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Posted by /u/ArgentineBeauty

A Kenyan woman who couldn't get a business loan because she had no collateral found support through a program helping women entrepreneurs across Africa overcome that barrier. Her bakery has since grown more than tenfold, creating dozens of…

Posted by /u/ArgentineBeauty

An 11 year old boy with autism amazed his neuropsychologist by silently building a remarkably sophisticated geometric structure. Inspired by children like him, a Moroccan centre helping neurodivergent children realise their potential now p…

Posted by /u/Asleep_Wealth5602

We are historians of childhood and food, authors of 'First Helpings: A History of Children and Food'. Feel free to AMA.

Our names are Dr Deborah Albon and Dr Amy Palmer and we are the authors of ‘First Helpings: A History of Children and Food’ published by Reaktion Books. This book explores the relationship between children and food in history, drawing on a rich variety of social records, cookery…

Posted by /u/ManicMarine

Why didn't Stalin incorporate Poland into the USSR after 1945?

Poland had been a part of Imperial Russia, at least a large chunk of historic Poland had been. Stalin incorporated other nations such as the Baltic states. The USSR had had a significant population of Poles prior to 1939. It would have avoided the need to ethnically cleanse the…

Posted by /u/SystemOfTheUpp

Why do historians use the terms 'Soviets' and 'Russians' interchangeably when discussing the USSR?

I understand that the USSR was very heavily Russian-dominated from the get-go but especially following Stalin's Russification policies, but the use of "Russians" and "soviets" as synonyms never made sense to me. I've seen it in primary sources, history books, academic papers wri…

Posted by /u/RedlineFan

In an episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati", Dr. Johnny Fever is paranoid that the "phone cops" are after him. Did the Bell System have any actual phone cops or was this a total fantasy?

I'm also asking this based on telephony historian Evan Doorbell's recollections of investigators employed by the Bell System coming after him and other early phone phreaks in the NYC area.

Posted by /u/optiplex9000

I've been watching Ken Burn's WW2 Documentary and it shows an American news reel from the 40s with footage from the Germans setting up the Atlantic Wall defenses. How did Americans get their hands on this footage from the Germans?

Posted by /u/Wooden_Airport6331

I am an American conscript in Vietnam. I refuse to continue. What happens to me?

In this hypothetical, there is a moral and/or psychological reason that I won’t continue, like PTSD, perhaps witnessing or participating in civilian casualties. Perhaps I believe that my death is already inevitable. I feel that have nothing to lose by deserting. Could I be execu…

Posted by /u/Sea-Situation-6758

Where do lawns come from?

Trying this again since Reddit filters removed my last post: Do historians have theories for why lawns are so common in the United States? Why do we waste so much time and money taking care of grass around our houses when they dont produce anything useful or seem to serve any pu…

Posted by /u/MagisterMystax

Why did the Reformation largely end up dividing Europe between a protestant north and a catholic south?

When you look at the countries that ended up going protestant during the Reformation, it's mostly the northern half of Europe: Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Britain (though I am aware Scotland stuck with Catholicism far more than England), and Germany ended up largely divided al…