VMF-214](_URL_1_) seem to fit. It might be worth combing through the unit's [Historical Diary](_URL_0_) to see if there's any reference to this event. If the aircraft was from another squadron, then pinpointing the event becomes much more difficult, given the hundreds of air... | [
"Plane shot down in Ukraine, Israel began ground invasion of Gaza, etc"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Textbook suggestions for undergraduates | [
"This one covers a lot of ground that you are looking for: witchcraft and persecution in context of early modern economy, politics, social relations, gender and cultural studies...in Northern Europe. And it's engagingly written by a good historian, the book is now a landmark reference. It offers a lot of stories wh... | [
"There is also a Bachelor of Science. Most B.A. programs involve a language requirement, while B.S. programs *can* include higher maths than the usual College Algebra."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Whats the best place to learn the general history of the world for free? | [
"Wikipedia is a surprisingly good start to read more about history. I say this with the acknowledgement that Wikipedia is also simultaneously suspect in many ways, but if you go into reading Wikipedia with that knowledge, you'll actually be well primed to understand the mentality you should be in to criticize sourc... | [
"Just asked this in the other sticky, but maybe this is the better place for it: Does anyone have any good book recommendations about the Nigerian Civil War or about Biafra as a country?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the passage about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the passage about Literature:"
} |
Tell me about slavery that isn't "chattel" slavery | [
"Chattel slavery describes a situation where the slave is legally classified as the personal property of the master, and there is a legal economy built around the sale and purchase of people as property. This is distinct from other forms of legally sanctioned servitude in practice around the world in the 19th centu... | [
"Black history month is publicized more than any other \"months\", because the history of: slavery, mistreatment, suffrage, inequality, discrimination, poverty, challenges ..of black people."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What was flying like in 1960s America for African-Americans? | [
"To piggyback on this question, I know there was a booklet that helped African Americans on road trips, were there any suggestions in that booklet about air travel?"
] | [
"What drugs were popular in 19th century Britain?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Wednesday What's New in History | February 15, 2017 | [
"Hey hey hey, images ahoy!!! Metropolitan Museum of Art goes open access and has waived copyrights! Publishing books and articles just got WORLDS cheaper for art historians. _URL_25_"
] | [
"It's a bit unclear what you're interested in. (Early US education? Mann? Cremin's perspective?) But here are some resources that may help: > Binder, Frederick M. The Age of the Common School: 1830-1865. New York: Wiley, 1974. > > Glenn, Jr., Charles Leslie. The Myth of the Common School. Amherst: University of M... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Native Americans and Old Faithful | [
"There are some. [This](_URL_0_) article discusses some of the native mythology, and the white mythology about the native mythology. Evidently there was a long held perception that the natives lived in fear of the various geothermal features. This is, according to Whittlesey, complete bunk. When considering this qu... | [
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
What (if any) historical evidence (I'm talking about the discovery of bones/fossils by ancient people) is there for the existence of the Nephilim? | [
"Absolutely zero truth to it. No reputable archaeologist has ever announced or defended the identification of giant human bones. That aside, our body plan does not lend itself to giantism. Back and foot problems plague tall people. The tallest man on record, Robert Wadlow, was 8 foot 11 inches and he died of an in... | [
"Some scholars think that there actually are references to dinosaurs and so on in the Bible. There are lots of stories about giant monsters and so on, and a lot of experts think that they were trying to work in an explanation for fossils that they'd found. It's very common for ancient peoples to find fossils and ex... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
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