AskHistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
Pre-Marian Roman soldiers bought their own gear, meaning certain divisions were made of wealthier men. How much of a difference in wealth and social status was there between the soldiers?	62
Was folklore about fae changelings used to justify infanticide of deformed/disabled children who would be unable to work? Were there similar beliefs in other cultures' folklore?	61
Why did Julian (the Apostate) turn back to polytheism?	50
[Folklore] What is the origin of the shackled Yorkshire giant Jack-in-Irons? Does he have any analogues in other folklore traditions?	31
Pre-Enlightenment science has a popular reputation of being "made up" or reckless conjecture. How can a modern person understand the breakthrough qualities of pre-modern science such as, say, Anaximander's cosmology?	30
In several answers, /u/itsallfolklore has cautioned us against reading a cause or social purpose into folklore, calling it a mistake of an earlier historical tradition. How had earlier historians misread folklore as tied to its supposed utility or cause?	29
I've often heard of nationalism as originating in the late 18th/early 19th centuries but also analogized to the civic and hero cults of antiquity. What distinguished the old from new such that we treat nationalism as a modern creation?	20
TV and movies have long portrayed police as blue-collar/working-class joes. But police, especially in big cities, are paid remarkably well, including six-figure salaries. Was it always so? If not, what's the story with police salaries and how they got so big?	19
To what extent was Robespierre really responsible for the violent excess of the Reign of Terror?	18
Why did Robespierre oppose the Enragés, the ultra-left faction demanding price controls for bread? Wasn't he, among the Jacobins, one of the least concerned with private property?	17

« < > »