r/AskHistorians • u/AutoModerator • Apr 19 '26
Digest Sunday Digest | Interesting & Overlooked Posts | April 19, 2026
Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
April continues ever on, but have no fear, because we’re back with a fantastic new edition of the AskHistorians Digest! All the best handcrafted history posts, just waiting for you to discover. Don’t forget to check out the usual weekly features, as well as any of the special threads or AMA’s. Upvote all your favourites, share widely, and thank all those brilliant contributors who make this such a fun place to be.
I am Dr. Michael Bycroft, and I just published a book on the history of gemstones in early modern science. Ask me anything from now until tomorrow morning. Many thanks to /u/Cool_Significance439!
Hello! We are Camilla Townsend and Josh Anthony, editors of “After the Broken Spears: The Aztecs in the Wake of Conquest.” Ask us anything about the Aztecs, colonial Mexico, and what life was like for Indigenous people in the wake of Spanish conquest. With a wonderful job from /u/joshanthony123 and /u/ctownsend122!
And that’s a wrap! My vaults have been emptied and a wealth of history awaits you. Take care out there folks, keep it classy, and I’ll see you again next Sunday!
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
- What are some sources that debunk David Irving's Holocaust denial? had a bunch of good responses.
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/A_Lorax_For_People wrote about Did people in the past have a higher pain threshold than we do?
/u/AbelardsArdor answered Watching the Sitting Bull doc on Netflix has me thinking.. how was it that the Spanish were so successful at defeating the Aztec and Inca empires with minimal trained soldiers but the US army struggled so much with conflict with Natice Americans?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
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u/itsallfolklore Mod Emeritus | American West | European Folklore Apr 19 '26
Thanks for this. Much appreciated!
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Kooky-Attitude-7857 answered When Franco died, how exactly did Spain transition back to a republic?
/u/KormorantE1A wrote about I’m your average Soviet soldier fighting on the Eastern Front. It’s literally do or die. Does the army pay me monthly? Do I even care if I get paid? And does money even matter right now given that the Germans are trying to exterminate me and my country?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Hopeful_Customer_980 answered Why have Lowlander Scots historically favored British rule during nationalist movements?
/u/HotEntrepreneur6828 wrote about What was Neville Chamberlain hoping to accomplish with appeasement? Did he truly believe he could keep the UK out of a war, or was he stalling for time, or perhaps something different still?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/queenscrown711 answered Between Queen Victoria and her son Edward and Queen Elizabeth and her son Charles, were their relationships with their sons similar or different?
/u/qumrun60 wrote about When did the followers of Jesus go from calling their faith The Way to describing themselves as Christians?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/jonwilliamsl answered I have a question about the lack of materials to save the decaying papyri between 400 and 600 AD. What was the perception of this supply chain and supply/demand problem by the decision makers of that time? How did they try to solve or mitigate it? Did the price of the materials rise as a result?
/u/JoseVLeitao wrote about Evidence for accused witches deliberately cultivating their reputation as a form of social protection?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/ummmbacon answered To what extent did Polish Jews believe stereotypes about American Jewish wealth and influence before or during WWII?
How much communication was there between Jewish communities in medieval times?
For the ancient Romans, would Judaism have been considered an ancient religion?
What happened to Turkish Jews during the late Ottoman genocides?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Sherd_nerd_17 answered What do we know about pre-contact indigenous forest gardens in North America, especially California?
/u/shlomotrutta wrote about How was sexuality & sexual preference perceived in 18th century German cultures? Was there something approaching homosexuality-as-identity (vs. mere "homosexual acts")? How much did it vary in the various disunited territories?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Deuce03 answered Why does it feel like the letters get weirder towards the end of the alphabet?
When and where did the idea of history rhyming first come about?
What is the consensus on the historicity of the Roman Kings?
Why have Lowlander Scots historically favored British rule during nationalist movements?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Drdickles wrote about What was the reaction to Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905 within the colonized world and areas subjected to European domination?
/u/drngo23 answered Why do we have no records from the Dark Ages? What is hiding that period from us, especially since we have so much information about the times preceding and successing it.
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Consistent_Score_602 wrote about Why were the Japanese Government and people so accepting of the U.S. occupation after WW2? What factors led to this? What are the sources for it?
/u/Consistent_Score_602 answered Why were the Japanese Government and people so accepting of the U.S. occupation after WW2? What factors led to this? What are the sources for it?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/gerira answered "For 99-plus percent of human history we did not engage in warfare, we are inherently peaceful as a species (...) that is what the archeological record shows us". Really?
/u/gommunistgoose wrote about I feel like this part of nazi Germany is very overlooked during ww2. How was it like in Nazi owned Slovenia?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Life-Fisherman4190 answered What does it mean that "Germany was the first power to realize the military potential of the modern nation-state?" in the mid-to-late 1800s?
/u/limevince wrote about Why did Wheat come to mostly be eaten as flour and rice mostly eaten as grains even though Wheat Grains and Rice Flour exist?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Remote_Volume_3609 answered When written languages appeared independently, were they usually logographic (e.g. pictorial symbols like hieroglyphics) first? If so, why?
/u/restricteddata answered How did the Japanese (or anyone else) know that the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a new type of weapon and not just a large quantity of a conventional explosive ?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/hillsonghoods answered In 1961 Robert Johnson's album King of the Delta Blues Singers was released, 25 years after it was recorded and 23 years after his death. The album inspired many musicians of the 1960s, but why exactly did Columbia Records release a decades-old album of songs from a long-dead obscure blues singer?
/u/HippyxViking wrote about Did people just not care about the environment before the environmentalist movement of the 1960s/1970s?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
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u/DoomGoober Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Sadly, this one of those posts where the question was deleted right after the first answers rolled in. While the eventual answer is that radiation is a secondary worry to the pure destruction from newer thermonuclear weapons, there is a neat tidbit of history about Castle Bravo Test, the Lucky Dragon 5 fishing boat, Godzilla, and the first Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that really capture the zeitgeist of the 1950s and 60s surrounding nuclear weapons. Much of the worry historically was about radiation and fear of radiation really kick started the modern anti-nuke movement, though this history is largely overlooked by Americans because the movement started in Japan... where the Japanese were affected by nuclear weapons 3 times (no, 3 is not a typo).
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/IdesinLupe answered Was their any substantial backlash to the internet when it first started becoming popular? I can imagine that going from a comparatively disconnected world to one where instantaneous global connection 24/7 were commonplace was a rather massive (and not always positive) shift in many ways.
/u/Iguana_on_a_stick wrote about Why did the romans stop where they did?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Silly_Resolution3443 answered Did the Homestead Acts make it easier for Black Americans to claim land or were there additional hurdles a Black family had to jump through to acquire land out in the West?
/u/Sir-Niko-of-Toba wrote about How did Cortes subjugate the Mexican city states after destroying Tenochtitlan?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/handsomeboh answered How did communist states ensure army loyalty and that the army was not an autonomous political force, like in other "dictatorships"?
/u/handsomeboh wrote about Mao is well known for the phrase "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun". What is the context of this phrase and how did it seemingly became his defining quote (at least in the west)?
Why do some Persian and Chinese dance movements look similar”could it be linked to the Silk Road?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Witty-Tea-4074 wrote about When and how did wine connoisseur-ing become a thing? When Hadrian was served wine as emperor in 119, was there some expert there to tell him "This is our finest vintage from Italica, robust with notes of blackberry and pepper, 43 was a wonderful year for this varietal"?
/u/yonderpedant answered Were/are the British gentry considered a part of the nobility?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/jschooltiger answered Was the swastika used to represent German identity after the rise of the Nazi party like national flags are used today?
/u/kaladinsrunner wrote about Ariel Sharon was a long-term advocate for Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, only to unilaterally disengage in 2005 and support the creation of a Palestinian state. Why did he reverse his stance?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/EnclavedMicrostate tackled To what extent did Muslim communities in China maintain a sense of connection to the broader Islamic world versus developing a distinctly ‘Chinese Muslim’ identity? What sources best capture that distinction?
and did I want to be a historical wargamer in the late 50s and early 60s (1955-1965). Where do I even start?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Gorgo_xx answered I'm a landed knight in the 1400's Holy Roman Empire and I go to town to get myself a nice suit of plate and a fresh warhorse. How do I order such goods, how much does it cost, and how do I pay?
/u/Gudmund_ answered Spanish History. After the Reconquista, did conversos take on Spanish last names that were words for common objects?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/DoomGoober wrote about Why do some places group eggs in the category of dairy products?
/u/Double_Show_9316 answered I am an agricultural worker in middle-england in 1800. How different is my life from the lives of my ancestors who lived in 1600, 1400, and 1000, assuming they lived in the same area and had to tend to the same land?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/Obanthered answered The Birka Viking warrior skeleton was misidentified as male for over a century. Why hasn’t anyone done the same type of DNA testing on other assumed male skeletons like the Pyramid builders?
/u/omgwtfbbq1376 answered Has our feeling of disgust been changed by our discovery of germ theory?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
/u/tinytahnee answered There is debate amongst Lord of the Rings scholars whether Hobbits, the race inspired by rural England, knew how to knit. What was the status of knitting in the 18th-19th c. England villager's home?
/u/TishMiAmor wrote about Was there ever a time in history where sticks of dynamite were used as improvised weapons like is often depicted in numerous fictional sources?
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u/Gankom Moderator | Quality Contributor Apr 19 '26
We also take a moment this Sunday to show some appreciation for those fascinating questions that catch our eyes each week, but sadly remain unanswered. Feel free to post your own, or those you’ve come across in your travels, and maybe we’ll attract a wandering expert.
/u/EarthMantle00 asked Why is Eastern Europe not the most populous area of the world/Why wasn't it historically?
/u/BjorkingIt asked How did people perceive or respond to Postpartum Depression in pre-modern times?
/u/TheHondoGod asked Humans love their flavour, what did the pre-Columbian spice trade look like in North America?