askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
The Statue of Liberty is now green, but it used to be copper. While the statue was forming its patina, were there people calling for its restoration to the natural copper? How did people come to accept it as green?	10899
Why did Hitler specifically chose to call his desired race "Ayrans" rather than "Nordic" or "Germanic"?	2861
In "The Schuyler Sisters", Angelica sings that "[she's] been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine/So men say that [she's] intense or [she's] insane". Were women reading pamphlets like Common Sense in the years leading up to the American Revolution? Or was it considered unusual?	1216
Heracles is supposed to be an ideal Greek man. Despite this, he murders multiple people, kills his own kids, abducts Iole, and possibly cheats on Deianira. How did Greek listeners understand these events and promote these stories as part of proper masculinity?	875
In "I Believe" (from The Book of Mormon), Elder Price sings that "I believe that in 1978 God changed/his mind about black people." What did the Mormons believe about black people before this? What is the current stance, and why did it take so long for this stance to be official?	405
In the past, people who could hear voices in their head were often seen as prophets or mystics (eg Nat Turner, for a number of protagonists in biblical stories). Nowadays, if you say that you hear voices in your head, people call the psychiatrist. How did this cultural shift happen and why?	324
In the Bible, Moses tells the Israelites to kill the men and non virgin women, and to keep the virgin women for themselves. What happened to these women? Were they expected to assimilate to Jewish customs? Did some follow their own beliefs in secret? Did any openly rebel against their situation?	197
A recent NPR podcast claimed that Samuel Adams was a conspiracy theorist who thought that the British empire wanted to enslave the colonists. Is this true? What kind of slavery was he thinking of, and did it differ from chattel slavery of African people?	196
RENT is supposed to take place in NYC's East Village during the 1980s. How much would rent have cost back then? Would it have been possible for struggling artists to pay rent?	163
I Love Lucy showcased an interracial couple (white Lucy/Cuban Ricky) on national television. Would their marriage be legal in the United States, given that there were anti-miscegenation laws in a number of states? Did anyone ever protest the show because of miscegenation?	132

« < > »