askhistorians

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As a European, the American Segregation seems so surreal to me. They fought a civil war to abolish slavery, in WW2 they fought an enemy doing even worse things in the name of race, their constitution says everyone is equal. Then why did they keep opressing the blacks for so long?	372
Hannah Arendt's "Banality of Evil": What is the current historical consensus regarding her thesis that a large part of the Nazi bureaucracy and war machine was "banal" and had no larger ideological fanaticism or "evil" driving their actions?	371
For a long time the prevalent historical theory was that of "Great men doing great things." This was partially superseded by the Marxian view that differences in material conditions drive history. What is the prevalent historical theory today? Is it a synthesis of both? Does such a thing even exist?	339
Did the Roman Republic fall due to vast economic inequality?	335
How true is the common argument that the introduction of gunpowder weapons in medieval Europe slowly shifted the balance of power away from the nobility towards the non-noble classes, as now anyone with 2 weeks of training could defeat a heavily armoured knight?	314
European musketeers did not wear or wore only a little bit of armour. Meanwhile, Japanese Ashigaru and Ming Dynasty musketeers wore armour covering most of their body. Why? And how protective was it? There was no way it would stop a bullet, right? And how economical was it?	295
[Meta] I am a regular questioner on this sub. From time to time I see very simple questions on this sub which could be answered rather simply and to which I know the answer. How could I go about doing so as an amateur, without breaking the rules by only citing Wikipedia? [Elaboration inside]	258
The last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, hoped to save the crumbling Soviet state through several democratic and capitalist reforms. What reforms did he implement, which further reforms were planned and what was his vision for a modern Soviet state like?	251
Why were the revolutions of 1848/49 Europe-wide, while most other European revolutions before and after were rather constrained to their individual countries? What made the 1848/49 revolutions "special"? Furthermore, why were some states largely untouched by the revolutions?	248
Is there a sort of "World History Book" that gives a general overview over all the important eras, nations and events so that I have a sorta overview of things I want to read more about?	239

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