askhistorians

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What is up with boys and grown men being outdoors (in fields or on the raft) 'naked' in Huckleberry Finn or The Hobbit? Is this something based in reality in rural Western society at those times? Or is naked just code for 'in their underwear'?	370
Given Europeans knew about the earth being round before America was discovered, but knew about Asia, was it thought that the Atlantic and Pacific were one ocean that covered 90% of the earth?	107
Why did the hang-glider take until the late 19th Century to be invented? And was there incremental progress in this area for Centuries until we got it right, or some innovation that suddenly made this possible in the 1900's?	57
Are there really an uncommon number of similarities/overlaps between Hindu and Greek Mythology as we know it today? If so, is there any any historical reason for this?	16
In the pre-modern era how close could borders between sovereign states really get? Are there instances like in some modern cities where the other state was literally feet away? Or are thin line borders a completely modern phenomenon?	13
Was the name Muhammad as widespread among arabic people as it is today, throughout history? Was there an explosion of Muhammads immediately after Islam was founded by the Prophet Muhammad?	13
Is animism -> polytheism -> monotheism an "evolution" of some sort with some basis in changes in human society? Or is the order just by chance? Was it viewed as an evolution by non-religious pre-modern thinkers?	11
It seems that, compared to the early 20th Century, the average number of authors per scientific publication has increased, the Nobel prizes have increasingly been shared awards. Is this a perception issue, or was there big change in how science was done?	8
What is the history of Western 'popular science' articles or books before the 20th Century/Nobel prizes? Did commoners have some simplistic understanding of theories of Newton, Faraday, et al during their times, the way we know Einstein, or Stephen Hawking today?	6
Did ancient and medieval weapons or ships have 'model names' (not nicknames)?	5

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