AskHistorians

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In the aftermath of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee command of the Union army. Why did it take the Confederacy another 14 months to recognize what they had in Lee?	5
How did the Champagne fairs evolve? Would they have been advertised? Who would the merchants be? Were the customers mainly local? Was there a charge to set up shop? To shop? What caused them to die out?	5
Was judicial review regarded as extra-Constitutional when John Marshall first asserted it? How long did it take to get widespread acceptance? Were there particular inflection points that marked its path to acceptance, and did anyone publicly oppose it?	5
It seems like a figure such as Henry Clay, one of the most prominent dealmakers of the early American republic, coming from before the Civil War (before which time America wasn't really "our" America), wouldn't be studied anymore. Is that the case?	5
To what extent would it be fair to describe the crisis of the 3rd century as a man-made disaster? That is, how much did poor leadership contribute to the unfolding chaos?	5
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, yet antibiotics weren't widely available to the public until after World War II. Did the political situation in the lead up to war affect their development and distribution?	5
Was there a significant population of refugees to Christendom as a result of the Crusades? Where did they settle? Was there a typical way they would attain transportation? What sort of cultural impact did they have, and how were they received in their new countries?	5
During the French Revolution, how were aristocrats received in countries hostile towards France (England, Prussia,Austria)?Would this have differed in societies traditionally welcoming to refugees, like the Dutch?Would revolutionaries (Lafayette, Talleyrand,or David) face a similar reception?	5
A major factor in Pompey's rise to fame and fortune appears to have been that he inherited the loyalty of his father's legions after his father died when Pompey was 20; was this common? Were legionary commands often 'bequeathed' to a commander's children, even at so young an age?	5
Many of the leading generals for the Allied command had particularly flamboyant personalities (Patton, Montgomery, and MacArthur for starters), yet the overall command went to Eisenhower, a comparatively quiet and unassuming figure; was this a conscious choice?	5

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