askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
The adjective "byzantine" has pejorative connotations, indicating something is overly complex or a situation with many conspirators working against one another. Does the Byzantine court deserve these associations? Were they really all that different from Roman or Chinese imperial administrations?	1957
Would it be fair to describe the United States from 1877 to 1960 as an apartheid state? If not, what were the differences?	492
Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of War for the early part of the first World War, was a lifelong 'confirmed bachelor'. Was this code? Would this have made his personal life the subject of scrutiny at the time? Would it have affected his career?	166
Is it true that the root of the etymology of "slavic" comes from the word "slave"? Was this name self-applied, or externally applied, to the slavic peoples? Where did it come from, where did they come from, and who were these peoples' oppressors?	141
Were First Ladies prominent public figures from the beginning? If not, when did this change?	81
Were the events of December 7, 1941 really beyond the pale for events between major powers of the era? Did it live in public consciousness similar to subsequent events in that people remembered exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard?	19
Is it accurate to say large-scale revolts among the enslaved population of the American south were comparatively rare (I'm thinking of Saint-Domingue and the three ancient three servile wars in contrast)? Is this in line with what was going on in C. or S. America? Why the difference?	7
Why did Woodrow Wilson want the United States to get involved in the Great War, in spite of its well-known carnage at that point? Did he ever regret it?	5
Does academic research back up the popular portrayal that John Kennedy was frequently highly medicated while in office? Are there any instances where this might have affected his judgement or behavior? Was this uncommon (including alcohol) among world leaders of the era ?	4
Were rotten boroughs analogous to superdelegates? At what point could Great Britain be considered a democracy, in the common, modern understanding of the term?	3

« < > »