AskHistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
In "The Last Kingdom" the main character cuts down someone stealing resources from his land. His wife and some of the other villagers are horrified and consider it unjust. Wouldn't that be pretty "normal" in that era[800s]?	210
Who carried our punishments in Ancient Rome if there were no police?	210
Sorry to be 'that guy,' but I have some Atlantis questions (bear with me, I swear I'm not a nut). This article sounds plausible to a layman like me, but is on a site devoted to woo, and is written by an author using his own book as the only source. Need help figuring out what's what.	210
The Aztecs and Mayans had a spiced chocolate soup that common people ate daily, but beyond a very vague description of ingredients there is nothing about this dish. What exactly went into it, how did they make it, and did it factor into the religion at all?	209
In 1941 the German public successfully pressured Hitler to end Aktion T4, the mass killing of disabled people. Why didn't the protestors do something similar for Jewish, Polish, Roma, etc. victims?	209
How old is the game of peek-a-boo? Have humans always enjoyed messing with babies’ lack of object permanence?	208
A phrase, 'Ghoɽa ɽey Ghoɽa', meaning 'Horses oh Horses' in Sindhi is used as a response to extreme distress. It is said that the sentence was used by locals to caution others, when one saw horses of invaders. It later became a commonly used phrase of the language. How historically accurate is this?	207
When the compass was first invented/discovered; how did people think it worked?	206
I have heard before that the President used to be very accessible to the public, citizens could just walk up to the White House and knock and request to speak with the president. How truthful is this? NSFW	206
Have there ever been active “neo-Loyalist” movements in the USA the way you sometimes still see neo-Confederates in the South? Criticism of the Founding Fathers and their actions is not at all uncommon, but has that ever translated into overt support for a Tory “lost cause”? And if not, why is that?	206

« < > »