/u/playblu's posts in /r/AskHistorians

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Did "to make love" used to mean something other than "to have sex" in the US in 1930's-60's? I've heard it used in places where it would be strange and inappropriate to literally mean "have sex".

106 upvotes

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In "Don Quixote" (1605), the title character reads so many books of chivalry that he loses his mind. If there were so many books like that available in the real world in 1605 that they made it into fiction, have many (or any) books like that survived to today?

37 upvotes

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How much did Americans on the frontier in the 1800's communicate by mail? Was a letter from a relative something that happened once a month, once a year, or almost never?

25 upvotes

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Say I'm a farmer, living in rural Illinois in 1830. I have siblings and children in other states. If one of them dies, do I hear about it? How?

20 upvotes

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I'm a 17 year old man making the long walk from my mountain home to fight in the battle of Kings Mountain in the American Revolutionary War. What songs are my fellow soldiers and I singing to pass the time?

18 upvotes

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Has there been a city, state, or country that has gone from what we would call "corrupt" to "not corrupt" in a short period of time?

1 upvotes

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Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
Did "to make love" used to mean something other than "to have sex" in the US in 1930's-60's? I've heard it used in places where it would be strange and inappropriate to literally mean "have sex".	106
In "Don Quixote" (1605), the title character reads so many books of chivalry that he loses his mind. If there were so many books like that available in the real world in 1605 that they made it into fiction, have many (or any) books like that survived to today?	37
How much did Americans on the frontier in the 1800's communicate by mail? Was a letter from a relative something that happened once a month, once a year, or almost never?	25
Say I'm a farmer, living in rural Illinois in 1830. I have siblings and children in other states. If one of them dies, do I hear about it? How?	20
I'm a 17 year old man making the long walk from my mountain home to fight in the battle of Kings Mountain in the American Revolutionary War. What songs are my fellow soldiers and I singing to pass the time?	18
Has there been a city, state, or country that has gone from what we would call "corrupt" to "not corrupt" in a short period of time?	1