askhistorians

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What was happening in the English language that led to a brief period that coined "exocentric verb-noun compound agent nouns?" (explanation in thread)	2471
A lot of country songs and old rock songs talk about varieties of wine made from fruits other than grapes: cherry, strawberry, watermelon, etc. How common were these wines in the US and why do they not seem to be common today?	569
Where does the Japanese trend of stern, rough-voiced almost shouting men, like in Samurai and Yakuza movies come from? Does it have its origin in theater?	363
How did that one particular working class New Jersey accent become the default "hired goon" voice in popular culture? (examples in text)	215
Was Tolkien's monster spider Shelob the first "giant spider" in Western literature, fantasy, or folklore?	148
Cartoonist Thomas Nast drew carousing skeletons to represent communism in his art. Many are labeled "DEADHEADISM" and "FREE LOVE," yet Nast made these in the mid/late 1800s. What did those terms mean in the context of the time?	128
To what extent were the Boy Scouts a paramilitary training organization at their inception? How much has that continued within scouting organizations?	122
So much of what I know from European folklore is from a post-Christianization perspective where supernatural creatures are treated as the odd man out in a world defined by Good and Evil, or Heaven, Earth, and Hell. Do we know what these stories looked like before Christianity arrived?	76
Did Thomas Jefferson invent the Zerg Rush?	75
Italian Futurism began heavily associated with anarchism and ended heavily associated with fascism. Was the movement schismatic from the start or was there a fairly uniform change of direction?	67

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