askhistorians

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Why was the Protocols of the Elders of Zion so influential? It seems every modern anti-Semitic conspiracy theory (and conspiracy theories more generally) ultimately derives its roots from it. Especially since it has been debunked countless times.	15
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
Why is Shakespeare so much more famous than any of his contemporaries? While his plays are arguably the best, the gap between his and others' works does not seem all that massive, at least to me.	15
Why did the USSR become increasingly antisemitic after WW2, despite communism having been invented by a man of Jewish origin (Karl Marx) and being disproportionately popular amongst Jews in the pre-WW2 era?	14
Why did Procopius' opinion on Justinian (and his wife and key supporters) undergo such an extreme change, from being strongly in favor to strongly against?	14
Did the imperial Chinese meritocratic method of civil service examinations for bureaucratic appointments result in a meaningfully higher quality of governance in China compared to the rest of the world?	13
In a scene in The Great Gatsby, a black man (implied to be a successful jazz singer) is driven by a white chauffeur, prompting Tom Buchanan to make a remark about the decline of the white race. Would this scenario have actually been possible in the 1920s?	13
How did the mosque assume its standard modern shape (a square building with a round minaret on all four corners and a dome in the centre of the roof)?	12
How did the job of secretary become one associated with women?	12
Some questions about the history of the Canary Islands	11

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