AskHistorians

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How and why did militaries start trying to minimise harm to civilians during war? NSFW	29
Where does the stereotype of French hypersexuality come from?	26
Exactly how much do we know about the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia? Why do we know so little about them given that the last remnants of their culture lasted well into the post-Roman period?	23
How and why did Vodou ('voodoo') acquire its evil reputation?	21
Did the Stalinist repression of scientists (Lysenkoism, etc.) have a quantifiable impact on Russian scientific output? Did Russian scientific research completely recover after the end of Stalinism, or was there some permanent impact? How much time did the recovery take, if it did occur?	21
During the First World War, the royal houses of most countries were intimately related through decades of criss-crossing marriages. Why did this not have a moderating influence on the war?	18
Did 'dogs and Indians/Chinese/blacks/Irish not allowed' signs actually exist? If so, how common were they?	18
In the countries of the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the Trivial States (the predecessor of the UAE) and North+South Yemen), slavery was not abolished until the 1950s and 1960s. What did slavery look like in these places in the mid-20th century (just before its abolition)?	16
Why does all knowledge seem to begin with the ancient Greeks? Is it a perception created by the value given to Greco-Roman civilization by later generations? If so, why were the their achievements so heavily celebrated, compared to those of other cultures?	16
Why is hooliganism a problem seemingly restricted to football, and not found in other games? Why do we never hear of 'hockey hooliganism', 'baseball hooliganism', or 'basketball hooliganism', for example?	15

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