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Can anyone help with identifying WWI German shell/trench art?
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[
"A photo would be very helpful. From what I've gathered MAI 1915 is the manufacturing date (May 1915) and you're correct, Patronenfabrik Karlsruhe is where the shell was manufactured. \"Ke\" with a crown was the quality control mark used by Patronenfabrik Karlsruhe until the end of 1915. After that it switched to \"Sp\" followed by a number. As for the 194, I think that may be a lot number. Some sources say shells designated for the army had a \"119A\" on them but I can't find anything that corresponds to 194. _URL_2_ _URL_0_ _URL_1_"
] |
[
"This was a fun one to track down. They are referred to as chevrons and denote unit. Helps prevent friendly fire too Sometimed on Isreali Merkava tanks they might be followed or led by a letter denoting rank - battalion leader, etc"
] |
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
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What are the greatest coup/overthrows in history?
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[
"The Russian Revolution set up what could have been the first communist state ever. as such, it failed, because of reasons stated in this quote: \"“It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.” -David Brin \" Do not make the mistake of thinking of the USSR as communist. The \"dictatorship of the Proletariat\" turned into a normal dictatorship. Also [Napoleon's coup](_URL_0_). Also, Caesars [assassination](_URL_1_) And [Sulla's march on Rome](_URL_2_)"
] |
[
"Would you mind clarifying the question a little? Are you asking if the American participation in the Vietnam War is responsible for the recession of communism *now*?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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Apple just broke the stock market cap record. How big was the East India Company in terms of share price (and total stock) in today's money?
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[
"I'm an accountant and this has got me very intrigued. I found what seems to be transcripts from some sort of inquiry regarding various financial figures from the East India Company in the early-mid 1800s: _URL_0_ I couldn't find anything to answer your questions because there are just so many pages but it was very interesting to read. From things as mundane as how much interest they were paying on Indian debt to how they processed opium into \"cakes\" for export. And this is just in the first few pages! I think what makes this difficult is it's hard to get a full, comprehensive birds-eye view of the company's financial condition given the multitude of geographies and lines of business they were in."
] |
[
"Saudi Aramco is not publicly traded. It's true many state-owned companies are bigger than Alphabet, but Alphabet has the largest market capitalization (Quantity of shares multiplied by the price of each share)."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Technology:"
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Why does Tokyo have such unusual street address designations?
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[
"Sometimes it's helpful, in cross-cultural contexts, to turn the question around and think about the assumptions behind it. How did European cities come to name the spaces *in between* the groups of buildings, rather than the blocks themselves? Any large building on a college campus, for instance, will have a dozen different corridors, but we don't have the expectation that the corridors will be named, only that the floors and rooms will be numbered in some logical fashion. A long-winded way of saying that in Japan, the expectation is that the districts and blocks of a city will be numbered, assisting wayfinding in a different—but no more \"unusual\" manner—than we in the western world use. [There's a famous short TED Talk about this.](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Well the cities are generally grid based and even some streets have cardinal points in their names."
] |
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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Did Medieval Kings Joust?
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[
"France was the birthplace of the joust and the sport became a sort of pastime for the French. French kings did participate in jousts in the Late Middle Ages, though I would not say it was considered common practice. As jousts evolved into a more aristocratic event overflowing with pageantry, kings and nobles would often attend and witness the chivalric sport. Those who participated in the actual joust were nobility of some sort ,and sometimes kings would participate in order to show their prowess, but participation varied from king to king as it was ultimately a personal choice. In fact, the joust died out after King Henry II (an avid jouster) of France was mortally wounded in a joust in 1559 effectively ending the sport."
] |
[
"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 query:",
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"neg": "Represent the document:"
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What were the years called/labled before Christ? Were they tracked?
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[
"Not to dissuade further discussion, but this section of the wiki: [Calendars & Timekeeping](_URL_1_) may point you in the right direction. Particularly, [Other Dating Systems](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"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 Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Why didn't we hang Jefferson Davis and the other architects of the confederacy?
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[
"Interestingly, this question has come up a lot in recent weeks! I posted a reply not that long ago, here: _URL_0_ Feel free to comment with any follow-ups! TD;LR - Lincoln was clear in the weeks leading up to the end of the war that he didn't want to prosecute the Confederacy or pursue a hard peace."
] |
[
"Nothing. Robert E. Lee was a US confederate general, the military leader of the Civil War faction that advocated the continuance of black slavery. The connection between this and the anti-Semitic element of the Nazis it tenuous at best."
] |
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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Is Polynesian visits to the America's plausible? What are some good sources on this?
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[
"I guess if I were on Mythbusters, I'd consider this \"Plausible.\" There's really nothing more than circumstantial evidence past Easter Island, though the ocean current could have conceivably carried them to Central or South America from Hawaii or Easter Island, but no one has found any definite archaeological evidence. (Disclaimer: Pre-Columbian contact with the Americas is a hobby of mine, but I have no real credentials in this area) There's an article on jstor called \"The Bamboo Raft\" by the unfortunately named Robert Langdon that argues the case that they did have contact, but I no longer have access to it. Edit: there was a typo when I fixed my typo."
] |
[
"> based off of the information in the book \"Before European Hegemony,\" What other resources have you consulted? You've run against the main reason it's not a great idea to use only one source when researching a question: you depend *entirely* on what that one author thinks is important about the subject, and how that author has interpreted the primary sources and earlier scholarship. Might I suggest picking up a book more focused on Timurlane or Central Asia, for some new information and an additional perspective to Abu-Lughod's particular version of a world historical view?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
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What music did people use in weddings before Mendelsson's Wedding March in CDur?
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[
"1. *Mendelssohn* 2. Actually, in the U.S. this is more commonly used as a recessional, with Wagner's [Bridal Chorus (AKA Here Comes the Bride)](_URL_2_) being used as a processional, which is hilarious, if you know the plot of the opera that's from, specifically what was going to happen to the bride post-nuptials... 3. As per your actual question, I can not find, nor do I know of a relevant source, but my educated guess from 1800 until the 1870s (when a daughter of some sort of royalty got married to the Mendelssohn and popularized it, IIRC) would be Bach or something sounding like him. The wikipedia article starts its history in the 19th century, so no help there either. 4. Another popular selection is [Pachelbel's Canon in D](_URL_0_) which I am adding only for the excuse to post something as rediculous as [this](_URL_1_) on this subreddit. **Tl;DR** I have no idea."
] |
[
"Simple answer, because it's a catchy tune. But then you said > It's like British graduation ceremonies using Star Spangled Banner. I guess you don't know where the music to the Star Spangled Banner came from."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
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AMA: The History of Television News in the United States
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[
"> Americans have the television news that they ... probably deserve. Ouch! that sounds like an insult. =-} I'm an older person, and I remember the 60's and 70's as a time when the media used to really tear into investigative news stories. They were like rabid wolves. They reported on things that shocked and altered the opinions of the country. Now the three main news channels seem like fluffy bunnies (CBS, NBC, ABC). Did they give in to public, commercial, and government pressure to present a friendlier, more \"G\" rated and patriotic glossy format? They seem very eager to agree with each other and with everybody now. They willfully submitted to censorship by agreeing to the system of \"embedded reporters\", and agreeing that certain types of photos should not be shown. There is no more investigative reporting of corruption. Did the Mike Wallace lawsuit make them realize they were in it for the money, and not for the news? How can you say we deserve this? Did we do something bad? =-}"
] |
[
"The Art of War in the Western World - Archer Jones"
] |
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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Where would one go to better understand the 7 Years War?
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[
"You might look into Fred Anderson's *Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766*. It is also available on Audible."
] |
[
"What do you mean by downfall? This is still a dominant part of current culture."
] |
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
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Why can't miracles be proved with historical method?
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[
"You need to elaborate the question quite a bit."
] |
[
"There isn't one. Why are there so many questions on this site that think 'evolution' is the golden ticket to explain everything?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
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When is the last time the Queen's Guard had to use it's military power?
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[
"Guards at the royal palaces are made up of soldiers from one of the 6 different guards regiments in the British Army (Grenadier, Coldstream, Welsh, Irish and Scots Guards in the infantry and the Life Guards in the cavalry). These are regular regiments of the British Army and are regularly deployed to combat zones like other regular regiments. Hope this helps."
] |
[
"It might not be necessary in certain countries, but with the number of firearms and violence in the U.S., it would be pure anarchy if our police forces did not have firearms. Don't bring a knife to a gun fight."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
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Have the Queen's guard ever engaged in combat?
|
[
"Just for the record you mean the UK? If that is the case the various Guards regiments have a long history of active service, various Guards Battalions have serverd since their formations. Being the oldest, the Coldstream Guards and Grenadier Guards have fought in every conflict since the English Civil War. Notably in the Napoleonic Wars in Spain all the way to Waterloo, in the Crimea, on the Western Front of WW1, in WW2 in North Africa and Italy with some battalions being formed into an armor division. Following that they served in various deployments to Northern Ireland, the Welsh Guards served in the Falklands, and every Guards Regiment has deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq."
] |
[
"They're active duty troops from several elite regiments (and sometimes commonwealth units), and a lot of them have extensive experience in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. They're regular army. So basically they are trained to kill you if necessary, and are damned good at it. Don't test them."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
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A bit of a long-shot. Does anyone know where I can find European railway timetables for 1939?
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[
"The Thomas Cook Continental Timetable, published monthly at this time, would be the most reliable source of information - if you could find a copy. A facsimilie of the August 1939 edition was reprinted in 1987 edited by JH Price and may be in libraries (or you can get a secondhand copy for a reasonable price). It goes without saying that the outbreak of World War II would have disrupted things considerably. Bucharest was on one of the Orient Express routes, and had there been direct trains to Paris beforehand - I'm not sure if there were or you needed to change - there wouldn't have been now. But the August 1939 guide should give you a good idea of what was possible between Romania and non-belligerent nations at that date."
] |
[
"Are there any books on Berlin during 1920s?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
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"neg": "Represent the text about Literature:"
}
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Saturday Reading and Research | February 01, 2014
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[
"Does anyone know of a good study on the ethno-religious merchant communities of the Early Modern period from the perspective of New Institutional Economics? I'm thinking of the Baghdad Jews, Isfahan Armenians, Chinese in SE Asia, groups like that. I suppose it doesn't have to be explicitly NIE, so long as it focuses on the way they used their group identities to maintain trade networks."
] |
[
"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 News:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer about News:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
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I am immortal, born in the stone age. When was civil administration good enough to find out about my immortality?
|
[
"Sorry, but your submission has been removed because we [don't allow hypothetical questions](_URL_0_). If possible, please feel free to rephrase the question so that it does not call for such speculation, and resubmit Otherwise, this sort of thing is better suited for /r/HistoryWhatIf."
] |
[
"I mean maybe they can, you just need 50,000 years of them living with you and your descendants. That way they get fully indoctrinated to trust you."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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What are some good examples of disputes over minor wording in major treaties?
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[
"The Treaty of Waitangi is a good example of translation loopholes which was signed between the indigenous Maori of New Zealand and the British crown. It is considered the founding document of New Zealand although it is thought that the Maori did not have a full understanding of what was meant by sovereignty and that they were ceding their governorship to the Queen. _URL_0_"
] |
[
"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 Reddit query:",
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Is it actually possible that our calendar could be 300 years ahead?
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[
"No, it's not. Here are some old threads on the topic: _URL_0_ _URL_1_"
] |
[
"The seasons would slowly shift around. If there wasn't a leap year, today would have been March 2nd - the calendar would be off by one day. In 4 years, the calendar would be off by 2 days. In 120 years the calendar would be off by a whole month - so for example instead of winter being from December to February, it would be from January to March. Taking this to even more extremes, in 700 years winter would be from June to August."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
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What was the first "welfare state " ?
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[
"Would the corn dole in Rome count? Edit - if Rome didn't provide anything but corn, would this still count as an embryonic welfare state? I've never heard of any Roman provision of health care, education, or care for the elderly? Was there any special provision for veterans of the legions?"
] |
[
"What do you mean by the 'earliest breeds'?"
] |
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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Not sure if this is more "Ask Historians" or "Ask Science" but, essentially, how did pre-industrial civilizations move water uphill?
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[
"There was the [Archimedes Screw](_URL_0_), which has been around since at least the 3rd Century BCE. Also, you should read the first couple sections on fountains, [here], (_URL_1_) where it explains how Romans used gravity to create pressure down the line. Finally, I know the Mayans created water pressure by channeling water from a higher source into a piping system that grew narrower and narrower. Once in these pipes, the water pressure increased to that point that the flow of water could overcome gravity. I'm no expert, but I assume that most of these pre-industrial hydraulic systems gained much of their pressure from starting at an elevated location (mountain springs, aqueducts, etc.) before being channeled into pipes"
] |
[
"Here's a list I've posted elsewhere: * gunpowder (Chinese alchemists) * tin foil * gold plating * ink, * dyes (Prussian Blue and Scarlet red) * paints, * ceramics (including porcelain in Europe) * cosmetics, * leather tanning * element: antimony, phosphorous, zinc * hydrochloric acid, Mercury oxide, * glass manufacture, * preparation of extracts, * liquors, * invented the Bain-marie (and other chemical apparati), * medicines for saffron … * distillation, * early periodic tables... (and general mineral and alloy classifications) * control systems (like thermostats, barometers, and thermometers) * but there are more... soooo many more. * oh yeah: poisons, explosives, alloys. I've compiled this list a while ago, and now I'm currently writing a book about exactly this. So if you want more, I can come back with a lot more. Or do you want more details on specific inventions? Several episodes of _URL_0_ are about exactly that."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about History:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about History:",
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Saturday Reading and Research | December 05, 2015
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[
"So I am pretty deep into the contemporary sources on Nikolaus von Flüe, or \"Bruder Klaus\"--the fifteenth-century hermit who will become the patron saint of Switzerland. Now, \"living saints\" in the Middle Ages who attract a lot of public attention not uncommonly draw criticism as well as admiration and wonder. Holy women and men get labeled frauds, witches, possessed, thieves, vagabonds, hysterical, deluded, heretics, miscreants in general. Whether or not the word is just an anti-Swiss metaphor, this is still the first time I have seen a saint get called a cowf#cker."
] |
[
"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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Monday Methods: History Pedagogy (The Theory and Practice of Teaching and Learning)
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[
"As a current Master's student whose undergraduate experience is still fresh in his mind, I can definitely attest that, at the student-level, there is a perception that the emphasis on \"coverage\" is obsolete in the face of unprecedented access to information on the internet. However, many students have difficulty imagining an alternative model; I have many friends and colleagues outside of history that still believe that graduate level courses still deal with \"coverage\", albeit with greater depth."
] |
[
"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:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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How soon after discovering the New World did European powers realize what they had found?
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[
"Lots of people thought Columbus was crazy before he left not because they thought the world was flat, but because they knew it was big, and China and India were very far away. So I would think those people immediately suspected that he had not discovered China or India, but rather some other, nearer land. However, this was officially confirmed by [astronomical observations made by Amerigo Vespucci](_URL_0_) off the coast of South America in 1501-02. Hence the name America, rather than Columbia."
] |
[
"Money. English explorers were incentivized to colonize the new world with the promise of land ownership. This, combined with accounts of the vast riches available in the Americas, persuaded a lot of people of means to risk the travel. Of course, they were ill prepared to deal with the hardships of colonization and the vast majority of them died within a few years."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
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Is it true that there was an unspoken rule amongst WWII pilots that said you shouldn't shoot at soldiers in parachutes while in the air?
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[
"It is worth noting that Article 20 of the Hague Rules of Air Warfare (1923) explicitly prohibits the shooting bailing pilots. It was never adopted, but the fact that this was considered a possible explicit \"law of war\" is relevant."
] |
[
"> but why are those soldiers being thrown from planes? For mobility. If you need to get troops somewhere RIGHT NOW and you don't have time to send them by sea or land, sending them by air provides another option. Also, maybe you want to attack a location behind enemy lines. One famous example was D-Day, when the Allies dropped paratroopers behind the German beach defenses before the main invasion arrived by sea. > Also, what do they do with the parachute when they land If possible, they fold the parachute up and take it with them. They fold down to a small size and they're not too heavy."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
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Question about these photos of great grandfather during the Russian Civil War
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[
"That distinctive wrap-around jacket is the uniform of the Royal Flying Corps.They used to call it the \"maternity jacket\". There seems to be one \"pip\" on each shoulder, so he was a 2nd lieutenant when the pictures were taken. As to where they were taken, I doubt that most are in Archangel (usually written Arkhangelsk these days), which is in the far North of Russia and according to the [wiki page](_URL_0_) has average temperatures below freezing for about half the year- you wouldn't get vines growing up walls there! In fact there's a very French look to the buildings, particularly that gate in picture 2, so perhaps this is his base during WWI? He's holding a small folding camera- not an aerial camera, those were much bigger things, just a snapshot type of camera. The [Vest Pocket Kodak](_URL_1_) maybe- it was popular with soldiers at the time. The British army was certainly in Arkhangelsk though, in 1918/19, they were trying to support the \"white\" side in the civil war _URL_2_"
] |
[
"Just a follow-up question to the original question - what about the reverse. What was Napoleon's view of the United States?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about history:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
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How to publish an academic article?
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[
"I can't give you the best information, but usually this is something your academic adviser would help you with. Can you not solicit their help? They want your name and address because you will be asked to revise elements of the article."
] |
[
"What if you want a printed version of what was said?"
] |
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
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The significance of the year 1300 AD
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[
"I'm sorry, I'd appreciate it if you could clarify your question: what questions were you asked about 1300? I can't think of any event that took place in the exact turn of the century, are you sure it wasn't a question about the 1300s aka the entire 14th century?"
] |
[
"Because the first century was the zeroes (1 AD to 100 AD). Counting up from there, the fourteenth century has to start in 1301 AD for the numbering to make sense."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
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Was there really a blood moon during the fall of Constantinople?
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[
"Yes, there was. If you look here at this [calculated eclipse chart](_URL_1_), you'll find that a partial lunar eclipse, [visible from Constantinople](_URL_0_), occurred on May 22, 1453 - only a week before the fall of the city. The maximum of this eclipse would have been at around 8:19 in the evening, which would have been very prominently visible in the Eastern sky to both the Byzantine/Italian defenders and the attacking Ottomans. For the Ottomans (who were facing the East, towards the Theodosian Walls), the Blood Moon would have been seen rising above the city, which would have provided a very inspiring sight indeed, since the symbol of Constantinople was the crescent moon - to see it bleeding would have been interpreted as a sign of fortune. Likewise, it was a dreadful sight for the defenders to behold and Western chroniclers report that it was interpreted as a sign of impending doom."
] |
[
"Why were they sealed in the first place?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
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I am a Dry representative of Prohibition in 1920, what are my arguments that intoxicating liquors should be illegal? (can't use information past 1920)
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[
"If I recall correctly from my American Rhetoric course, people attempted to correlate drinking with high levels of spousal and child abuse. Additionally, there were some economic arguments that when workers blow their whole paycheck at the bar immediately after work (which was apparently common) it was less useful to the economy than well thought out investments. And of course you then have the imagery of the poor wife and children at home with not enough food to eat because Hubby drank his money away."
] |
[
"Blue laws. The Puritan past. Religious leaders didn't want it sold. We're talking 300 years ago era laws."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the question about History:",
"pos": "Represent the document about History:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Was there a taboo in the USA on depicting certain types of people's faces in cartoons in the 1950s?
|
[
"Further question, could this extend to other cartoons like Charlie Brown, where adults are never shown, let alone given true lines? Does it have something to do with secondary characters in general?"
] |
[
"Cartoons have always been exceptionally weird with respect to the time they came out. Sure bugs bunny seems pretty vanilla now but how weird would a hunter being seduced by a male rabbit wearing a wig seem in the 40s/50s"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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In times of war, do the attacking forces generally try to avoid cultural icons like Big Ben or the Cologne Cathedral, or are they treated like every other structure and subject to bombing raids, etc?
|
[
"I just finished Thomas Madden's book about Venice and he talks a little about this in WW2. Basically there was a concerted effort on the allies part to not bomb Venice at all. They could afford to do this of course because there was very little strategic value in Venice. There was however a single bombing campaign to destroy Axis shipping that was going through Venice. It was done with a great amount of planning and precision and they were able to take out the targets without harming the city. The citizens of Venice watched the raid from their rooftops. The book also includes the quote \"Provided you weren't Jewish, Venice was the safest place in Europe to be during WW2\""
] |
[
"All parties in WWII engaged in extensive bombing of civilian infrastructure. In a war of that scale it's simply not feasible to try and pick out military targets embedded in cities and towns, it's faster and more effective to simply pummel a city (and anyone in it) into submission."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
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Theory Thursdays | Edward Gibbon and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
|
[
"There are plenty of 'explanations' for the wide-ranging process we shorthanded as 'fall of Rome', but the trick in reading Gibbon is actually reading him. His work is much more nuanced than it is commonly presented, and relies only on historical texts (including the Augustan History) and not on archaeology, but overall he does manage to describe the fall of the Empire as a historical process instead of just an event, with many different factors, both long- and short-term, being involved. I think Gibbon still is a very relevant historian, especially as his work demonstrates that the major theoretical advances of the past 50 years are not new ideas."
] |
[
"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 title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Anti-Drinking Russian Propaganda Posters
|
[
"Alcoholism was rampant in the working classes of Russia and pretty much every country in the early 20th century - a lot of leftist movements were opposed to alcohol because they thought of it as a tool of the bourgeoisie used to keep workers useless and disorganized. In the US, the International Workers of the World actually lobbied for Prohibition on this ideological basis and socialists in the UK were part of the temperance movement because they thought workers were spending most of their pay in pubs owned by the bosses."
] |
[
"High Crime + Dwindling Population + Crumbling Infrastructure + Diminishing Jobs = Perceived Shithole."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Were there any European attempts to "restart" imperialism?
|
[
"France has exerted a lot of effort to maintain loose and informal control over its former colonial empire in Africa. If you're looking for formal attempts to regain a colonial empire, the best example might be Spain. After the loss of most of Spain's American colonies, it kept up a series of raids and invasions for a generation until it finally abandoned the idea of regaining its empire in 1833. Spain did reassume control over the Dominican Republic in 1861 at the invitation of the state's elites, but lost it again in 1865."
] |
[
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] |
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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[Meta] Introducing AskHistorians Alerts!
|
[
"Whoa. That is an awesome idea that I will have to get into. I'll do that when I get home."
] |
[
"CGP Grey has an excellent video describing exactly this: The Problems with First Past the Post Voting Expl…: _URL_0_"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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If Eden had been selected as the capital of Australia rather than Canberra, would the city have been likely to see much greater growth than Canberra has?
|
[
"You'll probably get more of a response in the subreddit /r/HistoricalWhatIf."
] |
[
"There could be many reasons this happens * A federation may want an independent capital outside any states (Washington DC) * Two or more cities may be competing for the capital, so a new capital is built as a compromise, Canberra was established roughly halfway between Sydney and Melbourne * The current capital may be in an undesirable location. Brasilia was created inland so it couldnt be attacked from the sea. * Sometimes another city outgrows the capital. Glasgow boomed during the industrial revolution becoming twice the size of Edinburgh"
] |
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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Are there instances where a long tradition of incest may have inhibited a monarchy?
|
[
"The Hapsburgs used marriage as a tool to gain a lot of thrones, but after they had much of Europe, under Emperor Charles V, they found themselves marrying within a reduced gene pool, and had a real problem of consanguinity. The same \"Hapsburg lip\" or deformed jutting lower jaw, that made it hard for Charles to eat continued in his line. But it was the last of the Hapsburg Spanish kings, [Charles II](_URL_0_) who was not very functional- he was the only one you could call insane, and even he was able to pass the throne to the son of Louis XIV ( with some French pressure) on his deathbed."
] |
[
"Because in theory some of those cultural traditions may have been used or where interwoven with methods to oppress the masses in the old regime. In practice it has more to do with removing threats to your new regime by having your ideology being the only thing left."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about history:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
|
What was like for the average person in Ancient Egypt?
|
[
"Not to discourage any further answers but you'll probably enjoy the [FAQ on daily life in ancient Egypt](_URL_0_)."
] |
[
"A follow-up and related question: how about young people in other parts of the world in this time period? I.e. South Asia, China, West Africa, South America?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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What large-scope, laymen-friendly history books ARE accurate?
|
[
"Make sure to give [our booklist a look](_URL_0_)! There are a few things in there that would probably be of interest."
] |
[
"Just curious for everyone's thoughts. What is pop history, how do we differentiate it from academic history, and to what degree is it useful? Added query, what pop history do you find compelling or of exceprional quality?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
}
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What happened to the giant golden Nazi eagle Hitler made a speech in front of (picture with link in comments)?
|
[
"And what was the Nazi budget for producing giant gold eagles? And I'm being serious, because they had a few of them about."
] |
[
"Follow-up question: Was it carved into the Wewelsburg floor before the 1930s when the Nazis took up residence there?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
}
|
What level of upkeep was required for lighthouses in antiquity?
|
[
"We simply don't know. The nature of classical literature, and arguably even moreso the Medieval period transmission, means that what little survived is confined to a fairly limited set of interests, and unfortunately lighthouse operation was interesting neither to the classical literary set nor to Irish monks. On the other hand, many of these matters, such as oil quantities needed, should stay fairly constant, so i am eager to hear about other periods."
] |
[
"Follow up question, was life insurance a common policy to have in an American home at this point in time?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
|
Did silent film prints get sent to movie houses with sheet music for the pianist to play? Or did they play whatever they had to hand?
|
[
"[We just touched on this a week ago.](_URL_0_) If you'd like to do your own research, the term to start with is \"photoplay\", and the rough answer is that they started being included about 1910."
] |
[
"The modern restorations include music. At the time there was live music played during the film. There was no audio track to record on."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Animation:"
}
|
Too often I hear on the media that before the 20th century there has never been a 7-decade long period of Europe-wide peace. Is this actually true?
|
[
"At the risk of brushing up against the 20 year rule (though it just barely makes it), I'd strongly challenge the contention that we're in a period of 70 year long Europe-wide peace. The Yugoslav wars of the 1990s were massively violent conflicts, containing such atrocities as the massacre of over 8,000 civilians at Srebrenica in 1995 (see? Not a 20 year violation...by one year). The Yugoslav wars aren't even the only ones to consider...the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 could both qualify as wars."
] |
[
"More instances on what sort of timeline? The world is probably the least violent it has been since the beginning of written history. However, over the last year or so there has been a slight uptick in violent behavior. We're still nowhere near the levels we were at 100 years ago. With regard to ww3. Personally I think it's already happening and the future will look back on the time period starting with the first Gulf War as one continuous conflict. But that's purely speculative on my part."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument about history:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
}
|
Need recommendation on good Russian and/or Polish History books
|
[
"The biography *Peter The Great: His Life and World* by Robert K. Massie is one of the best biographies I have ever read and reveals the conditions of Russia as it was about to enter the world stage. Also gives a great description of the Great Northern War."
] |
[
"Does anyone know of any good texts on Sassanid Persian culture?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Literature:"
}
|
How did Crusaders modify their armor to the different climate and different enemies, if at all?
|
[
"It is important to remember that the Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted for almost 200 years during which a portion of the waves of Crusaders from Europe stayed behind in the Holy Land with new lands and titles. The knights that stayed lived the rest of their lives there, their children were born there and lived and died there. As a result they adopted eastern modes of dress and grooming. The Franks trimmed their long hair and beards in the Eastern style and took to new fabrics like silk, satin and colorful dyes. In respect to armor the Crusaders' mail proved to be extremely effective against the Muslims so why change it? It did have a tendency to become unbearably hot in direct sunlight though so some knights wore Turkish robes and khalats over their mail to prevent this."
] |
[
"The arriving missionaries had technology like better masonry, metal and gold working, and some improvements to agriculture. When the missionaries come with significant improvements to your life, why not convert?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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How confident are we that the year is actually and exactly 2017? Is it possible that at some point in the last 2000 years there were any significant timekeeping mistakes?
|
[
"[/u/sunagainstgold](_URL_0_) answered a [very similarly worded question](_URL_1_) that may interest you."
] |
[
"We have too many leap years based on exactly how fast Earth goes around the Sun, so we drop something like 3 out of every 100 leap years."
] |
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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Does the legend that the US army and colonial citizens gave small pox ridden blankets to natives have any basis of truth?
|
[
"This question has been asked and answered several times before. A few of the previous answers are [here](_URL_2_), [here](_URL_0_), and [here](_URL_1_)"
] |
[
"As a follow up I heard it said several times that the Romans would use urine as mouthwash. Is there any truth to that?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
}
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I'm a slave in the south, and want to trek north via the Underground Railroad. How did I learn of the Underground Railroad? How did I participate?
|
[
"I use this site with my 5th graders. It gives an interesting first person perspective on escaping slavery. _URL_0_ Flight to Freedom (And its a video game so they love it). It might be relevant enough to add some flavor to the excellent comments already posted."
] |
[
"So when and where did playing cards as we know them come into being anyways?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How/Why did the USSR disassemble and take factories in Manchuria after WW2?
|
[
"Same way factories were removed from Germany after WW1, WW2 and how the Soviets moved factories in 1941 and 42. They would methodically take the factory apart, labeling everything, crate it up, put it on a train, boat or ship. Transport it to the new site, then reassemble it. Apparently, when the Soviets were building factories in the 1930s, they had an idea that someday factories might have to be relocated, but there weren't firm plans for it. _URL_0_"
] |
[
"1. Most of the reparations for WWI were forgiven after WWII. 2. A lot of money was pumped into Germany after WWII to rebuild it because the US didn't want them to fall to communism. 3. Germany has always been one of the major economies in Europe, so it is really a reversion to the mean. 4. Annexed by 4 nations? It was occupied by 4 nations, it had complete political autonomy in the west after not too long and the east became a USSR puppet state. 5. Google miracle West Germany"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text about history:"
}
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Why do so many UK businesses have Quaker origins?
|
[
"The Religious Society of Friends (proper name of the Quakers) pursued a business model centred around their religious principles and conscience before profit: i.e. in plain-speaking, egalitarianism, concern for the planet etc. Actually, they were very ahead of their time. Thus Quaker-owned businesses gained a reputation for being fair and trustworthy and became very successful."
] |
[
"Rule number one of business is know which demographic you're targeting. As it happens, a lot of the people who go out and get groceries for their family also masturbate to Fifty Shades of Grey."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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What was the public reaction when it was made illegal for pedestrians to use the streets in favour of cars?
|
[
"Do you have a specific place or country in mind?"
] |
[
"Because you do not have the right to use public roads, you have the privilege. They cannot prevent you from going somewhere if say you decided to go by dog sled, but they can shut down the public roads and prevent travel on them. Which is what has happened."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
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Arabic sailor who was captured by Indians?
|
[
"I have never heard of this story, and there is absolutely no solid evidence for pre-Columbian Arabic trans-Atlantic trade. There wouldn't have been any \"Arabic speaking Indians\" *even if* an Arab sailor was somehow captured by Native Americans."
] |
[
"Did sailors generally know the name of the ships they're fighting?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
|
Is there any correlation between sedentism and the emergence of a hierarchy?
|
[
"A third element must exist - which is concentrated high yield agriculture. Mesolithic Japanese were long settled in small towns, but no heirarchy emerged until rice cultivation was introduced sometime between 300 BCE and 100 CE. I mean thousands of years long."
] |
[
"Because humans are the only species with a complex enough social structure to allow for emotions such as embarrassment."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Wikileaks has apparently released 2 million diplomatic records in the "Kissinger Cables". What do we stand to gain (or what have we learned) from these cables?
|
[
"None (or at least, only a small minority) of the released documents are new, or really news, per se. Most, if not all of them, have been scattered throughout various government archives for years, and are just getting repackaged and released with wild fanfare so that wikileaks can continue to feign relevance."
] |
[
"I can't answer your question, but I'd like to add to it: What information did Snowden actually share with the public? Are there any documents he put on the internet listing the NSA's abuses of power? All I can find right now are interviews."
] |
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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How did parents give their kids 'the sex talk' before modern biology gave us the means to explain the details of reproduction?
|
[
"First off the modern \"Birds and the Bees\" discussion acts like sex is a taboo subject, as does our modern society as a whole. However in places like Ancient Greece we can see that was not so true. In places like America, in places like the US you can't show sex (actual not fade to black) or genitalia without being on HBO or other private channels you have to purchase, however on Anceint Greece statutes were routinely shown naked, the Romans even had a winged fascinus, which was a penis amulet worn to ward off envy, (see images [here](_URL_0_) ) opened about sexuality varies from culture to culture still. You can tell a lot about a culture from their art and Mythology/Religion, and I encourage you to investigate that for any specific culture I didn't mention. How the conversation probably went was a matter of how open the culture was about sex. A Roman one was probably very straight forward while, 11th century peasant boys \"talk\" resembled today's with its idea of sex as \"taboo\" ."
] |
[
"Humans don't *need* to be taught about sex. In fact, sex education is hardly *at all* about the mechanics of sex. It's about safe sex, and other bodily functions that are peripheral to the actual act. Some of it is stuff that people *would* figure out on their own, but why not take a short cut and learn about it *before* it's an issue?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
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How was the wire for chainmail made?
|
[
"Wire in antiquity was made by hammering or strip twisting. Both involved a thin strip being cut from the edge of a sheet and subsequently formed to a round cross section by labor intensive processes. By the second or third century AD we had developed wire drawing. The thin strip was pulled through a metal drawplate with a series of tapered round holes decreasing in size. We still make make wire the same way. Good luck with the project. Rivetted links are a pain in the butt."
] |
[
"The one cord is a bundle of more than one wire."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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What were some common Roman curses and insults?
|
[
"A Roman cursing practice was to inscribe the horrible things they wanted to happen to their enemies on lead tablets. In what was then Aquae Sulis and what is today the English city of Bath, Romans would place these tablets in hot springs. The tablets were called defixiones, and the actual curses could be pretty grisly. [Source](_URL_0_"
] |
[
"Some (mostly 4-letter) swear words are actually old Anglo-Saxon words used to define body parts or bodily functions. At the time, they weren't considered swear words, just a normal part of the language. When outside influences, such as French, entered the language, the elite began using French words instead of Anglo-Saxon. The lower classes, who didn't speak French, continued using the old 4-letter words, which were considered crudisms by the upper classes. Shit yeah!"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Linguistics:"
}
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How did people traveling East/West reconcile the natural changes in light before the codification of time zones?
|
[
"This came up just a couple days ago, [and I answered it here](_URL_0_) -- the short version, because I'm on mobile, is that a ship's day reset at noon."
] |
[
"That's a great question! I've no idea, although I can probably throw in one or two considerations. The Titanic sank in 1912, which was before there was really universal acceptance/use of standard time zones. Granted, the US had hosted the International Meridian Conference in 1884 that agreed on Greenwhich time as the standard, but a lot of French maps still located the prime meridian in Paris until 1911. The US passed the Standard Time Act on 19 March 1918, and it wasn't until the late 1920s that most countries had adopted the hourly time zones of which we think. Also, the Titanic apparently kept shipboard time, which doesn't necessarily follow land-based time. This is an incredibly detailed article from a year ago that talks about the difficulty of locking in an exact time for the Titanic's sinking based on the varieties of timekeeping: _URL_0_"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question about History:",
"pos": "Represent the passage about History:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
}
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What is the origin of the Hawaiian shirt?
|
[
"Floral patterns have been popular in Hawaii for a long time, but modern \"Aloha\" wear mostly stems from products created by Ellery Chun, in the 1930s, who used the fabric remaining from the production of kimonos to create shirts. The shirts caught on very quickly, selling as souvenirs to tourists and later to American servicemen and their families stationed in the islands, and soon there were a lot of copycats, both in Hawaii and elsewhere. The adoption of the shirts (and other \"aloha\" patterened clothing) as more formal wear stems from a sort of image campaign by the city of Honolulu, allowing city employees to wear the clothing in order to promote Hawaii as a relaxed destination and yet still one in which serious business could be conducted. This became more and more of a \"thing\" until it was essentially public policy throughout the islands."
] |
[
"Why do some parts of the world call gasoline petrol?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
}
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Can a historian please tell me the date when Lincoln said the following quote?
|
[
"Assuming you do mean \"struggle\" and not \"stubble\" (which is actually pretty funny in itself), a simple google search within quotation marks brings up this: _URL_0_ Illinois House of Representatives, December 20th, 1839. The quotation is in the last paragraph. I don't know how reputable that is, but it gives you a place and date that you can verify or discount as well as a title (*The Writings of Abraham Lincoln* vol. 1). Happy hunting."
] |
[
"Maybe you can tell us from where you heard this, and of what period you are talking about?"
] |
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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How accurate was ExtraCredits on the history of the Punic Wars
|
[
"Generally, I would say that it is accurate. From the limited reading I've had to do on this for classes (readings being focused on Livy and Polybius), I think they do a very good job on giving the history. I love this series for their discussions on gaming theory, and remember that the writer for the series (James) graduated with a bachelor's degree in classics and seems to have a very strong background as demonstrated in these episodes. I, personally, feel that this a very good tool to have people learn Roman history."
] |
[
"To be a little less specific, what did people think the future in general would be like before the Industrial Revolution?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How did the Roman Legions view eachother?
|
[
"As a followup question: during times of Civil War like Caesar's Civil War, did the opposing legions view each other like tragic brother vs brother (ex. USA Civil War) or did they view each other like good vs. evil (ex. Humans vs. Orcs)?"
] |
[
"I'd like to hijack this and ask a follow up question: What sort of laws did the Romans have regarding treatment of slaves as opposed to the USA?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
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Did the ancient Romans have an equivalent term for "dude" "bro" or "man?"
|
[
"\"Comes\" which translates as companion, or intimate friend. A possible translation might be \"mate\". For example, if emperor Nero were to go out on the town he would go with his Comites. Edit: Plurals."
] |
[
"In Britain an old nickname for a penis was \"whistle\". A common phrase was \"how about you blow my whistle\" as asking for a \"blow job\". Over the last two centuries \"Blow job\" stuck around while naming your dick \"whistle\" didn't."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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What kind of characters, if any, were the Britons using before the Latin alphabet was introduced?
|
[
"There were some pre-Roman coins which used the Latin alphabet for names of kings such as Tasciovanus and Cunobelinos, but no native script that I've come across."
] |
[
"Not an answer, but a question to add onto this, did the Roman Legion have a series of camp followers? What was life like for these people?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
}
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In Crusader Kings 2, rulers sign a truce after the end of a war, preventing them from fighting each other for a few years. However, if one of the leaders who signed it dies, it is immediatly rendered null and void. Did it work this way in the High Middle Ages?
|
[
"Follow up question: what would be the typical result of breaking a medieval European truce? Would it be a big deal that would tarnish the country's reputation for years or just sow distrust with the specific country being attacked? For example, Byzantine John Tzimiskes was accused of truce-breaking when he attacked the Rus' Svyatoslav in Bulgaria, but it didn't prevent John from being able to keep successful truces with Arab countries at the same time."
] |
[
"\"Conquer\" is a loose word, he subjugated local kings and warlords who governed large territories. So you go attack the king in his capital, you defeat him, and you make him pay tribute to you. That is what conquered means. You don't go through each town and village and fight throughout the entire territory. Once your forces move on and the local king feels relatively safe, he stops paying tribute and becomes independent once again. This isn't to minimize Alexander's accomplishments, it's just to describe and contextualize his empire."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
I, being born in America, know what advertising looks like in a capitalist society but what did advertising look like in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries?
|
[
"If I may piggy back off this question, I've heard before that the Soviet Union advertised not-existent consumer products, is this true? And if true why?"
] |
[
"These terms were coined several decades ago, when the term \"second world\" was used to describe the nations that were under the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union (I think this is the same as the Iron Curtain). While it's no longer relevant today, it can still be used to describe countries between the first and third worlds economically, which incidentally includes a lot of nations that fell under the old definition."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Advertising in the former Soviet Union:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Advertising in the former Soviet Union:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
|
This Week's Theme: "Southeast Asia"
|
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
[
"Check out Robert E. May's *Manifest Destiny's Underworld*."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
This Week's Theme: South Asia
|
[
"Why is there such a paucity in experts in South Asian History in the subreddit compared to say other regions such as East Asia or the Middle East? A lot of the questions about the region's history remained unanswered and the number of questions seem to be much lesser in comparison."
] |
[
"Check out Robert E. May's *Manifest Destiny's Underworld*."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
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Is there any evidence that the second part of "Mein Kampf" (Zweites Buch) is authentic ?
|
[
"It think Gerhard Weinberg conclusively demonstrated that it was, in fact, dictated by Hitler to his typist in June and July 1928. It was then kept secret until it was found among German documents retrieved by the United States. I'm not sure why you said the German version of Wikipedia doesn't recognize it as authentic - I don't get that feeling from it at all. As for it not being referenced in German literature, it was first published and examined in German by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for Contemporary History) in Munich: *Hitlers zweites Buch. Ein Dokument aus dem Jahr 1928* in \"Quellen und Darstellungen zur Zeitgeschichte,\" Vol. VII, 1961."
] |
[
"Unfortunately, there are not a lot of good English-language books on the Blood Purge itself; most accounts tend to be pop history-ish. There is a very good German-language book written by the journalist Heinz Höhne, *Mordsache Röhm: Hitlers Durchbruch zur Alleinherrschaft 1933–1934*. If you dig through some of the citations of Kershaw or Evans on the Purge, you'll usually find citations to Höhne's book. There is a very good recent book on the SA itself, *Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler's Brownshirts* by Daniel Siemens, and its chapter on the Röhm affair is quite good. [Eleanor Hancock's](_URL_0_) corpus of work is also quite useful for contextualizing the Purge, especially her biography of Röhm and articles like \"'The Purge of the SA Reconsidered: 'An Old Putschist Trick\"?\"."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
}
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Were there ever any attempts to raise the USS Arizona after Pearl Harbor? If not, why was the decision made to not raise it?
|
[
"There were no plans to salvage *Arizona*. The magazine explosion that sank her left the hull too mangled to repair, or for easy raising. It was thought that it would not be cost-effective to raise her, and that it would take too long to repair her. However, parts of her would still be useful to the war effort. Her remaining superstructure was removed and scrapped. The two after turrets were removed, and emplaced as coastal batteries for the defence of Hawaii."
] |
[
"Yeah, Tora! Tora! Tora! is pretty good. It did though confuse even some historians into thinking Yamamoto said the Sleeping Giants quote. Pearl Harbor got so much wrong. For starters, the US didn't have modern warships stationed at Pearl Harbor. For another no US army pilots were transferred to the RAF to get combat experience before the US joined the war at a time in which the US was trying to pretend to be all neutral. No one from Pearl Harbor went on the Doolittle Raid. Dropped bombs do not fall directly downwards. The Japanese didn't spend half of the attack strafing pretty nurses. It's been years since I saw it so I'm probably forgetting a lot of other things they got really wrong."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
|
were domestic cattle kept by the British in 2100BC?
|
[
"In 2100 BC the British Isles were in the last stages of their Neolithic era (4000-2000 BC) during which there was an increased sedentarization of the population and an adoption of agricultural practices which included the domestication of animals such as pigs and cattle. This domestication began as early as the late Mesolithic era (4500 BC) when the first move from the traditional hunter gatherer life began to occur, possibly due to the decline in animal populations caused by over hunting. So yes domestic cattle were kept by the peoples of Neolithic Britain. Their bones can be found at numerous neolithic sites such as Hemp Knoll and Knap Hill and at many sites seem to have made up a majority of the domesticated animals e.g. at Knap Hill (3300-2000 BC) 88% of all animal bones found are those of cattle."
] |
[
"A hundred years ago? Do you mean 5,000 years ago?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
}
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Why didn't lonothorax survive until the Middle Ages? What were their advantages/disadvantages compared to more modern armors (chain armor, plate armor, cuirass, etc.). Is there a chance at all for this ancient amor to compete?
|
[
"It did, it was just called a [gambeson/jupon/aketon](_URL_0_) depending on the time and place. Both gambesons and linothoraxs were heavily quilted cloth, usually linen, worn as a standalone body defense (there is some debate as to what linothoraxs were made from, either leather or linen). It is believed that the armour was arrow and cut resistant and provided moderate defense against piercing attacks as well. The defense against blunt force attacks such as maces would be limited on it's own due to its inability to disperse the force over a large area, but under mail or plate it would be much better at absorbing the dispersed force. Most early plate was worn over a light jupon, or sometimes under one. at least in the later times a gambeson was worn under maille, but there is no documentation for the early middle ages, though many still suspect that it was worn, but nothing was written about it."
] |
[
"Bronze, brass, and soft iron will all work quite well for cannon barrels as long as they're thick enough and the powder burns relatively slowly. It's the quality of the gunpowder that would make the big difference here; for example the English naval fleets once had a serious problem with cannons exploding because the supplied gunpowder was too finely-grained and thus burned too quickly, causing the barrels to rupture. Edit: In any case, Roman metallurgy wasn't that far behind metallurgy in the 13th/14th centuries when cannon arrived on the battlefield. Also, as a bit of trivia, cannon were instrumental in the Turks' conquest of Constantinople, the last continuous remnant of the Roman empire."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
}
|
In the times of one bedroom wooden houses in say the Smokey mountains when people had a lot of kids to help work the farms and do chores, what was the sex life like Did they do it in front of the kids in the bedroom?
|
[
"Not an expert myself, but I remember having seen this question discussed here previously. Here are a couple threads on it with good answers: _URL_1_ _URL_0_"
] |
[
"If you've ever owned chickens you know that 1. Every chicken lays an egg pretty much every day 2. If you don't collect the egg the chicken will destroy it one way or another So the first thing you do in the morning is collect the eggs, so it makes you would boil or fry it up as a meal. The vast majority of our traditional foods started as rural staple food because the vast majority of people used to live rurally. When they migrated to the city, they carried on the same food habits and tastes."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
}
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Why was Edison referred to as such a bad person?
|
[
"I'm not a mod or historian, but your question has been asked before. some FAQ links here: [What is the truth between the rivalry between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison](_URL_1_) Also a bonus [badhistory] (_URL_0_) thread. If you have a more specific question that's not addressed above, I recommend you rephrase your question and resubmit."
] |
[
"William Jennings Bryan would be a really great character for you to focus on there."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How were Civil Wars financed in your time period?
|
[
"Getting my bachelor's in history in may, i enjoy the hell out of Russian Revolution, so i shall respond from a standpoint of Russian Civil War. In Soviet Union, \"War Communism\" was implemented, which is an economical and political system. The system incorporated the nationalization of all industry and market. Any private entity was strictly illegal. Extremely strict working conditions, and non-working classes were forced to work for the \"success of the war.\" Requesition of foodstuffs, along with confiscation of surplus and strict rationing of food. Many organizations would be run by the military, ex. transportation. In layman's terms, taking control of everything and squeezing the little people. Sources: The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913-1945 by Davies and Harries The Russian Revolution by Sheila Fitzpatrick Also, 39 days away from getting a History Degree"
] |
[
"A follow-up and related question: how about young people in other parts of the world in this time period? I.e. South Asia, China, West Africa, South America?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
}
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Books on Northern Barbarian Tribes and Woad
|
[
"James Fraser's book, [*From Caledonia to Pictland*](_URL_0_) has quite a lot of information on the Roman era Scottish tribes, and though it's quite a broad overview, it's as good a place to start as any. If nothing else, it should give you quite a lot of references on places to start (although as a side note, unless later editions have been fixed, the footnote numbering is quite messed up). That said, I think pretty much anything written on the significance of woad is going to be conjecture and theorising, although I know that there's someone floating around this sub, I forget who I'm afraid, who has made a couple of surprisingly in depth posts on the subject."
] |
[
"The Art of War in the Western World - Archer Jones"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage about Education:"
}
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Why did so many cultures develop systems of time, distance and other measurements that seem completely illogical? (12 inches to a foot, 60 seconds to a minute etc)
|
[
"A system based on multiples of twelve allows for many divisions. It's helpful in many contexts. A 60 minute hour can be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60. 144 items in a packing crate (one gross) can be packed 2 by 72, 3 by 48, 4 by 36, 6 by 24, 8 by 18, 9 by 16, or 12 by 12."
] |
[
"A minute is 1/60th of a degree. A second is 1/60th of a minute. (In other words, 60 seconds go in 1 minute, and 60 minutes go in 1 degree.) They have nothing to do with time."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Mathematics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Mathematics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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How important was the outcome of the Battle of Tours (732 AD)? Should it be considered "macrohistorical"?
|
[
"Christian/Catholic doctrine didn't stifle \"progress\" as a rule, and the Church as an institution was vital in the acquisition, conservation and dissemination of knowledge, even while it was engaged in persecution of heretical ideas. Things are complicated! It's certainly true that the Middle East had a more academically-minded culture for much of the Middle Ages than Europe, but it's ahistorical to think of Europe as being crippled by a religiously-induced dark age. So with that in mind, I have to say that I think the question \"Was this a victory for science and philosophy, or the opposite?\" is ill-founded. \"Progress\", whatever you consider that to be, isn't dependent on whether Muslims or Christians won a battle. Neither party was a beacon of reason fighting against anti-intellectual brutes. Hell, the very fact that they were fighting in the first place was probably a more serious hindrance to \"progress\" than any result of the battle could possibly be. Just nitpicking, no offense intended."
] |
[
"Well, a worldwide war requires a certain level of globalization. Still, Winston Churchill argued that the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763) should be counted as the first world war."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about history:"
}
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Saturday Reading and Research | January 09, 2016
|
[
"I'm going to repost a brief summary of what I posted in the Friday topic because I'm still blown away by what I read. Isabel Kelly wrote a [chapter](_URL_2_) in *The Archaeology of West and Northwestern Mesoamerica* (1985) in which she discusses some gold and silver objects recovered from Colima, Mexico. She discovered that an L-shape serpent ornament is possibly the fire serpent representation of the Old Fire God found elsewhere in Mesoamerica. It is rather rare that one can identify a West Mexican deity so this find is rather huge. I wonder, though, whether this ornament was made within Colima to reflect Colima's artistic style and belief or whether it was an item that was traded from elsewhere. The Met has two objects in their collection that look very similar to what Kelly reported, but are attributed to the Aztec or Toltec. Is this actually a Central Mexican design or have these two been mislabled and should be properly labled as Colima? _URL_1_ _URL_0_"
] |
[
"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 question about Literature:",
"pos": "Represent the passage about Literature:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
}
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Could the Sphinx have been Anubis?
|
[
"I think characterizing Robert Temple as a \"bit of a fringe conspiracy type\" is being overly generous. He's a full-on \"ancient aliens\" conspiracy type, with absolutely no academic standing. My advice is to dismiss pretty much everything that he puts forward as his own original research. As far as the Sphinx/Anubis thing goes, you could superimpose pretty much any figure over the Sphinx and claim it has eroded over the years, but unless there is some sort of written or archaeological record, there is no reason to take the claim seriously. Lion/eagle/bull/man hybrids were pretty popular in the Ancient Near East, so there isn't really any reason to think that the Sphinx is out of place."
] |
[
"IIRC, The Kaaba is a building said to have been built by Abraham and his son to house a rock from Heaven brought to him by an angel."
] |
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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From what I understand, it is still very taboo to speak publicly about the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Why is this the case?
|
[
"This isn't a history question - but rather a current affairs question the way it's phrased. Anyway it's not taboo to speak of the cultural revolution in China in most aspects. Xi Jinping has spoken of his time in a cave when his family was purged at a teenager during the Cultural Revolution. Rather it's impolitic to criticize Mao's actions to a huge extent. The line is that Mao is 70% good, 30% bad actions, and he had good intentions but bad outcomes."
] |
[
"My opinion on this is that it is as common nowadays as it was two or three decades ago. But now its more accepted to speak about it. There is no stigma with going to the psychiatrist. Just my opinion."
] |
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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Why many little countries popped during the first years of the Russian Revolution (1917)? And how they were back to the Soviet Union so quickly?
|
[
"The Russian Empire was comprised of any different national groups, most of whom did not want to be part of the empire. So when the Revolutions occurred several groups took advantage of the chaos (and in some cases aided by the Germans; the Ukrainian states and Belarus being a couple prominent examples) and declared independence. This is also why so many smaller groups declared states: in the turmoil of the revolution a multitude of groups were formed espousing a variety of ideologies (though often leaning towards socialism of some sort). As time went on the stronger groups consolidated their power and absorbed the weaker states, and seeing how the Bolsheviks were one of the strongest and most organised they were able to quickly reabsorb most of the breakaway regions."
] |
[
"United States of Central America, Gran Columbia, The British Empire( for that matter all of the imperial empires after the second world war), the Soviet Union to name a few that immediately come to mind. An argument could be made that the Western Roman Empire never really \"fell\" but experienced a transformation. Edit- Austria-Hungary, Russian empire. The Ottoman Empire ( contrary to popular opinion the Ottoman Empire continued past the first world war abit with much less territory). 19th Century Spanish Empire. External conflicts all contributed to the fall of these empires to a certain degree, but the breakups occurred from within"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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What was the relationship like between the Spanish and their Tlaxcala alllies?
|
[
"You may be interested in [my earlier answer on a similar topic](_URL_1_): - [In the second part](_URL_0_) I look at Tlaxcala's \"special status\", so you can also go straight to this - this focuses more on colonial times and Tlaxcala's rewards for siding with the Spanish - [This answer to a follow up](_URL_1_dwowehk/) also directly deals with Tlaxcala in more detail (esp. on the 2nd question) - here I look more at Tlaxcala's reasons for forming the alliance in the first place Hope that's helpful! In case of questions let me know."
] |
[
"He kind of orchestrated and led the native coalition and Spanish troops that defeated the Aztecs, who were the most powerful state in Mexico at the time. I'm not sure what you are going for here."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
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How much did the murder of Patrice Lumumba affect the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
|
[
"> Was it inevitable that the DR Congo ended up the way it did because of things like the resource curse, ethnic rivalry, predatory foreign powers and unstable and weak societal structures left by the colonialism? It was not inevitable. We know how Lumumba died and why, and we know what happened after his death. We know that Belgium and the United States supported the coup against him and had him murdered. We know that they then supported the subsequent rise to power of Mobuto Sese Seku. We know that Mobuto spent the next 30 years plundering the country, leaving it bereft of political, social, and economic institutions. All of these events were the results of deliberate decisions made by people in both the US and Belgian governments, as well as members of Congo's military. So again, it was not inevitable. One could speculate that had Lumumba stayed in power Congo would not necessarily have prospered, but it would only be speculation."
] |
[
"Congo is the name of a river in Africa which runs through both of the countries (DRC and the Republic of the Congo). Upon achieving independence (from Belgium and France), they both choose to name themselves the Republic of the Congo. The one which is now the DRC was renamed to Zaire in the 1970s - it was renamed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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In medieval times people wore fur and used fires to warm up but what did they do when it was too hot?
|
[
"Could you be more specific about what region you're inquiring about? Most regions were fur clothing were widespread don't really see temperatures hot enough to require more than the removal of said fur clothing to cope but perhaps you had a specific place in mind?"
] |
[
"Because they don't spend as much time outdoors. A hat protected you from the sun when it was hot, kept you warm when it was cold, and kept you dry when it was rainy. That far less necessary when you spend most of your time inside in a climate controlled environment."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
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What happened to Soviet Soldiers who were stationed in satellite countries when the USSR broke up?
|
[
"In Transnistria and I think Abkhazia as well the remaining Russian garrisons provided arms and in some cases even fought on the side of separatists (against Moldova and Georgia respectively). There is some dispute as to what degree this was the result of local forces taking matters into their own hands or policy from Moscow."
] |
[
"I can't answer, but Albania, Slovakia (as part of Czechoslovakia) and Romania were all members of the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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Khrushchev and the USSR in the end of the Cuban missile crisis was contented to let the US appear as the "winners" of the conflict even though there was a mutual backing down. Why?
|
[
"One has to consider that you are using western sources. In Russia its viewed neutrally. One Russian doc says that the crisis was orchestrated by USSR to get missiles out of Turkey. But almost spiraled out of control."
] |
[
"One of the major rifts between western capitalists and Cuba was not about capitalism vs communism directly (Cuba is not actually by definition communist). But more about alliances with the USSR, and the Cuban missile crisis (Cuba Agreeing to accept nuclear ICBM's from Russia to aim at the US). Then Russia struck a deal with the US and removed the nukes from Cuba (against Castro's wishes) further straining US, Cuba relations. Have a great day! :-)"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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If I wanted to learn about historical military tactics, where would I begin?
|
[
"This is a huge topic. Despite the old quote that war never changes, warfare changed completely multiple times during our known history. Two standard books (that cover the philosophy part) are Carl von Clausewitz *On war* and Sun Tzu *The Art of war* Both cover general ideas about warfare which remained throughout history and parts that applied to their respective period and are more or less moot now (especially Clausewitz) But both are still somewhat up to date and definitely an interesting read. Sun Tzu also covers a great deal about leadership, without connection to warfare."
] |
[
"This is a very broad question about an enormous international event. Can you narrow it down at all? Is there a particular kind of thing that you're hoping to hear about?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
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What are some good books or sources on the fall of the Roman Empire from the environmental collapse school of thought?
|
[
"This theory gets a lot of credance these days. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't recommend very many veritable resources on this theory, because I don't know any. The theory that environmental change was the main culprit involved in the fall of the Roman Empire has gained a lot of support in recent years, but unfortunately most of the literature on the subject were done by people outside the field of classics, and many of them are unfortunately nearly as sketchy as the recent attempt by a *biologist* to determine the Indo-European homeland not by any biological evidence, but by modelling linguistic dispersal, a field in which he admitted he knew almost nothing and was totally unqualified to base a scientific study on. My cynicism aside, I'm sure that someone here can recommend something worthwhile, since very few theories get popular without at least some small basis in proper scholarly work."
] |
[
"Can anyone suggest respected works that deal, on a theoretical level, with the concept of elites? Specifically from the standpoint of history."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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Help me identify this page of a book (?) that my grandfather gave to me a long time ago
|
[
"It's a page from a [Buddhist sutra] (_URL_0_), hand engraved on palm leaf. I can't quite make out the language - looks [Dai] (_URL_1_)."
] |
[
"Do you have any more info that could be helpful? Where did you find it? Is it a family heirloom, and if so, where-ish do you think your ancestors were 100ish years ago? Anything that could help steer people in the right direction would be great."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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If Hilter was never born, would World War II have still happened?
|
[
"In some form, yes. The extreme reparations taken from Germany after WW1 left the country unstable and the people desperate, something was going to go down. What interests me is that the Socialists and the Communists were at odds with each other, but together would have outnumbered the fledgling Nazis. Had they reached an understanding then there could have been a communist/socialist aggressor."
] |
[
"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
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
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Is there any historical consensus on what stone henge actually is?
|
[
"hi OP! here is a previous discussion with lots of great info on the latest theories about Stonehenge: [What is the most accepted explanation for Stonehenge among scholars?](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"To be a little less specific, what did people think the future in general would be like before the Industrial Revolution?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
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Did McCarthyism usher in "Under God" and "In God We Trust"?
|
[
"IIRC, \"In God We Trust\" has been on coinage and money since the 1850's. The addition of \"Under God\" was done during the early Cold War as a means to draw distinction between us and the \"Godless Commies\". Both are easily searched for. Edit: \"In God We Trust\" on coinage since 1864 and paper money since 1957."
] |
[
"The judge was referring to Ceremonial Deism, which means that the phrase doesn't have any specific meaning to a particular religion but is instead a more non-denominational reference to a higher power. Through repeated and regular use, it loses any special religious significance. Which means when you buy something with a dollar, you don't think you're doing anything religious or affirming a belief in religion. Ceremonial Deism isn't prohibited by the Establishment Clause, which means things like \"In God We Trust\" on money or \"Under God\" in the pledge don't violate the First Amendment."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
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Monday Meta Mish-Mash | Discussion of what to do with this feature from here on out
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[
"I always thought it would be fun to have one of the weekly threads be for sharing articles, books, papers, or primary sources that we have seen over the week. For example, if I read a paper on, say, the adaptation of Greco-Roman iconography on Chinese ceramic, I can post it and maybe a short paragraph in commentary. Conversely, if I just saw a source and aren't sure what to make of it, I could post it here and get others' ideas. I know that Friday-Free-For-All is there for this, but I think it might be worth splitting off."
] |
[
"This falls rather loosely under \"historiography\" so it's an okay question. You might get a better response if you post it in the Saturday reading thread which is currently stickied to the top of the sub. :)"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
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AskHistorians Podcast 131 - A Scholar and A Pundit: A discussion of the work of Victor Davis Hanson w/Dr. Roel Konijnendijk
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[
"I'm about 30 minutes in, so apologies if you get to this. Obviously Hanson is dated, but are there reasons to still read him? Some possibilities: 1. Did he provide a paradigm shift at all? Even if his work is no longer considered up to date, did he provide a new perspective that tossed out older scholarship? (I don't get the sense this is likely) 2. Is he a capstone of a now-discredited school of thought? That is to say that he isn't groundbreaking, but did he is he the peak of another view and worth reading because of that? 3. Does his knowledge of the classics make him a good starting point for someone who wants to get seriously into the field? 4. He is the leading foil for modern scholarship? Because he was so popular, much of modern scholarship is criticizing him, so you need him as a foundation to understand anyone else. 5. Some other reason?"
] |
[
"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:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
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What did happen to Burgundy that it's power stared ti decay after the Hundred Years War?
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[
"**[I think this post answers your question](_URL_0_)**, (courtesy of /u/MootMute). Also, I don't think *errāre hūmānum est* means precisely what you think it does. It's the first of a two part phrase from Seneca the Younger, which translates as \"to err is human, but to (hubristically) persist is diabolical\". It's a little like the misunderstood 'jack of all trades, master of none' phrase, which continues as the more positive 'though often-times better than master of one\"."
] |
[
"United States of Central America, Gran Columbia, The British Empire( for that matter all of the imperial empires after the second world war), the Soviet Union to name a few that immediately come to mind. An argument could be made that the Western Roman Empire never really \"fell\" but experienced a transformation. Edit- Austria-Hungary, Russian empire. The Ottoman Empire ( contrary to popular opinion the Ottoman Empire continued past the first world war abit with much less territory). 19th Century Spanish Empire. External conflicts all contributed to the fall of these empires to a certain degree, but the breakups occurred from within"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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What was porn like in the 1960's?
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[
"An interesting read on the subject is the article *An Empire of the Obscene* in journalist Eric Schlosser's 2003 book *Reefer Madness*. It focuses on the career of Reuben Sturman, who was the biggest distributor of pornographic materials from the 60's onwards and a very big figure in the business until 1989 when he went to jail for tax evasion. It does tell more of the history of porn in the US. At some point before movie projectors became more common, there were entrepreneur's who provided a projector and material for \"stag nights\" or bachelor parties. Another thing to find some information on is the appearance of viewing booths in porn shops, although I'm not sure whether this was as late as the 70s. I don't have the book with me, but I recommend it highly, the other two articles on underground economies in the US, the marijuana trade and the illegal immigrant business are very interesting too. Edit: Had to remove some ambiguities. _URL_0_"
] |
[
"What drugs were popular in 19th century Britain?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Why does the letter 'X' exist if it often just sounds like a replacement for other letters? What in the history of language deemed this letter necessary?
|
[
"As far as I know, there are two explanations for X as mystery and solving for X, etc. The first is that Descartes decided it—he used letters from the beginning of the alphabet for known quantities and letters from the end for unknown quantities. The second (which I suppose isn't mutually-exclusive with the first) is that it comes from Arabic, where in algebra, the unknown was represented by the letter shiin for \"shay\" with means \"thing,\" and when algebra was introduced to the West, it was through Spain, where X is \"sh.\" I have[ this TED talk](_URL_0_) as a source, but that's it."
] |
[
"Zed is older and it is based on the French word for the character which evolved from the Greek character zeta. The origins of zee seem to be a bit foggy, but in a period from the 18th to 19th centuries it seems to have become popular to bring the pronunciation of the character's name in line with other english characters. Zed has a much stronger consonant ending than other letters and by switching it to zee, the sound is softened and gains the ee ending so common with other letter names. It doesn't really help that the letter Z is not well-integrated into English, so a lot of people really didn't care too much about it. Edit: Buh, Greek, not Latin. Not sure where I was there."
] |
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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Did Hitler's Constant Micro Management of WW2 ever have any positive effects?
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[
"The 'no retreat' order during the winter of 1941-42 was considered by some of his generals to be crucial in holding together the German forces on the Eastern front, despite causing massive losses to be taken."
] |
[
"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 query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
}
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