/u/RusticBohemian's posts
The popular Indian film RRR depicts incredibly racist and brutal English soldiers and government officials during the Raj. The film's introduction says it's exaggerating, but does the depiction have any relation to reality? How abusive were the English?
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Generations of workers spent 312 years building the magnificent Cologne Cathedral — and then stopped in 1560, leaving it unfinished for 280 years. In 1840, their descendants picked the project up again and completed it in 1880. Can we talk about what happened here?
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What role did the financial industry play in US slavery? Were southern plantations buying slaves with bank loans? Were the slaves insured by insurance companies? Were these financial firms primarily northern?
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The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was annoyed by the bad BO of some of his courtiers and subjects and decided to inform them of their stinky state. Was intolerance to BO common before modern deodorants? Did people have a way to address it besides washing with water?
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By the time the US railroad boom wrapped up in 1916, 254,000 miles of track had been laid, and 40,000 passenger locomotives were in service. Was rail travel affordable for the average person, or just something middle class and rich people used?
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Children in the ancient and medieval world seem cowed compared to the screaming hellions of today. Has the modern world become more permissive toward childhood misbehavior, or are our perceptions warped by limited knowledge of premodern child-rearing?
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When the Antonine plague broke out, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius leaned on the polymath and physician Galen to advise him. Did Galen give worthwhile advice, considering that germ theory was unknown?
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About to be hanged? In France and Denmark you could agree to marry a woman and be freed due to particular laws, according to Montaigne. What was the origin and purpose of these laws?
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