AskHistorians

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What is the current consensus on Roger Ekirch’s whole First Sleep and Second Sleep hypothesis about how pre-modern humans apparently slept in two periods with a segment of activity in between?	1107
Do we have any real reason to believe Australian Aboriginal stories are anywhere near as ancient as people seem to assume they are?	352
Why did the French Sister Republics (client states) during the Revolution almost all have bizarrely archaic names?	187
Until 1977, Israel's leaders were consistently left wing if not outright socialist. Since then, the Israeli political climate seems much more right leaning. What happened to the Israeli left?	178
Do we have any real reason to believe the dreamtime stories are anywhere near as ancient as people seem to assume they are?	156
Xiang Yu was the archnemesis of the founder of the Han Dynasty. In spite of this, he is usually depicted by later writers as a tragic hero. How did China's seminal dynasty's greatest obstacle get such a good reputation?	120
Would I be right in assuming that the Japanese Warring States period's name (Sengoku Jidai 戦国時代) is an intentional allusion to the much earlier Chinese period of the same name (Zhànguó Shídài 戰國時代)? When, how, and by who was this period named?	112
Richard of Cornwall, an English Plantagenet prince, was elected to rule the Holy Roman Empire and did so for fifteen years. How did this happen? How much power did he actually wield?	41
Xiang Yu was the archnemesis of the founder of the Han Dynasty. In spite of this, he is usually depicted by later writers as a tragic hero. How did China's seminal dynasty's greatest obstacle get such a good reputation?	36
Why is copper in particular one of the traditional metals used for coinage in many parts of the world?	26

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