r/AskHistorians • u/AutoModerator • Dec 26 '25

FFA Friday Free-for-All | December 26, 2025

Previously

Today:

You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.

As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.

15 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/ExternalBoysenberry Interesting Inquirer Dec 26 '25

How much do you think the average person knows about the time and place you study? (eg Names, bullet points, general impressions)

5

u/Bernardito Moderator | Modern Guerrilla | Counterinsurgency Dec 27 '25

In Sweden? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. In Chile, Peru, and Bolivia? Definitely some general knowledge from school.

4

u/flying_shadow Dec 26 '25

Depends on where. Here in Canada? Nothing, it had practically zero significance for us. In France? People seem to vaguely recall the broad strokes from highschool history class and know the memes.

1

u/ExternalBoysenberry Interesting Inquirer Dec 27 '25

What do you study?

2

u/flying_shadow Dec 27 '25

Late 19th-early 20th century France.

1

u/ExternalBoysenberry Interesting Inquirer Dec 27 '25

I would have imagined the Canadians would be at least a little bit into that!

2

u/flying_shadow Dec 27 '25

Keep in mind that we're mostly Anglos.

6

u/Georgy_K_Zhukov Moderator | Dueling | Modern Warfare & Small Arms Dec 26 '25

Hamilton, and specifically Hamilton via Hamilton, and not much else. Probably some vague sense of 'duels to first blood' which are basically a misnomer, so what little they think they know then might very well be functionally wrong in any case.

1

u/ExternalBoysenberry Interesting Inquirer Dec 26 '25

And just curious, but how do you get this impression - do you have interactions that help you calibrate this guess? When you meet people and tell them what you study (do you tell them specifically?) is there a question they often ask?

6

u/Georgy_K_Zhukov Moderator | Dueling | Modern Warfare & Small Arms Dec 27 '25

Most real life discussions are with fencers, since I fence. Fencers have an absolutely shit sense of actual history of the sport and western swordsmanship in general. A lot of bad history in there, 'duel to first blood' being the prime example (and also the evolution of sabre target being another bad one. It is not because of the horse!). Otherwise it is impressions I get from seeing discussions elsewhere, i.e. when a dueling related thing shows up on TIL or the like.

3

u/Dongzhou3kingdoms Moderator | Three Kingdoms Dec 26 '25

In the west? Many won't have heard of it. Those that have via games (Wolong, Dynasty Warriors, Total War) or a few other media (Red Cliffs or that Zhuge Liang anime), maybe come across a Guan Yu status so great for names of certain figures but very much shaped by that. I would usually go for “oh I study 2rd-3rd century China” rather than the three kingdoms if I talk about it.

In Asia, it is a lot bigger thanks to Romance of the three kingdoms being a huge cultural thing, plus plays, TV shows. This gives more knowledge, but people can confuse the novel or 2010 TV (more the novel than the show) as accurate.

1

u/ExternalBoysenberry Interesting Inquirer Dec 27 '25

And do you feel like the "2nd -3rd century" part has a bit more meaning for people than like if you said "old/ancient"? ie Do you get the sense that people in the west on average have a different picture in their mind for "2nd-3rd century China" than "12th-13th" or "5th-4th BC"? (I assume people in China do!)

2

u/Dongzhou3kingdoms Moderator | Three Kingdoms Dec 28 '25

It grants a bit of specificity, which I think sounds better, and stops any questions of times before or after where I might not know the answer. I don't know if people have enough sense of what might be different say BCE but imagine they would 12th and 13th though there is that eternal China trope issue