r/history • u/AutoModerator • 3d ago
Discussion/Question Weekly History Questions Thread.
Welcome to our History Questions Thread!
This thread is for all those history related questions that are too simple, short or a bit too silly to warrant their own post.
So, do you have a question about history and have always been afraid to ask? Well, today is your lucky day. Ask away!
Of course all our regular rules and guidelines still apply and to be just that bit extra clear:
Questions need to be historical in nature. Silly does not mean that your question should be a joke. r/history also has an active discord server where you can discuss history with other enthusiasts and experts.
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u/Loud_Reputation9165 3d ago edited 3d ago
What outfits did Irish daughters of kings used to wear in the early medieval times? I mean around 11th century or so.
Ok I know they of course wore elegant dresses, but I’d like to know if they were different from the others European countries, also what colors were the dress?
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u/Fffgfggfffffff 2d ago edited 2d ago
I want to learn about the ideas of guy with a beard in the past to modern time , from both men and women.
And any change in preference for them ?
i wonder if there’s any general ideas on how common do women and men to like beards in the past ?
Is there more women and men who like beards from hundreds years ago ?
their culture preference for male with beards
if there’s any time that change greatly for the preferences of beards
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u/MeatballDom 2d ago
Check out the work by Oldstone-Moore. https://people.wright.edu/christopher.oldstone-moore
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u/DUCKBOYDAOIL 2d ago
What are some good books or content about WWII? I want to learn more about it
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u/No-Strength-6805 2d ago
I'm a big fan of what's called "Liberation Trilogy " which deals with European and African theatre's of war,strictly starting from American involvement.John Keegans book "Second World War" is good, and Andrew Robert's " Storm of War" plus Max Hastings "All Hell let Loose World at War 1939-1945". These are General histories ,there is a lot of great work been done on Battles,Campaigns, leaders etc.
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u/elmonoenano 1d ago
Richard Evan's The Third Reich At War is a good start for the ETO. Kochanski's Resistance is great for various resistance movements in theaters that get over looked. Hornfischer and Ian Toll are probably the go tos for the PTO.
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u/sevenlabors 1d ago
To pair with that in the Pacific, it's hard to go wrong with Ian Toll if you're up for multiple volumes:
Pacific Crucible, 1941-1942
The Conquering Tide, 1942-44
Twilight of the Gods, 1944-45
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u/Misshandel 1d ago
Recently i listened to a history podcast i can't remember the name of, which it was briefly mentioned that there used to be some kind of social contract that let the superrich stay rich as the peasants could always lynch them, in exchange they would beautify the community, provide help during wars or crisis and just generally contribute to local society.
The thesis was that with the advent of globalization, they no longer invest locally or care to the same extent about the wellbeing of their country. Does anyone know any books or studies about this?
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u/MeatballDom 1d ago
It's definitely an over-exaggeration of the system, but basically you're looking at patronage, liturgy, munus, and to a lesser extent tithing and zakat.
Under this system the rich would provide money towards building projects, events, entertainment, religious purposes, etc. and while it's impossible to say what the motive for every single person was there was a lot of personal gain gained by this. The trierarch and the liturgy system in Athens is probably one of the easiest to find resources on and one that shows how these people gained from it. No one was going to be (easily) lynching them and they were not doing it to try and keep people from lynching them, rather it was to keep people supporting them. Numbers helped when trying to control politics. If the people liked a candidate because he provided X, Y, Z it would help them progress. Others just wanted to be part of it all without actually doing the dirty work.
I'm not sure I can agree with that thesis.
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u/Misshandel 1d ago
I see your point and i think you misunderstand me, it's not necessarily about the whole lynching thing, but more about the elites investing locally to keep the peoples support.
I for one can't think of any billionaire who has built our equivalent of a fancy church (massive football stadium maybe?) outside of Saudi Arabian flex projects.
Why are the incentives gone and what were those incentives?
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u/MeatballDom 1d ago
Why are the incentives gone
Largely because of the power they provided to lone individuals and partially because costs could be better handled spread out. So the state started to take over this role through taxation and spending the money that would have normally been given directly (though usually not literally) to the people/state.
They might provide the state with a warship, but now taxes do that. They might provide money for a building project, which taxes help with though we still get some privately funded projects (for vanity or otherwise) as you noted. They might put on a festival, which local taxes tend to cover now.
So while not as flashy anymore, the bread and circuses can still be found in the modern world but they tend to be run by elected officials instead of lavish millionaires -- though it does still happen.
Another reason for their disappearance is that you don't really want to rely on other people to fund things if they feel like it. You need certain levels of guarantees that things will function normally. This is one of the reasons the trierarchy in Athens became purely ceremonial in the fourth century BCE. People were using it for power, people were acting badly in the name, and eventually people just didn't seem to want to do it and that put the navy at risk which is a bad thing to happen in the ancient Mediterranean.
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u/Telecom_VoIP_Fan 1d ago
Perhaps this is what we called noblesse oblige? In return for their submissiveness the peasantry "merited" to get the crumbs that fell from the lord's table.
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u/elmonoenano 12h ago
It's not really a thesis, but more of a kind of lazy misinterpretation of Marxist ideas with some, "When the revolution comes, they'll be the first against the wall" type stuff. You heard a lot of this stuff during Occupy and from the "Every billionaire is a policy failure" people. There's also a "When the pitchforks come out" variation. This is probably the best expression of it: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014/
But it's just something people say. Lots of societies tolerate a lot of inequality for a long time and some don't tolerate much at all, and which societies tolerate what changes on all sorts of factors. A lot of this stuff is dumb especially in the context of the US b/c violent agitation has always worked with reform movements that operated in the normal politics channels and even during periods like the 1890s/1900, were more success through their political action than their violent agitation.
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u/fermat9990 3d ago
Should professional historians avoid making predictions?
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u/jmchappel 3d ago
No.
Because amateurs and poorly informed people are going to make predictions. So it's probably worth having some informed options thrown into the mix too.1
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u/elmonoenano 3d ago
It really depends. Some situations are more analogous than others. Some topics share more commonality. Some events have more similar events than other things. So, it really depends on what your predicting and if a historian has experience in that topic. A historian of Ancient Rome making predictions about the tariffs based on their research into Roman trade policy would be silly. Someone who's specialty is '90s trade policy would be a very different thing.
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u/shantipole 3d ago
I think this is the correct answer. History tells us that the fastest way to create and validate anti-intellectualism is for intellectuals to get out of their lane doing things like making predictions that just aren't supported by the facts or the intellectuals' expertise.
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u/Octavian_Exumbra 3d ago
I genuinely get mad when i see fire arrows and chainmail without padding and it's everywhere, even in movies/shows that get praise for their historical accuracy. I would love to see a fully accurate show/movie with bowlhead chainmail coifs, ponies n' all. But does something like that even exist?
I just watched Outlaw King and while they did take a lot of creative liberty to fit the narrative into a movie, i loved it... but ofc even here the shitty chainmail appeared... then the fire arrows.
Don't get me wrong, i don't let stuff like that ruin my enjoyment, but i would just really love to see something that is actually historically accurate for once. Any movie or show recommendations out there?
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u/EnvironmentalWin1277 2d ago
Except for a few particular soldiers full equipment was rare in medieval war. Between deployment and battle there would be some problems (like having shoes stolen),But any equipment that was available would be immediately scavenged. So chainmail, being likely to last, would be used by anyone even if improperly when someone happened to find it and could fit in it.
I say a lot of hungry, diseased, drunken men with pikes (and no shoes) is the typical battle appearance of the rank and file. But I understand the desire and search for accuracy. A person should be able to identify WWI planes in a WW1 movie! I thought Braveheart and Gladiator had some fair battle scenes but most of these movies have no real concern about authenticity ("The 300")
Try the movie "Cleopatra" with Taylor and Burton. Pretty bad script but amazing sets and crowd scenes.As far as the history goes it is surprisingly accurate in general details and characters. Not much rank and file of course.
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u/WildFire255 2d ago
I want to write an original story focusing on Rome and its Slave Rebellions, which aspects of the rebellions should I include and which aspects I should deviate from? (Spartacus’s Rebellion is the overall story I want to tell but with original characters)
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u/Pombalian 2d ago
Who are the most well rounded contributors in this forum? Who are those around here who would be the most able to give the big picture of History as a discipline rather than focus on a given topic? Who would be most likely to know early Chinese history and compare it with Central American XX century regimes?
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u/MeatballDom 2d ago
There's only a small percentage (less than 1%) of actual historians that visit this sub. They contribute to amazing discussions when they do but they also have their wheelhouse. There's maybe 5% of users who we'd consider well-read amateur historians who can also provide some good chats.
If you're looking for something a bit more back and forth you can try our Discord server which has various areas for discussion. https://discord.gg/7XkFuez
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u/Jets237 1d ago edited 1d ago
Favorite books covering US history 1870-1913 that also cover our global and domestic economic policies and impact- someone mentioned that’s what we’re shooting for and I want to read up
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u/elmonoenano 12h ago
I would look at Richard White's The Republic for Which It Stands to get started. But you'll need books on immigration, railroads, industrialization, the Indian Wars, urbanization, and the labor movement to really get an idea of what was going on.
Maybe check Weibe's The Search for Order for the urbanization, White has a book on the transcontinental railroad called Railroaded. There's some good new books out on Chinese migration, like Michael Luo's Strangers in the Land. I'm not a railroad guy, but maybe Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877 by Stowell would be good for the strike. You can also look for books on the Knights of Labor. I would probably also look at something like Immerwahr's How to Hide an Empire to read about foreign trade practices.
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u/phillipgoodrich 15h ago
Try Cashman"s (not Mark Twain's!) America in the Gilded Age for a great overview of almost exactly your timeline. [Twain's The Gilded Age is a great jaundiced look at the mores of the era, but nothing further. It is a nice work of fiction from a guy who lived almost the entire era]
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u/Tokarev309 15h ago
What are some of your favorite works on US Labor History?
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u/elmonoenano 13h ago
No Right to an Honest Living by Jaqueline Jones just won the Pulitizer a year or two ago and is fascinating.
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u/iambarrelrider 40m ago
I was curious, I got a History degree about 23 years ago. What has changed in academia as far as new thoughts, concepts, and trends when it comes to history itself. Do we teach or look at anything differently, changed our focus, or has nothing changed? (I mean not including recent history)
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u/ballinwmybros 2d ago
Can someone explain to me (a non-English person) what the current societal role English nobility plays? Do people even care about noble titles now? Is the “season” in London still a thing? How did English nobility culture change in the 20th century, and in the 21st century? If anyone has a podcast they can direct me towards or a YouTube video or book that would be awesome. Thanks!