askhistorians

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Paradise Lost portrays Satan as a sympathetic antihero. How was this not considered massively heretical and result in significant ramifications for Milton?	54
How long did it take for American tourism to Western Europe and Japan to resume in large numbers after WWII? How did those countries develop their tourism/hospitality sectors given the destruction of important cultural sites and, I assume, lingering American resentment toward the Japanese at least?	38
Discourse on the American left often treats Western European governments and societies as enlightened and progressive models for the US, while discourse on the American right treats them as effete. How and when did these divergent attitudes evolve?	27
When and why did swearing become less shocking or taboo in American culture?	26
How did the U.S. military come to be so dominated by Southern culture?	22
The US banned importing slaves in 1807, but smuggling continued until 1860, when a ship was sunk to hide it after unloading. Given the legal risk, the lengths smugglers went to hide their tracks, and the huge number of domestic slaves already, why did slave smuggling continue after it was banned?	10
How did unions and labor organizing work in the USSR and Eastern Germany? Given that they were "worker's paradises," were workers allowed to strike and boycott for change?	9
How did 19th and 20th century Hindu nationalists treat the Mughals, given the contradiction of them being Muslim Uzbeks who led India at its richest, most powerful, and most united?	8
Do modern historians consider the Chinese imperial civil service exam effective in producing better government administrators than other historical systems of selecting government administrators?	6
Why was the USSR so anti-Semitic given that many early Eastern European communists were Jewish?	5

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