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How would one join pirates in 1600s-1700s
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[
"This has been hit upon over the course of several other Frequently Asked Questions about Pirate History. I would suggest looking over there first, and if something more specific isn't answered there, post a follow up question: [r/AskHistorians's FAQ for Pirate History](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Not an answer but a question for OP, are you asking about the different in feasting tables of England in 1048 Anglo-Saxon England vs 1103 Norman England? Or a feasting table in Anglo-Saxon England in 1048 vs a feasting table in Normandy in 1103?"
] |
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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What was the initial international reaction to the Six-Day War (1967)?
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[
"One of the most dramatic changes in policy was in [France](_URL_1_), who prior to 1967 had been the foremost arms dealer to the Israelis. While de Gaulle's opinion was already swayed in favor of the Arab countries (due to Algeria's newfound independence), Israel's preemptive strike pretty much sealed the deal on the existing arms embargo. As a result, paid for Dassault Mirage 5s (codeveloped with Israel) and missile boats being built in Cherbourg were withheld from export. As an aside, the Mossad would later steal the plans for the Mirage with assistance of a sympathetic engineer at Dassault (to produce the [IAI Nesher](_URL_2_)), and [steal](_URL_0_) the missile boats straight out of harbor on Christmas Eve of 1969 by fake sales deal and Israeli crew infiltrating the town posing as tourists. The result of this was to open up the Israeli market for a new arms dealer: the United States."
] |
[
"The Chinese were equipped with Soviet made MiG-15 fighters. They outclassed everything that the UN could put into the air and it stayed that way largely until the introduction of the North American Sabre. While the Sabre closed the performance gap, it was by no means a superior aircraft. Source: Xiaoming Zhang, \"China and the Air War in Korea, 1950-1953,\" The Journal of Military History 62, no. 2 (1998). pp. 349"
] |
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 can go about acquiring archaeological publications not readily available on the internet?
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[
"Usually media stories do not link back to archaeological publications, but to press releases. These press releases have a limited use-life, and are not normally stored or published in any durable form. Your best bet tracing the press release for this particular case would be simply to e-mail the archaeologist and hope they still have the file on backup somewhere. If you are interested in the primary publication, they should be stored at the local museum. They are normally publicly available for either local residents or research purposes, so you could just send them an email for it."
] |
[
"Google Scholar is great for this. _URL_0_ All of the papers with free links are show a link to the right that should say either html or .pdf. If your research is through a university, I would assume there are a lot of resources through your library for looking up journal articles."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How many people died in the Vietnam war? I'm getting numbers between 5 million and 3 million. Also, how did a small, Indochinese nation absorb those losses? Like I'm from Florida, and that's like losing Jacksonville, Tall, Miami, and Tampa twice.
|
[
"Due to the widespread death and destruction during the war, the exact number is not known. However, the general consensus is that around 4 million people died from war related causes. In regards to your question about how Vietnam absorbed those losses, the answer is simple. Vietnam may be small on a map, but it has a large population. Back in 1975, when the war ended, Vietnam had a population of around 50 million people. In comparison, the U.S. had around 200 million at the time. Today, Vietnam’s population is just shy of 100 million. We must also remember that Vietnam was divided at the time. North Vietnam (with the support of the USSR and PRC) was fighting South Vietnam (backed by the USA). So in a sense, it was a civil war, which lead to the high casualty counts."
] |
[
"Because it would cause issues..say we go to war: What happens when we win? Who gets the north? China or SK? China would NEVER let the United States be so close to the border. What do you do with all the refugees? We could utterly massacre the North Korean military in days. The United States invaded Iraq and was in downtown Baghdad in a week, and Iraq had a much better military then NK. The problem is feeding/housing/medical all the people left behind. Seoul would shelled to hell What do we have to gain?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
}
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I happened to come across a British source from July 1941 implying that it was already well-known 'that Hitler dopes his Troops when they go into battle.' How and when did the Allies find out about the German scheme to drug frontline soldiers?
|
[
"Followup Question, were the allies doing the same thing?"
] |
[
"Hitler's average day varied greatly from the beginning to the end of the war. I can only tell you most accurately about the end of the war however. At the end of the war he spent much of his time in his underground bunker along with the top Nazi leaders (many of which fled Germany as they realized the war was lost and left to places such as Argentina). Much of the time was spent devising plans for war and the last stand around Berlin. Some notable events that occured during these last days were Hitler's marriage and him greeting the Nazi youth some as young as 12 that would be sent into battle. During this time Hitler became increasingly depressed as he slowly began to realize that the war was over and his reign was coming to an end. Some more information here: _URL_0_ Also an assassination attempt was made on Hitler's life in his last days called Operation Valkyrie. It is quite interesting and a movie was made about it quite recently."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
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Why does Napoleon get such a bad rap?
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[
"This has been answered before but hasn't been put into the FAQ. I now have a project for tonight. [Other answers](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Isn't it just another way to take your mind off it?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Health:"
}
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How common were chariot crashes in ancient Roman races and how dangerous were they?
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[
"Chariot crashes were quite common in Roman chariot races. Chariots jockeyed for a good position, trying to get their opponents to crash into the sides and dividing wall of the track. These races were so dangerous, charioteers carried knives to cut themselves loose if they were being dragged or were tangled in the reins. However, in many crashes, charioteers were unable to cut themselves loose, and crashes often ended in death of the horses and/or charioteer. Here's an epitaph written by Martial of the charioteer Scorpus: > I am Scorpus, the glory of the noisy Circus, the much-applauded and short-lived darling of Rome. Envious Fate, counting my victories instead of my years, and so believing me old, carried me off in my twenty-sixth year. It's believed he died in a naufragia (\"shipwreck\")."
] |
[
"Also, would her military experience be any useful in finding a job? Did women serve in the British military during World War 1 and if so, did they go back into the workforce afterwards?"
] |
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 first battle to be reenacted by actors? When was it?
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[
"Well, the Romans reenacted quite few battles at the Coliseum (built 72 C.E.), and I suppose they were reenacting battles before in other structures. I don't know that you could call the people in these events actors."
] |
[
"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 title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Did the King of Denmark have a claim on England in 1066
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[
"Svend's (normally *Sweyn* in English) claim was based on the fact that he was the nephew of Canute the Great (Svend's mother, Estrid Svendsdatter, was Canute's sister) who had ruled England. And Svend did (sort of) push his claim - in 1069/70 he invaded East England to aid Anglo-Saxon rebels against William. However, Svend ended up accepting payment from William in exchange for his forces withdrawing to Denmark without a fight. Svend's invasion and subsequent withdrawal were a leading cause of the Harrying of the North."
] |
[
"Usually war. The current British Royal Family can trace it's lineage back through the glorious revolution, to the wars of the roses, and then all the way back to the Norman conquest of England in 1066"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
}
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How did such a small island like Britain conquer most of the world?
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[
"If I may be permitted a follow up question, how is it that small countries in general are able to keep up militarily with their neighbors? The main example in thinking of is Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus, and later Charles XII. It's my understanding that the troops were heavily disciplined, but there must be another reason that certain nations can become so powerful despite a lack of numbers."
] |
[
"Largely it was because of the period in which the Americas were \"discovered\". At the time there were only a few countries that were able to contest each other for control of these new territories. These included England, France, Spain and Portugal, among others. If you take up a large amount of land and divide it up between relatively few people, you each get quite a bit of land."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
}
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Question on Alan Turing
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[
"Turing was arrested in 1952, and died in 1954. Gay sex was illegal in the US too at the time, \"sodomy\" laws still existed in 13 states until the Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional in 2003. France might have worked. They hadn't had laws criminalizing gay sex since 1791. But there was still a lot of social and legal hostility."
] |
[
"There is a post on the frontpage on the topic: _URL_0_"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
}
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Did Booker T. Washington really complain about "people who do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs"?
|
[
"It seems so. Here _URL_0_ you can find the full book My Larger Education: Being Chapters From my Experiences by Booker T. Washington and on page 118 you'll find the quote. It can also apparently be found in *The Booker T. Washington Papers* by Booker T. Washington, Vol. 1, pg. 430, edited by Louis R. Harlan, published by Univ. of Illinois Press in 1972 . The work has a whole bunch of reviews on JSTOR so I'm guessing it has some merit."
] |
[
"TO quote John Steinbeck: \"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.\" You can't vote against the oppressors if your one secret wish is to join them one day."
] |
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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Is there any record where someone has punched a sitting US President?
|
[
"Might not be what you're looking for, but Teddy Roosevelt (who else?) actually went blind in his left eye due to a boxing match in the White House. He was fighting a young artillery officer when he was punched so hard in the face a blood vessel in his eye burst, leaving him virtually blind. Source: _URL_0_ *\"He lost the sight in that eye while boxing\"*"
] |
[
"That's the point. Even with all of the checks and balances, the president of the US is definitely the most powerful man in the world."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
}
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What was the international reaction to Napoleon's death during that time period (1820's)?
|
[
"Emannuel Las Cases' [memoires of Bonaparte's final days on St. Helena](_URL_2_) were published in several languages in the early 1820s, sold incredibly well and were widely reviewed to critical acclaim. [Here's a series of excerpts](_URL_0_) if you want something more focused, and [here's a review] (_URL_1_) published in _The Eclectic Review_ (1823). It begins on page 112."
] |
[
"Do you have a period you specifically want to know about? This is ranges from slightly different to totally different if we're talking about Asia Minor and Syria circa 333 B.C., Italy in 216 B.C., Gaul 500 A.D., Palestine 1066 A.D., Brandenburg in 1630/31 A.D., Silesia in 1740 A.D. or Sedan in 1870. I'm sure we could whip up some kind of generalized answer but I feel by better knowing what you're thinking about when you ask this question I (or someone else) could provide a more in depth, specific answer tailored to you."
] |
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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Was ever Math expressed in another way than numbers?
|
[
"Hey there! Could you clarify your question a little bit more? As you mention, there have been many different ways of representing numbers, be those Roman numerals or [knotted strings](_URL_0_), but at their heart they all represent numbers. What would you consider \"math\" if it does not deal with numbers?"
] |
[
"A numberline is infinite, and yet only has one \"one\" on it. Could it be possible? I suppose. Is it necessarily true? No."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Mathematics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage about Mathematics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage about astronomy:"
}
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The founder of Adidas, Adolf Dassler, helped Jesse Owens win the 1936 Olympics with his spiked shoes. How did Adi not get punished being a part of the Nazi party and helping a black man?
|
[
"Do we have comparison times for Owens pre-cleats? Was this an unfair advantage?"
] |
[
"Firstly, Germany was awarded the Olympics in 1931, two years before Hitler even came to power. At the time, Germany might have been in a bit of turmoil, but nothing the would warrant exclusion from hosting the games. Even after the rise of Hitler and the Nazi's, there was no real reason to remove the games from Germany. At the time, Germany was doing half decent economically while the rest of the developed world was in a depression. So, they had no problems building all the venues and infrastructure needed for the games. Spain, the country that Germany beat to get the Olympics, was in the midst of a civil war. In 1936, the only evil thing that Hitler had done was the Nuremberg Laws, which removed the rights of the Jews. However, most of the world did not fully appreciate the scope of the laws, nor did they care. In the end, the Olympics were fairly successful. In fact, they started the tradition of the Olympic Flame."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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You've just received a new manuscript to edit by yet another general turned historian. One "The History of the Peloponnesian war" by Thucydides. What are some issues that immediately jump out at you?
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[
"The most obvious problem is Thucydides' admitted habit of making up speeches for people to give. While, in some cases, it's speeches he would've personally witnessed, like Pericles' Funeral Oration, and thus would at least reasonably be somewhat close to what Pericles actually said, in other cases, he's sticking lengthy speeches into the mouths of Spartan and Athenian ambassadors to Corcyra with no reason to believe that they said anything similar to what is put in their mouths. Thucydides also has a severe axe to grind with the populist/democratic faction in Athens and, while it is hardly rare for historians to take sides when describing events, his close relation to the events in question makes his blackening of certain figures' reputations a bit eyebrow-raising. He knew Cleon, Alcibiades, and the rest personally and his hatred of them would definitely look bad in a modern historian."
] |
[
"This book is published by Yale University Press. It's a textbook, not a popular history. According to Amazon: \"**About the Author** Thomas R. Martin is professor of Classics at the College of the Holy Cross. His publications include Herodotus and Sima Qian: The First Great Historians of Greece and China, Ancient Rome, and, as co-author, The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures.\" He's not a popular historian at all, but rather a professionally trained one. The only problem with the book might be problems one might have with textbooks generally (they can be boring, they can be conservative in their scholarship, they can be overly general), but this book should serve as a perfectly good introduction to the field, though perhaps experts in that subfield will be able to tell you about the reputation of that author and book more generally."
] |
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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Were there "mayors" or de facto leaders of Hoovervilles?
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[
"Unfortunately, many Hoovervilles lack proper documentation so we know what they were like. [Seattle's Hooverville](_URL_3_) is one of the better documented. An \"unofficial mayor\" wrote about the history of Seattle's Hooverville [here](_URL_3_), and in the document he called himself a \" 'Mayor' of Hooverville.\" [Here](_URL_3_) it mentions Mike Donovan, who was the \"Mayor\" of Chicago's Hooverville, and Gus Smith, who was the unofficial mayor of St. Louis's Hooverville. To answer your question, it is known some larger and well documented Hoovervilles had \"mayors.\" It is difficult to tell if the smaller Hoovervilles did due to their lack of historical documentation."
] |
[
"By New Yorkers do you mean citizens of the Colony of New York? Or people who lived in New York city? There is a difference between those who live in the back country and those who live in NYC Either way New York City had a lot of Loyalists in it. Howe was assisted by Loyalist spies during his invasion of New York and was quickly able to raise several Loyalist Companies out of the areas under his control."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
}
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Why is bubblegum pink?
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[
"In 1928, Walter E. Diemer, an accountant for the Philadelphia based Fleer chewing gum company, was experimenting with a number of new gum recipes. Of the new recipes one was found to be both stretchier and less sticky then other recipes. when Diemer mixed the ingredients he used pink dye as it was the only dye he had close to hand. The bubblegum became very popular and so the pink colouring stuck."
] |
[
"Answer me this: why is pizza so delicious?"
] |
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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Where humans (lets say around Roman times) physically different to modern humans in any significant way?
|
[
"Based on the surviving statues; no, humans have been pretty consistent in looks for the past few millennia. However people were a lot shorter then than now. For example, during the Napoleonic era, 5'7\"ish was considered the standard height for a grown man. I'm guessing during the Roman times they were even shorter/if not around the same height. This had to do with nutrition mainly; your average Roman isn't going to be as well fed as your average modern American & etc."
] |
[
"The general test is do they normally interbreed in the wild in a way that results in offspring that are health enough to breed in turn. If they do, species, if not 2 species. Human can all interbreed, so all the same species. And our genetic diversity is shockingly small compared to most species dues or a fairly recent evolutionary bottleneck. ONe of the reasons racism is stupid. An average family group of chimps had more generic diversity than all of the human race."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
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}
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What was the Soviet reaction to America putting men on the Moon in 1969?
|
[
"Officially? They brushed it off and pretended they didn't care about the so-called \"moon race\". In reality they shut down their manned moon program, mothballed the N1 and the spacecraft that were being built to put men around and on the moon, and then spent a lot of effort covering up the existence of the program. Then they went on to concentrate on civilian and military space stations, which has been the prime focus of the Soviet/Russian manned space program since then. There's a great book by James Harford called [Korolev](_URL_1_) which details the Soviet moon program and other aspects of Soviet spaceflight. Also, here's an interview with Nikita Krushchev's son that gives some more perspective: _URL_0_"
] |
[
"Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [Why haven't we been back to the moon in 44 years? ](_URL_0_) 1. [ELI5: why hasn't there been a man on the moon since 1972? ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5: Why have humans not returned to the moon since 1972? ](_URL_5_) 1. [ELI5: why hasn't any other country landed on the moon since the U.S. landed on the man back in 1969? ](_URL_4_) 1. [Why has only 1 country landed on the Moon, & why has nobody been back since 1972? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: Why has man not been back to the moon, even with all the advances in technology? ](_URL_1_)"
] |
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 blacks have the same opportunities as whites to benefit from New Deal programs?
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[
"An excellent source for this question is Ira Katznelson's \"When Affirmative Action Was White.\" The short answer is that, no, Black Americans were not afforded the same opportunities as White Americans during the New Deal and other social programs that began after WWII (like FHA mortgage assistance). This was a function of the fact that many of the programs were administered at the state or local level, which meant that (especially in the South) Black Americans were subject to the prejudices of the local governments."
] |
[
"The two biggest events that took away power from the States and gave it to the Federal Government was the US civil war, and the expansion of the use of the Commerce Clause of the constitution to do things like ending segregation in the South."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
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Good resources for learning about the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair?
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[
"I recommend reading The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. It's interesting, it's presented as a novel and switches back and forth between nuanced details of the fair to what was happening contemporaneously with Dr. H. H. Holmes."
] |
[
"What drugs were popular in 19th century Britain?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Did Scottish Highlanders really ride a horse without wearing anything under the kilts?
|
[
"They wouldn't have worn kilts for riding horseback, they would have worn tartan trews for riding. The idea of riding in a feilidh-mor isn't well supported, and honestly doesn't not seem smart. Common highlanders would not have been able to afford a horse in the 18 and 19th centuries, and the Highland gentry that had been able to afford one would wear tartan trews for riding. Trews would offer protection to the inner leg that a kilt, without anything underneath, cannot provide. Kilts would be impractical. Just remember it's TV. How is that show, btw? I would check out _URL_0_ with Matthew Newsome for more information. He's one of the few kilt historians out there, and his work is top notch."
] |
[
"Nowadays, if you're wearing a skirt, especially if it's short, it's more comfortable to use a female bicycle because you don't need to lift your leg over the back of the bike and show everyone your knickers. That's it. Same applies if the skirt is knee length but relatively tight. You can't lift your leg that far up wearing one. In the past, if you were wearing a long skirt with lots of things underneath (like in the early 20th century) it's also easier to have a lower bar to accommodate all of the fabric. Incidentally, that's the reason why women used to sit on a horse with both legs to the same side."
] |
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 don't we celebrate the end of the American Civil War? "Reunification Day" would seem appropriate.
|
[
"Well, the premise of your question is off. You'll be pleased to know that Memorial Day was created in the wake of the Civil War to commemorate the fallen (Called Decoration Day at the time). Its only in the 20th century that it has become a more general purpose holiday for all military dead. I won't pretend like I can fill you in on the details of its creation and transformation from ACW to all-purpose holiday, but that as to the premise of your question, we do celebrate it, in a sense. The better question (which I don't really have a great answer for), might be \"What was the genesis behind Decoration Day, and how did it turn into the more generally themed Memorial Day?\" Similarly, Veterans Day was created as a commemoration of World War I (Then called Armistice Day), but morphed into a commemoration of all military veterans."
] |
[
"There really isn't any convention. In fact many wars go by different names in different countries. For example in Russia what I call WWII is called The Great Patriotic War. What I learned about as The French and Indian War is simply the North American part of the Seven Years War in England. Although, even having been educated in an Alabama public school, I do not refer to the Civil War as the Great War of Yankee Aggression. Which when you think about it, calling it The Civil War only makes sense in the USA."
] |
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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Should China's Great Wall be considered a massive boondoggle, since it was intended to keep out northern peoples but didn't seem to hinder the Manchus or Mongols in invading and conquering China?
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[
"The modern stone Great Wall was built AFTER the Mongol invasions in the Ming dynasty around 500 years ago. The earlier walls built by the Qin, Han, and Jin were earth ramparts which decayed. The wall that the Mongols faced was built by the Jin and it did not even block out China's northwestern border. The entire northwestern border was exposed. Only the area around Beijing was blocked. Any army could walk through the exposed part. The Manchus never managed to penetrate the Ming Great Wall with a full scale invasion force. They could only get raiding parties through which had to return to their base or else they would get stuck. In 1644, the Ming General Wu Sangui defected to them and let them in through the wall at Shanhai Pass. He opened the gates for them. The wall was successful in blocking them before."
] |
[
"Genghis Khan was able to unite multiple nomadic warrior tribes that had previously been constantly fighting. With this united army, he and his immensely skilled army (who had pioneered the ability to shoot arrows on horseback) conquered essentially all of Asia and into Europe. Unfortunately, after Genghis Khan, their charismatic leader, died, the empire crumbled. The Yuan Dynasty in China lasted for another 100 years and the Golden Horde in the Caucasus and Russia ruled for until the 1500s, but eventually, all the Mongols' conquests were utterly destroyed, and they returned to their simple, peaceful, and semi-nomadic lifestyle in Mongolia, which is not very conducive to becoming rich and powerful. Today Mongolia is the least densely-populated nation on Earth."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query about History:",
"pos": "Represent the document about History:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
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I own a 1943 Mosin Nagant rifle that was used during WWII that I bought from a surplus store. What happened to the extra Russian guns that were used in the war between its end in 1945 and when I bought it?
|
[
"With the end of the war, most of the Mosin rifles were sent back to the arsenal for refurbishment, and then crated. Some were sent to allies as military aid. Most ended up in storage for WW3. With the easing of import laws to the US for Curios and Relics in the 1980s, and more importantly the collapse of the Spviet Union, these weapons began to find their way to the American market in cast quantities beginning in the 1990s. So to answer your question directly, most likely it sat in a storage facility for 50+ years."
] |
[
"It was hard for them to work together due to the huge geographic distances between them. There were some long range submarine cargo missions, supplying things like rubber and tungsten. And some designs for aircraft ended up in Japan too. When Japan attacked the US, Germany declared war on the US in the hope that Japan would return the favour and declare war on Russia. But they didn't. Russia and Japan didn't end up fighting till the last month or so of WW2 in 1945."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text about history:"
}
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How much did the hoplite armor cost?
|
[
"Unfortunately, this question is unanswerable, at least at the level of detail you're asking for. Some of the pieces of equipment you're mentioning were only in vogue in the period before coinage was widely adopted, meaning that no monetary value was ever expressed for them. In most other cases, prices are only known by inference and estimate. For the *aspis* (this shield is absolutely not called *hoplon*, regardless of what Diodoros and countless misguided modern authors might tell you), the only known price is 20 drachmai, but it's not clear how widely it might vary; a scene from Aristophanes' *Peace* suggests that the price of weaponry would radically increase in wartime and decrease in peacetime. The price of a full panoply can only be very roughly estimated; such estimates usually fall somewhere in the range of 50-100 drachmai."
] |
[
"How much do they cost vs how much will they generate."
] |
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 were thin wooden planks made in Early Medieval Scandinavia?
|
[
"Vikings and early medieval Scandinavians used wooden wedges and hammers to split tree trunks and then [broad-bladed axes](_URL_1_) called \"timmerbila\" or \"skrädyxa\" to spliter off planks or smoothen existing planks. \"Kulturen\" in Lund, Sweden is an association that uses experimental archeology to recreate medieval and early modern carpentry. Among other things they have constructed a wooden stave church with early medieval methods and tools. [Here you can see them in action splintering a log](_URL_0_). [Here you can see them making staves for the church (speech is in Swedish, but it is mostly action](_URL_0_)."
] |
[
"Needles in wooden blocks for carding go back at least as far as early Anglo-Saxon England. They found a set in a grave in the 5th-7th century cemetery at Lechlade, England. They look almost identical to the ones that are still used by crafters today; it's one of those technologies, like hammers and chisels, that haven't changed much in milennia because they work so well."
] |
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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With a civil war and 3 presidents assassinated between 1861-1901, was the US government viewed as 'shaky' by Americans and Europeans? What was outsider perspectives on the state of US govt in that period?
|
[
"While bad, the assassinations as such happened frequently in Europe as well during this time. Attempts, successful or not, were made on several prominent politicians and royals. Franz Joseph, Empress Elizabeth, Tsar Alexander and many more."
] |
[
"Admittedly, my knowledge of this is spotty, but here are some factors that may contribute to this phenomenon: 1. The US was one of, if not the first western democracies in the modern era, as opposed to the monarchies existent in Europe. 2. The US Constitution, through the bill of rights, was one of the first to guarantee personal freedoms to all citizens (I say this and yet true equality/freedom didn't exist for all citizens until the 20th century) 3. In current events, the US is commonly portrayed as the \"global policeman\" and the protector of freedom and democracy around the world, this being the case since WWII, throughout the cold war, and recently with the elimination of dictators in the middle East like Hussein and Gaddafi. If or not these were actually on the interest of freedom is debatable, but they contribute to the belief all the same. Edit: Apologies for formatting"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
}
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Who is a specialist in French military technology of the 1890s
|
[
"I did a little research and it could either be one of two guns. It could be a Canet Gun (most likely an m890, a 100mm calbre round) from the carriage and shape. I am not a 100% sure but this seems to be the most possible."
] |
[
"Are there any books on Berlin during 1920s?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post about Literature:"
}
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Mussolini's Fascist Headquarters?
|
[
"That is a terrifying facade. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the italian futurists-gone-fascist had a hand in designing that. EDIT: The building is called the Palazzo Braschi. It still exists, and is now a museum: _URL_1_ A poster on this forum suggests that the picture was taken in 1934, during the fascist propaganda push of a plebiscite election: _URL_0_"
] |
[
"Sleep - Shake Unconscious - Splash Coma - Wait and Hope Vegetative State - Wait and Bury"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How can I learn more about the Vikings? What is the essential literature?
|
[
"I am by no means an expert on Viking history or early Nordic history, but I'd suggest checking out: > Brink, Stefan, ed. The Viking World (2008). A book which combines many short chapters on any topic relevant to Vikings or the Scandinavian late Iron Age. > [The Vikings](_URL_2_) by Else Roesdahl. It gives quite a comprehensive history for anyone looking to get into the period. I also suggest checking out this [reading list](_URL_2_) on Viking history & culture. It's all quite introductory, so it should be fine for what you want it for."
] |
[
"What are some of the primary sources that you have found? This sounds interesting. Would you recommend any books for a fun read?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
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How did Carthaginian messengers get to Hannibal while he was rampaging through Roman land?
|
[
"Hannibal controlled a large portion of southern Italy, meaning that it was no harder to communicate with Carthage than it would normally be. While he decided to march overland between Spain and Italy, most people of the time sailed, so again his connection to Spain was no worse than it would have been. The issue of course was that Rome was the superior naval power. In general, communicating in war was difficult. There could be checkpoints where mail was read (Sidonius, writing 700 years after the Punic Wars complains of them) and Hannibal was under constant watch once Fabius Maximus took control of the campaign."
] |
[
"It is unsure how many of Hannibal's elephants even survived the march across the alps. When Hannibal clashed with the Romans at the Trebia, he still had some elephants alive (the claims range from \"some\" to \"all 37\") but those that survived the battle fell ill from infections and a sudden cold snap afterwards. Livy claims that only one, named Surus (\"The Syrian\"), was alive by the time of the Battle of Lake Trasimene (although Polybius states that several survived the Battle of the Trebia, but makes no mention of their fate). What happened to this (presumably) lone elephant afterwards is unclear, there are no accounts of him being present at Cannae, although some accounts claim that Hannibal entered the city of Capua (that turned allegiance after Hannibal's victory at Cannae) riding an elephant in triumph. Livy and other Roman authors such as Cato also note that this single surviving elephant was often ridden by Hannibal himself, who used a platform on the animal's back to observe the battles."
] |
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 modern kind of apple would most closely resemble the apple of Medieval Europe?
|
[
"Assuming you're referring to actual fruit, the apples of Medieval Europe were typically much smaller and less round than the ones we see today. The Pearmain, Costard, and Pippin strains were most popular in England, while France favored Faro and Reinette. Though I was unable to find a modern sampling of the Costard or Faro apples, the Pearmain, Pippin, and Reinette varieties are still grown and consumed today and you can read more about them [here](_URL_0_) Source: *Food in Medieval Times* by Melitta Weiss Adamson"
] |
[
"What color is the skin of most of the people who make and utilize those drawings? Theres your answer"
] |
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 real discoveries were made through Alchemy?
|
[
"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."
] |
[
"How well regarded are the writings of Joseph Campbell by historians?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How did Ancient China (Qin era) stop/prevent crimes?
|
[
"I don't actually know the answer to your question, but I think I can point you to some sources that might. If you're really hardcore, you could read the Zizhi Tongjian, which, in Chinese, consists of 294 volumes. The first eight of these, helpfully covering the Zhou and Qin dynasties, have been translated into English. If you want to have fun, you might check out Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee series, which is itself based (loosely) on an 18th century Chinese novel, which is itself based (likely quite loosely) on volumes 202-206 of the Zizhi Tongjian, which contain, among other things, the story of noted Tang dynasty magistrate Di (Dee, in van Gulik) Renjie."
] |
[
"> ancient China Define ancient China. What specific periods of Chinese history are you looking at? Social mobility in China varied greatly depending on the time period, with greater social mobility during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States era."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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}
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When did people start to lift weights?
|
[
"_URL_0_ That's the last thread about this that I saved. Some really interesting answers and .pdf's in there."
] |
[
"Why do people in Western countries use forks?"
] |
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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What allowed Robespierre and co. to set up the Terror during the French Revolution, and why did it last so long?
|
[
"If you're interested in this subject, I highly recommend the novel *A Place of Greater Safety* by Hilary Mantel, who has twice won the Man Booker prize for her historical fiction. Robespierre is one of the main characters along with other important revolutionaries like Desmoulins and Danton. Obviously, as a work of fiction it will not give you a through understanding of all the factors of the Revolution the way a true historical work would, but it is very insightful in terms of the emotional atmosphere and personal connections that allowed Robespierre to rise to such heights (and use his power to such terrible ends)."
] |
[
"Mostly who wins. If a group of people rise up and overthrow their government, they will typically term their uprising a revolution (see: American Revolution, French Revolution, Russian Revolution). If they rise up and are unable to overcome the government, they are typically termed rebels. It's worth noting that pretty much every revolution starts as a rebellion, and only becomes a revolution upon victory."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How effective was the Anaconda Plan during the American Civil War?
|
[
"The Anaconda Plan certainly benefited the Union during the war. Obviously it is over ambitious to apply an airtight blockade of close to 3500 miles of coastline but it nevertheless had an impact on the South. Blockade runners evaded Union ships with relative ease early on; however the blockade slowly asphyxiated the South as the war dragged on. As Craig L. Symons argues in *The Civil War at Sea* the loss of coastline, and the occupation of major Confederate seaports weakened the Southern economy, hindering civilian moral which,in turn, undermined the Southern war effort. With that said, the Union could have won the war without the Anaconda Plan. However, the blockade expedited the outcome of the war, making the conflict shorter and saving thousands of lives. Source: Craig L. Symons, *The Civil War at Sea*, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 72."
] |
[
"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 passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
}
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what kept the heads of medieval arrows on the shaft
|
[
"The arrow socket would have been glued to the tapered point of the shaft, very quick and easy to make. Arrows were disposable so didn't need to be made sturdy. Also if the head falls off after you've shot the arrow its much more difficult for your adversaries to shoot it back at you!"
] |
[
"better grip. it came from our ancestors when they were fishing so they could grip better underwater."
] |
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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Are there any historical standard of living calculators, that date back to the middle ages?
|
[
"The National Archives has a rough-and-ready calculator, for UK prices at ten-year intervals back to 1270. Unfortunately, it is no longer updated, so it still gives 2005 equivalents. But it may be better than nothing: _URL_0_ The most useful feature may be the wages calculation - a labourer's wages provide something which can be compared over long periods. If you start from labourers' wages in the building trade in the mid-thirteenth century being around a penny to one and a half pence a day, then you can get some sort of indication of the value of money."
] |
[
"Follow up question (please don't delete) how influential were nobility titles on economic upward mobility in the Europe of that same time?"
] |
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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What would or could a ship's doctor in the 1670-1720s have done for people?
|
[
"It would take a book to fully answer your question, although jschooltiger has given an excellent summary of the ship's surgeon's role during this time which I doubt I could add much to. If you're interested in how the surgeries were performed during the Golden Age of Piracy (late 17th - early 18th century - the same period you mention), what the tools looked like and how they were used, medicines, bits and pieces on day-to-day life such as where the surgeon operated (the orlop deck), his role as barber and the history of surgeons captured by pirates, check out my web page. It's focused on pirate surgeons, but the material is equally applicable to naval surgeons. (In fact, many of the period books for sea surgeons were written by naval surgeons such as John Moyle and John Atkins.) _URL_0_"
] |
[
"Could you give an approximate year or period of the Empire when a citizen would be traveling?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
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}
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I learned in history that after Johnson Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln, he yelled something in Latin before jumping off of the balcony. What did he yell?
|
[
"*Sic Semper Tyrannis* is what he said, which means 'Thus always to tyrants.' It is a shortened form of the phrase *Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis*, 'Thus always I bring death to tyrants' - uttered by Marcus Junius Brutus when he killed Julius Caesar (thus Caesar's, \"*Et tu, Brute?*\")"
] |
[
"The words in the brackets are words that were not part of the original quote, but are needed so that the quote makes sense to the reader without the larger context of the whole conversation. Say an article quoted a guy: “And then I saw him after he ran out of the place, and he proceeded to run down the street.” Without any broader context, it would be difficult for the reader to understand what they were saying. So an article might actually print the quote like this: “And then I saw [the robber] after he ran out of the [bank], and he proceeded to run down the street.”"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage about Language and Writing:"
}
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Of all the countries that the U.S. promoted democracy in, which ones actual had long term stability and legitimacy?
|
[
"I can only answer the second part of your question, the answer is no except for Japan where I am not sure. The French revolution can be seen as being some what accelerated due to French participation in the American Revolution, but it was already well on the way and their involvement was not the crucial factor. Italy had a long tradition of democracy in the various city states which existed before it unified. Germany also had a democratic republic, the Wiemar Republic, before the Nazis rose to power."
] |
[
"Almost every country they left was either a democracy or a constitutional monarchy at the time of independence. Many in Africa or the Middle East collapsed into dictatorships or extremely corrupt \"democracies\" later on. All in all, though, the British empire has the best track record for post-colonial success. French and Belgian colonies, especially, have never recovered."
] |
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 was transporation in Venice handled when the canals froze?
|
[
"To my knowledge, they didn't. The Adriatic sea is a relatively warm sea and I believe that the salinity, which is slightly higher than in the rest of the Mediterranean, further prevents freezing. Also, the air temperatures rarely fall under the 0C. There is, however, a strong northern wind called Bora or Bura, depending on who you ask which can make you feel as if it were below zero, but to my knowledge it has never contributed to anything save a very bumpy boat ride."
] |
[
"Ramming was a big element of pre-gunpowder naval warfare. Ram, board, murder, take, and repeat. Why do you believe it would be *easier* to raid costal communities? In its early history, the republic of Venice seized various cities along the Dalmatian coast (Pola, Zara, Ragusa, Spalato) to better check pirate raiding in the Adriatic sea and give ships safe havens en route to Venice."
] |
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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Can anyone recommend a good, readable book on an overview of the British monarchy.
|
[
"[The times Kings and Queens of the British Isles](_URL_0_) has a brief overview of each king and queen along with interesting events during their reign, its very concise but not very detailed as it only dedicates a few pages to each monarch. theres also the [Historical Dictionary of The British Monarchy](_URL_1_) which also has sections on different palaces and other members of the family apart from the kings and queens. hope it helps and sorry if they were not what you had in mind!"
] |
[
"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 question:",
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}
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Clean water with in medieval times or further back
|
[
"First of all sorry for my grammar as i am not anglophone. They would get the water from a river/lake nearby or like the romans did, bring it with aqueducts ( Valens aqueducts in Constantinople for exemple) and store it in HUGE underground cisterns : _URL_0_ They would also drill water wells like most people still do nowadays in \"third world\" countries. But not everyone had one in his backyard ! It was usually located near the castle or the monastery ( Middle Ages). In crowded medieval cities, the water wells soon got polluted by feces and all sorts of trash, so there was some guy whose job was to bring fresh water from the river to the city : the water carrier _URL_1_"
] |
[
"Sometimes they assume the smell of the wood surrounding it in which your drawer is made of."
] |
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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What did people really think of Elizabeth I?
|
[
"If you're looking at film representations of Elizabeth ( which are, in their own way, a researched and visually represented vision of a historical figure and as subject to accuracy and inaccuracy as written versions ) then have a look at the [2005 Elizabeth I](_URL_1_) with Helen Mirren playing her golden years. This was a fairly critically acclaimed version and surely influenced the late Cate Blanchett sequel. There's also the Judy Dench portrayal in Tom Stoppard's *Shakespeare in Love* and the child prodigy Elizabeth seen in the TV series *The Tudors*. There's good (ie: sourced) primary material on the Claire Ridgway (a self described obessed Tudor history fan) site [elizabethfiles](_URL_0_) - she certainly takes time to dig up material from various sides of various stories. It could be worth chasing up some Spanish History concurrent with her reign and see what is said about her in a context where she is not the central figure, just another European monarch."
] |
[
"What do you want to know about them exactly?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
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During the Liberation War of 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh, what were the government and popular attitudes in the U.S.? How, if at all, did the unpopularity of the Vietnam War impact either of these?
|
[
"Something to think about for context- there was only the network and local evening news and newspapers at the time, and the Vietnam War, Cambodia and Laos, the 26th Amendment, shool busing in the Supreme Court, the Pentagon Papers and Daniel Ellsberg, the Aattica prison riots, the Sylmar earthquake, and so on were all competing for space and attention in the national news. The idea that the general public of the US might have a strong opinion would require this story to be much more than the \"page 6 in the Des Moines Register\" type of story many editors would relegate such things to. Again, this is about context. The war in East Pakistan/Bangladesh is today recorded as a major event in South Asia in 1971, but at the time there were many many bigger stories making headlines in the US."
] |
[
"During the Cold War, America and its allies took issue with many of the actions of the Chinese government due to the anti-communist sentiments of the time period. The oppression of the people of Tibet became a political issue and a way to criticize the Chinese government. This, together with the Dalai Lama's exile from Tibet and his message of peace, have made him a revered figure in the west. For a while, the Tibet liberation movement became a pet issue for many celebrities."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
}
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Why did colonial states across [the] world/time seek independence instead of greater integration?
|
[
"They did. The famous American motto \"no taxation without representation\" doesn't just mean that they're angry about taxes. It also means \"give us proper representation at the government and we will be fine with these taxes\". The whole independence thing started as almost a last resort when the British crown refused to treat the colonies as equals. This is by no means only a US thing. I recall reading a letter by the Mexican Ayuntamiento, imploring the Spanish crown to tread Spain and New Spain like \"two equal wives\" rather than one which is lesser than the other. At least in these cases - as with other Latin American countries - independence was always the final option."
] |
[
"If you mean in history the answer is no, look at the History of East Asia where there has usually been a hegemon (China) who often interfered in the affairs of its neighbors (modern Korea and Vietnam, but it also includes the many peoples whom China absorbed over time). If you mean specifically in Europe, the answer is probably yes. The Westephalian Order laid the foundations for what later became nationalism (since it began the creation of nations) and was the natural outreach of an increasingly prosperous people who wanted more political autonomy to accompany their rising prosperity."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
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}
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How was TV transmission made in east and west Germany so that viewers just a few blocks away, but in the other side of the wall, couldn't watch the same channels as the opposite side?
|
[
"I'm curious--do you have a source to base this question on? That is, was this a thing that occurred, or something that you are curious about whether or not it occurred?"
] |
[
"Berlin was not on the border between East Germany an West Germany. West Berlin was completely surrounded by East Germany. If people in East Berlin went a little north or south, there would be no border to cross."
] |
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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What is the earliest point in time I could return to and have a full conversation with someone in Modern English?
|
[
"This [seems to be a frequent question](_URL_1_) and the answer seems to be around \"some time in the early 1500s, though the late 1400s might be possible with some patience and concentration\". Oh, look, it's even in the Popular questions (FAQ): [How far back could I go and still communicate?](_URL_0_) and answered in more detail. Looks like there's a lot of information on this for anyone interested in the subject. I hope this helps."
] |
[
"I would assume this is all talking about the 19th century; is this a typo?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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}
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What events have led to the East/West Grestin border incident of December 23rd, 1982? Why the truce between Arstotzka and Kolechia ended so quickly after the opening of the border? Also, are the rumors of the involvement of the so-called "Order of the EZIC Star" true?
|
[
"Kolechians shitheads. And no rumors. Glory to Arstotzka."
] |
[
"Depends on the circumstances of the war, but really anything goes. For this reason embassy activity is often a clue that war is coming. One example of this is when Japan started burning documents from their embassy before the Pearl Harbour attack."
] |
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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A friend told me today that when people used to say "virgin blood" as a ritualistic ingredient, they actually meant blood that hadn't been used for a ritual before, rather than someone who hadn't had sex before. Is this true?
|
[
"Linguist here. John Ford's 1633 drama [*Tis Pity She's a Whore*](_URL_1_) uses virgin blood of \"deflowering.\" > However, blood is often used within the play, not only in religious critiques—such as that of the Eucharist or **the virgin blood of deflowering**—but also in critiques of Renaissance society as a physical bearer of human characteristics and statuses. (emphasis mine) [Aeschylus also uses \"virgin blood,\"](_URL_0_) but here *parthenou* probably means \"of a young woman\" and not \"of a virgin.\" Virgil also used \"virgineum\" to mean \"virgin\": *Hasta ... virgineum bibit cruorem* \"The spear drew the virgin's blood.\" Book XI:803-4 I realize that three data points do not make a good trend line, but I can't find any data to substantiate the claim that \"virgin blood\" *doesn't* relate to a young woman or to an actual virgin. It might be that one author or one cult used this definition of \"virgin's blood,\" but if so, I can't find it. If /r/etymology gives you a better answer, please share it here!"
] |
[
"Just my opinion/guess on the matter so take it with a grain of whatever seasoning you choose. Blood is commonly the thing of life. If our body is discharging the thing of life for a pretty unknown reason, as menstruation was in the days before we had reasonable science, it must be tainted or inherently bad. It must be that our bodies have a reason to get rid of the stuff that it doesn't need, kind of like fecal matter and such. Again, just a guess."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
}
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Tuesday Trivia | Fools and Foolishness
|
[
"So there's a rather bizarre narrative in the Talmud about forbidding wearing a particular type of shoe in Shabbat. The Talmud asks why. Apparently the prints the shoe made look more like reverse footprints than forward ones. One time a bunch of people gathered to perform rituals in secret, and saw that someone had left the group when really someone had come wearing these weird shoes. They assumed someone had left to inform on the secret gathering, and that there were spies among them. They then got into a big fight and killed each other. The Talmud then asks what that has to do with Shabbat. The answer is that this story took place on Shabbat. Having not explained it at all, the Talmud drops the subject in one of the most puzzling narratives in Jewish texts. Disclaimer: this is what I remember learning years ago. I can't find the original source, and I could be butchering it."
] |
[
"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 post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
}
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Did any countries in the Middle East play any roll in WWI or WWII? If so, what?
|
[
"There were a number of allied invasions in the region during 1941, as Britain pre-emptively dealt with potential threats to their oil supplies and lines of communications. At the time, the British position in North Africa was looking somewhat dire, as German forces under Rommel started to advance into Egypt itself. Iran (formerly Persia) was occupied by Britain and the USSR from 1941 through the end of the war, and the Shah was forced to abdicate in favour of his son. Iraq was also invaded by Britain in 1941 after a military coup there lead the British to worry about the safety of the oil supply. During that conflict, German and Italian aircraft were given permission to aid Iraq by staging through the Vichy French territories of Lebanon and Syria, leading to an allied invasion of those two. [edit] I missed the fact that you were also asking about WWI. My mistake. As others have already covered that, I'll leave it at that."
] |
[
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
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Roman Senate and United States Senate
|
[
"Duncan's interpretation, I assume from your question, is essentially a very modern one. It isn't an invalid one, at least to the extent that one can attribute a guiding set of actions to a body as fractious and dysfunctional as the Senate (remember, Clodius was a Senator as well), but it is not how people like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson would have seen it. Even thinkers like Machiavelli, who was not terribly sympathetic to aristocratic interests, generally saw the Senate as a positive institution."
] |
[
"British Empire -- > Post-WW2 / Cold War America -- > British and American pop culture -- > Silicon Valley."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
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In 1944, Swedish Economist Gunnar Myrdal said, "America has had gifted conservative statesmen and national leaders, and they have often determined the course of public affairs. But with few exceptions, only liberals have gone down in history as national heroes." How accurate is this statement?
|
[
"_URL_0_ Here's an old thread where a few people (including myself) take a few stabs at explaining why polemical/rhetorical statements like this don't make any sense to evaluate as a historian. That one was a bit of rhetoric from a conservative, this one is from somebody on the other side of the aisle, but the basic idea is the same. In my view, historians may have a better command of sources and methods then laypeople and can therefore show whether something happened or not. But there is nothing a historian can tell you about what words like \"Liberal\", \"Conservative\" or \"National Hero\" that you couldn't tell yourself. \"Few Exceptions\" is a nice little extra slippery note as well."
] |
[
"At the dawn of the Civil War, the Republicans were the party of the religious, industry and expansive civil liberties. The Democrats were the party of the secular and class-based social structures. This remains true today. The reason you hear about 'switching sides' is that many on the left want to separate themselves from the various issues the Democrats fought for and lost. It makes them feel more comfortable to come up with a 'switch sides' narrative where the Republicans have been on the losing side of every major policy issue for almost two hundred years (and yet inexplicably still remained a major party)."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer about history:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
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In the early 1900's ,Were there any religious or cultural resistance towards the use of flying machines such as Bi planes?
|
[
"There was no widespread \"flying is evil! down with planes!\" movement in the early 1900s... but by then, humans had been flying for [more than 100 years](_URL_2_). The airplane had to have shown up in a few sermons in the first decades of the 20th century, but was generally treated more like a novelty - not so many hymns as funny songs like [\"Come Josephine in my Flying Machine\"](_URL_1_). Perhaps it helped that the Wright Brothers' [father was bishop in the United Brethren](_URL_0_)...."
] |
[
"A related question were there public figures at the time who were apologists that tried to justify for the actions of the Japanese military at Pearl Harbor?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Can anyone tell me where to find good information about Kafiristan?
|
[
"You might want to look up the Nuristani people. They're the modern incarnation of the Kafiristanis. A quick look on JSTOR (requires subscription; comes with most universities and many libraries) yields a few primary and secondary sources: [Here's an old British report on it.](_URL_2_) [This one is free but very basic.](_URL_1_) [Some stuff on their folklore.](_URL_0_)."
] |
[
"And to hijack this in a related way, what were the alternatives to \"America.\""
] |
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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Music Historians, was there an event that became the reason we use flats vs. sharps and vice versa in some cases, if so what was it, if not how do these come to be the norm?
|
[
"This is really a music theory answer and not a music history answer. Walking through the circle of fifths from C, the note you listed first in each comparison appears in the key signature before its counterpart. Eb is the the key of Bb (two fifths away from C) whereas D# doesn't appear until the key of E (four fifths from C), for example. It's just a matter of commonality and convenience in writing."
] |
[
"They are musical keys in music. A \"Key\" is a set of notes that work together. For example, C Minor is the key that holds the notes C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭. An experienced musician will be able to pick up on the key, or more commonly just ask the other musicians what key they want to play. After the key and tempo have been established its pretty much free reign in the limits of the key of the song."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Day of Reflection | December 29, 2014–January 04, 2015
|
[
"I read [this thread on Napoleonic cavalry](_URL_0_). First there was the post by /u/BritainOpPlsNerf. I have almost no experience with this subject, but the idea that it was the combination of cavalry and artillery that made it so effective was highly enlightening. So, hey, thread over, right? Nope. Along comes /u/DonaldFDraper that breaks down the roles cavalry played at that time *and* gives us examples. Awesome stuff, there! Now the thread's over for sure, right? Nope. Followup questions and quality contributions from both of the aforementioned flaired users as well as a few others, *and* some interesting debates. I'm just going to go with \"wow.\" Thank you all for contributing!"
] |
[
"It's a bit unclear what you're interested in. (Early US education? Mann? Cremin's perspective?) But here are some resources that may help: > Binder, Frederick M. The Age of the Common School: 1830-1865. New York: Wiley, 1974. > > Glenn, Jr., Charles Leslie. The Myth of the Common School. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
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Where does the idea that the Christian God is "perfect" come from?
|
[
"If no one else provides a more complete answer I'll come back after my class and elaborate more but something to keep in mind here is the great influence of Neo-Platonist philosophy on Christianity. This influence took the form both of Christians being directly influenced by pagan Neo-Platonist philosophers and also a slightly more indirect approach wherein Christians would be influenced by Hellenized Judaism (such as that taught by the great philosopher Philo of Alexandria) that was itself heavily influenced by Neo-Platonism. Additionally, Aristotelianism also formed some influence especially if youre curious about the context Anselm lived in."
] |
[
"That is a complicated question to answer, because the role of \"Satan\" changes depending on what part of the bible we are reading. In the Garden, he was the snake that tempered Adam and Eve to rebel against God, in Job he was more of an advocate to challenge God's ideas acceptably, in Revelations he is the King of the Lake of Fire, etc. That all said, the general idea is that God is perfect; he is all knowing, all powerful, all loving and never incorrect. By definition, disagreeing with and defying an entity that can not be wrong makes you incorrect."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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When and how have people started to identify themselves as transsexuals?
|
[
"Just a couple previous answers that may interest you. [Could you please explain the topic of transgender in a historical sense?](_URL_10_?) [Has there been any writing about Transgender people in the past? Or is it some type of newer phenomenon brought on by the availability of hormones?](_URL_8_?) [How did transgender people get by in the Stone Age?](_URL_6_) [Tuesday Trivia | Crossdressing and other Alternate Expressions of Gender](_URL_9_?) [AskHistorians AMA Thread: History of Sexuality](_URL_7_?)"
] |
[
"Because they were being used to make intolerant comments and justify hate towards other people."
] |
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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Has a state ever been born without violence accompanying it?
|
[
"This is an intriguing question in the anthropological sub-field of state formation. Usually you have three types of violence involving states: 1. Violence involving external states or empires 2. Violence involving internal entities (e.g., a civil war, usually the result of contention over the succession of a ruler) 3. Attacks from nomadic types Elman R. Service suggests that violence does not *produce* the state--and one can look to examples like Shaka Zulu in Africa or the rise of Akkad in Mesopotamia (*The Origin of the State and Civilization*). So, the answer is most likely yes. For a more specific example, you can look at the rise of the Egyptian empire, as it was basically isolated on all sides, leading to minimum levels of defensive infrastructure and very few external attackers (until the Hyksos, of course, in the 19th century BCE). EDIT: Forgot to add book title for reference."
] |
[
"Mostly who wins. If a group of people rise up and overthrow their government, they will typically term their uprising a revolution (see: American Revolution, French Revolution, Russian Revolution). If they rise up and are unable to overcome the government, they are typically termed rebels. It's worth noting that pretty much every revolution starts as a rebellion, and only becomes a revolution upon victory."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
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Was Diocletian's Tetrarchy considered a successful or failed political system/model overall? Why?
|
[
"Is there any chance you could give a bit more of an explanation on what you mean by success? I would be quite happy to write up an answer for you, but if I could have a better idea of what exactly you'd like to know that will help."
] |
[
"Could the rebuilding of Japan after WWII be considered a partial colonization by the United States?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
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I've heard that Mao Zedong, in order to combat drug addiction in China, gave addicts the option of rehab or death. Is this true? If so, how successful was it? And why?
|
[
"Follow up: if true, what happened to those who chose rehab and relapsed? Also, have any countries adopted an approach specifically modeled after the Chinese program? (perhaps not as stringent a choice as death)"
] |
[
"From what I recall, the U.S. is actually the reason why it's illegal in so many countries. In the early 20th century, when the U.S. decided marijuana should be illegal, it also used its diplomatic muscle to strongarm other countries into criminalizing it as well. It's been a while since I read on this subject, so I could be a little off, but that's my basic understanding of the relevant history."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
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In old Westerns, there's the town - made of wood - and nothing but scrub and desert all around. So where'd they get all that wood from?
|
[
"The Intermountain West is not a flat barren desert, but a series of basins divided by small and large mountain ranges. The lower parts of the basins may be arid (like the desert near the Great Salt Lake in Utah), but the slopes and canyons around them are not. Those canyons can be forested. Since many of those canyons also have running water, water powered sawmills could be and were built to supply lumber for mines, railroads and towns farther down the basin. Some of the visuals in old Westerns are not completely accurate, in other words, about the physical surroundings of towns. If you want to get a better feel for the landscape of much of the area, a good layman's book is *Basin And Range*, by John McPhee. It is primarily about geography, but does give a strong description of the area. Well written, too, if you just slip over the technical geographical terms."
] |
[
"The non-myth ghost towns are in the middle of nowhere and usually lack essential services. Nobody wants to move to a city with no grocery stores, no running water, and no fire department that's 100 miles from anywhere, no matter how cheap the apartments are."
] |
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 to go about reading Caesar's "The Gallic Wars"?
|
[
"The Loeb *should* contain both maps and a rather good commentary and appendix, the Loeb Caesar is one of the better Loebs. My copy certainly has them. If you don't know any Latin and aren't especially picky about knowing what the Latin actually says you might as well just read the *de Bello Gallico* at [Lacus Curtius](_URL_0_), which presents the Loeb text since it's now in the public domain. PS: I'm amused as all hell that the Amazon blurb claims that in the *de Bello Gallico* \"there is no rhetoric.\" That's complete nonsense, Caesar's straightforward style *is* a rhetorical style, Caesar was an authority on what is called the Plain or Direct Style, for which he was highly praised by Cicero and others"
] |
[
"Gibbon's *Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire* is good."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Literature:"
}
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Did Viking warbands bring Sami Shamans with them on raids?
|
[
"hi! that's a topic I don't recall seeing in here (so hopefully someone can contribute something relevant), but you may be interested in these previous threads on Norse-Sami relations * [What was the relationship between the Sami and the Vikings like?](_URL_2_) * [What was the relationship bettween the vikings and the samii people?](_URL_4_) * [What was the relationship between the Sami people and the so called \"Vikings\"?](_URL_1_) * [Did the Sami (also known as Laplanders) ever war with the Vikings, if so why?](_URL_3_) * [Is there any historical evidence of the Vikings coming into contact with the Sami people? Were there any peaceful or violent engagements?](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Due to migration. Coming from the Caucasus mountains, Finnish people went north, Hungarians went through Ukraine-ish lands and settled on the Carpathian Basin. Then went viking on rest of Europe until Europe got too hard to raid. Then they became christians and settled down and used christianity as protection from vengeance-raiding."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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When is the first recorded instance of military leaders studying military history to plan for future battles?
|
[
"I don't know about \"military leaders studying military history,\" but one of the oldest military treatises that I know of is the Liutao written by Lu Shang, a Zhou dynasty general sometime around 1000 BC. He wrote this treaty upon reflecting on his defeat of the Shang dynasty forces during the overthrow of the Shang dynasty. It discusses both civil and military affairs, however, so it is not quite \"military history,\" but it is known today as one of the great Chinese military works alongside the more famous Art of War."
] |
[
"Modern warfare does utilize motivational speeches to generate morale among the troops. The content of these speeches are likely to include nationalist sentiments, self-professed martial superiority, focus on broadly shared values(ex:importance of protecting family.) Antequated warfare did as well. Alexander Suvorov is a prime example that comes to mind. He used to carefully plan out battles ahead of time by accounting for geographical features, possible reinforcements, etc. and then claim it was the work of god that led them to victory. On a sidenote, he is one of the few undefeated generals in history."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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How come the Surgeon General was such a common spokesperson in the late 20th century, but we never hear from them anymore?
|
[
"Sorry I'm a youngster. But what is this masterbation scandal that you speak of?"
] |
[
"Because the alcohol and tobacco companies have more money than God and use some of that to pay lobbyists. Remember the fallout for cigarettes in the 90s? Did you notice they are still around, except Joe Camel can't peddle directly to kids? Yeah."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
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}
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What are some good books about the lives of common people of Elizabethan England?
|
[
"Maybe start with Ian Mortimer's *The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England.* Greenwood Press also has a *Daily Life in Elizabethan England.* Mortimer and the GP series are solid, well-sourced \"daily life\" books that should provide you with a good start and maybe some further reading."
] |
[
"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 Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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How would the Soviet Army compare to a Western army during a Cold War battle (1980s~)
|
[
"You might be interested in a previous question on Soviet doctrine: * [Did the Soviets develop their own doctrine in response to the US AirLand Battle?](_URL_0_) - 3 comments, less than 1 month ago. * The commenters discuss Soviet battle doctrine near the end of the Cold War and the specific vulnerabilities that its NATO counterpart had to it as well as several material advantages that the Soviets possessed."
] |
[
"To answer this question, I am going to need some clarification from you: Who did *what* better? South Vietnam in the 1960's and Afghanistan in the 1980's are two very separate places and time periods with conditions that were so exclusive to their particular time frame. While a layman might look at these two conflicts and see similarities (both a war against insurgents using guerrilla tactics, both ending with them leaving, etc.), the reality is far from it. For example, the opening stage of the invasion of Aghanistan 1979 was *conventional* as opposed to the American escalation of the Vietnam War which was gradual and took place over 6 or so years. While the rest of the Soviet-Afghan War was asymmetrical, the Vietnam War was far more fluid, involving engagements of conventional and mobile nature. To put it in more conventional terms, your question is like asking: \"Who did it better? The British in World War I or the Soviets in World War II?\""
] |
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
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I remember once being told that there were political slogans, on the walls of pompeii, for people who wanted win elections for positions in city government. in AD 79 would such elections have been rigged or not? when (if ever) did Rome stop holding public election altogether?
|
[
"No, or at least not that we can tell of. The transition between a republic and a monarchy was only in the government of the city of Rome, other cities had their own civic governments that were unaffected. Now, the government of the city of Rome also had control over the empire, but the Roman empire was not organized as a federal system with power devolved from the top. Rather, it was a collection of preexisting cities that were still largely autonomous outside of a few areas like taxation and the military."
] |
[
"The founding fathers envisioned a very different political system than we have. They envisioned a world where you voted for a permanent representative and another to help pick a commander in chief, where both of those people would live a dangerous, several-month journey away. Back then, congress was made up of scientists and intellectuals like Benjamin Franklin who imagined great solutions to problems - the vote was there not to allow the common man to control policy, but to ensure that the government could be overthrown without a civil war if they started to abuse their power. It was decided to be like this because of the lessons of ancient Athens. In Athens, public issues were solved by direct democracy, and what ended up happening is that the rich paid for 'sophists' to go and advertise political issues, tricking the general public into supporting bad policies. The US felt that by electing people based on their qualifications rather than their policies, this could be avoided. Sadly, it didn't last."
] |
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
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How likely would Germany and Britain have some sort of non-aggression agreement if Churchill is not PM?
|
[
"Don't forget that Churchill wasn't PM at the start of the war, Neville Chamberlain was PM for the first 8 months."
] |
[
"At the end of World War 1 there were no good guys. There was this geo political issue. Former ally Russia was now Soviet and looking to carve out its own empire. Former ally Japan was invading Manchuria carving out its own little empire. Ally Italy was also trying to carve out its own piece of Africa in Ethiopia. And then you had the bloody Spanish Civil War which saw Communists. So for the most part The League had too many crises to deal with and no tools to deal with them. Some might say that Germany was a great ally of the league initially. He was dealing with various disasters in continental Europe that France and England wanted no part in. So why put these people on trial, this is an enemy that has become an ally. Since they didn't invade Berlin to end the war, all the people who ran the war were actively in charge... and they were doing good in the world The end of World War 2 is very different. Germany splits into two governments with two new governments and the old one was put on trial."
] |
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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Why is there no father figure included in traditional Matryoshka doll sets?
|
[
"Actually there are many male Matryoshka dolls, the most famous of them are of Soviet leader, starting with Lenin and ending with Gorbachev. This set of dolls also made fun of alleged bald-hairy succession in Russian politics. However I am indeed never see generic \"father matryoshka\". Apparently this is due to the original symbolism of the doll set was to depict motherhood, fertility (with the numerous smaller dolls as offspring) and Mother Russia. At least that what [this writer claims](_URL_0_)."
] |
[
"What color is the skin of most of the people who make and utilize those drawings? Theres your answer"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
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A Great book on World War I
|
[
"[The Guns of August](_URL_0_) - By Barbara Tuchman (won the Pultizer Prize for the work). It's a bit dry in my opinion, but she outlines the whole war remarkably well. Also, [Storm of Steel - by Ernst Junger - full book](_URL_1_). It is a memoir of his time as a front-line soldier. While it is not all encompassing, it gives a remarkably gruesome account of what the typical front line soldier had to go through in WWI."
] |
[
"British Empire -- > Post-WW2 / Cold War America -- > British and American pop culture -- > Silicon Valley."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
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I recently learned that Robert E. Lee didn't even support slavery, he was only staying loyal to his state. How true is this?
|
[
"There's a newish book about Robert E. Lee called *Reading the Man* by Elizabeth Pryor. It contains many of his private thoughts and opinions. Lee was a very complicated person and owned slaves himself. He does seem to express dislike for slavery as a system, but could treat his own slaves pretty badly at times. He certainly regarded them as property, which their owner could do with what they wanted. He certainly agonized about whether or not to join the Confederate Army. Many of his compatriots from Virginia that were in the military stayed and fought with the Union, rather than support their home state. However, we know that eventually Lee did decide to support Virginia and the Confederacy. It was not an easy decision for him to make though. His letters after the war show how hurt he was by his participation, and how much he questioned his actions. Not only had he lost his wealth, but the war itself, and the questions he had concerning the rightness of his actions, broke him in later years."
] |
[
"The north didn't go to war to end slavery. They went to war in order to preserve the union—to bring the southern states back under the USA. The south, however, did secede because of slavery. For a present day analogy, think of all those people who insist that Obama wasn't born in the USA, or that he is a \"secret Muslim.\" They are wrong, but they don't care, they just really hate the guy more than they care about truth. A similar thing happened with Abraham Lincoln, but in a larger scale. He wasn't planning to end slavery when he got elected, but the southern states freaked out that Lincoln was going to take their slaves away anyway."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
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What were some of the most embarrassing or regretful incidents involving George Washington or Abraham Lincoln that get left out of mainstream history.
|
[
"It isn't important, but Washington's initial insistence upon \"His High Mightiness, the President of the United States and Protector of their Liberties\" as his title as always struck me as rather embarrassing."
] |
[
"Your choice. When the book was first released, Ford's Theatre refused to stock the text in its bookstore due to historical inaccuracies. Supposedly these have since been fixed. Still, IMHO, it appears a little too sensationalist for my liking."
] |
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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Is there evidence supporting the idea that there was an ancient civilization lost to the oceans surrounding Great Britain and if so, what would be the implications?
|
[
"At first I was surprised at how horrible a chimera this article is, with real science and sensationalism mixed in. Then I saw it was the Daily Mail. Doggerland is not a 'kingdom', and it has little to do with the submerged features of the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney. There is also no evidence of a 'devastating tsunami'. We have also known of Doggerland for centuries, including the dredging up of mammal bones with human artefacts. There is no evidence to think that this area was 'the real centre of Europe' (what does this even mean for the Paleo- and Mesolithic, when the area was last submerged?). There is also no evidence for any human constructions in this area, as everything has been thoroughly stirred up and mixed on the sea floor. The fanciful image with the stars, connecting a mish-mash of well-known prehistoric sites from all over prehistory in Europe with Doggerland, is so fanciful I don't even know where to start."
] |
[
"I don't know if it has been scientifically proven, but several other cultures have stories referring to a great flood that happened at around the same time period as Noah's."
] |
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 American and other Western tanks of the Cold War, in, say, 1985, compare to their Soviet counterparts?
|
[
"A [similar question](_URL_0_) was answered by /u/grumpusfelinicus, /u/The_Chieftain_WG, /u/Bacarruda."
] |
[
"What do you mean exactly? The weapons used by the major combatants were all broadly similar. Strategies are always going to be situational. Russian Deep Battle for example would have served very little purpose in the Pacific."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
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}
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Just what sort of 'arms' does the second amendment refer to?
|
[
"The Articles of Confederation, which preceded the Constitution, had this to say about arms and militia: _URL_0_ _but every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutered, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of filed pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage._ ~ Which makes it rather clear that the arms are meant for _military_ units - supported by state-supplied ammunition and artillery; along with other supplies needed to keep a military unit functioning."
] |
[
"If the failure goes too far, well, that's why it's important we have the 2nd amendment. No, I'm not kidding. That was one of the main reasons for the 2nd amendment to exist: a rogue government."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
|
English A-Level student about to start a course on the Cold War
|
[
"You might want to consider [this report](_URL_0_) from the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Cold War (I am a member of the committee). It's not that it is the best treatment of the Cold War, but it does represent a recent, quick summary of the topic, a compendium of historic sites, and a bibliography (at least I believe this document will show all that - I didn't work my way to the end, but the hard copy I have has all of these things). Most importantly, if you cite this report, you will probably demonstrate that you are the only one who knows about it since it is relatively obscure and it is still preliminary: the Committee hasn't finished its business. Let me know if you have any questions."
] |
[
"Part of an essay prompt on your take-home final."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
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How did the Kool-Aid company respond to the Jonestown Massacre?
|
[
"Follow-up: it mentions on _URL_0_ that the product used might have been another brand (Flavor Aid), not actual Kool-Aid, a claim I've heard a few times before. What's the current understanding here?"
] |
[
"Why is the US so upset over the labeling of US treatment of Native Americans as a genocide?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
}
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What was the purpose of the Square Formation in the Napoleonic wars?
|
[
"The purpose of the Square formation is for cavalry defense. [This picture depicts a small company sized infantry square](_URL_0_), where you'll see officers and any supply wagons inside the square while the men are in two rows, with the front row kneeling with bayonets facing up while the second row will be ready to fire. The idea is to protect the infantry unit from all sides and not have problems of horses charging in. Now, you might say \"the horses can just charge in, it's hollow\" but that's kinda the point, the horse isn't a dumb animal, and it'll stop rather than charging into a fence of steel, either the rider will fall off or have a hard time getting composure of the horse. However, you do give one important thing, it is very easy to kill several people at once. Infantry squares are a very easy target for artillery and infantry in line formation. As such, this is only a defensive formation should only be used when necessary."
] |
[
"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
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Are there any contemporary followers of the Zun religion of the Zunbil dynasty?
|
[
"The answer is pretty much no. Very little is actually known about the Zunbils, and almost everything we know of their religion is guesswork -- if you go back through the literature you find broad statements like \"the origins and nature of this cult are highly obscure, except that it was clearly not Buddhist or Zoroastrian\" and the Zunbils are a \"series of enigmatic rulers known only by their titles\". The identification of Zun with a sun god is itself only conjectural, despite what Crusader Kings II may have you believe. It derives originally from conclusions by Josef Marquart early in the 20th century that have later been shown to be suspect. Giuseppe Tucci has more recently argued that Zun was in fact a local cult of the Hindu god Shiva. We don't even know for certain whether \"Zun\" is the correct word: it could have been \"Zur\" or \"Zor\" or \"Zal\". In these circumstances of total uncertainty it's more or less impossible for anyone today to legitimately claim to be a follower of the Zunbil religion."
] |
[
"It is an ancient religion that shared many elements with the later Jewish/Christian/Muslim religions. It has its origin and was practiced in the past in what is today Iran. Today there are few Zoroastrians or Mazdayasna as they call themselves left. Less than 200,000 by some counts."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
}
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I'm looking for stories that elucidate what daily life would have been like for the average kid living in Russia circa 1930.
|
[
"You can try Arkady Gaidar. *Timur and his squad*, *Tale of a drummer* and *Chuk and Gek* are all set in the 30's. For a less rosy story you can read *Stalin's Nose* by Yevgeny Yelchin, but this author was born in 1956, so he had no first-hand experience."
] |
[
"The Middle Ages is a pretty huge period that spanned centuries, so you might want to refine your question. The daily life of a monarch in the 8th century was incomparably different from that of a 16th century one."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage about history:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
}
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Was there always enough men to cover all of the walls on a fort/castle?
|
[
"No. It's something that quickly became apparent during the Hundred Years' War: small castles, fortified houses and small fortified towns often would not have enough men standing effective, constant watch for days and nights on end. As a result, they could sometimes be surprised with ladders up against the wall at night in the dark, allowing enough of the enemy to get a foothold to allow yet more to climb up, and the place would be taken. Bigger towns with higher walls and a bigger population were better able to resist. Jonathan Sumption: The Hundred Years War"
] |
[
"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 comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
}
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Recommended reading on the history of medieval guilds?
|
[
"The standard work on the subject is probably Steven A. Epstein's *Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe*. While I haven't had a chance to read it yet myself, the reviews are overall positive. Germany is apparently almost entirely ignored, while parts of the Low Countries and Rhineland receive less focus than they deserve and the chapters focusing on the early part of the Middle Ages are also apparently somewhat weak, but the \"classical \" period of the guilds - the high middle ages - is very well documented and discussed."
] |
[
"Welcome to the one of the strongest arguments against the prohibition of firearms."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
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Did prominent 12th century Genovese families literally "battle each other across the rooftops" of the city's centro?
|
[
"hi! no mentions of rooftop battles here, but these posts will give you some leads on noble families and their defensive towers * [What could be considered the very first \"vertical city?\"](_URL_2_) - featuring /u/AlviseFalier * [Been watching too much Game of Thrones: How much time would an important medieval lord spend in the capital versus in his own lands? How did this change over time?](_URL_2_) - featuring /u/Enrico_Dandolo The first post has been archived, so if you have follow-up questions, just ask them here & include the relevant user's username to notify them"
] |
[
"Ramming was a big element of pre-gunpowder naval warfare. Ram, board, murder, take, and repeat. Why do you believe it would be *easier* to raid costal communities? In its early history, the republic of Venice seized various cities along the Dalmatian coast (Pola, Zara, Ragusa, Spalato) to better check pirate raiding in the Adriatic sea and give ships safe havens en route to Venice."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
Regarding sex, Ancient Greece/Rome, and The Golden Ass
|
[
"More questions about *The Golden Ass*. 1. What's the deal with the Cupid and Psyche story? What's the sub-text there? 2. In one of the later books, Lucius--as an ass--has to have sex with human women, including one who has been found guilty of adultery or worse (I don't recall exactly). He shies away from sex with such a \"wretched creature,\" fearing that he would be polluted. Was this kind of moral-physical pollution a big deal? And is the idea that this scene is funny because here's an ASS who is refusing the have sex with a WOMAN, because HE's afraid of it? 3. It seems pretty much throughout that women are troublemakers: they don't know their place, they get up to no good, they're difficult to control sexually. Is this typical for Classical ideas of sexuality? 4. Are Lucius's salvation and conversion at the end typical for \"mystery religions\" at the time?"
] |
[
"Before and during the Victorian era, the classics were considered a vital part of any full and well-rounded education for a young gentleman. This included the Graeco-Roman (many of the greatest Greek philosophers actually lived under the Roman era) and following christian philosophy, ethics and and theories of society, law, right and wrong and much more. Holmes would be ignorant of what Plato wrote about the ideal society, about Saint Augustine's writing of Alexander the Great and the Pirate, of Spinoza and much like it. Anyone making small talk to him at a soarée would find him less a Gentleman for it. In the context of the time, it adds to the eccentrics of the Holmes character. Edit: Changed most to many."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
}
|
Would it have been possible for the Romans to travel to South America starting at around 187 AD onwards?
|
[
"Physically possible yes, reasonable to expect it to have happened or be attempted no."
] |
[
"Originally, no one. Then around 9600 BCE the first peoples started traveling around the Islands. There are no known permanent civilizations until about 4000 BCE when a Neolithic society begins to appear, the problem is that none of the inhabitants had a recorded language until the the Romans. In about 325 BCE explorers mapped and began trade with people on the South-Eastern Coast. There are records of a failed invasion attempt by Julius Caesar in 55-50 BCE. During this time the inhabitants would be known as the Celts and those of what is now Scotland are the Picts. Ireland's first inhabitants were the Gaelic people who arrived in about 9000 BCE and remained relatively unchanged until Christian explorers arrived in the 5th century. Like the Celts and Picts, they had no recorded language or history aside from carvings."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
|
Why did Sweden support North Vietnam in the Vietnam War?
|
[
"The footnote in that article [links](_URL_0_) to an 163 page review of Sweden's relationship with Vietnam during that period. > In Sweden, the decision to support Vietnam with an official aid program occurred in the context of strong public sentiment, driven by “the image of a poor nation being ravaged by an imperious United States” (Christian Michelsen Institute, 1999, p. 23). Political debate in Sweden polarised around protecting the relationship with the US on the one hand and demonstrating solidarity with Vietnam in the face of US aggression on the other. Charismatic figures on the left of the Swedish political spectrum, notably Olof Palme, helped galvanise support for Swedish aid to North Vietnam with a series of high profile gestures."
] |
[
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
|
Friend told me that Jesus's trial was recorded and transcribed.
|
[
"See the [FAQ.](_URL_0_) There are no contemporaneous accounts of Jesus."
] |
[
"those recordings were made while he was alive, but not released. They are released after death. Posthumously."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
}
|
I remember reading in r/askhistorians about an early AD Chinese dynastic textile innovation that was never used, due to abundant labor, only to be "invented" by the Europeans at a later date. Can anyone help me figure out what I'm thinking of and tell me more about the subject?
|
[
"Its likely you are thinking of general mechanization of industry during the Song dynasty in the 900s, likely the rise and fall of water-powered power-looms during this period, which wouldn't be recreated until the late 1700s. Ronald A. Edwards of Tamkang University in Taiwan mentions them in his \"Textiles of the Tang-Song Dynasty\", but I haven't been able to find a more comprehensive source covering them in the past few minutes I've checked"
] |
[
"Such trading, particularly futures trading, date far later than the period you're asking about. Futures trading is, I believe, often dated pretty specifically to the tulip mania in the Dutch Golden Age. It's not my period, so I'm afraid I can't go into great detail about the evolution of trade as we know it, but my understanding is that it dates from the 1600s. Hopefully someone can come in and provide more detail and correct any errors in what I'm saying."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Fashion and Chinese history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Fashion and Chinese history:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
How much of America's rise as a superpower after WWII, can be attributed to Germany and its technology seized by America after WWII?
|
[
"Not much. If you look at America's share of global GDP, America's share of global population, America's share of global production of strategic resources, America's fleet, army, and air force, and the spheres of influence granted to the US at Potsdam - it was pretty clear that the US was vastly more powerful than any other country on the globe. Even if some other country had had exclusive access to 1946-era rocket and jet fuel technologies, the fundamentals were tilted in favor of US hegemony."
] |
[
"Could the rebuilding of Japan after WWII be considered a partial colonization by the United States?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
|
Good movies depicting medieval Japan.
|
[
"Not an historian but I really enjoyed RAN, its an older movie and incredibly long though."
] |
[
"What do you mean by downfall? This is still a dominant part of current culture."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
Day of Reflection | December 08, 2014–December 14, 2014
|
[
"/u/BritainOpPlsNerf wrote a good post on [Italy \"hindering\" Germany](_URL_0_) that didn't get much attention, ironically since it's a WW2 post."
] |
[
"It's a bit unclear what you're interested in. (Early US education? Mann? Cremin's perspective?) But here are some resources that may help: > Binder, Frederick M. The Age of the Common School: 1830-1865. New York: Wiley, 1974. > > Glenn, Jr., Charles Leslie. The Myth of the Common School. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988. > > Howe, Daniel Walker. “Church, State, and Education in the Young American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 22, no. 1 (April 1, 2002): 1–24. > > Kaestle, Carl. Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860. 1st ed. Hill and Wang, 1983. > > Spring, Joel. The American School: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. > > Katz, Michael B. “Horace Mann: What Went Wrong?” Reviews in American History 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1973): 218–223. > > Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
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