askhistorians

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Large crowds often gathered to watch public hangings in the United States. Did people go for entertainment? Did they see it as part of being a responsible citizen making sure justice was done? Did they take children to "toughen them up"? Why go?	2
After the invading Germanic and Sarmatian tribes broke their peace treaty with Rome and Marcus Aurelius was forced to march north for round two of the Marcomannic Wars, was the emperor trying to "make a desert and call it peace?"	2
We're any cultures historically uninterested or unimpressed with silver and gold, or find it valueless?	2
Isreal was poor, but its kings were rich. Jerusalem is depicted as large, well-defended, and with a massive and ornate Jewish temple rising above it. Where did the money for all this come from?	2
What was the state of investing, "capital formation," and banking in the classical world? Would we find investment bankers working in Athens?	2
How "inconvenient," were the Martin Luther King era marches and protests for the average nonparticipant? Were protesters shutting down traffic on highways and roads and otherwise disrupting the lives of locals or just making themselves visible and nonviolently breaking segregation laws?	2
Did English monarchs and nobles view the colonies of religious dissidents cropping up on the eastern seaboard of North America as full of loyal subjects, or more akin to a penal colony? How trustworthy and reliably "English" did they consider the American colonists?	2
Slavery seemed to die out in Europe sometimes in the Middle Ages, but by the early Colonial period most European countries seemed to have slaves again. Is that a correct characterization? How did the transition happen, and what was the cause of the initial weakening and subsequent surge of slavery?	2
Were the mindset and values of the Native Americans on North America's eastern seaboard dramatically different than the European colonists they encountered?	1
What was the deal with singing telegrams? What sort of messages did people want conveyed via sing-songy verse? Did the service cover the whole US? How did they find good singers in remote parts of the country?	1

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