AskHistorians

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Watching Ken Burn's The US and the Holocaust, and I was surprised to learn just how popular eugenics was. The doc comments that it was based on flawed science. My question is at what level did the flaw in the science take place?	180
Who was the first person to get shot and who was the first person shooter?	166
Who was the first person to have their sex scientifically determined before birth and was it a big deal?	121
One of the major arguments against electric vehicles is so-called "range anxiety" where users are afraid they may be stuck far away from an energy source. Was there similar "range anxiety" as humanity moved away from wind and horse power and towards fossil fuel power?	79
In American politics today it's often said that "policy lags technology" in that lawmakers have a difficult time keeping up with new advances. Has this always been the case? Or did general understanding of technology grow stagnant at some point as technology moved forward?	41
When did music become such a defining characteristic of youth culture?	26
What authentic artifact from your era of study is still so common even today that it's virtually valueless?	23
Have people always known that beheading was an effective method of execution? Did it come from instinctual knowledge or did it develop from a better understanding of human anatomy?	19
The tungsten lightbulb very closely matches the color temperature of candle and oil light. Many of the complaints of early CFL and LED light bulbs was the poor quality of the color. Was the Edison bulb designed specifically to match natural light sources? or is that a coincidence?	18
Did Renaissance painters expect their paintings to be around 600 years later? What about earlier artists?	15

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