/u/shotpun's posts in /r/AskHistorians
Dwight Eisenhower is usually described as a fiscal conservative but he also established numerous new federal taxes and embarked on the most ambitious infrastructure project in the nation's history. How does this make sense?
861 upvotes
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Did the first European explorers (1492-1600ish) understand that the Southern Hemisphere experienced reversed seasons and why?
596 upvotes
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In the modern world, breast size seems to frequently be something to flaunt and to compliment. Was this always the case, even millennia ago when dress and culture were much more conservative? NSFW
302 upvotes
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Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina paints rural Russian estates as lands of gaiety and lightheartedness in comparison to a drab urban lifestyle, and extends this dichotomy to both the peasants and the aristocracy. How accurate of a view is this?
203 upvotes
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From the 70s to the '83 crash, what did the average working American think of video games as a whole?
176 upvotes
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Is the idea that the WWII Polish military was backwards and primitive real, or was it just that the Wehrmacht was much more advanced?
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Was Central America part of New Spain? Why did it fragment into so many smaller countries (and why did the USCA fail)?
134 upvotes
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I recently received a very cool 19th-century book of flags from Romania. The weirdest thing, though, was the postage; it prominently featured Christopher Columbus, of all people. Why would an Italian who sailed to the Americas for Spain be a figure of cultural significance in Romania?
114 upvotes
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