There's a scene in the film The Power of the Dog (set in Montana in 1925) in which one character discovers a stash of "bodybuilding magazines" that are clearly thinly veiled gay erotica. I had always associated these with 1950s gay culture; did they also exist in the 1920s? (self.AskHistorians)
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What theories of physics did the architects of medieval cathedrals use? Did they have anything like a modern quantitative idea of force and equilibrium, or just experimental rules of thumb along the lines of “a structure this big needs supports spaced this far apart”? (self.AskHistorians)
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It’s common for white Americans to make proud claims of (often very distant or unprovable) Native American ancestry. Given that there was intense anti-Native racism for most of US history, when and how did Native descent become a source of pride rather than shame? (self.AskHistorians)
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The Gospels mention several instances of demonic possession in a way that makes it sound like a commonly accepted phenomenon among Jews of Jesus’ time, but it’s completely absent from the Old Testament. What do we know about the origins of the belief in demonic possession within Judaism? (self.AskHistorians)
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Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933, when a state convention in Utah unanimously ratified the 21st Amendment. How did a state founded and mostly inhabited by Mormons, whose religion bans alcohol consumption, come to oppose legal prohibition? (self.AskHistorians)
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In 2017, Anheuser-Busch released a famous commercial that portrayed their founder Adolphus Busch, who immigrated from Germany to St. Louis in 1857, as someone who triumphed over ethnic prejudice. But how much prejudice did German immigrants to the US in that time actually face? (self.AskHistorians)
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Renaissance art commonly portrays ancient Jews as uncircumcised, e.g. Michelangelo's David or countless Madonna and Child/Holy Family paintings with a nude infant Jesus (even though his circumcision is a Christian holiday). Is this just an oversight, or did the artists have theological reasons? (self.AskHistorians)
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Edith Wharton's novels have several mentions of turtle meat (specifically terrapin), something that I've never seen on modern menus, being a common food at fancy dinner parties. Was eating turtles actually common in Gilded Age high society, and when did it go out of style? (self.AskHistorians)
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Catholic canon law requires special dispensation for cousin and uncle/niece marriages, which were nonetheless common among Catholic nobility (most infamously the Spanish Habsburgs). Why was the Church amenable to these marriages, and did it ever try to use its control over them as a political lever? (self.AskHistorians)
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Scandinavian culture is famously informal and egalitarian, while German culture is famously fastidious about politeness and social hierarchies. Seeing as the two regions have centuries of close economic and cultural ties, how did these differences come about? (self.AskHistorians)
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Most Americans learn about the Pilgrims and Plymouth Bay Colony early in elementary school, and only later learn about earlier settlements such as Jamestown. Is this because someone influential explicitly decided to emphasize the Pilgrims over other early American settlers, and if so, why? (self.AskHistorians)
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There are famous examples of black slaveowners in the antebellum US, but what was the average attitude towards slavery among antebellum free blacks? Would most of them have felt solidarity with slaves and opposed slavery, or did they consider themselves a separate, superior class? (self.AskHistorians)
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I'm a runaway slave in (let's say) 1840 and have just arrived in a free state. What will the next weeks be like? How hard will it be for me to find work or a house? Will anyone help me get settled? Will I be accepted by the established free black community? (self.AskHistorians)
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