askhistorians

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How did Trotsky make a living during his years of exile? Based on pics of the houses he lived in, he seems to have been fairly comfortable materially. (2nd attempt)	164
Although Victorian Britain is often regarded as a monolith, what major changes in social, political, and cultural norms that occurred from the start (1837) to the end of it (1901) can be used to more meaningfully subdivide it?	158
When social security was implemented in the US, what happened to those who were already elderly or middle-aged and therefore had worked their whole lives without paying into it?	155
Was Dukakis' status as the first US presidential party nominee not of Northern European ancestry treated as a major historic first in 1988?	153
When and how did "rocket science" become the discipline we invoke to dismiss, by comparison, the complexity or difficulty of a discipline or task at hand in the English-speaking world? Perhaps more interestingly, what discipline served that purpose before rockets, as we know them, were a thing?	153
Following 9/11, Rudy Giuliani's profile rose, earning him the sobriquet of "America's Mayor." What did his reputation in NYC and beyond look like circa 9/10/01?	144
1980-90s American sitcoms had a trope of conservative children rebelling against their hippie parents (as seen in Family Ties and Clarissa Explains It All). Was this phenomenon common in real life, or did it just stick in pop culture as a funny reversal of the expected parents-children dynamic?	143
In Godzilla (1954), the device to kill the titular monster is called the Oxygen Destroyer, even in the original Japanese dialogue. Why was the English phrase used? Alternatively, what connotations did using untranslated English (pseudo-)scientific terminology have in 1950's Japan?	138
How did Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor become associated with horror and the sinister? Is this association older than film?	134
Nowadays, unique names of popular fictional characters often end up as children's names (e.g. how Twilight made Bella a popular baby name in the Anglophone world). Did this happen before mass media? E.g. did Shakespeare's plays cause a spate of kids named Romeo, Hamlet, Juliet, Viola, Cordelia, etc?	132

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