askhistorians

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When Alexander the Great's generals scrambled for the pieces of his disintegrating empire following his death, was the Macedonian heartland they grew up in considered the richest of the spoils, or a provincial backwater compared to the rich lands of Egypt and Persia?	2742
Athens, a small city of 250k, gave rise to a miracle in 500 BC and produced Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Sophocles, Archimedes, Euclid, Pythagoras, Thucydides, Herodotus, Solon, Pericles, etc — it seems so unlikely! What juice were they drinking? What birthed such brilliance?	2706
Turkey lost 15% of its population in WWI, and Serbia lost 20%. In comparison, France and Germany lost 4.3% and 4%, respectively. What led to such massive death tolls in the east?	2673
Winston Churchhill and Lady Astor's recorded verbal sparring is hilarious even today. Did they really dislike each other, or were they just joking around? What were they at odds about?	2637
The ancient Roman senate did something unusual — They passed laws limiting the ways in which they could earn wealth, forbidding themselves to trade, offer banking services, or own large oceangoing transport ships. Why did they do this, and how unprecedented was it?	2558
President Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke in 1919, leaving him mostly blind and partially paralyzed. He spent the last 17 months of his presidency sequestered in the White House. How capable and mentally fit was he? Why didn't the vice president take over? Why didn't Wilson step down?	2522
Choctaw historian Rita Laws, Ph.D, says the association we have of Native Americans with hunting and fishing is an massive exaggeration, and that the Aztec, Mayan, and Zapotec children ate 100% vegetarian diets until at least the age of ten years old. Is this factual?	2409
President Andrew Jackson accused officials of the Second Bank of the United States of speculating, "in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you. When you lost, you charged it to the bank." — Was he right? Were the bankers crooked?	2400
NYC's Book Row had 48 bookstores at its height. What distinguished them and kept them in business? What sort of book culture supported such a density of booksellers?	2380
Ernest Shackleton took a three-masted wooden schooner to the Antarctic in 1915. By this date, I'd expect something with a metal hull and an engine. When did wooden, wind-propelled ships go out of favor?	2227

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