AskHistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
What exactly was a "march"? They were defensive border regions, sure, but what was different about them that merited a special political designation?	2321
After the fall of the Habsburg Empire, the Czechs and Slovaks were amalgamated into a single state, Czechoslovakia, rather than immediately forming individual nation-states. Why? What was the historical context behind the formation of Czechoslovakia?	2013
The Chinese government is often criticised for wide-reaching state-driven policies such as the Four Pests Campaign, the One Child Policy, the Great Leap Forward, etc. Given the information available to them at the time, were these reasonable decisions?	1525
"Rugged Individualism", "Man Alone", and the "Fair Go": the American, Kiwi and Australian national self-images all emphasise self-sufficiency and masculine values. Why is this the case, and what implications has it had on international Anglophone culture?	1177
English has a series of obscure collective nouns ostensibly used to describe groups of animals e.g. "a murder of crows." What is the background to these words? Were they ever in common use?	438
How arbitrary could a medieval king actually afford to be?	380
Political science theory puts a lot of emphasis on the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) as creating the modern state. How accurate is this from a historical perspective?	179
Why is military history so popular/prominent amongst amateur historians? How does it impact the way academic historians engage with the public?	125
It is said that medieval people saw history as regressing from a Classical golden age, rather than the march towards progress we see it as today. Was that true outside of Europe? How did contemporary Asian societies see their place in history, and how did it affect their approach to its study?	110
Why is there such a sharp divide between "popular" and "academic" history? Is a rigorous research process entirely incompatible with mass appeal?	98

« < > »