askhistorians

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When did standard firearms handling practice stop being so plainly irresponsible (by contemporary standards)? A lot of the behavior depicted in old black & white photos would get you blacklisted from a shooting range or circle of friends today.	97
So Rome salting Carthage's soil to infertility is a baseless myth but would ecological warfare of that sort even be conceivable for ancient & medieval people? Or is that a strictly modern phenomenon (e.g. America's extermination of bison, Saddam Hussein draining the marshes, etc.)?	88
Were the scents of ancient & medieval cosmetics & personal grooming products gendered the way they are now? Were some flowers girly & others manly? Did women back then wear cedar & sandalwood stuff (or abstract stuff like "rugged" or "nightlife") that's mostly marketed to men today?	88
How did female-female friendship among social elites in late Republican to Early Imperial Rome differ from male-male friendship? Was there 1st century "girl code" and "bro code"? Could a woman go on a spontaneous lunch date with her girlfriends as easily as her husband?	85
In the United States in the period between 1911 & 1915, approximately 70% of mothers breastfed their infants. In 1946-50 this had dropped to ~25%. What led to the decline, and how did public conversations about breastfeeding change in that period?	84
Republican Oliver Cromwell publicly refused the crown but as sole ruler lived in the royal palaces, had a regal funeral, & was succeeded by his son. Did any contemporary critics or radical republicans point out that he looked pretty king-ish?	84
How & when did the Scots get so effectively "de-othered" from the English perspective & why didn't it ever seem to happen to the Irish? Was anxiety over the Stuarts' reign over England based solely on their (variously alleged or real) Catholicism or also their Scottishness?	83
I often hear that before the Hellenistic period there was an extended period of Persian/Orientalizing influence in Greece but not what form it actually took. How exactly did the Persians influence Greek society?	83
20th century film and TV often used Warsaw Pact weapons (AK47/AKM, SVD, Tokarev) as a visual shorthand for "bad guy". Were there weapons or clothing that signaled "bad guy" in medieval and early Renaissance manuscript art?	82
When I look up the history of Mongol women in the era of Genghis Khan and his sons/grandsons I find information on Mongol queens and princesses. How did the other 99.9% of Mongol women live?	81

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