askhistorians

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The popular understanding of WW1 holds that, in 1914, the major powers had no idea how brutal, costly, and prolonged the war would be. Were the expectations really that unrealistic, or is this narrative inaccurate?	127
Enormous volumes of documents were destroyed during the last days of Nazi Germany. What information was lost permanently to history?	102
How were wasp & hornet nests dealt with prior to modern products like Raid? If I live before the 20th century and there’s a massive hornets nest in my barn, what can I do about it?	101
How have the US Marines earned their popular reputation of being tougher, more aggressive, and more “elite” than the other branches?	99
Why did “Jesus” become a common name in certain Christian cultures (like Spain), but not in others? There’s many a “Jesús” in the Spanish-speaking world, but being named “Jesus” in an Anglophone country would be considered weird in any era.	99
Do we know what the Wehrmacht senior officers thought about the Pacific War? Do any records of their tactical, strategic, or political commentary survive? Considering how different it was from Germany’s war, it must have been the subject of at least some professional curiosity.	98
The book “Killing the Bismarck” makes repeated reference to Royal Marines embarked with the task force, but does not describe their duties. What would a shipboard Royal Marine do during a ship-vs-ship battle in the North Atlantic?	94
The HBO miniseries “Valley of Tears” portrays very poor OPSEC on the part of the Syrians prior to attacking Israel. However, this obvious evidence of Arab intentions (obtained via intercepted radio chatter) is ignored by the Israelis. Were both the Syrians & Israelis really this sloppy?	85
How have Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia so stunningly surpassed the other former Soviet states in terms of prosperity?	79
Why did the US have no direct relations with the Vatican from 1870-1984? Anti-Catholicism alone doesn’t seem to explain this, considering a Catholic POTUS was elected in 1960.	76

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