AskHistorians

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"Got in a little hometown jam, so they put a rifle in my hand..." What kind of "jam" was Bruce Springsteen talking about? Was the Vietnam draft used as a means of punishment?	42
Is it true that during the 1961 Paris Massacre, random French citizens went out of their way to help the police throw dead bodies into the Seine?	41
Napoleon's invasion plan of England apparently involved leading the Royal Navy on a goose chase across the Atlantic, then "shaking them off" on the way back. I have several questions about how this was supposed to work.	31
Post-WWII US policy towards Western Europe and Japan emphasised their long-term prosperity and stability over direct US economic interests. Towards Latin America... not so much. Why this difference in approach?	31
I've heard the chaos in the Middle East blamed on the Ottoman Empire's "failure to build institutions". Was the bureaucracy of the late (~1900) Ottoman Empire really that much weaker than that of, say, France or Germany at the time? In which ways?	24
Why were William of Orange's brothers Adolf, Louis and Henry so willing to fight and die in their brother's rebellion, which seemed like a hopeless fight at the time? Did William ever feel guilt about his brothers' deaths?	23
Have any non-European cultures come up with anything resembling representative democracy, without European influence?	13
Besides the trainjackings in the Netherlands in 1975 and 1977, have there been other hijackings/hostage-takings of passenger trains as a form of terrorism?	8
How often (in km) would a messenger on horseback change horses for optimal speed? Did this number change at all between, say, the Roman era and 17th century Europe?	8
How accurate is the claim that 1648-1789 was an exceptionally chaotic time in European international politics, preceded and followed by periods of relative stability?	7

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