askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
A few US presidents used both free and enslaved African Americans as servants in the White House. How were these two groups viewed in contrast with each other by the white workers in the White House? How did they view each other?	2552
Did tourism exist within the Roman Empire? I assume that most of the lower class could not afford to go visit another city, but what about the richer population?	381
How come some of the Nazi leadership were pagans or practiced occultism and mysticism despite most of Germany being Christian? Did Hitler seek such men out? Was there a plan to erradicate Christianity in Germany and replace it with such beliefs? What did German citizens think of all this?	207
Why doesn't Romania speak a Slavic language? Or in other words, how did Romania keep its Latin roots when the Slavs migrated into Eastern Europe?	105
Apparently, during the Middle Ages, monasteries undertook "experimenting" with cheesemaking, something I don't usually associate with priesthood. What other intellectual/manufacturing activies would monasteries engage in?	38
Before the scientific method was formalized, what other procedures were used to test ideas? Was the scientific method or similar method ever documented before our current idea of its invention? Is the method a Western idea or was it found outside of the West as well?	30
What would be the process and logistics of Alexander the Great founding a city? Who exactly would settle it and build it?	22
Galileo Galilei was investigated/persecuted by the Catholic Church for heresy, and even put on trial. How did the Church conduct all these activities against "heretics"? Were they Catholic detectives or Catholic search warrants?	22
I remember learning in my AP Euro class that before the French revolution and the Itailian unification, there were way more languages in those regions, and that what we currently know as french and italian were spoken by a small percent of the population.	18
How come the Mediterranean region was never completely unified again after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, unlike China, which throughout its history has had various dynasties ruling the entire the region and then falling apart only to be reunited again under a different one?	13

« < > »