AskHistorians

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In most countries, the cabinet member in charge of foreign policy has a very straightforward title like Minister or Secretary of Foreign Affairs. How did this figure in the US government come to hold the very non-indicative title of Secretary of State?	81
If the Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan, where do the Japanese come from and when and how did they end up in Japan?	79
IIRC, in Dracula (1897), the count wears none of the clothes popularly tied to him after decades of films (i.e., the dinner suit, the cape). I understand such clothes came from the 1920s stage play; would the play's audience have associated these garments with any earlier characters/character types?	77
I'm in class at Oxford in 1750. Is my instructor teaching me and my classmates in English or Latin?	75
The word "lord" comes from a compound that literally meant "loaf guard." What was the connection between guarding bread and high status in Anglo-Saxon England?	73
Although strongly associated with Millennials in recent years, I've read that participation trophies existed before Millennials were even born. the Wikipedia article on them is scant, so what's the history of participation trophies (particularly in the United States and as a part of youth sports)?	73
Prior to the rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger, is it true that bodybuilding was generally seen as a somewhat underground, mostly gay male subculture?	73
Blackbeard, Black Bart, Captain Kidd, Captain Morgan, etc... All the big names of the Golden Age of Piracy seem to be British. Was Atlantic piracy in the late 17th/early 18th c. really overwhelmingly British, or has an Anglo-Americentric view of that period minimized pirates of other nations?	72
Nowadays, it's not uncommon for witches to be portrayed as having green skin. Did this portrayal begin with MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939), or was MGM drawing on an already common trope? I see that the Wicked Witch of the West didn't have green skin in W. W. Denslow's illustrations for Baum's books.	70
Is it true that Salvador Dalí was a lifelong apologist for Franco in particular and fascism in general?	70

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