AskHistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
How Greek were the Macedonians?	24
The US convinced citizens to buy war bonds during WWII, raising billions of dollars But inflation soared during and after the war. Did US bondholders ultimately lose money due to inflation?	24
Was it common for premodern Catholic monks and nuns to join monasteries/nunneries without religious callings because they didn't want to starve? To what degree were these places "employers," of last resort? Were unenthusiastic members a drag on their communities?	24
Red means stop. Green means go. How far back in time would you have to travel for these assumptions to no longer hold?	23
Japanese schoolchildren were indoctrinated with the idea of Bushidō ("the spirit of the warriors") during the Meiji era. Did this indoctrination end up backfiring by causing common people to clamor for war even when the elites knew diplomacy would have worked better?	23
The goddess Athena was claimed as the civic god of Athens. After being marked with this association, did other cities downgrade their worship of her, or in any way discriminate against her?	23
Julius Caesar was just assassinated and I'm a Roman pleb. What benefits, besides freedom from civil war, did he bring me that are now at risk? Do I care about the parks he promised? What about the money? Am I nostalgic for the Republic?	23
Pierre Poivre described Vietnam as being ruled by "philosopher princes" in the 1700s. What did he mean by this? Was there anything particularly philosophical in the actions of the Vietnamese ruling classes?	23
The Swiss sent hundreds of thousands of mercenaries to serve in foreign wars over the centuries. Were these soldiers mostly driven by lack of economic opportunity at home? Did the soldiers return to Switzerland loaded with money, as the Nordic Varangians did after serving Roman emperors?	23
In Uttar Pradesh, the Brahmins and Kshatriyas (Rajputs) casts are as genetically distant as the Irish are from the Swiss. Other Indian casts are also genetically distant. Social/marriage separation kept them from interbreeding, but were the lower casts the isolated losers in some conflict?	23

« < > »