askhistorians

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How did the rank of emperor only become associated with the East Franks (HRE), not the West Franks (France)? Why wouldn't a French king simply claim Charlemagne's legacy c. 1000?	144
The First World War was a politically radicalizing event for many German soldiers. Has there ever been a demonstrated link between the kind of combat experienced and the direction of political radicalization? (e.g., Right-wing Freikorps from the frontlines, or Communists from Eastern Front POWs)	127
In 1440, Lorenzo Valla used Humanist philology to prove that the "Donation of Constantine" (giving the Pope much of Italy) was a forgery; the Latin was from 400 years after the claimed date. What were the specific anachronisms he found? Do we know his sources for 4th vs. 8th century Latin?	107
100 years before the American Revolution, English Puritans killed the king and established a republic. How was the English Civil War subsequently remembered in Colonial/Congregational New England? Was there significant popular or elite/intellectual discourse about those events?	107
The Ancient writers Hesiod and Ovid wrote that humans had gone through four metal "Ages", ending with "Bronze" then "Iron". This order corresponds to the order their ancestors were introduced to iron and bronze, centuries before. Is this cultural memory or a coincidence?	91
In late 20th century America, there was a folk interpretation of Christian metaphysics where the body was a mere vessel for a soul, which could experience the afterlife without physical resurrection. When and how did this more platonic idea enter the popular American consciousness?	89
I’ve heard Irish people talk about a policy of using Irish-language instruction for English-speaking students(?) as disastrous, but I also had a professor mention that it was the gold-standard for indigenous language preservation. With exactly were these policies and their outcomes?	86
Is it true that during the 1990s wave of African democratization, “not a single left-wing party emerged”? If so, what forces led to a divergence from, say, Europe, where democratization was the cause of the left. [E.g. Geoff Eley’s history of the euro. left is literally titled “Forging Democracy”]	81
I was once told the claim that "Russian peasants c. 1890 had agricultural productivity equivalent to English peasants in 1400", as an example of just how damaging serfdom was. How true is this, and how well can we compare pre-industrial productivity across regions and times?	76
M. I. Finley: "Egypt was the densest and most poverty stricken province in the [Roman] empire" (The Ancient Economy, 1973). Would historians still agree with this? Was it worse to be born (a non-elite) in Egypt than other Roman Provinces?	69

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