askhistorians

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What was the Apartheid government-controlled SABC hoping to accomplish by producing the 1986 series Shaka Zulu, starring a cunning, adaptive, politically powerful (albeit brutally ruthless) black protagonist?	67
After the USSR & its sphere of influence collapsed how was Mongolia's pro-democracy movement able to establish such a relatively free & fair political culture when most other post-Soviet states, especially Asian ones, couldn't/didn't?	67
Did wealthy early 20th century antisemites (royals, magnates like Ford, etc.) attempt to rationalize the supposed power of the "Jewish conspiracy" with their own elevated positions at the top the social/economic world? If so how'd they square those two things?	67
I saw a documentary where a political activist & former gang member asserted that increasing American street gang violence in the 80s & 90s was partially due to non- or mostly non-violent social/political groups being marginalized/suppressed in the 70s. Is his analysis supported by others?	66
When did people in Europe and North America begin to think of peacetime as the "normal condition" of international relations, and wartime as an "interruption" of the normal condition?	65
How important was the American Chestnut still for food, medicine, & wood to various Native American groups at the beginning of the 20th century? Did the rapid near-extinction of the tree represent a loss of foodways & economic opportunity or were those things already lost?	65
"It's a Wonderful Life" film director Frank Capra supposedly said in 1946 that one motivation for making the Christmas film was "to combat a modern trend toward atheism". What "trend toward atheism" would he have perceived in 1940s America?	64
How many revolutions actually started in coffee houses? Were Early Modern institutional fears about "subversive" coffee house culture based on an actual link to, say, socially subversive salon culture or merely a perceived link?	63
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?	62
What was the Qing (& various neighboring countries who had been deeply influenced by Chinese diplomatic thought) notion of "sovereignty" in the 18th-19th centuries, how did it differ from European ideas of it, and how did it change when confronted with European occupation?	62

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