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Posted by /u/Kutluna

Why have straight men historically been so hostile toward homosexuality?

I've had this thought since I was a kid, and every time I bring it up to my friends they just laugh. But I genuinely don't understand it, so I'm curious if there's an explanation from psychology, sociology, evolutionary biology, or history. I'm a straight man, and my logic has a…

Posted by /u/Captain_Strudels

In recent years, I've seen some claims in several circles that "Historically the solution to excess unmarriageable men is to start a war to kill some of them off". Has this ever been remotely true? Have we ever even had historical times of…

I've quoted the claim word-for-word from a very recent frontpage sub, however I've seen this sentiment echoed more than once and it got me curious. It seems really unlikely to me - at most, perhaps unmarried men might seek out war for social mobility, but I can't imagine some le…

Posted by /u/Wise-Text8270

Why does Adam Smith say 'neat' instead of 'net' income?

In book 2 he talks about gross and 'neat' income. It is just net income as we use the term today, but why did he spell it differently? Why did we change? Did they pronounce it 'nEAt' back in the day?

Posted by /u/Bkerrychina1

What role did Mao Zedong play in the creation of modern China, and what were his achievements and mistakes?

Hello! I am Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute, at King's College, London. My most recent book is about Mao Zedong - `Mao: Power and Contradiction'. I have been thinking about Mao since my first visit to China in 1991, and this book…

Posted by /u/WartimeHotTot

How did US homelessness during the Great Depression compare to homelessness today?

The way I was taught about the Great Depression in school made it seem like there was extreme political pressure coming from homeless people themselves, and this ended up affecting politics at the highest level. To me, it seemed that the term Hoovervilles (along with Hoover blan…

Posted by /u/dr-doc-phd

It's 1978, Christopher Reeves has just made me believe a man can fly, and I now want to read as much Superman as I can. How do I get caught up on nearly 40 years worth of comics?

Today if I wanted to start reading older Superman comics, I could pirate them online, or purchase one of the many omnibuses. But in 1978 those omnibuses didn't exist, and the internet was still a twinkle in young Al Gore's eye. While I could certainly start buying the books as t…

Posted by /u/wastevens

What's the origin of American Resturants serving "Take home leftovers" amounts of food?

I saw a post elsewhere about how, contrary to much of the world, the expectation at most non-fine dining restaurants is you will be served between a meal-and-a-half to two meals worth of food per order. When/how did this develop as an American cultural norm, distinct from the wo…

Posted by /u/Bongolio-the-seal

At what point did the Confederacy's leadership in the US Civil War realise the war could not be won? What was the attitude among the CSA's government as this became apparent?

I assume that it was not solely a few days before Appomatox that the CSA's government realised that the war was a lost cause. So at what point did everyone realise the jig was up? Were there any people who thought the war could be won even at the very end? Like, I assume we have…

Posted by /u/Crazy-Blacksmith-336

Why didn't Argentina, despite having one of the largest European settler populations outside Europe, end up becoming part of the Global North like the US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand? What caused it to diverge so much economically an…

Posted by /u/Romboteryx

Why did Iron Age Greeks seemingly have no memory anymore of the Hittite Empire?

Archaeology seems to indicate that the Hittites had extensive contact with the Achaeans and even had Aegean city-states (including Troy) as their vassals. Yet after the Bronze Age no memory seems to remain of there having been a major empire in Central Anatolia and Herodotus mis…

Posted by /u/Umpuuu

Medieval peasants famously ate "bread and cheese". What kind of cheese was it? Would whatever cheeses they normally ate, be recognizable as any of the modern varieties?

Posted by /u/ExternalBoysenberry

The Batista government was so brutal in trying to suppress the rebellion that the US stopped selling them weapons in March 1958. Are there other examples where Cold War-era US refused, on human rights ground, to sell weapons to a governmen…

Did the US really allow human rights concerns to supersede its geopolitical interests in this case, or did it make a strategic move (ie maybe assessing Batista's position to be hopeless?) and sell it as moral integrity?

Posted by /u/BjorkingIt

How did people perceive or respond to Postpartum Depression in pre-modern times?

Posted by /u/Ok-Archer-5796

I keep reading that it would be preposterous to suggest that the Greeks would feel some guilt over the sack of Troy, but why did greek tragedians, like Euripides, depict the victims of the war so sympathetically?

I keep reading on X that it would be preposterous to suggest that Odysseus would feel guilt over Troy. While it's true that the character doesn't show guilt in the Odyssey, the implication is that there's no way ANY Greek of the time would be uncomfortable with it. However, anci…

Posted by /u/MaimedJester

What was the Soviet internet like if it existed in any form before the collapse? Just university students/professors exchanging e-mail officially or did any kind of internet equivalent culture exist like the BBS or Usenet internet cultures…

Posted by /u/justhereforhides

How did hard candy get its reputation as being "old people candy" was it particularly popular with older generations when they were young?

I also noticed that "old people candy" almost never has chocolate as an ingredient, is there something that's more timeless about chocolate-based candy?

Posted by /u/Keyvan316

I've heard that during the late stages of WW2, since Soviet union didn't release the nations they reoccupy from the Nazis, USA began to consider them as the next enemy. then What did stop USA and Soviet Union to go to war with each other a…

since both of them were already fully mobilized, especially USA which did not suffer insane amount of causalities like Soviets, could easily push for another war to throw soviets outside of their occupied states. what stopped them from going to another war with USSR?

Posted by /u/Big_Katsura

Would someone with a general knowledge of WW2 know about the 101st Airborne prior to Band of Brothers?

Perhaps an unanswerable question as it’s not really history, but moreso a question of general knowledge. But it seems like everyone with a passing knowledge of WW2 knows about the 101st due to the show. Plenty of pop histories mention them as if they’re celebrities and of course…

Posted by /u/Archangel289

It’s a fairly common trope in movies and books that people from the past react with fear to modern technology. Is there any historical evidence of this actually happening?

You probably know the trope. Whether through magical or scientific means, a person from the past is transported to the future, and they react to modern technology with fear and misunderstanding. In Hocus Pocus, the Sanderson Sisters are terrified of a road for a moment, for exam…

Posted by /u/Suur_tool

What percentage of the French population had French (Langues d'oïl) as their native language during the French Revolution?

Posted by /u/RENKZS_Pedrov

People walking with "Goyim" on their shirts

I recently saw a post of a couple at Burger King wearing black shirts with "Goyim" written in white. Is that something derogatory or anything like that? Because when I searched it, I saw that "Goyim" is the term for non-Jewish people. I really don't know if that's pejorative. As…

Posted by /u/Fluffy_Munchkin

Who is Jack Frost in Lönnrot's The Kalevala?

I read through The Kalevala recently, and I was surprised to see the name of Jack Frost pop up in the story. I didn't know much of Frost's mythology, but I'd assumed by his name that he'd be associated with English folklore, not Finnish. A cursory search shows that, indeed, the…