AskHistorians

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As I understand it, daily papers became extremely popular in Paris, at the encouragement of the government, in the lead up to the French revolution; were they drawing on an existing tradition, or was this something new?	2
Did England's pride and sense of naval superiority predate the Spanish Armada?	2
How was John Milton's writing affected by his politics? It can be argued that Lucifer was the hero of paradise lost;. How dangerous was this to write in the 17th century? Were his depiction of the fall of man and his redemption based on existing theology or purely original?	2
In HBO's Rome, Brutus's mother Servillia stays in the city to reunite with Caesar while Pompey, Brutus, and the rest of the Senate flee his legion. She's also later heavily involved in Caesar's assassination. Do we know whether either of these events happened as depicted?	2
Crucifixion seems like a particularly Roman form of punishment; how is it that the Jews ended up being blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus?	2
What do we know of Baia, the submerged ancient Roman resort town? Can its being submerged have helped preserve it in any way?	2
The first prime minister didn't come to power until the 18th century; how did Parliament function before this? Did the House of Lords ever have more than ceremonial power?	2
When The Bob Newhart Show aired in 1972, would the public have been familiar with psychotherapy? Was it playing with existing tropes or creating new ones? Would it be expected that major metropolitan areas offered access to therapy for typical middle class people, and, if so was it something new?	2
Are author Robert Wilcox's allegations that General Patton was murdered by the OSS (a forerunner of the CIA) to prevent an escalation of tensions with the Soviet Union, and to cover questionable decisions made by Allied commanders, regarded as credible at all? Have historians vetted his claims?	2
How did the Aristotelian world-view of an earth-centered universe surrounded by crystal spheres come to be adopted by the Catholic church, and why was challenging this view regarded as heretical?	2

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