askhistorians

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How do we know what we know about Custer's last stand? Are our sources exclusively native? Custer has a reputation as a reckless general and a political opportunist- how much of this was contemporary, vs after the fact? Should he have seen it coming? What were the battle's lasting repercussions?	401
Mohammed was a prophet of God, and as I understand it, Islam regards itself as a continuation upon the Old and New Testaments. Were the early Muslims continuing Judaic tradition in expecting a Messiah?	376
Andrew Jackson is known to history as an impulsive, reckless guy who took personal slights and adopted governmental policies in reaction. Was this known when he was in office? Did it have any affect on his popularity?	358
Less than a generation after the US fought the bloodiest war in its history to eradicate slavery, the south had reestablished a racist legal power structure that sabotaged the hard-fought reforms many had died for; why did the north let them do it? Did it provoke outrage/protest?	355
One of Jesus's miracles in Mathew and Mark is to condemn a fig tree, which becomes blighted; how did this make the cut, and things like the gospel of Thomas didn't, when the New Testament became canon? Did some stories get included and others not, or did the church accept the whole or nothing?	354
How did the pub emerge as a social and political cultural hub in Great Britain? Is pub culture actually distinctly British, or is just a stereotype?	351
There's a cliche of American GIs courting British women with nylons and chocolate during World War II; were American GIs really better off, financially, than their British hosts in the early '40s?	347
George Washington took his initial oath of office in 1789 on Wall Street; did Wall Street already have significance to the American population by this point? Was it just a matter of convenience, or was there any symbolic importance to the act?	337
Tacitus's "The Romans create a desert and call it peace" at the height of the Pax Romana seems both remarkably self-aware, and remarkably critical, for someone writing during the imperium. Was this typical for the age? How critical of state actions were Roman writers permitted to be?	335
Five years after the Mexican-American war ended, the US purchased almost 30000 square miles of territory from Mexico. How was this received? Had relations normalized by this point? What motivated the US to buy, and Mexico to sell? Do we know how the inhabitants of the territory felt about it?	322

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