askhistorians

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Mesoamerican and Incan civilizations were undergoing mass conversion at the hands of the Spanish at the same time European Christianity was being torn apart by the Protestant Reformation. Do we have any idea how these peoples conceived of the religious conflicts afflicting Europe?	26
Kubrick's SPARTACUS was adapted from a novel by a communist blacklisted by publishers, and adapted for the screen by a communist blacklisted by Hollywood. Was this project consciously anti-McCarthyist, or even socialist, given its subject matter? How sensitive was this to Kubrick or his studio?	25
Catholic liturgy was radically changed following Vatican II in 65, but the documents of the council seem surprisingly conservative in official prescription, with the massive changes allegedly following an on-the-ground movement to obey and further the "spirit" of Vatican II. What was going on here?	24
The trope of the schizophrenic who believes himself to be Jesus Christ pervades the last century of pyschiatric storytelling. Do we if people under this delusion existed in pre-modern Christian societies, or how they were treated?	24
The original Privileges and Immunities clause of the Articles of Confederation explicitly exempted from its protection "Paupers and vagabonds" - what was the typical experience of homelessness in America in the late 18th century, and what kind of persons became homeless?	23
Manichaen sects played a major role in the overthrow of Yuan Dynasty, and the Ming may have even taken their name as a reference to the religion - did the Franciscan/Jesuit missionaries in China realize this was the same faith St Augustine converted from, and the early church competed against?	22
One of the most important Winter events in the Qing court was a performance by the "Eight Banner Ice Skating Battalion," a unit trained to fight on ice. How and why was this unit formed, and did they ever see real combat?	21
Did "Judaizing Christians" in the first centuries of the church observe the Oral Torah like Rabbinical Jews, or did they reject "extrascriptural" injunctions in the fashion of Sadducees and Karaites, to our knowledge?	18
Did Anglo-Saxon peoples recognize that the Danes invading their Island were the same peoples their epic Beowulf sung about?	17
Clement of Alexandria makes the bizarre claim in the second century that most scholars "show Homer to have been an Egyptian." Why might he have thought this?	17

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