askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
If a bodybuilder was to walk around medieval Europe how strange would they look to the average person?	5761
The term ‘going postal’ refers to getting uncontrollably angry in the workplace and derives from mass shootings by postal workers before the age of school shootings. Do we have an explanation for why these shootings became so prominent and what was done to stop them?	889
Would a ship’s captain’s log in colonial times truly have reflected their true thoughts and feelings like a journal/diary or would it be very dry and number focused?	280
Was there ever a reverse Marco Polo? I.e. an Asian traveller writing fanciful tales of European culture.	278
Martin Luther writes the 95 theses in 1517. Less than 100 years later the gunpowder plot is planned by rebel Catholics in a majority Protestant England. How can there be such a huge religious shift across Europe in only a few lifetimes?	190
I am an adventurous Roman in 117AD. If I had the mind to, would I be able to procure the technology to sail as far as the Americas?	187
My great-grandad was a monolingual Welsh speaker until adulthood when he became a sailor. He refused to teach any of his children Welsh given the limiting effect he felt it had on his career. How common a viewpoint was this? And how limiting would not speaking English have been for him growing up?	180
At the turn of the century, why was the Ottoman Empire considered the sick man of Europe and not Spain/Portugal?	156
As a medieval villager who believed in the creatures of folklore like nuckelavee, kelpies, selkies, black shuck etc. would I be typical of the average population or would I be more like a modern day anti-vaxxer? I.e. there are plenty like me but it’s a fringe belief?	96
When did we decide what day of the week it was?	69

« < > »