AskHistorians

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Tolkein was opposed to Nazism's racial ideology, but in LOTR there are very distinct races with distinct good/evil features. Was Tolkein's use of the term "race" here different from what would been used by contemporary scientists or Nazis?	285
According to the BBC, most modern European punctuation was mostly locked in after publication of the Gutenberg Bible. Is there some punctuation that didn't make the cut that were popular in Europe around the same time?	114
Upwards of 12 million forced laborers were imported into Nazi Germany for the war effort. What happened to them after the war? Who handled this massive population of displaced people?	10
Before the Civil War, how imminent did slave state politicians think a serious political attempt to outlaw slavery throughout the US was? Were they expecting a push during Lincoln's administration, the administration after that, or decades down the road?	4
Was there any retaliation against the French officers and sailors involved in the scuttling of the fleet at Toulon?	4
The USSR famously had a centrally planned economy. What did that look like in practice? Were there thousands of statisticians running around government buildings making estimates every year?	3
Had the South not seceded with Lincoln's election, what do historians think is the earliest estimate for when free states would have had the political power to pass a constituional amendment prohibiting slavery?	3
The Nazis used millions of forced laborers/slaves in their war effort. What happened to those that survived the experience after the war? Did most make it home?	1

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