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Were 'spiritual experiences' in past times possibly due to the unwitting ingestion of psychoactive substances, like wild magic mushrooms?
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[
"There is an entire book about this very subject called \"Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom\" by Andy Letcher. I highly recommend. His ultimate thesis is that except for southern North America and Siberia, where there is definite evidence that magic mushrooms were part of religion, there is no convincing evidence that any religion was influenced in this way. He even dedicates large sections of the book to examining and debunking specific claims to the contrary, for example the \"[bee-man](_URL_0_)\" cave painting, which is commonly argued to be about mushrooms, but Letcher argues is not. On a side note, it's a pleasure to read; without question the most eloquent book I've ever read."
] |
[
"There's some thought that the Delphic Oracles were sitting right on top of a fault line which was releasing gasses that made the priestesses stoned for lack of a better word. You can read more about that here: _URL_0_ But that's a very specific case. There are many other types of trances. Many are related to music, dance and rhythm (whirling dervishes, etc). That type of trance is probably pretty similar to going to an EDM show these days. Others are straight-up hallucinogen induced like the shamanic use of ayahuasca in the Amazon or peyote in North America. Same goes for the use of soma in ancient Hindu trance states or copious marijuana use via chillums by some modern sadhus. Even more achieved through disciplined meditation, sometimes coupled with bodily denial. If you're sleep and food deprived + a trained meditator, your brain can do all sorts of kooky things."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
}
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How much would getting into a baseball game in the 30's cost?
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[
"Games were between $.75 and $1.00 during the depression. [Source](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Go and look up some prices on their site. While it's not impossible to get a $1 ticket, the majority of tickets are priced more reasonably. Baltimore, MD to Buffalo, NY in September is $60"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
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When did travel for leisure become popular?
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[
"not discouraging any responses here, but FYI there was a similar question a year ago, so you'll find some info here: [When did traveling for pleasure become popular?](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Because it has become a business. It's no longer to educate people, its to make money off of them."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Education:"
}
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Did FDR have something similar to a "cult of personality" during his presidency?
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[
"Franklin Roosevelt was extraordinarily popular, to the degree that some people who disliked his policies would still claim to respect him as a leader. Having portraits like that in one's home is not as uncommon as you might think though and occurred as recently as the 1960's with people hanging portraits in memory of JFK (and I myself am sitting under a poster with both FDR and Truman on it right now). The best demonstration of this popularity though was the public reaction to FDR's death. There are some very famous and moving photos of crowds broken down in tears during Roosevelt's funeral procession. The most famous is probably [this picture of Graham Jackson weeping](_URL_1_) as he plays [\"Goin' Home\"](_URL_0_) in Warm Springs right after FDR's death. Unlike the other leaders on your list, FDR's popularity was less a result of direct propagandizing by the state, though one shouldn't discount the influence of his Party."
] |
[
"How would you define \"winning\" a presidential debate?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
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Got heavily into WW2 warfare. About to finish Guderian's Panzer Leader. Is there a good counterpoint?
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[
"You have to be a bit careful regarding apologism with Hans von Luck as well, but his *Panzer Commander* is an interesting read as a counterpart to Guderian's work. He served all over Europe--Poland, France, North Africa, Russia, Italy, and back to France for Normandy and Falaise. It has more than a whiff of the \"Clean Wehrmacht\" about it, but it does offer an insight into another aspect of armored warfare in WWII."
] |
[
"Anything by John Keegan is, imo, the preeminent historian on this subject. Anyone of his books has serious insight. The best by far is the face of battle which covers three different campaigns in english history. amazon link: _URL_0_ those are by far his most popular books but definitely give him a look through"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the argument about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
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Have any History Channel shows ever found something of historical significance during filming?
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[
"I believe there was a piece on the post war escape of Nazis titled Odessa File: Rise of the fourth Reich, in which the documentary crew investigated and came across some strong evidence to support a historical conspiracy theory that Martin Bormann had escaped Berlin in 1945, fled to Paraguay, died and was buried there, and then had his remains moved back to Berlin (presumably to protect Stroessner's government from embarrassment). More specifically they found a grave identified as Bormann's by some Paraguayan documents where a body had been removed with some rather expensive archeological equipment the history channel was able to provide."
] |
[
"I know someone pretty well that was an expert on that show. It's television, and there's nothing very scientific about what they do there."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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"neg": "Represent the document:"
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Has anyone ever tried to figure out what the original language (if any) the Ancient Greeks had in mind when they coined the term "barbaros" to refer to non-Greek langauges sounding like "bar bar bar" to them?
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[
"Linguist here. *Barbaros* probably didn't refer to a particular people group. It has been reconstructed from the Proto-Indo-European root *barbar- \"echoic of unintelligible speech of foreigners (cf. Sanskrit barbara- \"stammering,\" also \"non-Aryan,\" Latin balbus \"stammering,\" Czech blblati \"to stammer\").\" Considering that *barbar- has derivatives in multiple branches of PIE, it's unlikely that it was a borrowing or that it was an independent development multiple times. That said, *barbaroi*, while technically meaning \"all those who aren't Greek,\" did refer to Medes and Persians quite frequently (incidentally without pejoration until after the Persian wars). I think a relatable example would be \"American\" referring to a citizen of the United States even though anyone on two continents is technically \"American,\" although perhaps the term \"American\" is more closely associated with the United States than *barbaroi* was with Persians."
] |
[
"I remember an earlier ELI5/Askreddit comment that said we get a couple of our swear words from Roman Empire-era \"barbarian\" languages. The only example I can remember is that the \"more refined\" latin word for a female's genitals was \"vagina\" but the Germanics called it a \"cunt\". Therefore it's a bad word because it was used by the filthy barbarians and not the refined Roman/Greek peoples."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Linguistics:"
}
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Were there ever any members of the British Royal Family with genetic disorders? If yes, how was this handled from a PR stance? Were they ever in a position of leadership?
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[
"Absolutely, the Bowes-Lyon family has a number of members with known issues. [Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon] (_URL_0_), first cousins to the Queen, were committed to asylums and then abandoned by the Royals, with Nerissa dying in obscurity, buried in a paupers grave. Only outcry from the public following a TV documentary and newspaper stories forced the Windsors to pay for a decent gravestone. A number of other family members were incarcerated in the same hospital. Katherine Bowes-Lyon died in March of this year, I am unable to find out if the funeral was attended or a gravestone paid for by any of the Windsors."
] |
[
"In most countries with royalty, they have a solely ceremonial role. o the people in those countries aren't particularly worried about a king/queen having too much power. But having a king/queen can be a part of the cultural identity / heritage of a country, which can make people want to keep that identity. Additionally, there can be something comforting about having the same king/queen for a long time. Especially when they are not a part of the government. It is a bit hard to explain, but that is how I feel about it, as someone from a country with a royal family."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
}
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Marco Polo describes Guangzhou like a Utopia, where every citizen was cared for so even the poorest person had a house and food, and couples were even borrowed a castle for their wedding party, among many other things, how much of this can we believe?
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[
"Just a quick add-on question to this as I've been to Guangzhou a few times and found this interesting: if there IS some level of truth to the original question, could the responder perhaps discuss a few (or THE few) major shifts (ancient or contemporary) that caused it to change into more of what it appears to be today (which doesn't seem super utopian to me, personally, but perhaps I'm mistaken). Thanks!"
] |
[
"There are no communist countries. There are countries whose leaders espouse communist ideas as they interpret them. So China has many billionaires, wage disparity, and anything else their leaders choose. Membership in the party is open to all and seniority counts. Corruption has been a way of life in China for a long time. Marco Polo was hired by the emperor because he was intelligent and had no relatives to favor."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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What are some good documentaries for a history student?
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[
"[_La palabra en el bosque_](_URL_0_) (The Word in the Woods) is an excellent and recent documentary on peasant mobilization in the Morazan region of El Salvador and the subsequent (and incredibly violent) reprisals by the army in the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in bloody civil war. The documentary is essentially interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses of the conflict, and it's a good example of the struggle between indigenous life and the state in 20th century Latin America."
] |
[
"What are some of the primary sources that you have found? This sounds interesting. Would you recommend any books for a fun read?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
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When did people become conscious of time zones (different times depending on longitude)?
|
[
"People knew this in classical antiquity. It isn’t difficult to figure out if you know the Earth is spherical (as the ancients did) and that the sun moves in a particular direction across the sky. No fancy clocks needed. I dropped in a longer answer to this when it came up yesterday. I’m on mobile so I’ll just link to that: _URL_0_"
] |
[
"Because the earth is round, countries on one side will be in darkness when the other is light. It doesn't make sense to say that the time is the same everywhere as 10 AM might then be the middle of the night in one place, and early morning somewhere else. Instead, the world is divided up vertically (mostly, the lines aren't perfectly straight to avoid splitting countries in half where possible) into time zones, that are at increments of 1 hour. GMT is Greenwich Mean Time, the time zone that includes the UK (Where Greenwich is), which is used as the centre. You're in GMT+2 , so you're 2 hours forward from the UK. Central Time (CST) is a time zone used through a lot of the US and Canada, it's GMT-6, so you can work out CST by taking away 8 hours from the time where you are."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
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When was The Restoration of 1660 first referenced as such?
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[
"Printed literature as early as 1660, the same year Charles II was restored to the throne, use the term Restoration with a capital R to refer to the restored Stuart dynasty. Within my database of notes on polemical texts printed in the year 1660, the word seems to have been used most frequently in a providential context, or to imply that after years of chaos and disorder, divine intervention had restored the King, and God therefore deserved the people's gratitude."
] |
[
"According to my edition of \"On Liberty\" it is William Nathaniel Massey. He was MP for Salford and Undersecretary of State for the Home Department. The source for the speech is The Times of 14 November 1857."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
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Please help me remember quote and its origin.
|
[
"Probably a line often attributed to Cardinal Richelieu. As quoted in [The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations](_URL_0_) (1896) by Jehiel Hoyt, under \"DISCERNMENT\" (EDIT: p763, the book's organization is a little confusing): > Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre. which Hoyt translates as > If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. He doesn't provide a source, though, and I believe this attribution is disputed."
] |
[
"I need somebody to ELI5 that question for me."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
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The Game of Thrones TV series features a Lord correcting a lowborn who says, "My Lord," instead of saying, "Milord." "Milord" is for lowborn to Lord, whereas "My Lord" is Lord to Lord. Was there an actual distinction in real history? What other phrases are meant for only upperclass individuals?
|
[
"First of all, minor spoilers for season 2! I assume you're referring to Lord Tywin speaking with Arya Stark. When he tells her that she should be saying 'milord' rather than 'my lord' it's because he realises that she is a highborn girl who is pretending to be a commoner. Pretty much he's telling her that if she wants people to believe she is an uneducated common girl then she should speak like one. Nothing to do with a correct way to address a Lord, just that she should hide her posh accent better."
] |
[
"It's a term of respect. For the car salesman to refer to a customer who is a complete stranger as \"Bob\" or whatever would be rude and possibly drive away a customer. \"Mr\" evolved from \"master\" (being one rank below knighthood back in old England), while \"Mrs\" and \"Miss\" derived from \"mistress\". Obviously the literal meaning no longer applies (though you see it being used in terms like \"Mr President\") but the use of it as a respectful form of address still does."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
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Saturday Reading and Research | July 30, 2016
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[
"I'm about to make more good/bad choices due to my lack of self control surrounding pretty, pretty books. Has anyone read Bowes' [*Land Too Good for Indians: Northern Indian Removal*](_URL_6_)? The book just came out earlier this year and is an area I'm woefully ignorant about. The other is Fenn's [*Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People*](_URL_4_). I loved her [*Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82*](_URL_5_), and this new one has been very, very well-received so I have high hopes. Anyone read *Encounters* yet? On the other end of the spectrum I tried to read *The Devil in the White City* by Larsen after several friends recommended the book, but couldn't make any progress. I don't know if it was the pop history style, but I haven't felt so \"meh\" about a book in a long while."
] |
[
"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 Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
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1st Year research paper -- I am a bit stuck on what to do next...
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[
"I recommend that you ask whether the classic Viking funeral with the burning boat ever occurred. There is plenty of archaeological evidence consisting of gravesites surrounded by stones arranged in the shape of a boat, and there are a few buried vessels used as graves, so the archaeology is good for this sort of grave-reference to ships. The archaeology of a boat burnt off shore is not likely to exist, so one must rely on primary sources. So where did this idea come from? How common was it? And more importantly, how did it evolve over time? There are also cenotaphs, which is a nice topic, and it gives you an opportunity to use a word that rarely enters into everyday conversation. Good luck."
] |
[
"I would jump in (I did my college final on this subject) but I don't want to do your homework either. To give us some help to see where you are in your research... what do you have, both pro and con as to why the DominoTheory was valid? What do you think?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
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Thursday Reading & Recommendations | January 24, 2019
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[
"Where would I go for material on the medieval monarchy in France? Ideally from the emergence of the Capetians to sometime in the Early Modern Era."
] |
[
"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 Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A Caro 9. A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan 10. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn 11. 1491/1493 Charles C Mann Sorry, couldn't keep it to 6."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Literature:",
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Saturday Reading and Research | September 19, 2015
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[
"Book Request: Looking for reading on the settlement of Alaska and/or the Canadian far west. Subjects could include exploration, gold rush, economic development, interactions with indigenous populations, etc. All suggestions, general or specific, appreciated!"
] |
[
"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 Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post about Literature:",
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Why Did the English Kidnap Native Americans and Send Them To Europe During the 17th Century Phase of Exploration?
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[
"Yes, Native Americans were frequently abducted and enslaved, from Columbus's first voyage to the nineteenth century, from the far reaches of Patagonia to the St Lawrence River. Native American slavery was pervasive. You might like [this previous answer](_URL_0_) on captives, and the Native American slave trade. Also, check out Andrés Reséndez [*The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America*](_URL_1_) for more information on the massive scale of the slave trade throughout the Americas after contact."
] |
[
"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 Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A Caro 9. A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan 10. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn 11. 1491/1493 Charles C Mann Sorry, couldn't keep it to 6."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
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Required Reading on Rome (Kingdom, Republic, Empire)
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[
"You should check out the reading in the side bar, which can be found here: _URL_0_ Though honestly for a general overview of Rome from start to finish, Mary Beard's \"SPQR\" is fantastic. It's aimed at the general public rather than history students, which has its pros and cons. It's not free, but it's worth every penny. If you're happy to spend a bit more money to get 3 books instead of one, all of which are aimed at new students of history, good introductions are Michael Crawford's \"The Roman Republic\", Collin Wells' \"The Roman Empire\", and Averil Cameron's \"The Later Roman Empire\". They are part of the same series that give an overview of the Roman Empire."
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
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How did Halifax become the early banking centre in Canada?
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[
"Great question - we almost never get anything on Maritimes history! You'd probably be very interested in James' D. Frost's [article](_URL_0_) in the 1982 edition of *Acadiensis* - the regional history journal for Atlantic Canada. In this article, Frost describes how the Bank of Nova Scotia grew to be the largest and most influential bank in the region between 1880 and 1920. Essentially, the bank earned its early capital through lending to nascent regional industries - then, by the early 1900s, began opening branches elsewhere in Canada and the United States. Frost goes on to describe how the bank did eventually consolidate operations in Montreal - and drove a large-scale exodus of funds from the Maritimes towards other areas of the country. While I don't have time ATM for a more substantial answer, this issue related directly to my own research and so I'd be more than happy to discuss it further if you require any clarifications or have further questions!"
] |
[
"Basically because people used to name cities after other cities, like how a lot of cities in the New England area are named after cities in England. The first Springfield in the US was Springfield, Massachusetts, itself named after Springfield, Essex. During the Industrial revolution, Springfield, MA became somewhat of a big deal, and other cities took its name."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
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What was the first mind-altering drug outlawed for recreational use?
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[
"If you're talking about recent history, it would probably have to be the [1875 Anti-Opium Den Ordinance in San Francisco](_URL_2_). This was not a direct ban on opium, it was more of a piece of discriminatory legislation against the influx of Chinese immigrant workers. As far as direct ban on drugs, the first (at least in the US) was the [Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906] (_URL_1_) and the [Harrison Act of 1914](_URL_0_). This required producers of opium and cocaine to label their products accordingly. However, it quickly became an effective ban on opiates and cocaine."
] |
[
"I don't know exactly what drugs were used, but just because a drug is banned from use in sports does not mean it is also illegal to use outside of sports."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
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What happened to older Japanese architecture from right before World War 2?
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[
"It really depends on what types of buildings you're looking for, and which city you're in. Many cities got burned, sure, but many places were either not very strategically important or specifically spared (Kyoto comes to mind). Traditional buildings like bathhouses and hot spring installations are largely intact (though many were built after WW2 for tourists), but only a handful of castles still exists from before WW2 (most we see today are rebuilt). The reason for this is because centralization efforts during the Meiji Restoration required castles to be torn down in order to prevent regionalism that was rampant during the Edo period and feudal Japan, and the rest suffered from the war and natural disasters. If we're talking about normal everyday buildings, then it's mostly modernization - tearing down old buildings to make way for high-rises and the like - a natural process that happens the world over."
] |
[
"Could the rebuilding of Japan after WWII be considered a partial colonization by the United States?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
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Why was "fart" used so much more a few hundred years ago in books?
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[
"Ah, Ngram--or rather, the OCR on which it is based--has deceived you. Google's software for reading digitized older texts isn't perfect, thanks to different typefaces, page layouts, and other factors. I ran a Google Books search for \"fart\" and narrowed the date range to 1650-1700. While there are some genuine results, a large proportion of them appear to be a misread of \"part\", including in abbreviation (and in Latin, which probably helps explain the concentration in the 17th century as opposed to the 18th). It's too bad. \"The covetous fart of sacrilege\" is a much better turn of phrase than \"the covetous part of sacrilege.\""
] |
[
"I'm new to this, are we allowed to discuss the intent or narrative of the author and the context in which this was written even if it's within the last 20 years?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
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Were there ever "Sword Control" Laws
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[
"hi! there's lots of room for more input to cover more cultures, but meanwhile, there are a couple of posts asking about \"sword control\" in this section of the FAQ* [Gun (and other weapons) control](_URL_0_) *see the link on the sidebar or the wiki tab"
] |
[
"Follow-up question : Were there Senators in exile?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
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Where did the geometrical shape of the heart come from, and when was it correlated to the organ?
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[
"_URL_0_ Answered here: In summary - the heart shape became associated with male-female sexual relationships in antiquity because it is the shape of the seed of the now extinct silphium plant which was a widely used contraceptive. It was thereby transferred to the bodily organ because of ancient beliefs that the heart was the seat of emotions and reason, including romantic love."
] |
[
"The symbols are for Mars and Venus respectively. Mars was the Roman god of war. Venus was the Roman goddess of love, sex, and beauty. The symbols also appear in alchemy as iron and copper. Due to the origin of the symbols, I'm going to assume their first use was in ancient Rome."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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Why are words that start with the letter "W" linked to many supernatural things/people? (wizard, witch, warlock, wicca, werewolf, wicked)
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[
"Hasty generalization - the etymology of the different words are not related; for example *witch* derives from the Old English *wicca* and *wicce* (male or female sorcerer, respectively), while *wizard* derives from the Middle English *wys* (wise, sage), and *werewolf* from the Middle English *wer* (man). There's no common root, the fact that they all start with a \"W\" in contemporary English is coincidence: they could have just as easily started with \"v\" (as in the Swedish *varulf*), or gone off of Latin or Greek roots (as, for example, *magician*)."
] |
[
"Which \"magicians\" are you referring to? The court-magicians of the Pharaoh in Exodus (Exod 7.22)? The witch of Endor (1 Sam 28)? The \"magi\" in Luke's nativity? Or are you wondering more generally about historical practitioners of magic (inc. wonder-workers, exorcists, healers, etc.) during the Biblical period?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
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Beginner's books/guides to the England, in the Saxon era.
|
[
"For an overview of the Anglo-Saxon period, I would personally recommend you start with R. Fleming's *Britain after Rome*. It makes good use of new archaeological material (which jas radically transformed our understanding of the period in the past few decades), is inexpensive if you don't have access to an academic library, and is written for a non-specialist audience. Are there any specific topics you'd like to read about, beyond a general overview of the period?"
] |
[
"British Empire -- > Post-WW2 / Cold War America -- > British and American pop culture -- > Silicon Valley."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
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Did the Romans believe in fortune telling (horoscope and such) as shown in the miniseries 'I, Claudius'.
|
[
"Oh, I have an answer! But it makes me sound nicely creepy. :) I've actually got an entire book related to this called \"Greek and Roman Necromancy\", by Daniel Ogden. The term \"Necromancy\" in this case means telling the future through communication with the dead, which would be accomplished through things like looking at entrails, sleeping on tombs, etc. All that would indicate a belief in some form of predestination. But there's also another book, \"Curse a Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World\". Those were usually tablets called defixiones inscribed and thrown into wells or placed in cemeteries, which might indicate some flexibility in predestination- an ability to bargain with fate. So in answer, people's beliefs were probably complex and fell accross a spectrum, with some feeling strongly about the immutability of the future and others not so much."
] |
[
"Which \"magicians\" are you referring to? The court-magicians of the Pharaoh in Exodus (Exod 7.22)? The witch of Endor (1 Sam 28)? The \"magi\" in Luke's nativity? Or are you wondering more generally about historical practitioners of magic (inc. wonder-workers, exorcists, healers, etc.) during the Biblical period?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
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What year is the Vatican map of the New World from?
|
[
"I knew I recognized that map. It's Diogo Ribeiro's third world map from 1529. Ribeiro made the maps (not this one, different maps) that were used on Magellan's voyage around the world. Ribeiro's background is somewhat obscure, he initially worked as a pilot for Portugal sailing on the Indian trade routes before switching his loyalties to Castille in sometime before 1518. He was later very involved in treaty negotiations in 1524 between Castille and Portugal over the location of the Moluccas, spice islands that were worth quite a lot of money. These maps were a significant part of the negotiations over the Treaty of Saragossa, which was ratified in 1529. Unfortunately, that's about all I know about that, early modern treaties are really not my specialty. There's an interesting chapter on the negotiations in Jerry Brotton's *A History of the World in 12 Maps* as well as a detailed facsimile of that map."
] |
[
"I would assume this is all talking about the 19th century; is this a typo?"
] |
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What do historians think of John Geen's Crash Course History?
|
[
"Always room for more discussion, but there is [a section of the FAQ](_URL_0_) devoted to this very question. The only episode I have seen that I am qualified to comment on is the \"Neolithic Revolution\" episode. It is far from perfect, but it certainly isn't too far from the consensus in the field at the moment. It is pretty much on par with what you can expect from a well-written textbook on the subject, which is to be expected given the huge breadth of topics covered by the series."
] |
[
"British Empire -- > Post-WW2 / Cold War America -- > British and American pop culture -- > Silicon Valley."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
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Is John Green's Crash Course History a good series for people who are new to learning about history?
|
[
"Hi there! Working lecturer in history here who always teaches Freshman level courses, so I can give you some professional perspective. The videos are a great introduction to not just topics but also *some* of the subtleties, nuance, and questions historians look at and consider when tackling periods, people, or subjects like slavery, suffrage, class or ideological struggles, and more. I use them as supplemental videos in all my classes as they are fun, short, and (most importantly) entertaining. So, if you like them, definitely watch them all but don't stop there. If you find a subject or area that strikes your fancy, investigate it further but be like John is; discerning in the sources you use. Unlike what the US president elect's transition team would have you think there ARE such things as facts, expertise matters, and there really is a difference in the value of sources. Enjoy and keep on History-ing ☺"
] |
[
"Britain is famous to Americans because America was founded by former British subjects. American schools tend to only really teach history that is relevant to America, even world history. Our founding fathers based a lot of their principles on Greek and Roman principles, so we learn about ancient Greece and Rome more so than, say, ancient China or India. Same applies to Britain- most people in the United States were British when it was founded, so we focus on learning more about Britain than other European countries. This is how it was when I was in primary and secondary school. My wife is a social studies teacher and says it's changing to include a more balanced curriculum, which is awesome. Go watch Crash Course World History on YouTube if you really want a brief history of everything. Shout out to John and Hank Green!"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
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Re: the IS video, did the early followers of the Prophet, in fact, destroy relics and statues?
|
[
"What is the black meteorite stone imbedded in the Kaaba?"
] |
[
"Here is the thing: this 'no depicting prophets' appeared recently with the nutjob known as al qaeida and the wahhabism( extrem hardcore islamist lvl 20) and recently with isis - daesh. What is forbidden in Islam is the idolatry, by having a picture of a prophet, people will tend over time to pray him instead of God. During and after the prophet Muhammed's pbuh life, people could depicting him and other prophets. **edit:\"While depicting the Prophet people usually show him with [a veiled face and a halo around him](_URL_0_)\"** You can compare that to the burning of the Coran, some muslims will go apeshit but they forgot that the only allowed way to destroy a Coran is by fire... Hope that will anwser your question and sorry for my english."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
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If you broke a bone in Ancient Rome, how fucked were you?
|
[
"_URL_0_ I imagine there'll be a large amount of relevance."
] |
[
"Your sternum cracks?! Get that looked at! Either your chest is pretty fucked, or you've confused your sternum with a different part of your body."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
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"neg": "Represent the document about Health and anatomy:"
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In early civilizations, like ancient Greece, Rome, or Egypt, did they have ways to treat a person who developed -what we call today- Type 1 Diabetes (the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin)?
|
[
"I'm super interested in your question, and hope someone chimes in with a thorough answer. Meanwhile, I found a couple of previous questions that are related and seem to imply the prognosis was not great: answer by /u/bettinafairchild : _URL_1_ brief answer by /u/intangible-tangerine _URL_0_ edit: tagged users per modbot request"
] |
[
"Diabetes is a disease caused by having too much glucose (a type of sugar) in your blood, which can be toxic. Glucose is essential in certain amounts in your blood as an energy source for your cells. To maintain the right blood sugar levels, your pancreas produces 2 hormones called insulin and glucagon. Insulin makes sure your blood sugar doesn't get too high by having your liver soak it up out of your blood & glucagon has the opposite effect. There are 2 main types of Diabetes: Type 1 & Type 2 (sometimes called adult onset diabetes). Type 1 is caused by your pancreas being unable to produce insulin & is treated using an insulin pump or insulin injections. Type 2 is the one that can be caused by obesity & is caused by your body not responding to the insulin it is producing, so it doesn't take the glucose out of your blood. This is called insulin resistance."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
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Why did Chinese people sleep on porcelain pillows in the past? Wouldn't it have been awfully uncomfortable and bad for the neck?
|
[
"In the same vein as OP'S question, I recall reading a book that stated Egyptians slept on beds of stone, I'd dismissed the idea as pseudo-history (due to the source). What does history tell us about hard beds and pillows long long ago?"
] |
[
"My mom and dad fell asleep in a hot tub on their honeymoon. They said it felt like someone took a baseball batt to each bone and joint. And they both looked like human sized raisins. I'm assuming this is the case because when your skin is exposed to water, it absorbs it. Also, hot water relaxes you, so if your bones are relaxed a lot for a long period of time, they will likely stiffen when they're no longer relaxed. As far as advantages go , I guess you could say it feels good to have your bones relaxed that much, but be achey for the next few days. Disadvantages? Other than the obvious possibility of drowning, exposure to that much water can't be too healthy."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
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Help please, I'm looking for books on how the discovery of Americas affected Europe.
|
[
"The \"Columbian Exchange\" section of our [Books and Resources list](_URL_0_) may be a good place to start."
] |
[
"Educated guess that Worldwide colonization by uk caused many parts of the world to speak the language."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Education:",
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Tuesday Trivia | Ominous Omens
|
[
"I don't have the exact quote me, but Restif de la Bretonne wrote a book called Les Nuits de Paris. It's a sort of novel/memoir written as a journal of the Revolution a few years after some of the events, but based mostly on his own experiences. At one point he imagines himself watching the people who will live 200 years later, as they're studying history. Discussing the Revolution, some blamed it for lacking in humanity, while the extremists approved of the methods used. They talked about how lucky they were to be born in a time when human life was thought to have value. Restif learns that Europe has taken a new government now, but that the continent has also been through frightening trials. The book was written in 1793, and the European Union was founded in 1993."
] |
[
"Sleep - Shake Unconscious - Splash Coma - Wait and Hope Vegetative State - Wait and Bury"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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Did the Allies have a plan in the event of a failure on D-Day? If so, what was it?
|
[
"I don't know of any specific tactical planning regarding a rescue & retreat operation. However there is this note from Eisenhower, written when he gave the order to launch the operation despite bad weather forecasts: _URL_0_ It says: > \"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duly could do. If any blame or fault is attached to the attempt it is mine alone.\""
] |
[
"A follow up question, how was General Pershing viewed by American generals during World War 2? Was he involved in raising war bonds or other positions away from the front lines or back at home? Thank you in advance!"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
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Saturday Reading and Research | January 06, 2018
|
[
"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."
] |
[
"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 Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Literature:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Literature:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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Why is the Appian Way named after Appius Claudius Caecus' praenomen: 'Appius'; and not his nomen 'Claudian' or cognomen?
|
[
"The answer you're looking for is actually, and perhaps surprisingly, mundane... ...by the time the Appian Way was being built, there was already a (much older) *via Claudia*. That's pretty much it."
] |
[
"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 grandson of Marcus Licinius Crassus whose father's name was Publius Licinius Crassus. You can see why they invented a shorthand way of designating which Publius we're talking about since people born 50 years apart would have the same name."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
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Saturday Reading and Research | October 21, 2017
|
[
"I've asked this before but I will again. Peter Hagendorf was a soldier in the Thirty Years' War who kept a famous diary of his service that seems very unique but I'm completely unable to find any English translation of it anywhere either online or in print. Do any Thirty Years' War experts know where I could find this?"
] |
[
"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 Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post about Literature:",
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Reactions to BBC mag piece "10 big myths about World War One debunked"
|
[
"Also [discussed]( _URL_0_) and carefully ripped to shreds on /r/wwi"
] |
[
"Because we get tired of the lack of empathy when we're honest about our feelings. We put on a mask that is a caricature of the world we hate Source: I'm the life of the party weekly, and contemplate suicide several times a year."
] |
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"query": "Represent the title:",
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How far back were people using arrow symbols as direction markers?
|
[
"hi! this question might attract more responses in an archaeology sub, but it has come up here before; get started on these previous responses [Has the arrow always been the universal symbol for direction?](_URL_3_) [When was the arrow invented? As in a line/shape to indicate direction, not the weapon.](_URL_4_)"
] |
[
"It has a few different meanings in different contexts. What setting are we talking about?"
] |
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
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Help with the numbers: British African troops in WW1
|
[
"Hi! Just to get some clarification: You are looking for the numbers of African soldiers who actually *fought* as opposed to the soldiers that were only used in logistical and auxiliary roles, am I correct in that?"
] |
[
"Follow up, if this warrant a new post please tell me: How did politicians and the general public react when they found out these companies were aiding Nazi forces in WW2?"
] |
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Might be a little vague question, but what happened with all the medieval weapons and armor?
|
[
"Not sure if this post falls within the rules of this sub or not, but here goes. There are many collections around the world that contain much more than just weapon fragments or damaged pieces. Some large museums even have some of their collections digitised, and I was lucky to get the links to some while hanging out here recently. [Wallace Collection] (_URL_4_) [Royal Armoury] (_URL_3_) I have also been lucky enough to visit the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver (nice collection of Katana and other types of Japanese edged weapons) and the Musée de l'armée Invalids in Paris, which has quite a few Medieval pieces. Sadly I don't believe much of either of those collections have been digitised. (The MOA in Van has [a few](_URL_4_), but none of the Japanese swords I saw there 6-8 years ago) I know that I was unable to answer your question, but I hope I showed you that some museums have much more than rusty daggers on display."
] |
[
"Not sure if this kind of comment is allowed, but in the i terest of starting discussion, whats the context of this? Perfume, wine, etc?"
] |
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Announcing the Best of September Winners
|
[
"> Finally, this month's Excellence in Finally-Flaired Flairdom goes to /u/lcnielsen! lcnielsen has been around AskHistorians for a very long time, contributing in small ways while secretly building up an incredible knowledge of Zoroastrianism and Persian history. With pretty glowy new flair, they have hurled themselves fully clothed into the deep end of participating in all sorts of ways, tearing it up with answers and helping build a strong community on the sides. We're so happy to have you around, lcnielsen! Awww, thanks! < 3 I don't think I have read any of this month's winning posts, so I'm looking forward to that!"
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title about Announcements:",
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How did people get to places like Hawaii, or Australia, or islands in general?
|
[
"The reference A is the top of Cape York in Australia. _URL_0_ Not only can you see the tops of Papua New Guinea from Cape York, but it wouldn't take a high technology people to make it across the gaps. From PNG you can get to Indonesia and from Indonesia to Asia continent."
] |
[
"You are basically correct. The global climate has changed many times, and parts of the Middle East used to be much more fertile than now. In addition, parts have moved around, and parts have come up that used to be underwater. Almost nothing was the same 100 million years ago."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
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Has a "secret society" ever held large influence over any government?
|
[
"The Knights Hospitalier owned at various time the islands of Rhodes and Malta, but I'm not sire they count as secret."
] |
[
"The Illuminati was originally a group of Enlightenment thinkers who met in secret because the Bavarian king and the Roman Catholic Church opposed them. They opposed superstition, prejudice, religious influence over public life, abuses of state power and supported women's education and gender equality. This original group was disbanded, and other groups have used the name since then. The big deal today is that some people think that there is still a secret group which has control over governments and economies (probably not true)."
] |
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Why is the Gallipoli campaign so pivotal to Australian and New Zealand history, when it was failed to achieve its objectives and cost so many ANZAC lives?
|
[
"Hi there -- while there's always more to be said about Gallipoli, [this AMA](_URL_0_) from u/MargaretHarris discusses the issues of historical memory that surround the campaign."
] |
[
"I answered this question about Australia in the First World War: [Was Australia ever under serious threat of invasion by the Central Powers?] (_URL_5_) With ANZAC Day yesterday, and in light of disparaging comments made against the men of Australia and New Zealand who fought in the world wars, it's important to note that in BOTH conflicts there were great issues at stake, and the Antipodes could not easily stay out of it!"
] |
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England, 1066. What other realistic outcomes were possible? Were there any plans of alliances or deals between the different forces? Was the result given from the start?
|
[
"This question is right on the boundary of what is normally allowed, but given the recent unpleasantness in other threads, I'm going to delete this and encourage you to resubmit it in such a manner that it is not in a grey area. The topic is fine, but asking \"What other realistic outcomes were possible\" is inherently speculative since it deals not with what *happened* but what *could have* happened. I hope you resubmit with a more focused question about, say, the political situation in England in 1066, and perhaps more specifically about the various factions vying for control of the country."
] |
[
"In context he is implying that the \"ancient fate of Asia\" is to fail at invading Europe. To my mind this brings a reference to the stopping of the Mongol expansion in the 13th century, which halted right before reaching German lands (for a variety of reasons unrelated to the Germans being good at fighting them, which they were not). But this is just speculation — it isn't clear to me whether he is referring to any specific event in particular."
] |
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Where does our connotations of good/bad with the directions right/left come from?
|
[
"Hi! There's lots of room for discussion here, but just FYI, there was a comment from /u/itsallfolklore that you may find interesting * [Why has \"left\" (the side, including being left handed) been seen as negative over history and across cultures? ](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Hold on. I started out thinking this was more or less arbitrary, but then I realized it fits in with a whole category of other words and phrases organized in a similar way. Often, when pairing two or more words, we will start with the one perceived as more positive. In must cultures, this is associated with the top half (probably because that's where our heads are. Hence, \"top and bottom\" \"from head to toes\", \"up and down\", and, yes, \"upside-down.\" You can extend this to a bunch of other cases that have nothing to do with geometric orientation: size (\"big and small\"), vitality (\"alive or dead\"), proximity (\"near and far\", \"comings and goings\"), and so forth. TL;DR: English has a \"positive before negative\" rule."
] |
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Monday Mysteries | [Verifiable] Historical Conspiracies
|
[
"How about a conspiracy... *inside* a conspiracy. Conspiracy-ception. According to Vasili Mitrokhim in his book *The Sword and the Shield* the KGB led conspiracy theories surrounding the Assassination of JFK. The one charge is that the KGB help fund a noted conspiracy author, Mark Lane to write conspiracy charges against the CIA. The goal was to discredit the United States government as a whole. The author, mark Lane, denies allegations that he was in works with the KGB or the Soviet Union. This then begs the question, is Mitrokhin starting another conspiracy on top of a conspiracy about a conspiracy? Or is the author just denying his involvement. Either way, it is interesting the ways the KGB acted during the Cold War, playing a long term game with discrediting the American government."
] |
[
"Side 1 - For Vaccines: -Science Side 2 - Against Vaccines: -Paranoid idiocy"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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What is the earliest philosophical text or oral history that we know of?
|
[
"There is a reasonable amount of surviving Sumerian literature older than 2300 BCE. In particular the Enheduanna hymns are generally considered to be older than 2700 BCE. These are religious and theological texts so I'm not sure if they meet your criteria. The Sumerian \"Instructions of Shuruppak\" is dated to around 2600 BCE, and is a collection of wisdom both practical (guidance on where to build roads) and moral (don't sleep with married women). There are Egyptian writings from around 2400 BCE (the Pyramid Texts). These are also religious texts, but have some historic elements."
] |
[
"A follow-up question for any historians of South-Asia: Was this colorism ever noted in Vedic/classican Indian sources? How old is this bias?"
] |
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A hundred years from now, how will we view the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring?
|
[
"It depends completely on the long-term consequences of both. If the Arab states collapse into corruption and internal conflict, and the Occupy movement fizzles into nothing, then we probably won't care too much (well, the Arab Spring will definitely make major history, but it might not be important if ultimately a new generation of dictators arise)."
] |
[
"What do you want to hear more about? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The Israel vs. Palestine situation? The Arab Spring? The recent attacks on US embassies?"
] |
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Saturday Reading and Research | June 25, 2016
|
[
"Picked up *Soldaten* from the library today; very interesting, absolutely horrifying. Based on the transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between German prisoners of war."
] |
[
"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 Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Literature:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage about Literature:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
}
|
If power is measured by political control, who was the most powerful person to ever live, based on control over the largest percentage of world population?
|
[
"Genghis Khan ruled over [100 million](_URL_0_) in the 1200s, which was 1/3rd to 1/4th of the global population [source](_URL_1_)"
] |
[
"The British Empire. It doesn't matter how many people live in the countries where they originated now. It matters how many people were forced or incentivised to learn the language some centuries ago, and the British Empire covered nearly a quarter of the world's population at its greatest extent."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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What would the average Chiuauan family in Mexico be doing in the years preceding the Mexican Revolution?
|
[
"Could you expand on this? What type of average family do you mean? Indian, middle class, agricultural elite?"
] |
[
"Are you considering the 18th century to be in conjunction with the great divergence?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
}
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I'm 24, I've had the common cold, strep throat, the flu, chickenpox, broken both arms on separate occasions at a young age and had pancreatitis. What would be the earliest time in history I could have lived with these medical issues and still be alive at my age?
|
[
"None of those conditions are inherently fatal, although under the right circumstances any of them, save the common cold, *could* kill you. There is no reason to believe that you couldn't have survived those conditions when humans were still roaming the African plains 150,000 years ago, as long as things went your way - i.e. not severe breaks, no especially bad strains of the flu, chickenpox at a young age, mild acute pancreatitis, etc. But maybe you're asking a different question?"
] |
[
"With treatment you could live your whole life with out getting AIDS but you still carry HIV. It's not really a given, but these days it's more common. At least ones life could be extended long enough for a cure to come out."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
|
Kentish miners and violence in the 1984-85 UK miners’ strike
|
[
"Just for clarification, are you looking for evidence that the miners themselves.were violent, that they faced violence from the State, or a combination of both? In terms of evidence, there is far more evidence to support the fact that miners were attacked by the police/that police agitated things to the point of violence occurring. Remember of course, that while some could argue that miners created violent situations, the police were typically armed, and in instances like Orgreave, the police were on horseback and went in with an agenda of physically defeating the miners."
] |
[
"Mainly by restricting their ability to strike. In 1980 \"sympathy strikes\" were made illegal, so a union could no longer call a strike in support of another union's dispute with another employer. From 1984 unions were required to hold a secret ballot of members before a strike could be called."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
}
|
Announcing the 'Best of June' Winners!
|
[
"Fantastic threads all around and congrats to our glorious winners!"
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post about Announcements:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Announcements:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
}
|
Dinosaur carving on wall inside Angkor Wat?
|
[
"There's numerous reasons that it's very clearly *not* a stegosaurus. * You mention a small head, but the animal depicted has a rather large one, with horns at that. It's much more of a rhino or boar head than anything a mildly talented artists would mistake as the stegosaur's [tiny](_URL_0_) head. * The other similar carvings have plenty going on in the background. The spines could just as easily be leaves. Well not just as easily- a lot more easily. * This temple in particular, Ta Prohm, has seen plenty of use by movie crews, and they have been known to alter the temple in unsavory ways against their contract. * In the end, it's just one image. Archaeologists *never* make any conclusions from single pieces of evidence, particularly when it's a conclusion as denied by every other data as this one."
] |
[
"What is the black meteorite stone imbedded in the Kaaba?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
}
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How was time/ the year measured before the year 0?
|
[
"depends wich year 0 you're refering to. You have the chinese, the christian, the muslim, the north korean (my personal favorite) and many more."
] |
[
"First, it is BCE for \"Before the Common Era\" and CE for \"Common Era\". Or prior to that it was BC for \"Before Christ\" and AD for \"Anno Domini\" or \"in the year of the Lord\". AC is for air conditioning or alternating current. > but how did they measure the years at the time? It depends on who you were talking about, but many would just record it in reference to whoever was ruling at the time. So it might be the 13th year of someone's rule, or the 130th year of a particular dynasty, etc. > And when was the BC and AC calendar adopted? AD 532 is the year it was invented, but when it was adopted varies depending on who you are considering."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
}
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Did the USA ever destroy a bunch of perfectly good potatoes just to keep prices high?
|
[
"Sounds like embellishment of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was passed in 1933 as part of the first wave of New Deal programs. The truth is that the government did in fact pay farmers to destroy excess crops in an attempt to raise prices. This wasn't because the harvest was unusually large that year, but rather because the Depression had lowered prices so far that farmers were truly in desperate need of assistance. Which isn't to say that it was a good idea (there are real grounds to criticize the destruction of food while so many people went hungry), but it was a sincere attempt on the part of the government to help ease the crisis."
] |
[
"On TV, when the price of gas goes up, they say they have no choice but to sell it higher in gas stations too. But when the price goes down, they say that they had already bought a lot of gas when it was higher so they cannot lower the prices immediately or they'd lose money on it. There is probably a good explanation for it but my guess is that it's another of these \"Heads I win, Tails, you lose\" situation ;)"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage about Economics:"
}
|
Saturday Reading and Research | October 25, 2014
|
[
"This week I have been looking into Alfred Crosby's controversial analysis of the Columbian Exchange and his argument that European colonization was accelerated and aided by the transfer of European biota (specifically animals, weeds and pathogens). I have also been looking into his critics, such as David Arnold, who argues that Crosby's emphasis on \"biological determinism\" seems to remove human agency from the colonization of the Americas and Oceania and excuses their genocide as the result of \"better germs\" (and animals and weeds)"
] |
[
"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 Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about News:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer about News:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
|
When Ben Franklin said "Early to bed, early to rise, etc.", How late were people staying up? How early would he have had them go to bed and wake up?
|
[
"Knock-on question - I saw an article yesterday about the need teenagers have for more sleep than adults. What were pre-modern attitudes about teenagers and how much they slept? Were they \"lazy kids\" or was there nuance?"
] |
[
"Are you sure you're not just falling asleep 30 minutes earlier than you think you are?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
}
|
The Existence of Libertalia
|
[
"I've written a long series of posts about this [here](_URL_0_) you would probably be interested in. I'd also like to point out that the account of Thomas Tew is in fact contained in Charles Johnson's *second* and greatly expanded edition of 1726 (not the first) and which is considered to be the *least* reliable. Some of the information about Tew in this account is true, and Tew did visit Madagascar but there is no evidence of Johnson's account of him setting up any sort of kingdom there, although some other pirates did attempt this, the most successful of whom was John Plantain during the 1720s."
] |
[
"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 paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
|
How well regarded is Howard Zinn's "a people's history of the United States" among historians?
|
[
"This is not to discourage new answers, but you may want to check out our [FAQ](_URL_2_) on the topic of this book."
] |
[
"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
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
Has there ever been and speculation or research done regarding the hypothetical scenario of how native Americans would have ended up if the Americans weren't discovered until much later?
|
[
"There's really no way to do serious research on this topic, and any speculation will be hazy at best. There are simply too many variables and wild cards in play to tackle this beyond historical fantasy. You not only need to consider what's going on in the Americas, but also what's going on Afro-Eurasia too. If you feel like visiting /r/HistoryWhatIf, you might get a few speculative answers. I might even join in myself if I have the time later. But since any answer would be pure speculation, this isn't really a topic for /r/AskHistorians."
] |
[
"They didn't develop at the same rate, it's just that the weaker ones were destroyed/absorbed by more powerful and technologically advanced ones. There's just little record of them left. We know about Native Americans being decimated by the colonists from Europe with far superior tools and tech. There are still tiny tribes in the world today that are pretty much in the stone age compared to other societies."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about history:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about History:"
}
|
Was there civilian backlash or war weariness during the hundred years war similar to the reaction during vietnam?
|
[
"In England the war itself was popular with the literate class whose opinions we have access to, as the English claim to territories in France was viewed as just. However, the taxes that were raised to fund the war were a huge burden on the peasantry, which was beset by numerous other woes including waves of plague, so that, along with a decrease in the peasant population which gave them more value as individual labourers, was a major cause of the peasants revolt. The revolt was not successful and serfdom continued up to the 15th c. _URL_0_"
] |
[
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
}
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How did the German military go from weak to almost taking over Europe in WWII? And Is it possible that a country like Iran could do the same?
|
[
"On the Iran side of your question: Due to the invention of the atomic bomb 'total war style' conflicts between advanced nations have become senseless. The end results will always be total destruction, so there is no reason to enter into a war, I really like the writing of Martin van Creveld on this. No matter how much money Iran or any nation will invest in its military it will not lead to great conquest of advanced nations."
] |
[
"The eastern former soviet states with NATO would be push overs for Russia they would steam roll them. The hard part would be getting past the Western European allies NATO. They wouldn't make it past Germany, If all the NATO allies came together Russia wouldn't just lose, they would get destroyed. Russia may have the numbers, but NATO has the technology. IF you bring nuclear weapons into this, Russia could easily wipe NATO off the planet killing us all....so basically the quote by Albert Einstein \" I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but world War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.\" Will come true. This won't end we'll for Russia or NATO, war needs to be avoided at all costs."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the question about history:",
"pos": "Represent the document about history:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
|
Before the Iranian Revolution, was there ever interest from either side for Iran to join NATO?
|
[
"In fact Iran was part of an organization modelled on NATO, called the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) [1]. Established in 1955, the organization initially included the UK, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. Despite being key to its formation, The US never became a full member, due to internal US politics. Ultimately, this attempt to extend the NATO model to countries on the southern flank of the USSR failed. In reality it was not a natural alliance of like-minded nations but more a mish-mash of countries aligned to various extents with the US that the US tried to strong-arm and bribe into forming a coherent bloc. Iraq pulled out in 1958. When Pakistan when to war with India in 1974 it tried to enlist the help of the alliance (to little effect). The nail in the coffin was the Iranian revolution of 1979, after which the organization was dissolved. [1] _URL_0_"
] |
[
"Saudi Arabia made a deal with the U.S. After discovering oil. The deal was oil for protection and weapons. Since originally making this deal (wanna say it was FDR), every president has kept the relationship going. Iran was an ally of the U.S. Until the Islamic Revolution of 1978. This revolution overthrew a U.S. Friendly Shah in favor of a theocracy led by ayatollah Khomeini. Part of his platform was that the shah was a U.S. Puppet so he took he opposite position. I would recommend looking up the history of Iran/US relations. Interesting stuff. While the governments have these relationships, the population has grown to develop contradictory opinions. I spent six weeks in Iran last summer to visit my family and see the countr of my birth. Can promise you a majority of the populace loves the USA. Cant speak for the Arabian populace."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
|
How do I cite ancient sources in my essay?
|
[
"In the bibliography you should cite the edition of the work that you used, for example: > Marcus Tullius Cicero, ed. Griffin, M. T. & Atkins, E. M. (1991) *On Duties*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This typically applies even if it's not translated: cite the precise edition you used. If you found it online, then you should simply use the standard format for online sources. In the text itself, it's conventional for ancient sources (and often for primary sources in general) to cite them by section, something like this: > In Cicero's *De Officiis* (*De Off.*), .... Cicero says that ... (*De Off.* II.6) Then you note the edition from which quotations were derived at the end as above."
] |
[
"APA stands for the American Psychology Association (I believe) and provides citation information that includes the dates of relevant information, such as research and case studies. This style is most often use in the fields of medicine or any research-based field where the date of the research/information affects the credibility of the claim being made. For example, if you're writing about research on cures for cancer, the more recent research will be less proven but more leading edge. MLA stands for Modern Language Association. The documentation style is used for art and literary studies because it emphasizes the author as the most important information. This makes sense because if you are studying a piece of Van Gogh's art or reading a play but Shakespeare WHO wrote of created the piece is the most significant detail. There are other styles as well, intended for other fields, such as Chicago Style for history and EEEI for engineering."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
}
|
I am 99.6% European, according to my DNA results. How did I end up with a Yakut ancestor from the 18th century?
|
[
"This is as much a science question as it is a history one, so I would suggest you check out our sister subreddit, /r/AskScience, as there is a lot of discussion in threads there about the accuracy of these tests, especially when it comes to various non-European groups. [This thread](_URL_0_) might be a good start, but a search will likely turn up more."
] |
[
"This isn’t a question that’s exactly relevant to Americans since Americans have no ethnic shared culture/common ancestry (hence being a “melting pot”). However, across like demographics, such as native Americans, Africans, Asians, etc, many of their lineages can be traced back to a set of common people. The classic example is that 1/1000 Asian people had Ghengis Khan as their shared ancestor."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
Saturday Reading and Research | January 11, 2014
|
[
"I have in my hands a copy of Elizabeth van Heyningen's new [*The Concentration Camps of the Anglo-Boer War: A Social History* launched in July, six months before I expected it](_URL_0_), and it's amazing. Besides being the first attempt to treat the camps of the South African War (1899-1902), and discourse around them, systematically in almost sixty years, it's done with tremendous nuance and sensitivity to the way we do social and cultural history now. Besides, a lot of the research material she draws from is completely new and it's the result of about 12 years of archival work on three continents. It's an amazing piece of scholarship and will change the way I run my seminar on the war; I'm even dreaming of getting her to Skype in and talk with my students next year. It's not an expensive book ($25 on Amazon) and if you have any interest in SA history, or the camps, I'd strongly recommend it. It's a reminder that some of the 19th-century folks are still hard at work in South Africa!"
] |
[
"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 Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about News:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about News:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
Theory Thursdays | Defining History
|
[
"I once heard history defined as the opposite of nature. I don't remember all the details of what exactly was said, but think about it. I'm not sure I subscribe to that view of history, but it's worth a thought."
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
|
What was the first event in recorded history?
|
[
"There's a discussion of dated events at _URL_0_. I was taught at school that Egypt's unification around the 32nd century BCE was the first specifically recorded \"event\", though the precise date is unknown. I'm not sure if we've found earlier ones in the interim - shameful, I admit!"
] |
[
"What do you mean by downfall? This is still a dominant part of current culture."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
|
How well trained were the Secret Service when they first appeared?
|
[
"I'm afraid I don't have the answer for what you're asking, but it's important to note that the appearance of the Secret Service in protecting state officials was not the actual first appearance of the agency. The Secret Service was founded in 1865 as a part of the Department of the Treasury and remained under their auspices until they were moved in 2003 to the Department of Homeland Security, though their functions remained more or less the same. The Secret Service's functions, at its foundation and now, were mainly to investigate and protect financial systems and identity documents, although originally it also carried out many of the functions now performed by the ATF and other agencies. The Secret Service's role as a protection service only began after McKinley's assassination"
] |
[
"Delta Force is a special mission unit of the US Army. SEAL Team Six is a component of the Joint Special Operations Command which is from the US Navy. They exist separately because they belong to different branches of the armed forces of the US. Why exactly the people who carry guns on the ground are different from the people with guns on boats, or people with guns on airplanes, is a traditional yet obvious distinction. Both are Special Mission Units of different branches."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
Apparently Woodrow Wilson passed the bar and went on to practice law entirely through self study. How did he do this, what did he study to prepare, and could one still do this today?
|
[
"To answer the second part of your question, yes you can still do this today in four US states (California, Virginia, Vermont and Washington). The practice is called \"reading law,\" and it means you study the law while working under a license attorney or judge and then take the bar exam. In 2013 [60 people in the US took the bar exam in this manner](_URL_0_)."
] |
[
"Hmmm... what did I do with my degree? I put it in a folder on my bookshelf and got a job in the semiconductor industry so I could afford a house to put the bookshelf in. But honestly, I wouldn't be where I am without the degree. The study of history is fundamentally an exercise of paying attention to detail and knowing how disparate pieces of data fit together to form a bigger picture. Which is pretty much what I do for a living. It isn't the path I'd planned but here I am. And no matter where you go, there you are."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
|
Im going to interview my 89 year old Grandmother who came from the shankill area of belfast and lived through the war. Are there any questions i could ask her which would advance our useful knowledge of the war.
|
[
"Assuming she was Protestant: What interactions did she have with English soldiers? Were family members involved in helping either side? What did they do? How was participation viewed? How did her perception change after Bloody Sunday? Was she ever \"taxed\" by the Provos? Did she have Catholic friends and how did she maintain those relationships? How were daily activities, like shopping, different?"
] |
[
"I would love to post; unfortunately all I have is anecdotal evidence from my father's family who were upper class South Viets living in Saigon who escaped after the war. If the moderators allow it, I could ask my dad any questions you'd like to know about what happened and what they did!"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
}
|
First Pilgrims arrived in America in 1620 with the Mayflower but the first slave ship arrived in 1619?
|
[
"The thing to note here is that the Pilgrims weren't the first English settlers. The first English settlement in North America that survived was in Jamestown (in Virginia today), 1607. Spanish settlement in the modern territory of the US also predated that, starting with St. Augustine in 1565. So although servants (but not slaves) did accompany the *Mayflower* settlers, and they did not prohibit slavery, the 'first slave ship' ([which was really just about 20 or so enslaved Africans carried by an English warship under Dutch letters of marque](_URL_0_)) went to Jamestown. These people were not deliberate imports but spoils of war, captured from the Portuguese on the high seas en route to the Spanish colonies. At the time, the Spanish and Portuguese crowns were unified, so some cross-traffic existed between the two realms, and Spain's enemies such as the Dutch Republic became Portugal's as well."
] |
[
"Immigration: in the 17th century alone over 400,000 English citizens migrated to the colonies that would later become the US, which is close to 10% of the population at the time! The promise of land and prosperity brought over a lot more people than you think. Even by 1900 14% of Americans where still foreign born..."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
|
What was Hitler's diet like whilst he was in the Führerbunker?
|
[
"Hitler ate well until the end. His last meal was spaghetti and salad, according to Best's *Five Days that Shocked the World*. Even after his death, his cook made him fried eggs and creamed potatoes, to maintain the illusion he was alive for the lower ranks in the bunker who weren't aware. Those still in the bunker were able to take many items with them when they attempted escape: food, wine, champagne, chocolate, etc."
] |
[
"Hitler's average day varied greatly from the beginning to the end of the war. I can only tell you most accurately about the end of the war however. At the end of the war he spent much of his time in his underground bunker along with the top Nazi leaders (many of which fled Germany as they realized the war was lost and left to places such as Argentina). Much of the time was spent devising plans for war and the last stand around Berlin. Some notable events that occured during these last days were Hitler's marriage and him greeting the Nazi youth some as young as 12 that would be sent into battle. During this time Hitler became increasingly depressed as he slowly began to realize that the war was over and his reign was coming to an end. Some more information here: _URL_0_ Also an assassination attempt was made on Hitler's life in his last days called Operation Valkyrie. It is quite interesting and a movie was made about it quite recently."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
}
|
Why is it that Native Americans aren't more militant, like the peoples who have been warring over disputed lands for centuries in the Middle East?
|
[
"Are you referring to modern day people rebelling against the government, or historically among tribes?"
] |
[
"Thousands of years ago, the Jews lived in the area that is now Israel. Over the years, many holy wars broke out and the Jews were forced from the land. For many years, they tried unsuccessfully to return to their homeland. It wasn't until WWII that they were able, with the assistance of the United States, to reestablish a Jewish state in Israel. The only problem is in the thousands of years they were gone, new people moved in. The new people, Palestinians, had called this region home for a very long time and were now being kicked out themselves. Now there are many religious and cultural groups who all consider Israel \"theirs\", making it a hotly contested area."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
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Regarding history writing - when to use or not use citations
|
[
"For that kind of information; things you would expect to find in an encyclopedia, I would not bother with any citations. An exception to this would be if our understanding of his biography- or brief life sketch- has radically changed any time in the past twenty years through new sources or ways of reading old sources. Then you might need a citation and some acknowledgement."
] |
[
"Oh no, not racism! You can essentially regard anything produced after *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire* as a modern history. The 19th century was an era when people knew how to distinguish forgery from fact, distinguish primary and secondary sources, and so on. They made mistakes, but so do we. By today's standards the histories will also be rather bold with their personal opinions. This is *good*, not bad for your purposes. Today's historians often try much harder to conceal their personal biases. Just recognize the force that drives the authors to write, and learn how to apply critical thinking. Obviously if you want to fact check particular things you will have to go to the library and find a newer book, but for general purpose reading, public domain books are great and you will discover plenty of facts that the 21st century has forgotten. Also, use _URL_0_, not Google Books."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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In an upcoming addition to the Crusader Kings II game, you may request a specialist from China. How common was it for foreign leaders to ask for Chinese specialists during this timeframe? (1066 ~ 1453)
|
[
"> Also, from my understanding, they will begin the game with the Tang Empire As a slight clarification the initial Dynasty depends on which start date you choose. The Tang dynasty are only for the earliest two starts in 769 and 867. Outside these two specific scenarios you can choose any date between 1066 and 1337 and the initial dynasty will be either Song or Yuan depending on date."
] |
[
"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
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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When/why did war start becoming something that was reviled as opposed to glorified?
|
[
"There really isn't a definitive start date. Different cultures see war differently at different times. Jewish texts have an overwhelmingly negative view of war after the failed revolts against the Romans, presumably because they'd seen the negative aspects of entering wars that proved fruitless. What leads you to the conclusion that war was more \"romanticized and glorified\" in the past? While I won't deny that attitude existed in the past, it certainly wasn't universal. My suspicion is that war was glorified in texts you've seen because you've read things written by the winners, who are much more likely to have a less-rosy view of war."
] |
[
"Simply because it's a socially accepted act that is rooted in religion with Western cultures. If the act were not Westernized, it would be considered mutilation."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
}
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Saturday Reading and Research | November 07, 2015
|
[
"I just finished with [Sveinsson's The Folk-Stories of Iceland](_URL_0_). In a previous century I tried to muddle my way through the Icelandic original, which appeared in 1940. It has been translated and to a certain extent updated, appearing in 2003 - and now available as a PDF with the link provided. The work is a classic and full of insights. Having it available in English is a great gift, and it was nice to revisit an old friend and to consider all the wonderful insights provided in the text. Sveinsson is particularly good at reviewing all the available primary sources in historical sequence, and then he takes them apart to discuss what they reveal about contemporary folk beliefs and traditions."
] |
[
"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 Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Literature:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post about Literature:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
|
Is this article about the history of infanticide and rape and violence towards children at all accurate?
|
[
"Lloyd deMause gets very little (basically, zero) respect from historians of childhood these days. His approach to studying history was guided by pre-conceived ideas about psychology and child abuse, which are themselves pretty passé now. His use and interpretation of sources was often highly questionable, and it's clear to pretty much anyone who reads his stuff today that he'd gone looking for evidence of a pre-existing theory in the past. As we [talked a lot about](_URL_0_) at this recent roundtable, historians really can't (and shouldn't) try to concoct explanations for past events that are predicated on modern psychological theories and models."
] |
[
"Precious? Is that the adjective you meant to use? Your question is pretty loaded by the way. No pun intended. And there are plenty of people in America who are pro-control."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How much paper work did the British East India Company produce, and how did they keep it all organized?
|
[
"A start: The India Office Records are the documentary archives of the administration in London of the pre-1947 government of India. The 14 kilometres of shelves of volumes, files and boxes of papers, together with 70,000 volumes of official publications and 105,000 manuscript and printed maps, comprise the archives of the East India Company (1600-1858), of the Board of Control or Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India (1784-1858), of the India Office (1858-1947), of the Burma Office (1937-1948), and of a number of British agencies overseas which were officially linked with one or other of the four main bodies. The India Office Records are part of the Public Records of the United Kingdom, and are open for public consultation. _URL_0_"
] |
[
"They do not tend to have the proper ID to prove who they are, do not have addresses for checks to be sent to, and do not have bank accounts for direct deposits to be put into. It is extremely difficult for them to get anything."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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[Weird question] I've noticed that most great Soviet leaders were very short (Lenin - 5'5'', Stalin - 5'6'', Khrushchev - 5'3''). Coincidence or not? How were short men perceived in the USSR? Did Soviet culture somehow predispose shorter men to go into politics and public service?
|
[
"More figures, for the record. Note that these are common estimates drawn from a variety of web sources: Putin stands at roughly 5' 6 1/2;\" Dmitry Medvedev-- 5' 4;\" Mikael Gorbachev-- 5' 9;\" Leonid Brezhnev-- 5' 8.\" Boris Yeltsin seems to be the major outlier at 6'2\"."
] |
[
"My personal theory is that they come from American suspicions during the Cold War that the Russians might be more advanced in terms of equality than America was. Nothing anti-patriotic, just the realization that a really free and egalitarian system ought to allow for more women in positions of power than was seen in America in the 50s, 60s, 70s. It was just another facet of the red scare. What if the Russians are better or more advanced than us in any way? We better catch up!"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
|
didn't 'faith' used to mean 'logic'?
|
[
"Well, Thomas Aquinas believed that truth was determined either through faith (which was related to divine revelation) or reason (which was defined as natural revelation). Theoretically, faith and reason could be construed as two sides of the same coin using this Thomist conception of the terms."
] |
[
"There are (old as humanity I guess) sign gestures like crossing arms means you are blocked out (no cuddling!) so it's basically a \"Stop\" sign. It also (the crossed arms) looks like an X. I also know spearbearers refuse entry by crossing spears 'like an X' [Explanatory photo](_URL_0_) I don't know if that have influenced (or was influenced!) anything. Hope some etymologist comes around to give a better explanation :-)"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
}
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What do you make of the 'cult of science' in the USSR? Why was a similar trend not seen 1950/60s US?
|
[
"Are you referring to the oppression of religious thought and anything contradictory to Soviet ideology masquerading as scientific progress like we saw with [Trofim Lysenko](_URL_0_) and Lamarkian genetics? If so, I'm happy to elaborate, but I'd hate to give you an answer that you're not looking for!"
] |
[
"Do you mean: \"Did the fear of communism enable the working class to obtain improved social conditions in 1950s until the 1980s in Western Europe?\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
From a modern perspective, it seems logical to have your military, if nothing else, be meritocratic. Why, then, did European armies take so long to shift towards a more meritocratic hierarchy?
|
[
"I asked a similar question a few years ago, and got a very interesting answer from /u/CrossyNZ: _URL_0_"
] |
[
"As far as I know, there are no modern rules in place, as there hasn't been conscription since Vietnam and the military has changed from the top down since the Vietnam war. It's likely new rules would be drawn up on the fly if the draft was reinstated. That being said, there's pretty much no chance of the modern selective service system actually being used, as the US has made a pretty serious commitment to professionalization of the armed forces."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
}
|
What portion of the world's current gold supply was part of Atahualpa's ransom?
|
[
"According to my copy of 1491, the room Atahualpa filled was 22 feet by 17 feet, and it was filled to a height of 8 feet. [According to the BBC](_URL_4_), the total amount of gold in the world is about 67^3 feet^3. If you assume that the room was filled by a solid block of gold, it works out to be a little less than 1% of the current gold supply. Of course, there was probably much less gold than that - many objects, like cups, are mostly empty space, and the objects wouldn't have been perfectly packed in there. I think you can reasonably say that the amount of gold Atahualpa was ransomed for was somewhere between .0001% and 1% of the current world supply, and is probably closer to the range of .01% to .001%."
] |
[
"It's very expensive. There is a publicly traded company that does it for a living, Odyssey Marine Exploration. OME spent a small fortune recovering a $500 million treasure in 2007 only to have the courts force them to turn most of it over to Spain."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
}
|
What was capitalism like in 17th / early 18th century China?
|
[
"A coulpe of pointers: Capitalism is a social phenomenon originated in Great Britain and maybe the Netherlands, that then propagated around the world via empire and industrialization. Therefore, thinking of \"Capitalism\" in China before any significant contact with the Europeans might be a misnomer. The chinese certainly had financial instruments and they were also integrated with the world economy to a degree at that time (we have reports of chinese porcelain vases being sold to brazil, then a portuguese colony, at the 18th century, not to mention the trade in silver between the chinese and the spanish). That said, the presence of these factors does not constitutes Capitalism. To have that we would need to have a capitalist class that had its economic status linked to the value extracted from (industrial) production. I think a rephrasing of the question might extract better answers, such as \"Which financial instruments, corporations and markets existed in 17th century China?\""
] |
[
"What drugs were popular in 19th century Britain?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
}
|
Is there ever an instance in History where two countries ever invaded another simultaneously with the purpose of fighting each other?
|
[
"I suppose the German invasion of Belgium in 1914 would qualify, albeit tenuously. The 1839 Treaty of London guaranteed perpetual Belgian neutrality; the passage of the German army through Belgium en route to its primary assault on France occasioned the landing of the British Expeditionary Force, which with its allies pushed the Germans back to the limit that would shortly thereafter solidify as the Western Front, remaining more or less static for the rest of the war. This somewhat qualifies as an example of what you name, anyway, as -- had the roles unthinkably been reversed -- it is conceivable that a British attempt to invade Germany through Belgium could have been met by resistance from Belgium's German allies coming in from the northeast. Which is amazing to consider, given what actually happened, but it's what the treaty made possible."
] |
[
"If I remember right, Mussolinis government was overthrown by the dissent, who then formed their government and gained support of the military, killing their fascist leaders. I cant think of a time an independent nation switched sides in the middle of a war and didnt also change the group of people in charge"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
|
The book "Mao: The Unknown Story" claims that Mao didn't shower for 27 years. Is this true, and if so, how?
|
[
"I think she got that info from Mao's personal physician, Dr. Li Zhi Cui. He wrote a book called *The Private Life of Chairman Mao*. [Here's the Amazon link for his book.](_URL_0_) The writer of *Mao: the Unknown Story* received a lot of flak for that book. A lot of historians say that book has way too many anecdotes that can't be proved... like the story about no showers. There's another story about how he didn't brush his teeth, but just rinsed with green tea. How can you prove that?"
] |
[
"They were a sort of Buddhist doomsday cult who were led by a man named Shoko Asahara, a spiritualist and a con man. They were responsible for the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in the late 1990s. I don't think they exist under that name anymore, I seem to remember reading about them rebranding themselves as Aleph following Asahara's conviction. I used to be very interested in them and read everything I could find, but it's been a while since I last thought about them. These are the basics as I recall them though."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
}
|
Has the Iron Maiden ever been used?
|
[
"The only example I can think of is Saddam Hussein's son used one in Iraq. Uday Hussein kept an iron maiden in his torture chamber. _URL_0_"
] |
[
"Is it me, or has this never happened to anyone else?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
How were people of small stature treated or perceived during the Middle Ages?
|
[
"They were often used as entertainment by doing belittling things such as jousting on small animals (dogs, pigs, mules), tumbling, or being thrown around (dwarf tossing.)"
] |
[
"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 post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
}
|
Is this old Turkish (Ottoman?) textile of any importance?
|
[
"I think that image is upside down -- the central motif is a tughra of an Ottoman sultan, the formal seal/signature. There are lists of those online if you want to make a visual comparison and work out which one it is, which might help date it. That is gold thread, and that kind of raised embroidery is called couching, and is a common technique in a lot of Ottoman and European textiles. The four elements in the corners contain script, which is probably Ottoman Turkish. Beyond that, I don't know--it's an imperial Ottoman textile, I'd guess 19th century, 18th not impossible. It's certainly interesting, more so since it has some provenance -- you can say where it was stored for a long time! A museum with Ottoman textile collections might be able to tell you more. Meanwhile, keep it in a cool dark dry place, and store it with some mothballs wrapped in tissue paper so they don't contact it directly. Light and moisture will destroy it, not to mention bugs."
] |
[
"Could you give an approximate year or period of the Empire when a citizen would be traveling?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
|
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