AskHistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
How did Saint George, a Roman soldier under Diocletian, end up as the patron saint of England? What's up with the story of him slaying a dragon? Do historians have any idea what the source of that legend is?	146
How did the Christian prohibition of usury evolve? Was it one of the early tenets of the Church or did it develop over time? At what point was lending regarded as a socially acceptable profession in Europe?	145
Classical music seems extremely complex compared to virtually any other form of popular music, involving large numbers of highly coordinated synchronous instruments. How did this develop as an artistic form? What are its roots?	145
How did the Hatfield-McCoy feud become so famous? Was it a one-off, a regional phenomenon, a product of its time, or something else?	144
Bernie Sanders somewhat famously honeymooned in the Soviet Union, in 1988. How was he able to do this? Would an average citizen been able to travel back and forth from the US and the Soviet Union at this time?	141
Is there a consensus on why large scale public housing projects, created with the intent to improve the lives of their residents, such as Pruitt-Igoe in St Louis or Cabrini–Green in Chicago, failed? How has this impacted city planning?	141
Was Caligula as insane and depraved as he is commonly depicted to have been?	138
The idea of "teenagers" being a distinct stage of life seems to be a 20th century culture phenomenon. Where did the idea come from? Was it a creation of the popular media, or a reflection of an already-existing change in social development?	138
How was civic order maintained in ancient Rome without a police force?	137
William Tecumseh Sherman became famous and controversial by taking the Civil War to the civilian population that supported the southern armies. Where did he draw tactical inspiration for this approach? How was he able to sustain a substantial force on enemy terrain for months without resupply?	137

« < > »