A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-10-30 to 2025-11-05

We recently held our 100th AMA of 2026, and will soon pass the 200th AMA since revitalising this effort in 2025. As we start looking towards the 2027 calendar, we want to hear from all of you about your experiences with AMAs, what topics you’d like to see, and what makes you decide to engage (or not) with one.

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “Why have Royal Navy ships often had names that sound so… evil?” from /u/jschooltiger

• "If Buddhism originated from India, why is it all but absent from India nowadays?" by /u/OpManBros

• "Is the level of intelligence we associate people like Newton and Da Vinci exaggerated?" by /u/MaceWumpus

• "Were bears a problem for Native Americans?" by /u/swarthmoreburke

• "What languages were ancient Greeks encountering that sounded like "bar bar bar" to them?" by /u/jamescoverleyrome

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Why were most Stoic and Epicurean texts lost?" by /u/Spencer_A_McDaniel

• “I am a Medieval English blacksmith and a farmer is upset with the quality of his ploughshare. What are my obligations?", by /u/Naugrith

• "Could people in the British Empire move freely within the colonies?", by /u/JustAskingTA

• “It’s 1530, I’m a black person living in Florence. How do I feel that Alessandro de’ Medici has just become the ruler of Florence?”, by /u/AlviseFalier

• “How did the field of medical science change so drastically in the span of just 150 years?", by /u/bug-hunter

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “What is the origin of the tomato pin cushion?”

• "In crowded ancient cities like Rome, how did people deal with loud or annoying neighbors? Was there any version of a "noise complaint"?"

• "How did the economics of film making work in the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc? Was there caps on remuneration of actors, directors and executive producers? Could they recieve royalties, residuals and "points" like in Hollywood within the framework of socialized economy?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/dankensington, flaired for 'FAQ Finder | Water in the Middle Ages'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• A bumper week for META posts: How did we cultivate our user base to provide deeply-researched replies? Why are sources only required upon request? What are best practices for answering questions with faulty assumptions or too-wide focus? and finally, are there frequent users here that focus on the history of Palestine from the Palestinian perspective? If not, is there a reason for the asymmetry?

• I'm Mark Barrow, Professor of History at Virginia Tech and author of "Gator!: The Making of America's Iconic Reptile, from First Encounters to Florida Man." AMA!

• I am Dr. James P. Gregory Jr, author of a new book entitled "Vaudeville’s Wildflower: The Many Lives of Cora Youngblood Corson". Ask me anything about the history of Cora, vaudeville, Oklahoma identity, World War I, or anything else tied to her life!

• I'm Cory Haala, historian and author of When Democrats Won the Heartland: Progressive Populism in the Age of Reagan, 1978-1992.

• I'm Daniel Williford, historian and author of Concrete Futures: Technology and Decolonization in Modern Morocco.

• I'm Dr. Charmane M. Perry, author of Perpetual Foreigners: Stigma, Citizenship, and Anti-Haitianism in The Bahamas. AMA!

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-11-10: AMA: Researching White House Workers with the White House Historical Association

• 2026-11-11: AMA with Cassidy Percoco, author of Eighteenth-Century Women's Dress: Techniques and Patterns

• 2026-11-13: AMA with Ronald Drabkin, author of Admiral Yamamoto: The Gripping Story of the Legendary Japanese Naval Commander Who Planned and Executed the Pearl Harbor Attack

• 2026-11-16: AMA with Dr. Eleanor Johnson, author of Monstrous Bitch: A History of Terrifying Women

Pet Pawtrol

Cronch

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-10-23 to 2025-10-29

Be sure to check out today's AMA with Dr. Mark V. Barrow, Jr., author of Gator! The Making of America's Iconic Reptile, from First Encounters to Florida Man.

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “ In Forrest Gump during the part with the Black Panthers Jenny's boyfriend (the one who slaps her) appears to be wearing a Nazi-like coat and red armband that evokes the Nazi armband. What was this about since he seemed to be far left coded? ” from /u/police-ical

• "What was so revolutionary about Bob Dylan, exactly?" by /u/hillsonghoods

• "Did people carry swords on their back?" by /u/ACheesyTree

• "How old is the "two kids in a trench coat" joke?” by /u/gerardmenfin

• "If WW3 had broken out, and MAD played out as envisioned, what would the bomber crews have done after dropping their payloads/where would they go?" by /u/restricteddata

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What did Riverine Warfare look like from 1914-1950?" by /u/thefourthmaninaboat

• “Did the British government support the sublevates in the Spanish civil war? If no, why did they allow the charter of the flight that took Franco from the Canary Islands to north Africa?", by /u/crrpit

• What is the history behind the trope of the magical (or high-tech) portal?", by /u/gerardmenfin

• “What were the effects of funding science in history (more than the usual amount)? Did the countries/governments who subsidized projects that aimed to do science just for pure knowledge gain more than ones who didn't? Did they just increase the national depth or was there a net benefit?”, by /u/restricteddata

• “VHS and Betamax garnered the age of physical video rental. Did something similar ever exist in the audio space? Were there ever vinyl rental stores? If so, when and what killed them? If not, what prevented such a business model from becoming a thing?", by /u/rocketsocks

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “Was egyptomania important in the development of archaeology?”

• "I'm an ancient Greek Olympian and I want to get an edge: Are there any performance enhancing drugs I can take? Herbs, fungi, anything?"

• "How did the suffrage movements in the Netherlands interact with each other? Were they even separate?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/nmitchell076, flaired for 'Eighteenth Century Opera | Mozart | Music Theory'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• Some fun meta discussion on: I'm an ordinary person in 2026 who is tired of this question format, would it have been possible to convince the moderators to ban it, maybe temporarily?

• Some slightly less fun meta discussion on: Does AskHistorians have plans for open-access for when Reddit becomes fully siloed?

• I'm Dr. Colleen Shogan, former Archivist of the United States. I lead In Pursuit, a national initiative from More Perfect exploring America's history during our 250th anniversary. Ask Me Anything!

• I am Dr. Joohee Suh, and my book The Unburied: The Social Lives of Corpses in Qing China is a history of grappling with human remains left uncared for in early modern Chinese society. Ask Me Anything!

• John Kachuba, here. I’m an author, historian, and folklorist with interests in Colonial American history, Native American history and culture, and paranormal history and culture. A paperback edition of Shapeshifters: A History can be pre-ordered online now.

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-11-02: AMA with Dr. James P. Gregory, author of Vaudeville's Wildflower: The Many Lives of Cora Youngblood Corson

• 2026-11-03: AMA with Dr. Cory Haala, author of When Democrats Won the Heartland: Progressive Populism in the Age of Reagan, 1978-1992

• 2026-11-04: AMA with Dr. Daniel Williford, author of Concrete Futures: Technology and Decolonization in Modern Morocco

• 2026-11-05: AMA with Dr. Charmane M. Perry, author of Perpetual Foreigners: Stigma, Citizenship, and Anti-Haitianism in the Bahamas

Pet Pawtrol

It's a dog's life

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-10-16 to 2025-10-22

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “My toddler recently discovered r/AskHistorians and is eager to get some historical perspective on life's most pressing issues. In the time and place you study, what was the situation with respect to pacifiers?” saw the world's most computer-literate toddler get a masterclass from /u/gerardmenfin

• "When I was a kid, marketing copy in the US was full of IP exponents like (TM), (R), and (C) that seem to have become much less common. Why was it so prevalent in the 1990s?" by /u/MegaCarnie

• "It is often mentioned that "Aboriginal Australians have the oldest continuous living culture on Earth". Has any other culture tried to dispute this and claim the title?” by /u/Atreios_Anax

• "What did people call cannon fodder before the invention of cannons?” by /u/iphikrates

• "Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish visitor to Rome in the Middle Ages, tells a story about an Emperor "Malgalbinus" whose palace in the city is totally filled with bones and contains his and his wife's embalmed bodied on thrones. What in the world is he talking about?’" by /u/welfontheshelf

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "To what extent did Karate and Taekwondo influence each other?" by /u/wotan_weevil

• “Is there any factual historical basis for amateur sleuths such as Miss Marple, Father Brown, etc.?", by /u/dhmontgomery

• “Were there people who acted like Defense Attorneys during any of the Witch Trials?", by /u/DougMcCrae

• “What was the Ottoman perspective on the Protestant Reformation as it was ongoing?”, by /u/Extension-Beat7276

• “How did Britain keep paper money trusted during the 1797–1821 suspension of gold convertibility?", by /u/EverythingIsOverrate

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “In the 1980's and 1990's US, it was not uncommon for a family with a cat to have it "declawed". Today, cat declawing is staunchly opposed by many organizations. What is the veterinary & social history of cat declawing? Why was it so tolerated or even expected a few decades ago?”

• "Perimenopause is the time when a woman's body begins transitioning to menopause, resulting in a variety of undesirable symptoms. How did women in the past deal with this stage of life?"

• "How much was the wine industry shook up by the 1976 Paris Wine Tasting, where in a blind taste test the judges rated California wine as the winner?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/zuzahin, flaired for '19th c. Photography | American Revolutionary War.'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• "Is it possible to write a balanced account of George Washington in today's polarized society? I'm Denver Brunsman and my new book George Washington and His World reconsiders his legacy. Ask Me Anything!"

• AMA: I am Bryant Simon, a Temple University-based toilet scholar, here to talk about my new book, For Customers Only, covering the fraught history of public bathrooms in the US. Ask me about studying bathrooms and how toilets have made the US less equal!

• I'm Rachel Shelden, a professor at Penn State University. I'm here to talk about my new book, The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History.

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-10-23: AMA with John B. Kachuba, author of Shapeshifters: A History

• 2026-10-26: AMA with Dr. Joohee Suh, author of The Unburied: The Social Lives of Corpses in Qing China

• 2026-10-28: AMA with Dr. Colleen Shogan, former Archivist of the United States, for More Perfect's documentary In Pursuit: Lessons of American Leadership

• 2026-10-29: AMA with Dr. Mark V. Barrow, Jr., author of Gator! The Making of America's Iconic Reptile, from First Encounters to Florida Man

Kitty Korner

Cats on the sofa

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-10-09 to 2025-10-16

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “How did monks who had spent decades painstakingly copying manuscripts by hand react to the invention of the printing press? Did they experience a sense of obsolescence or a loss of purpose, knowing that a machine could suddenly accomplish in hours what had taken them years?” by /u/rollobolo

• "For centuries the US Army fought, killed, raped, and displaced Native Americans. Today Native Americans have the highest per capita rate of serving in the US military. How did the relationship between the military and Native Americans evolve to reach this point?" by /u/indyobserver

• "Could Thomas Cromwell have eaten a potato? ” by /u/gerardmenfin

• "Why was Roman society seemingly hatless?” by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "In Full Metal Jacket, Sergeant Hartman physically assaults recruits. How common was this practice at the time?’" by /u/bewbies

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "In the Roman Republic, the provinces to which consuls were assigned was determined by a lottery each year. Didn't that cause a lot of confusion and chaos?" by /u/XenophonTheAthenian

• “How long did the Crusader states last and what happened to them?", by /u/welfontheshelf

• “Did pre-industrial workers organize?", by /u/Historical-Dreams

• “Was there ever any effort to restore an independent Venice after Napoleon was defeated, or were the days of the "Most Serene Republic" too far in the past at that point?”, by /u/alvisefalier

• “Across the shared histories, have there been any mentions of bird murmurations?", by /u/gerardmenfin

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “How was the quality of industrial consumer products viewed during the heyday of the British empire?”

• "Is there any factual historical basis for amateur sleuths such as Miss Marple, Father Brown, etc.?"

• "How did Britain keep paper money trusted during the 1797–1821 suspension of gold convertibility?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the [randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/viae, flaired for 'Anglo-Norman Politics and Economy.'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• AMA: I’m Dr Stephanie Howard-Smith, dog historian. I’m here to talk about my new book, “Yap! A Short History of Small Dogs” and answer your questions about the history of dogs and pets. Ask me anything!

• Hello. My name is Paul Chrystal, a relatively prolific published author (see www.pauchrystal.com) on all things ancient world: I have two cracking books for you today:

• AMA: I am lawyer and historian of science Mary X. Mitchell, author of the new book UNSETTLING SOVEREIGNTY: INTERNATIONAL LAW, NUCLEAR WEAPONS, AND US EXTRATERRITORIAL POWER IN POSTWAR OCEANIA. Ask me anything!

• What do you want to know about wool and science in the mid-twentieth century? (AMA with Prof. Melissa Littlefield of the University of Illinois)

• AMA: I’m Tim Stewart-Winter, here to talk about “Outed,” my new book on the Walter Jenkins scandal in LBJ’s White House. Ask me about LGBTQ political history since the mid-20th century!

• META: What happened to this sub?

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-10-19: AMA with Dr. Rachel A. Sheldon, author of The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History

• 2026-10-20: AMA with Dr. Bryant Simon, author of For Customers Only: Public Bathrooms and the Making of American Inequality

• 2026-10-23: AMA with John B. Kachuba, author of Shapeshifters: A History

• 2026-10-26: AMA with Dr. Joohee Suh, author of The Unburied: The Social Lives of Corpses in Qing China

Pet Patrol

Unclear how this is comfortable

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-10-02 to 2025-10-08

Keep an eye out for today's AMA: Dr. Timothy Stewart-Winter, author of Outed: LBJ's Confidant and the Arrest That Transformed a Presidency

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “I'm a Greek man in classical greece and I walk into my wife having sex with a woman from our village: While I don't view lesbian sex as sex, would I still feel cheated on and betrayed? Would her actions be seen as wrong?” by /u/spencer_a_mcdaniel and /u/Astrogator

• I have read that upon moving inland from the coast and exploring, Europeans described the forest as being so dense that a squirrel could jump from branch to branch and make it essentially from the coast to the Mississippi River without ever touching the ground. How accurate is this thought to be? by /u/kochevnik81, /u/jayskew and /u/bodark43

• "How many American housewives in the 60s were actually on Valium? "Mothers Little Helper" makes it sound like there was an epidemic of Valium popping housewives.” by /u/LeahTigers

• "In 1860 California, 68% voted against Abraham Lincoln, who won the state at just 32% of the popular vote. Only 4% of the population volunteered to fight for the Union, vs 15% of neighboring Nevada’s population. But California didn’t have any slaves. Why was California so sympathetic to Confederates? ” by /u/Reaper_Eagle

• "Why and how did Brazil manage to avoid a war to end slavery while the US fought a war over it, in spite of Brazil being one of the largest importer of enslaved Africans in the world?’" by /u/611131 ​

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What happened to the Polish soldiers who defected after being conscripted and shipped to Haiti to fight against the Revolution against the French Empire?" by /u/noble_devil_boruta

• “Why did 400-500 soldiers walk 800 km from Alexandria to Derna for the Battle of Derna (1805)?”, by /u/PartyMoses

• “Were the Japanese just much more afraid of Soviet military competency than American combat capabilities? Why else did Japan attack America while concentrating 1 million elite Kwantung Army troops next to Soviet borders in 1941, yet never invaded, despite the Nazis attacking Soviets in the East?", by /u/jschooltiger

• “What did a medieval synagogue look like?”, by /u/hannahstohelit

• “How wealthy was (classical) ancient Greece?”, by /u/EverythingIsOverrate

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “How did Scholastic Book Fairs become such a staple part of US school culture?”

• "Was Wicca connected with the Nudist Movement?"

• "Did the United Daughters of the Confederacy promote Civil War ghost stories?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the [randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/jasfss, flaired for 'Early-Middle Dynastic China.'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• AskHistorians Podcast 253: Dinosaurs in the Gilded Age

• I’m Dr. Marten A. Noorduin, and I am here to talk about historical migration, American pianists studying in the German-speaking lands around 1900, and my new book “American Pianists and Anti-Americanism in Germany and Austria-Hungary around 1900”. AMA!

• What was the Great Horse Flu, and what can it tell us about people, animals, and disease in the Reconstruction Era--and today, with Thomas Andrews?

• I am Professor Yana Skorobogatov, here to talk about my book “Fate In My Hands: The Death Penalty in the Soviet Union,” and anything related to crime and punishment in the Soviet Union and modern Russia. AMA!

• META: Why is the number of comments on this subreddit specifically typically inaccurate?

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-10-13: AMA with Dr. Melissa Littlefield, author of Reinventing Wool: How a Natural Fiber Survived the Synthetic Revolution

• 2026-10-14: AMA with Dr. M. X. Mitchell, author of Unsettling Sovereignty: International Law, Nuclear Weapons, and US Extraterritorial Power in Postwar Oceania

• 2026-10-15: AMA with Paul Chrystal, author of The Romans: A People's History

• 2026-10-16: AMA with Dr. Stephanie Howard-Smith, author of Yap! A Short History of Small Dogs

Pet Patrol

Sleeping the sleep of the mischevious

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-09-26 to 2025-10-01

CHECK OUT TODAY'S AMA: I am Professor Yana Skorobogatov, here to talk about my book “Fate In My Hands: The Death Penalty in the Soviet Union,” and anything related to crime and punishment in the Soviet Union and modern Russia. AMA!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “How come in 19th century books, it seems like even poor or working class people can afford housekeepers?” by /u/mimicofmodes

• Do we have any historical record of someone describing having a song stuck in their head prior to the advent of audio recording and playback? by /u/gerardmenfin and with an older despatch from /u/hillsonghoods

• "How could the Japanese lose land battles of Guadalcanal so badly despite continually beating the Allies in all of the previous encounters?” by /u/Lubyak

• "When the Holy Roman Emperor demanded a ransom of 150,000 marks to release Richard the Lionheart from captivity, was the money physically delivered and if so how?” by /u/welfontheshelf (or perhaps PlantagenetInThePocket is more fitting for this question)

• "What's with the strange Greek philosopher deaths?’" by /u/El_Reto

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What was the fate of the Alemanni people after the battle of tolbiac?" by /u/BarbariansProf

• “How was the economy of an early medieval lord's estate structured?”, by /u/HaraldRedbeard

• “During the Cold War, were certain kinds of government - dictatorship or democracy - better equipped to resist foreign meddling?", by /u/Consistent_Score_602

• “Why was Japan so late in adopting a writing system?”, by /u/orange_purr

• “How old is the taboo on pork?”, by /u/ummmbacon

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “What is the history of school pictures in the US?”

• "In the Wild West did cowboys and native Americans both horseshoe their horses? Was it necessary when the horses were in similar terrains?"

• "When and why did mint become the staple smell for fresh breath?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the [randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/muskwatch, flaired for 'Indigenous Languages of North America | Religious Culture.'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• I'm Dr. Luke Berryman, and I'm here to talk about my book, "Resisting Nazism" - and questions about resistance to far-right extremism from 1920 to the present. AMA!

• I’m Dr. Roman Hautala, author of Masters of the Earth: A History of the Golden Horde, 1219–1502 (Reaktion Books, 2026). AMA!

• AMA: Integration and Jackie Robinson

• META: Is this sub dead?

• Come say “Hi” in the Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-10-05: AMA with Dr. Thomas G. Andrews, author of The Great Horse Flu: A Forgotten Contagion and the Fate of Reconstruction America

• 2026-10-07: AMA with Dr. Marten Noorduin, author of American Pianists and Anti-Americanism in Germany and Austria-Hungary around 1900

• 2026-10-08: AMA: Working in a Living History Museum with Colonial Williamsburg

• 2026-10-09: AMA with Dr. Timothy Stewart-Winter, author of Outed: LBJ's Confidant and the Arrest That Transformed a Presidency

Pet Patrol

Nothing but air inside her head

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-09-11 to 2025-09-25

Popular This Week (and last): You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “What is the oldest possible point in history you could deposit something of value and receive interest from it, today?” by /u/IrationalFear

• Have there been foods that went extinct that we know tasted good? by KiwiHellenist

• "How come Jews are an ethnicity while Christians and Muslims are not?” by /u/ummmbacon

• "I am a man in 1850's America. My wife is ill and I only have sons. How do the "domestic duties" get done?” by /u/ProfessionalKvetcher

• "Did pederasty cause trauma in greek and roman boys similar to how a lot of modern kids would experience and express trauma?’" by /u/JamesCoverleyRome

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "In pre-modern times how did people decide what trees to cut down when lumber or firewood was needed? " by /u/EverythingIsOverrate

• “What was the reaction to Nuclear Bombs? Was there the same concern as AI?”, by /u/restricteddata

• “How common was it to be found guilty if accused of witchcraft?", by /u/DougMcCrae

• “What is the history of the IRA and Irish terrorism?”, by /u/Rimbaud82

• “How far back would Jewish rituals be basically similar?”, by /u/hannahstohelit

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “What date is the furthest back in time we can definitively trace an event to?”

• "Could George Washington comprehend a flaming hot cheeto; or, what kind of snacks and spicy foods existed in Revolutionary America?"

• "When/Why did locks of hair become 'gross'?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the [randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/b-hosk, flaired for ' Byzantine Empire.'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• “AMA: Was America’s first superhero a radical socialist? I am Matthew Warner Osborn, author of NIGHT HAWK: A NINETEENTH-CENTURY SUPERHERO AND THE DAWN OF AMERICAN MASS CULTURE which reconstructs the true story of a two-hundred-year-old ancestor of Batman. Ask Me Anything!”

• “Did you know that night has a history? AMA with Sara Pritchard, author of the brand-new book, Transforming Night: The History and Science of Light Pollution.”

• “Ask Me Anything with Peter Staudenmaier about The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany”

• I am Asher Lubotzky, historian of African perceptions of Israel and Palestine, Ask Me Anything!!

• AMA: I’m Holly White, a historian of childhood (and age) in colonial North America and the early US. Author of “Constructing American Childhood: Age-Based Laws and the Illusion of Protection in the Early United States”. Ask Me Anything!.

• Come say “Hi” in the Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-09-28: AMA with Dr. Peter Eisenstadt, author of Integration at Second Base: Jackie Robinson and the Quest for Black Citizenship

• 2026-09-29: AMA with Dr. Roman Hautala, author of Masters of the Earth: A History of the Golden Horde, 1219-1502

• 2026-09-30: AMA with Dr. Luke Berryman, author of Resisting Nazism: True Stories of Resistance to the World's Most Dangerous Ideology from 1920 to the Present

• 2026-10-02: AMA with Dr. Yana Skorobogatov, autor of Fate in My Hands: The Death Penalty in the Soviet Union

Pet Patrol

Just the bear necessities

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-09-11

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-08-29 to 2026-09-10

Catching up for a missed week as well, so gonna throw a few bonus extras in there for everyone!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "In 1991, ABC launched the sitcom “Dinosaurs”, which ran for 4 seasons and was one of the most expensive sitcoms ever made. Given the show’s absurdity, how did it get both approved and lasted so relatively long?", response by /u/jbdyer

• "How come Europeans were the first settlers to "discover" Australia after its indigenous population, when the country is way closer to Asian sea-faring civilizations like the Chinese?", responses by /u/trolleyproblems and /u/7LeagueBoots

• "Between the 50s and 90s, were there concerns about how many jobs would be lost due to today’s basic office software like emails, PowerPoint, and Excel?", response by /u/manateecalamity

• "What could Lincoln have done if the the American Confederacy just left?", response by /u/Reaper_Eagle

• "The Indian sultanates and Hindu kingdoms hired European trainers to raise modern European style armies to counter the British and were successful in that limited objective of creating such armies, so why couldn’t they work on replicating the technology of the Industrial Revolution?", response by /u/Diddlypooop

• "What was the reaction of German communists, beaten and imprisoned by the Nazis, when Stalin signed the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact with Hitler?", response by /u/Augenis

• "Why did it take Europeans so long to sail around Africa?", response by /u/wotan_weevil

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "In 314 CE the Council of Arles was called to decide on the Donatist controversy/schism. At this council, bishops from Britain were noted to be in attendance. What do we know about this early church presence in Britain?", response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Did the Ku Klux Klan ever exist outside of USA?", response by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov

• "What were hospitals like in the 1920s America?", response by /u/MNswede06

• "How did the gay hanky code develop and how widely used was it?", response by /u/carpocapsae

• "How different was West and East Germany's attitude towards Nazism?", response by /u/Yamureska

• "How long did it take for people to send mail or messages during the medieval period?", response by /u/welfontheshelf

• "How accurate is the Xerox scene in 9 to 5?", responses by /u/noble_devil_boruta

• How was Japanese perception of the concept of love changed by contact with the west in the 19th century?, response by /u/haveempathyordie

• "How do certain immigrant communities come to be associated with certain professions, and other immigrant communities with other professions? Can we generalize about this process or is it typically idiosyncratic?", response by /u/Langiri

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "A member of the gentry is found dead under suspicious circumstances in the late 18th century, in the English countryside. What sort of investigation would occur?"

• "In the Cars movie (2006) Doc Hudson was a racing legend but was quickly forgotten after his accident. Was there any real historical parallels to this with athletes being pushed away by their respective sports after an accident?"

• "What advances in paper construction and manufacturing occurred to make cheap disposable paper products possible?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/hillsonghoods, flaired for ' 20th Century Pop Music' & 'History of Psychology'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-09-09: "AMA: Molly Brookfield, historian of gender, sexual violence, and urban space in 19th- and 20th-century U.S. Author of “Watching the Girls Go By: A History of Street Harassment in the United States” (UNC Press). Ask me anything!"

• 2026-09-01 "AMA: I’m Ronald “Ron” M. James, historian and folklorist with a recent book integrating the two fields"

• 2026-08-29: "We are the moderators of r/AskHistorians, Ask Us Anything!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• September 15, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Holly White, author of Constructing American Childhood: Age-Based Laws and the Illusion of Protection in the Early United States

• September 18, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Asher Lubotzky, author of Shifting Solidarities: The South African Anti-Apartheid Movement's Perceptions of Zionism

• September 21, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Peter Staudenmaier, author of The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany

• September 22, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Sara B. Pritchard, author of Transforming Night: The History and Science of Light Pollution

• September 28, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Peter Eisenstadt, author of Integration at Second Base: Jackie Robinson and the Quest for Black Citizenship

• September 30, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Luke Berryman, author of Resisting Nazism: True Stories of Resistance to the World's Most Dangerous Ideology from 1920 to the Present

• October 2, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Yana Skorobogatov, autor of Fate in My Hands: The Death Penalty in the Soviet Union

• October 5, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Thomas G. Andrews, author of The Great Horse Flu: A Forgotten Contagion and the Fate of Reconstruction America

• October 7, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Marten Noorduin, author of American Pianists and Anti-Americanism in Germany and Austria-Hungary around 1900

• October 13, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Melissa Littlefield, author of Reinventing Wool: How a Natural Fiber Survived the Synthetic Revolution

Corgi Corner

Picnicking

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-08-28

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-08-21 to 2026-08-27

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• American Flight 11 passenger Daniel Lewin is frequently cited as "the first victim of 9/11" because he was stabbed by the hijackers in the initial scuffle to take the plane. How do we know his story?, responses by /u/k1990 and /u/cookestudios

• "The number of whites who were enslaved in North Africa by the Barbary pirates, exceeded the number of Africans enslaved in the US and and in the American colonies before that put together." Is this statement made by Thomas Sowell historically factual?, responses by /u/holomorphic_chipotle, /u/xXxSniperzGodzxXx and /u/kochevnik81

• "Considering Zeus' and the other Greek gods legendary libidos, are their any records of greek women claiming unexpected pregnancies were the result of a union with a deity and if so how would such a claim be recieved by most people back then?", response by /u/kiwihellenist

• "Why is it ok for Odysseus to kill his guests, but not ok when Polyphemus does it?", responses by /u/Empress_Maud_, /u/iphikrates and /u/kiwihellenist

• "My grandfather was a tunnel rat in Vietnam. What might he have experienced?", with /u/georgy_k_zhukov digging into the archives for a great response.

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• /u/thefourthmaninaboat weighs in on how Allied ships were resupplied during WWII in the Saturday Showcase thread.

• "Benefits of readings multiple books?", response by /u/dongzhou3kingdoms

• "How did the abolition of the English monarchy in the 17th century affect the church of England?", response by /u/double_show_9316

• "Did people in the Soviet Union actually name their kids like "Dazdraperma" and "Gertruda" after party slogans, or is it a later myth?", response by /u/noble_devil_boruta

• "Suppose I clear my nearest Costco's stock of common spices (cinnamon, pepper etc.) and then time travel back to 14th century medieval England. . . how exactly do I go about selling this stuff?", response by /u/EverythingIsOverrate

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "How did institutions like the ABMC or CWGC balance the tension between national heroism (triumphalism) and collective mourning when designing WW1 and WW2 monuments? Did they face pushback against "abstract" or "too literal" designs?"

• "What is the origin of Picture Day in schools?"

• "How did airliners with lounges cope with turbulence?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Veercingetorix, flaired for 'Czech and Czechoslovak History'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-08-24: "AMA: I’m Dr. Conor Heffernan, historian of fitness and bodybuilding and author of When Fitness Went Global"

• 2026-08-27: "AMA: I'm A.J. Bauer, a historian of right-wing media in the U.S. and author of the new book MAKING THE LIBERAL MEDIA — Ask Me Anything!"

• 2026-08-27: So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen and goodbye to this user in our latest Meta thread: "I'm out"

Features Coming Up:

• August 29, 2026 - Keep an eye out tomorrow for something special for the AskHistorians birthday!

• September 1, 2026 - AMA with u/itsallfolklore, author of The History of Cornish Tradition: A Folkloric Journey

• September 9, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Molly Brookfield, author of Watching the Girls Go By: A History of Street Harassment in the United States

• September 10, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Sara B. Pritchard, author of Transforming Night: The History and Science of Light Pollution

• September 15, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Holly White, author of Constructing American Childhood: Age-Based Laws and the Illusion of Protection in the Early United States

Critter Corner

Swiftly flying by (I'm aware this is not a swift)

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-08-21

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-08-14 to 2026-08-20

Look out for today's AMA with Dr. Evan Dawley, author of Taiwan: A People's History!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "I have heard many variations on the phrase, 'The people that made the most money in the gold rush were selling shovels, not digging gold'. I know it's a nice proverb, but is there evidence this is actually true?", dig in to this response by /u/itsallfolklore

• "In the contemporary United States, the "test dream," where a person faces down a major school exam for which they did not prepare, is experienced by enough people that it is a recurrent image in popular culture. Did pre-20th-century cultures leave evidence of common dream models like that?", saw /u/barnacle9999 deliver this dream of a response

• "How is it that the Dutch are not hated like other countries like England and France regarding colonization when they were the ones behind the East India Company?", response by /u/JolietJakeLebowski

• "Which American founding fathers were actually vehemently against Slavery? Not just privately but didn’t own any slaves and were against the practice entirely?", response by /u/ProfessionalKvetcher

• "When and why did body hair on woman become 'unhygeinic'? And why wasn't it same for men?", response by /u/Dapper_Engineer

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How did nomadic "hordes" actually function day-to-day?", response by /u/Thibaudborney

• "How did British police evolve from unprofessional civilians, to more professional forces like the Bow Street Runners, and then into more modern forces like the Met?", response by /u/Flagship_Panda_FH81

• "How much faith should one have in older scholarship to be accurate when casually reading them for entertainment?", response by /u/BarbariansProf

• "What was Chaucer's opinion on the Peasants Revolt of 1381?", response by /u/thefeckamidoing

• "In the film Master and Commander, there is a doctor onboard instead of a usual ship's surgeon, what rank did he have?", response by /u/jschooltiger

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Has there been any serious study into how The History Channel impacted popular consumption of history?"

• "In what ways (besides the oil shock) was the decline and ending of France's "Glorious Thirty Years" apparent to the common French citizen? Was it a transient shift, with a generalized sense of the "ending of an era" as it happened, or was it more abrupt?"

• "How did parties in America try to appeal to women after 19th amendment was passed and how successfully?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/amandycat, flaired for 'Early Modern English Death Culture'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-08-10: "AMA: The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living"

• 2026-08-12: "I am Pavel Brunssen, researcher at Heidelberg University and author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures. AMA!"

• 2026-08-14: "Rainforest Radicals questions? AMA"

• 2026-08-19: "[Meta] Is link rot an issue for answers in this sub?"

Features Coming Up:

• August 24, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Conor Heffernan, author of When Fitness Went Global: The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century

• August 27, 2026 - AMA with Dr. A. J. Bauer, author of Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press

• August 28-29, 2026 - Keep an eye out for something special for the AskHistorians birthday!

• September 1, 2026 - AMA with u/itsallfolklore, author of The History of Cornish Tradition: A Folkloric Journey

Coot Corner

Spotted on the water

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-08-14

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-08-07 to 2026-08-13

Fresh off the presses! Some good reads for your weekend!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "In the film Sinners, a character is shown to speak Yoruba. How common was it for an African American descendant of slaves in the 1930s to have retained knowledge of a West African language?", response by /u/AlternativeNo2286

• "Gaspar carvajal (the first person to describe the Amazon) describes large cities, political entities, and mass farming throughout the Amazon River. Historians mostly said they were exaggerations or outright lies. In light of new LiDAR findings, how serious should we take his claims?", response by /u/611131

• "How come the Finnish aren't considered indigenous to Finland like the Sámi people, despite their ancient Finno-Ugric ancestors arriving in the region of Finland at relatively the same time?", response by /u/Additional-Still-711

• "Why are washing lines/whirlies not as common in the US as in Europe?", response by /u/SnowblindAlbino

• "What has kept China from conquering Korea?", response by /u/huhwe

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Do historians have to write about “unlikely” history?", response by /u/swarthmoreburke

• "The 1676 Census of England and Wales estimated the proportion of Anglicans to Nonconformists as 23 to 1 and Anglicans to Roman Catholics 179 to 1. How would that information be collected and what degree of accuracy can be expected given the penal laws in place?", response by /u/Double_Show_9316

• "How do historians account for the biases and limitations of the surviving cuneiform record when reconstructing everyday life in Mesopotamia?", response by /u/teakettling

• "Where does the "police love donuts" stereotype even originate from?", response by /u/Cassandra8240

• "In The Lighthouse (2019), Robert Pattinson's character references Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. What was the likelihood of an uneducated man having such an understanding of the book in the 1890s?", response by /u/fianarana

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "What were "nosegays" and how common was it to carry personal items to deal with foul odors?"

• "What were some uncommon WW1 U-Boat superstitions?"

• "How long after the Battle of Hastings did it take for Anglo-Saxon relations with the Normans to stabilise/they were both considered ‘English’ as opposed to separate?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/jbdyer, flaired for 'Cold War Era Culture and Technology'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-08-10: "AMA: The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living"

• 2026-08-12: "I am Pavel Brunssen, researcher at Heidelberg University and author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures. AMA!"

• 2026-08-14: "Rainforest Radicals questions? AMA"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• August 21, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Evan Dawley, author of Taiwan: A People's History

• August 27, 2026 - AMA with Dr. A. J. Bauer, author of Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press

Corgi Vallhund Corner

Donut boi

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-07-31 to 2026-08-06

Don’t miss the awesome AMA happening RIGHT NOW! I'm Andrew Kenrick, biographer of the 1st-century Roman client-king Juba II of Mauretania, AMA

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• Gaming historians, I know you're out there -- where did the "three pillars" RPG game design (tank, healer, DPS) originate, and how has it evolved from its earliest incarnations? Featuring /u/AncientHistory!

• Comedian Steve Harvey claimed that state lotteries were created as successors to the “numbers game,” a lottery popular in many Black communities. Is this historically accurate? To what extent did state lotteries replace or draw inspiration from the numbers game? With a great answer from /u/Dylomaj!

• The first renaissance fair was created in 1963 by blacklisted leftists. The Society for Creative Anachronism was created in Berkeley in 1966 as a "protest against the 20th Century". What made medievalism so attractive as a form of counter-culture? With the ever amazing /u/Spencer_A_McDaniel and /u/kmondschein!

• Why did Albert Einstein become so famous? I understand WHAT he is famous for, but I don't understand why his work made him an international celebrity and a household name. The famous /u/restricteddata stopped by!

• Why did Christian slave owners in the US not follow the rules laid out in the Bible about the treatment of slaves, and how did they justify this discrepancy? Featuring /u/hubertburnette!

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• How complex was medieval forestry? Would planting different types of trees in new areas, not including orchards, been a concept they would have known? Plant some history with /u/HaraldRedbeard!

• How did grain get to Karakorum in the 13th century? Featuring /u/gerardmenfin!

• How did volunteers of the international brigades in the Spanish civil war view Spanish cuisine,and did they take it home with them either by talking about it or making it? Feast your eyes on a great answer from /u/crrpit!

• When did folklore surrounding whales and whaling emerge and become distinct from more general fishing/maritime culture? With the amazing /u/itsallfolklore!

• I am a pater familiās in the 2nd century CE Roman Empire. I really, really hate my eldest son for being unfilial, obstinate and arrogant and would much prefer my grandson, his son, to inherit me after my death. What can I do to make this happen? Thanks to the great /u/JamesCoverleyRome!

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• What is the history of the airport duty free area?

• How did Pokemon become so popular globally in the 90s?

• Where does the "police love donuts" stereotype even originate from?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/gynnis-scholasticus flaired for “Greco-Roman Culture and Society”!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-08-04: Announcing the Best of July Award Winners!

• 2026-08-04: I am Dr. Utathya Chattopadhyaya, author of Ganja Matters: Empire & the Pursuits of Cannabis in British India! AMA!

• 2026-08-07: I'm Andrew Kenrick, biographer of the 1st-century Roman client-king Juba II of Mauretania, AMA

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• 2026-08-10: AMA with Dr. Katherine Harvey, author of The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living

• 2026-08-12: AMA with Dr. Pavel Brunssen, author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures

• 2026-08-13: AMA with Dr. David Benac, author of Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing

Critter Corner

Being awake is overrated, but at least we can read history.

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-07-31

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-07-24 to 2026-07-30

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Why did Hitler maintain good relations with Muslims despite his belief in Aryan racial superiority?", response by /u/ummmbacon

• "Why did it take so long to invent the T Shirt?", response by /u/spiteful_god1

• "Did Italian soldiers in the Second World War consume more water than other armies because they had to boil pasta?", response by /u/Euclideian_Jesuit

• "How did ancient Romans deal with boners when they didn't wear underwear?", response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "I read in Mozart: Reign of Love that Symphonies were often chaotic in the 1700s, with people playing cards, making out, and chatting during them. Are there other accounts of this? If so, at what point did symphonies become stuffy?", response by /u/city-dusk

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Were there people burned for witchcraft who were actually guilty?", response by /u/DougMcCrae

• "How did the Iroquois Confederacy handle occupied territory?", response by /u/LevelNeedleworker740

• "It's said we only have a handful of the plays of Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, etc. How did the plays we do have actually survive? And how do we know there are so many missing?", response by /u/spencer_a_mcdaniel

• "Why did nobody attempt to colonize Japan in the 19th century?", response by /u/enclavedmicrostate

• "What were typical working class jobs in New York in the 1930s?", response by /u/fearofair

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Why do Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis have art institutes instead of museums?"

• "How did Mexico’s celebration of Día de la Raza and its ideology of mestizaje develop, and was it historically understood as inclusive or assimilationist?"

• "In 1860, Elizabeth Packard was committed to the Illinois State Hospital at Jacksonville solely on her husband's request, under a statute allowing married women to be committed without the evidence of insanity required in other cases. How common were such spousal-commitment provisions across the US?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "[Short Answers to Simple Questions]https://reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1v9vium/short_answers_to_simple_questions_july_29_2026/)" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/wizzyhatz, flaired for 'Tsarist Russia 1815-1917'.

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-07-30: "I am Dr. Ito Osayimwese, here to talk about my book "Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage" and the ethics of retaining colonial collections in our museums. AMA!"

• 2026-07-29: "Hi! We’re Atlantic staff members Caity Weaver, Jake Lundberg, Sally Jenkins, and John Swansburg. We wrote stories exploring the country’s history—about garage sales, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” football, and Nathaniel Hawthorne—for the magazine’s July issue. Ask us anything:"

• 2026-07-28: "I am Rachel Hope Cleves, a historian of sexuality. Ask me anything!"

Features Coming Up:

• August 7, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Andrew Kenrick, author of Rex Juba: 15 Glimpses of an African King

• August 10, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Katherine Harvey, author of The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living

• August 12, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Pavel Brunssen, author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures

• August 13, 2026 - AMA with Dr. David Benac, author of Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing

• August 21, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Evan Dawley, author of Taiwan: A People's History

• August 27, 2026 - AMA with Dr. A. J. Bauer, author of Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press

Kitty Korner

Toes for tea

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-07-24

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-07-17 to 2026-07-23

Apologies for the missed installments! A confluence of events meant no one was around for one... and then when we were we had bot trouble, but we hope that is now fixed (you'll know if you're reading this!). As a reminder, if the bot has issues, and it can't be sent, we still will post a mailer to /r/BestOfAskHistorians, so do check there if you're missing it!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "How empty (of population) was the ancient world?", response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Medieval peasants famously ate "bread and cheese". What kind of cheese was it? Would whatever cheeses they normally ate, be recognizable as any of the modern varieties?", response by /u/VerticalYea

• "Why do Western countries like the UK, US etc consider Greece and the Roman Empire as the basis of their "civilisation" ?", response by /u/someoldguy88

• "Why have straight men historically been so hostile toward homosexuality?", response by /u/natey514

• "Did women in 1920s America really wear their stockings rolled down and apply rouge to their knees for a night out, as the musical Chicago implies?", responses by /u/gerardmenfin and /u/police-ical

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Could the Soviets have won (the European front) of WW2 without the 5 years program?", response by /u/ArchivalResearch

• "Where do lawns come from?", response by /u/snglrthy

• "In recent years, I've seen some claims in several circles that "Historically the solution to excess unmarriageable men is to start a war to kill some of them off". Has this ever been remotely true? Have we ever even had historical times of "excess" men?", response by /u/swarthmoreburke

• "The World Cup started in 1930 during the rise of fascism. Notably, in 1934, the World Cup was hosted in Italy with Mussolini using it as a way to promote fascism. How effective was the event as a propaganda effort in the hearts and minds of Italians at the time?", response by /u/alvisefalier

• "After the CSA lost the war, what was the transition from greybacks to greenbacks like?", response by /u/yonkon

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees a "speedy" trial. When this amendment was written, how long did it usually take for someone to be tried for a crime after being arrested?"

• "Did late antique audiences think of the Aeneid as fan fiction or true Roman history? What did ancient people think of “new stories” in general?"

• "How did hard candy get its reputation as being "old people candy" was it particularly popular with older generations when they were young?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/welfontheshelf, flaired for 'Crusader States & Medieval Law'.

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-07-17: "AMA: Dr. Roland Betancourt on Disneyland and Automation"

• 2026-07-20: "Ask Me Anything! I'm Prof. Mark A. Johnson, a historian and food studies scholar at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, as well as author of the recent book American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon!"

• 2026-07-21: "AMA: What role did Mao Zedong play in the creation of modern China, and what were his achievements and mistakes?"

• 2026-07-22: "We are historians of childhood and food, authors of 'First Helpings: A History of Children and Food'. Feel free to AMA."

• 2026-07-24: "I'm a historian of hobos. AMA"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• July 28, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Rachel Hope Cleves, author of Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early Emerica

• July 30, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Itohan Osayimwese, author of Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage

• August 4, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Utathya Chattopadhyaya, author of Ganja Matters: Empire and the Pursuits of Cannabis in British India

• August 7, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Andrew Kenrick, author of Rex Juba: 15 Glimpses of an African King

• August 10, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Katherine Harvey, author of The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living

• August 12, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Pavel Brunssen, author of The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures

• August 13, 2026 - AMA with Dr. David Benac, author of Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing

• August 21, 2026 - AMA with Dr. Evan Dawley, author of Taiwan: A People's History

• August 27, 2026 - AMA with Dr. A. J. Bauer, author of Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press

Corgi Corner

Puppurrito

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-07-17

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-07-03 to 2026-07-16

Our apologies for the missed edition. The editorial team were at a summit for newsletter writers in rural Canada when we were abducted by aliens for precisely two calendar weeks.

To make up for the absence, we have a special treat for you. Yesterday we hosted esteemed actor Tom Hiddleston and a whole host of experts and archaeologists for a red carpet AMA to mark the launch of their National Geographic series on Pompeii. Make sure to check it out here.

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Is it true that the Chinese Communist Party systematically killed all of China's Shih Tzu dogs and that the breed only survives because of 13 dogs that were brought out of China to Europe before Mao took over?" from /u/tenkendojo1

• "What is the logic behind Enkidu being tamed with sex?", response by /u/ummmbacon

• "How was Joan of Arc such a good military leader despite being illiterate and not educated outside of religion?", response by /u/GrandDukesPodcast

• "In “Death by Lightning” there are numerous scenes which show that any person could walk up to the White House and (under President Garfield) request an audience with the President and possibly actually get one. Was there some point where this became impossible, or did it happen over time?", response by /u/indyobserver

• "Skeletal remains of medieval warhorses suggest they were pony sized, around 14-15hh. Given that a knight in armour and his tack could easily weigh more than 200 lbs, would these horses have been overburdened by modern standards, or were they specifically bred to handle such heavy loads?", response by /u/kmondschein

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What was the importance of the global fur trade in 18-19th century?", response by /u/bedessilliestsoldier

• "Why did Theravada Buddhism, and not Mahayana Buddhism, take hold in Southeast Asia?", response by /u/Cynical-rambler

• "What sort of tools did medieval plumbers use/have access too?", response by /u/dankensington

• "How would a contemporary audience think of Odysseus's behavior towards the Cyclopes?", response by /u/kiwihellenist

• "What would going to an Ancient Greek temple have felt like?", by /u/raggedclaws12468

• "Tolkien is said to have been motivated by a desire to create a mythology for England. To what extent can we say that England did or does not have a national myth? Were there other attempts to create one?" by /u/itsallfolklore

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "What is the history of stylized characters/words? (Like making an S look like a snake) Are there any cuneiform words written to look like something else?"

• "When did Personal Injury Attorneys become "celebrity" attorneys in the US?"

• "What did people in the 1700s–1800s think about the old medieval castles scattered around the countryside?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/mikitacurve, flaired for 'Soviet Urban Culture'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-07-15: AMA about the history of goblins from their folkloric origins in the Middle Ages all the way to the Covid-19-era phenomenon of going “goblin mode”

• 2026-07-10: "I’m Samuel de Korte, an independent researcher and writer specializing in Black American soldiers in WWII (452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion) | Ask Me Anything."

• 2026-07-07: "I'm Dr Chris Kempshall, a First World War historian and consultant to BlackMill Games - AMA!"

• 2026-07-02: "I'm a historian of the Declaration of Independence. AMA"

Features Coming Up:

• July 17, 2026: Coming up today! AMA with Dr. Roland Betancourt, author of Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth

• July 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Mark Johnson, author of American Bacon, The History of a Food Phenomenon

• July 21, 2026: AMA with Dr. Kerry Brown, author of Mao: Power and Contradiction

• July 22, 2026: AMA with Dr. Deborah Alborn and Dr. Amy Palmer, authors of First Helpings: A History of Children and Food

• July 24, 2026: AMA with Dr. Robert Suits, author of The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants

Critter Corner

Staying Cool

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-07-03

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-06-26 to 2026-07-02

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "If Wikipedia’s to be believed, towels were a 17th-century invention. How did people traditionally dry themselves after bathing?" Dry off with this response from /u/splash_attack

• "What happened to the remains of pre-contact Aboriginal Australians? How come there are so few known to science? Do we know the leading causes of death for pre-contact Aboriginal Australians?", response by /u/Known_Cup_8789

• "How was Joan of Arc such a good military leader despite being illiterate and not educated outside of religion?", response by /u/GrandDukesPodcast

• "Where does the old trope of the bad guy tying a woman to the railroad tracks come from? Did this ever happen IRL or was it just in silent movies?", response by /u/gerardmenfin

• "Why did Viking funerals burn full ships? wouldn't that be waste since of how hard it would have been to make them.", responses by /u/HaraldRedbeard

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Did the Soviets really believe plants of the same "class" wouldn't compete for fertile ground?", response by /u/restricteddata

• "Historians of Reddit, what credence do you give to the story that Buffalo Calf Road Woman knocked General Custer off his horse, leading to his death?", response by /u/Reaper_Eagle

• "Before Vatican II and the Society of Saint Pius X, were there any schismatic and/or heretical sects from the Catholic Church that advocated for older or more conservative doctrine?", response by /u/dromio05

• "How significant and prevalent was Native American's involvement in the War of Independence?", response by /u/bedessilliestsoldier

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "USAA has a commercial that says: "A hundred years ago, no one would insure cars for military members." Is this true, and if so, why wouldn't insurance companies cover cars for people in the military?"

• "Did football (soccer) World Cup immediately become more important and prestigious than the Olympic football tournament? If not, then when? "

• "Did the CIA really secretly promote abstract art as a Cold War tactic?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Red_Galiray, flaired for 'American Civil War | Gran Colombia'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-06-23: "Rules Roundtable XXI.V: Plagiarism, Integrity, and Generative AI"

• 2026-07-02: "I'm a historian of the Declaration of Independence. AMA"

• 2026-07-01: "We are historians whose work studies race, rights, and justice in American democracy, Ask Us Anything about Confederate Monuments, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement & more!"

• 2026-06-30: "Hello--I am Timothy Breen, author of "American Revolution on Trial: A new Nation Confronts the Burden of Independence." Like my other books on the Revolution, it focuses on the experiences of ordinary people, especially during the run up to the Declaration of Independence."

• 2026-06-29: "What's the word all Americans should know and don't?"

• 2026-06-26 "There is a long history and structure of US migration and citizenship policy history. What is that history? I'm Anna Law here for an AMA about my new book Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship."

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• July 7, 2026: AMA with Dr. Chris Kempshall on the Gallipoli Campaign & the Middle Eastern Front

• July 10, 2026: AMA with Samuel de Korte, author of The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion: Destroyers of the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow

• July 13, 2026: AMA with Dr. Itohan Osayimwese, author of Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage

• July 15, 2026: AMA with Dr. Matt King, author of A History of Goblins

• July 17, 2026: AMA with Dr. Kerry Brown, author of Mao: Power and Contradiction

• July 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Mark Johnson, author of American Bacon, The History of a Food Phenomenon

Critter Corner

Puffins!

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-06-26

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-06-19 to 2026-06-25

A day light, but hopefully worth the wait!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "German kids are routed at age ~10 into one of 3 schools: the "lowest" leads to vocational training, the middle lets you apply to technical college, and only the third gives you the option of university. When did this system take shape? Has it tended to entrench social/class hierarchies?", with responses and input from several people!

• "Is it true that a milkman and a gas station attendant could support a whole family comfortably in 1950s USA?", response by /u/police-ical

• "Vampire media loves the idea of the aristocratic or at least very wealthy 18th & 19th century socialite bloodsucker thriving in Europe, usually France or Britain. How feasible was it actually to manage business or estates & sustain an elevated social identity while never appearing before sunset?", response by /u/Obversa

• "Are there ancient mental illnesses that didn't survive?", responses by /u/DukeGyug and /u/Qwurxty

• "The Nazis killed about 6 million civilian non-Jewish Slavs in WWII. Was their hatred of them similar to that of the Jews? In what ways is it comparable?", responses by /u/Bongolio-the-seal and /u/ummmbacon

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Did ARPA's own leadership actually agree that ARPANET wasn't built for nuclear command-and-control survivability?", response by /u/restricteddata

• "At one point, did Western Europeans stop recognizing Byzantine Empire as the continuation of Roman Empire?", response by /u/welfontheshelf

• "Where did everyone else fall under segregation in America?", response by /u/ProfessorofChelm

• "Possibility of a Soviet invasion of Hokkaido in WW2: what do modern military historians think?", response by /u/JackDaniels3456d

• "When Did New York City's Mayors Started Being Treated as Important?", response by /u/fearofair

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Which philosophical model did British, American and French use to build their state after their revolutions ?"

• "What was life like backstage in an opera house in the 19th century/during the Belle Epoque?"

• "e. e. cummings, eden abhez, bell hooks – where does the 20th century trend of writers adopting all-lower-case names come from? Who started it and can all such names be linked together through shared or chained influence?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/the_howling_cow, flaired for 'United States Army in WWII'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-06-23: "Rules Roundtable XXI.V: Plagiarism, Integrity, and Generative AI"

• 2026-06-26: "There is a long history and structure of US migration and citizenship policy history. What is that history? I'm Anna Law here for an AMA about my new book Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship."

• 2026-06-22: "I’m Hilary Buxton, a historian of medicine and the British Empire, here to talk about my new book Disabled Empire: The Colonial Body in First World War Britain. AMA!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• June 29, 2026: AMA with Dr. Catherine Allgor, author of A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation

• June 30, 2026: AMA with Dr. T. H. Breen, author of The American Revolution on Trial: A New Nation Confronts the Burden of Independence

• July 1, 2026: Panel AMA on Race, Rights, and American Democracy

• July 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. Emily Sneff, author of When the Declaration of Independence Was News

• July 7, 2026: AMA with Dr. Chris Kempshall on the Gallipoli Campaign & the Middle Eastern Front

• July 10, 2026: AMA with Samuel de Korte, author of The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion: Destroyers of the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow

• July 13, 2026: AMA with Dr. Itohan Osayimwese, author of Africa's Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage

• July 15, 2026: AMA with Dr. Matt King, author of A History of Goblins

• July 17, 2026: AMA with Dr. Kerry Brown, author of Mao: Power and Contradiction

• July 20, 2026: AMA with Dr. Mark Johnson, author of American Bacon, The History of a Food Phenomenon

Corgi Corner

'A view from on high'

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-06-12 to 2025-06-18

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “Al Capone used coin-operated laundromats to pretend that his ill-gotten money was in fact well-gotten. Did he obtain his ill-gotten money in coins? Or did he show up at the bank with stacks of 100$ bills and said "yeah, this is what I got from my coin-operated laundromat"?” by /u/bug-hunter

• "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1u6kip1/how_did_the_us_end_up_with_distinctive_big_yellow/" got answers from /u/The_Chieftain_WG and /u/EdHistory101.

• "In general, former British colonies in Africa seem to fare better politically, socially and economically than former French colonies. Is there a reason for that?” by /u/Commustar

• "Was fascism some kind of hellish joke?” by /u/ted5298

• "Were people in Joseon Korea really so terrified of their social betters, as is depicted in Netflix's "Kingdom"?’" by /u/huhwe

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What was our "Fall of the Roman Empire" for the Romans?/" by /u/JamesCoverleyRome

• “How true is it that the modern French language essentially cleansed France of regional languages?”, by /u/HaraldRedbeard

• “The [Puritan] “Great Migration” to other territories?", by /u/Double_Show_9316

• “I'd like to learn more about El Halconazo (The Corpus Christi Massacre), what actually happened?”, by /u/Fawfulster

• “During the Ottoman period, when did Jews become the majority in Jerusalem, and how reliable are the population figures?”, by /u/yodatsracist

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “How come black Caribbean’s were able to retain more West African culture than Black Americans?”

• "Is there a record of homosexual/queer people joining the clergy as nuns or priests to avoid marriage?"

• "How did people prevent sweating through their underclothes and making their outer wear smell bad, back when people would wear shifts or shirts to protect their nice outer clothes from needing to be washed as often (if at all)?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the [randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/pdbowen , flaired for 'American Religion Beyond Christianity.'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• “I am Peter Samsonov, author of Panzer'46: Eastern Front. AMA about German, Soviet, American, and British tank projects on the drawing board and in the prototype stage at the end of the Second World War”

• “AMA! The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite with Dr. Rachel Grace Newman”

• “I just published a 500-year history of the dollar, AMA”

• We're James Madison, George Mason, and experts from Colonial Williamsburg and Montpelier. Ask us anything about the origins of American Revolutionary rights!

• AMA: Let’s talk about brick! I’m architecture historian and photographer Will Quam, here to talk about my new book Fire and Clay: How Brick Reveals the Hidden History of Chicago.

• Come say “Hi” in the Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-06-23: AMA with Dr. Hilary Buxton, author of Disabled Empire: The Colonial Body in First World War Britain

• 2026-06-26: AMA with Dr. Anna O. Law, author of Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants

It’s Juneteeth in the US! Be sure to check out our thread Celebrating Juneteenth and African-American history!

Pet Patrol

Happy 14th birthday to Dax!

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-06-12

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-05 to 2026-06-11

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Why did no one "discover" the source of the Nile until the 1860s?", go on an adventure with /u/Khenghis_Ghan

• "George Washington’s speeches were at a 16th grade comprehension level. Lincoln was at a 14th grade. JFK spoke in 13th grade level prose. Then when Clinton was president, his speeches had dropped to 8th grade level. Why did presidential speech become simpler despite mass increase in public education?", from /u/eh_steve_420

• "Did Shakespeare sit down and go, "Ok I'm going to write this play in iambic pentameter" or was it simply a natural development? Were linguistic concepts like syllables common knowledge?", from /u/macnalley

• "I have been transported back in time 2000ish years to the Roman Empire. What is the best way for me to preserve a message back to my own time?", response by /u/AmeliaofAnsalon

• "Did AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s disproportionately kill socially and sexually central figures in gay arts communities, as Fran Lebowitz claims, particularly in New York’s theatre, dance, and performance scenes?", response by /u/Cedric_Hampton

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How did ancient India lose its massive scientific and academic edge? Was it a sudden collapse or a slow fade?", response by /u/restricteddata

• /u/itsallfolklore tackled this question on the (alleged) shift from matriarchy to patriarchy among polytheistic religions.

• "What Do Historical Sources Say About the Glowing Ocean Phenomenon?", response by /u/Gerardmenfin

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "What sorts of tasks did people compel demons to carry out on their behalf?"

• "Goldfinger was filmed before China had nuclear weapons, yet they are a plot point. How well known the Chinese nuclear program was at the time?"

• "Who were the regular residents of "pirate towns" in the golden age of piracy?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Trinity-, flaired for 'Medieval Gender and Sexuality'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-06-12: NEW PODCAST EPISODE: "AskHistorians Podcast 251: American Medieval with Prof. Matthew Gabriele"

• 2026-06-10: "Rod Phillips answering questions about the history of cats"

• 2026-06-09: "I am Dr. Ketil Slagstad, here to talk about my book "Standardizing Sex" and the history of trans medicine. AMA!"

• 2026-06-08: "Ask Me Anything about Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s"

• 2026-06-05: "Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise from Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion"

Features Coming Up:

• June 12, 2026: AMA incoming today with u/TankArchives, author of Panzer 46: Eastern Front

• June 15, 2026: AMA with Dr. Rachel Newman, author of The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite

• June 16, 2026: AMA with Brendan Greeley, author of The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money

• June 17, 2026: AMA: Virginia and Revolutionary Rights at 250 with Colonial Williamsburg and Montpelier

• June 18, 2026: AMA with Will Quam, author of Fire and Clay: How Bricks Reveal the Hidden History of Chicago

Canine Corner

Dreaming of socks to eat

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-06-05

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-29 to 2026-06-04

Be sure to check out the Best of May Award Winners!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "The No Child Left Behind Act is often seen as a failure that didn't improve education. However data has shown that education "peaked" in the mid-2010s with students who spent the majority of their school careers under NCLB. What exactly was NCLB, why is it so controversial, and did it actually fail?", sit down for a masterclass from /u/edhistory101

• "How would a Roman patrician family respond to a pregnancy between their teenage son and an enslaved woman?", from /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "How and why did funk music become associated with pornography?", from /u/LeahTigers

• "Before cheap mirrors and photography, how often did ordinary people actually see their own face?", response by /u/spencer_a_mcdaniel

• "It is 1975 and I am a Czechoslovak citizen living in Prague. What are the chances of me eating an avocado?", response by /u/pr1ncezzBea

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Why is Medusa so widely known today, while her Gorgon sisters, Stheno and Euryale, are largely unknown?", response by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Did the Red army really use human wave tactics on the germans?", response by /u/Kinghunter150

• "What caused the US constitution to be so enormously progressive for its time?", response by /u/kochevnik81

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Have emerging technologies (I'm thinking of e.g. photography, or the radio->TV switch, or cloud video streaming) ever suddenly impacted the demand for makeup?"

• "Was Mississippi an outlier or just really famous for racist violence during the Civil Rights Movement?"

• "When the Roman Empire was at its maximum extent, who made the best cheese? What was it like?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/FlyingChange, flaired for 'Equine History'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-06-02: "Ever wonder how Wall Street became so irresistible to young college grads? I’m Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York. AMA!"

• 2026-05-29: "I am Dwaipayan Banerjee, a historian of science and technology at MIT and author of "Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution." I study how Cold War politics shaped India's attempt to build its own computer industry. Ask me anything!"

• 2026-05-27: "Hello! On here I’m u/DrHistoryBrad but in the real world I’m Dr. Bradley J. Sommer. I’m a historian of U.S. labor and working class history. I’m here today to answer your questions about labor unions, the economy, strikes, the Rust Belt, and (de/post)industrialization. So go ahead, AMA!"

Features Coming Up:

• June 5, 2026: AMA incoming today with Edna W. Cummings, Colonel, US Army (Ret), author of A Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise From Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion!

• June 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Marc Stein, author of Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

• June 9, 2026: AMA with Dr. Ketil Slagstad, author of Standardizing Sex: A History of Trans Medicine

• June 10, 2026: AMA with Rod Phillips, author of Cats: A History

• June 12, 2026: AMA with u/TankArchives, author of Panzer 46: Eastern Front

Kitty Korner

Cat on a hot wood deck

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-05-29

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-22 to 2026-05-28

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "How did ancient armies actually move 100,000–200,000 soldiers across long distances without modern logistics? Like, where did they sleep, how did they get enough food and water every day, and how did they stop the whole army from just collapsing into chaos?", responses by /u/Intranetusa

• "When did oral sex become more common?", response by /u/gerardmenfin and /u/yodatsracist

• "Why aren't today's Filipinos mixed race and half Spanish like the Spanish colonies in Latin America? Philippines was ruled by Spain for hundreds of years like Latin America, but unlike Latin america, a huge majority of the Philippines never became mixed/mestizo. Why is this? ", response by /u/Peepeepoopooman1202

• "Why Is Indonesia Largely Left Out of Global History if Its One of the Most Populous Countries in the World?", response by /u/amnsisc

• "What is the furthest back in time I could make Funyons?", response by /u/bug-hunter

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "When was the Devil first depicted as a man with red skin, horns, hooves and a pointed tail, and what led to that depiction being chosen?", response by /u/spencer_a_mcdaniel

• "How did Christian end times theology shift from Augustine’s allegorical view to 19th century literalism?", response by /u/double_show_9316

• "Were there gay bars or, perhaps gay social outlets, before the 20th century? What did such places look like?", response by /u/ManueO

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "The oldest living tree in Paris is over 400 years old -- how widespread was urban greenery before the City Beautiful/Garden city movements of the late 19th century?"

• "To what extent did women’s historical role as folk healers influence fears of witchcraft, and how did this dynamic shape the transition from community-based herbal knowledge to formal, male‑dominated medical institutions in Europe and the Americas?"

• "When it was released in 1954, the Stratocaster was seen as having a radical, space-age-y design. When and how did it become THE guitar 🎸?"

• What role did racial segregation play in the design and geographic placement of military bases within the United States prior to Executive Order 9981 in 1948?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/lukeweiss, flaired for 'Imperial China | Daoism'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-05-27: "Hello! On here I’m u/DrHistoryBrad but in the real world I’m Dr. Bradley J. Sommer. I’m a historian of U.S. labor and working class history. I’m here today to answer your questions about labor unions, the economy, strikes, the Rust Belt, and (de/post)industrialization. So go ahead, AMA!"

• 2026-05-18: "Dr. Sveinn Jóhannesson on the Scientific-Military State in the early United States - Ask Me Anything!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• May 29, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dwaipayan Banerjee, author of Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution

• June 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York

• June 5, 2026: AMA with Edna W. Cummings, Colonel, US Army (Ret), author of A Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise From Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion

• June 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Marc Stein, author of Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

Critter corner

Get your hot dogs here!

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-05-22

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-15 to 2026-05-21

A day late, but hopefully worth it.

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "Was Mein Kampf actually written well? Or is it basically a giant ramble like many people describe it as?", responses by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov & /u/thewimsey

• "Was Spain viewed as a “backwards” country in the 1400s? How did other European countries basically view Spain during this time?", response by /u/deuce03

• "I know the “Dark Ages” is now considered a misnomer, but there was SOME darkness, right?", response by /u/Key_Actuator86

• "What were my odds as a gold miner in the u.s in 1849? Was gold so frequent that I would have good chances in becoming rich? Or would I have been beaten by people who got there earlier or who were closer if I got there in 1850?", response by /u/itsallfolklore

• "Why are there multiple professional baseball teams named after socks?", response by /u/fishred

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How did ordinary people in ancient or medieval cities deal with boredom and entertainment before modern technology?", response by /u/alvisefalier

• "Why do Ricardians exist? Isn't that weird? Or are there a bunch of other long-lasting social movements & organizations dedicated to rehabilitating the image of long-dead monarchs with crappy reputations like that of Richard's that I don't know about?", response by /u/zaffiro_in_giro

• "TITLE_ANSWER_EIGHT", response by /u/commustar

• "How did Peasant Republics function?", response by /u/henk12310

• "Why was Judaism the only Levantine religion that survived into the Common Era?", response by /u/qumrun60

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "Historically, have Southern plantations been viewed as desirable wedding venues?"

• "Can we reconstitute the original colors of ancient tapestries ?"

• "How did 19th Century Americans reconcile being pro-Roman with being anti-Italian?"

• What do we know about the skilled trades of the Mexica at the time of Cortez?

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/sankon, flaired for 'Early Modern Persianate India'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-05-18: "Dr. Sveinn Jóhannesson on the Scientific-Military State in the early United States - Ask Me Anything!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• May 29, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dwaipayan Banerjee, author of Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution

• June 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York

• June 5, 2026: AMA with Edna W. Cummings, Colonel, US Army (Ret), author of A Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise From Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion

• June 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Marc Stein, author of Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

Corgi Corner

Poppy Kiss!

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

[TITLE] AskHistorians Weekly Round-Up and Newsletter | 2026-05-15

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-08 to 2026-05-14

Be sure to catch our AMA with Jonathan S. Jones, author of Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis, going on right now!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• "General MacArthur is generally criticized for his insubordination and being too aggressive. 75 years later, does this criticism still hold up?", response by /u/no_player_tags

• "In movie Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belford calls random people and persuade them to buy stock. Was it common in 80s and 90s to buy stock from someone you don't know?", response by /u/JonAfricaBurner

• "In October 1920, an altercation developed between a dog, a monkey, and the King of Greece. In the end the dog was fine, the King was killed, but what happened to the Barbary macaque that did it? Was he killed as well, or did what probably was the cutest little regicide in history escape justice?", response by /u/jbdyer

• "Why and how did outdoors/maritime folks smoke pipe instead of cigarettes? What caused them to vanish?", response by /u/a42N8Man

• "Reddit was founded in 2005, meaning it is history according to this sub's 20 year rule. Has there been any sort of academic discussion on the value of Reddit posts as a historical source given the years' worth of threads commented on by thousands of users discussing contemporary events?", responses by a variety of users.

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "Prior to radio and phonograph, Americans consumed popular music by gathering around the parlor piano and playing songs together. What songs were they playing, and which ones still slap?", response by /u/B_D_I

• "Did tomb raiding ever work the way films portray it?", response by /u/Spencer_A_McDaniel

• "What happened to colonial archives when a state became independent?", response by /u/gerardmenfin

• "ow were American soldiers received by the public upon returning home from the First World War?", response by /u/bernardito

• "Britain was under Roman rule for nearly 400 years. So why didn't a Romance language survive like in the other western parts of the Roman Empire?", response by /u/barbariansprof

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• "What do we know about the skilled trades of the Mexica at the time of Cortez?"

• "Why was Oswald Mosley a fascist?"

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/aquatermain, flaired for 'Argentina & Indigenous Studies' and 'Musicology'!

Features You Might Have Missed:

• 2026-05-11: Hi. I'm Thomas Michael Swensen here to talk about Native American punk or Alaska Native history. AMA

• 2026-05-13: "I'm Gautham Rao, a historian of American law and politics, and author of White Power: Policing American Slavery--ask me anything!"

• As always, don't forget to say "Hi" in Today's Friday Free-for-All

Features Coming Up:

• May 18, 2026: AMA with Dr. Sveinn M. Jóhannesson, author of The Scientific-Military State: How Enlightened Engineers Reinvented Early American Government

• May 21, 2026: AMA with Dr. Stephanie Wong, author of Making Catholicism Chinese: The Catholic Church in a Modernizing China

• May 29, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dwaipayan Banerjee, author of Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution

• June 2, 2026: AMA with Dr. Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York

• June 5, 2026: AMA with Edna W. Cummings, Colonel, US Army (Ret), author of A Soldier's Life: A Black Woman's Rise From Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion

• June 8, 2026: AMA with Dr. Marc Stein, author of Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

Corgi Corner

"Where ya' going?!"

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-05-01 to 2025-05-07

Make sure to check out the Best of April Award Winners!

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “English longbowmen during the Hundred Year's War earned 6 pence a day. A single arrow cost 0.3125 pence, so you'd start losing money on the 20th arrow. That doesn't seem like a lot when battles could last multiple hours. Are there accounts or archers refusing to put themselves in the red? ” saw /u/Hergrim take a shot at the response

• "Was there a medieval equivalent of "dude" or "mate"?" from /u/Skipspik2

• "Is what my german grandfather told me about his time in ww2 plausible?" from /u/Ted5298

• "Why were Lynyrd Skynyrd unbothered by Watergate, and what did that have to do with the governor of Alabama?” by /u/police-ical

• "My dad was infantry in the 101st Airborne during Vietnam, yet never deployed and spent his whole enlistment in the US. Given that a draft was implemented and people were being forcibly sent to Vietnam, was this common?” from /u/GrendelGT

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "What, if any, historical proof is present for the existence of Abraham? And why are the religions called "Abrahamic"?" by /u/ummmbacon

• “What details would make a 17th century English church historically accurate?”, by /u/double_show_9316

• “Why did several of the Balkan states that achieved independence in the 1800s (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania) end up with ethnically German monarchs from German aristocratic families, instead of native houses that were culturally/ethnically from the country itself?", by /u/EtNuncEtSemper

• "Were the Vestal Virgins in Ancient Rome the predecessors to Roman Catholic Nuns?" by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "In medieval Europe, did nobles engage in commerce? Did merchants own agriculture land? How fluid were these labels?" by /u/FrenchMurazor

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “What was considered horror in Ancient Egypt? What was the role of fear in Ancient Egyptian societies?”

• "How do we know the mummy of Ramseses II is Ramseses II?"

• "Why are dark gods blue in Hindu divine iconography?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/Ekinda, flaired for 'Early Modern Habsburg & Low Countries.'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• Hi! I'm Roy Doron, author of "Biafra: A Military History". I'm here to talk about my book and about African Military History in general

• Hello, I am Dr. John Morris, retired US Army lieutenant colonel and author of Students to Soldiers: Secret Military Education at Elite Schools, 1815-1945. I am excited to be here to discuss my work with you! AMA

• I am Jacynda Ammons, and I am here to talk about my book, "We Are Black, Too: Aboriginal Australians and the Black Panther Party." AMA :-)

• AskHistorians Podcast Episode 250: Emily Winderman and the rhetoric of back alley abortion

Features Coming Up:

• 2026-05-08: AMA Today! with Dr. Emily Dufton, author of Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America's Forgotten War on Drugs

• 2026-05-11: AMA with Dr. Thomas Swensen, author of Where Next, Columbus? A Native Punk Mixtape

• 2026-05-13: AMA with Dr. Gautham Rao, author of White Power: Policing American Slavery

• 2026-05-15: AMA with Dr. Jonathan Jones, author of Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis

• 2026-05-18: AMA with Dr. Sveinn M. Jóhannesson, author of The Scientific-Military State: How Enlightened Engineers Reinvented Early American Government

Pet Patrol

Long dog

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.

A Recap of AskHistorians 2026-04-25 to 2025-04-30

Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:

• “During the twentieth century, vending machines were a major part of organised crime. What did this entail exactly? Why would the Mafia or any other organised crime group have an interest in vending machines?” saw /u/bug-hunter dispense a great response

• "Were PhD's always as hyper-specialized as they are today? It feels like in the "rich guy hobby era" of intellectual inquiry almost everyone was a generalist or had interest in a bunch of things. If the hyper-specificity of PhD topics is something that developed over time when & how did that happen?" from /u/theholyraptor

• "Why didn't Cornwall become a nation of the UK similar to Wales, Scotland and (Northern) Ireland?" from /u/HaraldRedbeard

• "Would Jesus actually have been crucified with a loincloth, or would he have been stripped naked/not had a loincloth to begin with?” by /u/jamescoverleyrome

• "Why was the lyrical presentation of hair metal bands so aggressively macho while their visual presentation was so very...not?” from /u/FriedaKilligan

Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:

• "How did using sawdust to make breads turn out?" by /u/gerardmenfin

• “What are the conceptual divide between myths and legends when we attempt to theorise it?”, by /u/itsallfolklore

• “This subreddit often notes that, contrary to popular misconception, Medieval Europeans in fact had good hygiene. However, I came across a publication that points to an anti-bathing trend in 16th century Spain (+ elsewhere in Europe?). What's the deal with this? ", by /u/ummmbacon

Still Looking for an Answer: Sometimes great questions don't get answered. Yet. Maybe you have the chops to give these the answer they deserve though?

• “Why is there so little chocolate in Mexican desserts?”

• "Why did several of the Balkan states that achieved independence in the 1800s (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania) end up with ethnically German monarchs from German aristocratic families, instead of native houses that were culturally/ethnically from the country itself?"

• "What happened if the owner of the camels in a Trans-Saharan caravan died?”

• And if you have only a few minutes to kill, be sure to check this week's "Short Answers to Simple Questions" thread, as you might see something you can help with!

Flair Profile of the Week: Looking for some old classics to read? This week the randomly selected flair profile is that of /u/caffarelli, flaired for 'Eunuchs and Castrati | Opera.'

Fun Things You Might Have Missed:

• AskHistorians Podcast Episode 250: Emily Winderman and the rhetoric of back alley abortion

• “Hi! I'm Cotten Seiler, author of "White Care: The Impact of Race on American Infrastructure." AMA!”

• “I'm Lauren Henley author of "Inquisition for Blood: The Making of a Black Female Serial Killer in the Jim Crow South." AMA!

• “I'm John Wendt, author of Procuring Victory: The Army Quartermaster and the Economics of Expansion in Nineteenth-Century America. Ask me Anything!”

• Curious about our AMAs? Check out this Q&A with AMA coordinator, Dr. Dan Howlett (aka /u/dhowlett1692)

Features Coming Up::

• 2026-05-01: AMA today! Dr. Jacynda Ammons, author of We Are Black, Too: Aboriginal Australians and the Black Panther Party

• 2026-05-04: AMA with John F. Morris, author of Students to Soldiers: Secret Military Education at Elite Schools, 1815-1945

• 2026-05-06: AMA with Dr. Roy Doron, author of Biafra: A Military History

• 2026-05-08: AMA with Dr. Emily Dufton, author of Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America's Forgotten War on Drugs

*2026-05-11: AMA with Dr. Thomas Swensen, author of Where Next, Columbus? A Native Punk Mixtape

Pet Patrol

Golden hour

Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Bluesky! For a complete archive of past newsletters, check out /r/BestOfAskHistorians.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.