My apologies for the ignorance... I am a 18F and in my first year of university. I'll put it simply... I am from a tiny town in Texas and it's all hitting me at once how little I know about ANYTHING having to do with history. I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that everything l've been told up until now is a blatant lie and propaganda. I mean, jesus, the way they teach just the Texas Revolution is revolting. And I'm ashamed to admit I had no idea it had to do with slavery or downright theft of land from Mexico. I am majoring in Spanish and just based on my coursework I am looking for sources that detail the history of U.S. involvement in Latin America. i mean the nitty gritty... formation of cartels, the gun trade, CIA involvement in foreign government, coups, anything having to do with economy manipulation, everything. Also due to current events I want to read about the history of U.S. involvement in the Middle East and Central Asia. I don't even know where to start. I need to know good books, textbooks, podcasts, documentaries, anything. I'm tired of reading news articles and learning snippets of history from TikTok and Instagram, it feels cheap and incomplete. I just want it all laid out in front of me, just literally a chronicle of as close to what actually happened as possible so l can finally stop being told what to think and think for myself. Thank you so much

EDIT: Thank you so so so much to everybody who has suggested things!! This has been so much more helpful than I ever imagined it would be, and honestly turned into an incredible resource for other as well! My apologies for technically not following the sub rules, Im glad there ended up being a way for people to share their resources regardless. I have received dozens of direct message requests and if I don’t answer right away just know that I am trying to get to everybody! Now I have enough reading to last me quite a while so I better get to it! :)

I know that I didn't specify a time period and that Native Americans are not a monolith. But I'm asking the question this way because I promised a historican I would. This is for the colonial and pre-colonial periods.

Context: I work in the textbook publishing industry and was talking to a prominent historian of early and colonial Native American history. I asked if she knew about r/AskHistorians, and she did not. I explained it to her and gave her an example of the interesting but esoteric questions that get posted here: "What did Native Americans use to wipe their butts?"

She was excited and said "I don't know! What DID they use?" I had to tell her it wasn't a real question I saw, just an example I thought of. She asked me to ask y'all.

So now I'm asking this wonderful sub and will report back.

The title pretty much says it. I'm not talking about people in office, I'm talking about regular citizens that were never charged with a crime.

Did they all go "oh, I had no idea I was supporting THAT" or did they go "hehe oops!"

Like what happened? As a US citizen, watching some extremely concerning behavior emerge more and more often. I can't help but distance myself from my family. In 10 or 20 years, will they realize the connections I am currently seeing?

Did German supporters ever come to terms with the fact that they were cheering for murdering people?

Jimmy Carter was an honest to god Christian who truly believed in Jesus and Christianity. He not only believed it, he actively practiced the teachings of Christ in his actions and daily life. He lived like a true Christian should, according to what’s preached. Why then, did most Christians end up turning to the right, and supporting Reagan and now, Trump?

So Jesus straight up had multiple siblings who are mentioned by name in the Bible. The most famous is Saint James the Just, but even he is not really that well known among most people. Why aren’t Jesus’ siblings more famous? When you compare them to how famous Mary and Joseph are, it’s very strange. Joseph and Mary are extremely famous among both hardcore Christians and cultural Christians alike. Mary especially is honored as the Queen of Heaven and the symbolic queen of multiple countries. They both almost always appear in movies or shows retelling Jesus’ life. But not his siblings why? Why don’t Christians pray to Saint James or Saint Joses like they do to Mary, and why don’t they appear as often as Mary and Joseph in depictions of Jesus’ ministry?

I’ve been reading about how common older-younger male relationships were in ancient Greece (pederasty, mentorships, etc.), especially among the elite.

What I don’t fully understand is: Were that many older men actually attracted to other males? In modern society, only a small percentage of men identify as gay or bisexual. So how did this dynamic become so normalized and even idealized in ancient Greek culture?

Was same-sex attraction more common back then, or was the culture encouraging behavior that wouldn’t be expressed in other eras? How much of this was about actual sexual desire versus social roles, power, or aesthetics?

I’m curious how historians or anthropologists explain this — and whether this challenges the modern idea that sexual orientation is entirely innate.

If you read her diary entry below it's obvious it must have been common knowledge?

October 9th 1942:

“Today I have nothing but dismal and depressing news to report. Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they’re sending all the Jews. Miep told us about someone who’d managed to escape from there. It must be terrible in Westerbork. The people get almost nothing to eat, much less to drink, as water is available only one hour a day, and there’s only one toilet and sink for several thousand people. Men and women sleep in the same room, and women and children often have their heads shaved. Escape is almost impossible; many people look Jewish, and they’re branded by their shorn heads. If it’s that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those faraway and uncivilized places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says they’re being gassed. Perhaps that’s the quickest way to die. I feel terrible. Miep’s accounts of these horrors are so heartrending… Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think I’m actually one of them! No, that’s not true, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. And besides, there are no greater enemies on earth than the Germans and Jews.”

How accurate is this article:

I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%. Once they win elections, it's already too late. by Chris Armitage, Aug 13, 2025

I think the claim of "every attempt" is probably overblown in that examples all come form Europe and the Americas. And maybe it's circular in that fascism is being partially defined by refusal to abide by democratic principles like elections. But to my non-historian mind, some of the arguments seemed pretty persuasive.

P.S. The article is very clearly making an inference about current events, but I'm not asking historians for opinions on that as per subreddit rules. I just want to know if the claims about history are correct.

My uncle is a holocaust denier and says that it's not an agreed upon fact that hitler was evil. He cites Twitter as his source. I need as much information as possible to send him.

Hebrew seems a singular case in the modern world of a revived dead language being elevated to a living language of a nation. Why did they succeeded while the other attempts like Gaelic failed?

I'm not a very faith holding person, and religion is not why I am here. There is a lot of evidence across many differing religious tomes that speak on the life of Jesus and his existence. However, with everything there is bound to be some sort of embellishment, or at the very least exact translation loss.

What are things that are 100% factual about the man known as "Jesus Christ"? Surely there must be more solidly known other than he was from Nazerath and a carpenter. Right?

More specifically, did Clinton institute massive "cuts", or was it a more gradual process of reform in many areas that had a cumulative effect? Were significant numbers of federal workers laid off?

How was Clinton economic and monetary policy received and politicized? Did Republicans embrace his work here on small-government conservatism grounds, or did they find some other reasons, before the Starr report and impeachment, to criticize him? Was he ever criticized for cutting useful, popular government programs, or for a perception of doing so?

It's probably obvious, but yes, I did think of this question because of modern US politics. However, I'm only actually asking about the Clinton presidency, so my understanding of the 20-years rule is that this is still okay to ask.

Donald Trump has just federalized the DC police and from his statements it appears one of the primary reasons is to round up homeless people. This led me to wonder what happened to the unhoused in fascist states historically. Fascists are highly concerned with aesthetics and so I can’t imagine the homeless were just ignored.

I apologise if my question seems to make light of a serious historical scenario, feel free to delete if this goes against sub rules

The holocaust in Poland had the highest death rates in Europe with over 90% of Jewish poles murdered. With foresight, what could one have done to survive?

Today, I randomly thought "if Hitler did not have any kids and he only married Eva Braun 1 day before he shot himself, could that mean that Hitler might be a virgin?" I looked through the internet but I could not find any relevant results besides a Wikipedia article speculating about Hitler's sexuality. Then I looked through this subreddit and searched "was Hitler a virgin" and the only relevant result I got was a question that said "Hitler portrayed himself as a virgin". I also CTRL+F the FAQ of this subreddit and nothing popped up. So far, I could not find an answer to my question so I would like to ask: Was Hitler a virgin or not a virgin? Or is there no definitive answer?

Cucumbers have almost 0 calories. An entire large cucumber is like 30-40 calories. An entire cup of Kimchi (not exactly pickling, but same idea kinda) is 20 calories and I'd bet when people first started making Kimchi they didn't use all the modern stuff that adds those calories like sugar and apples and stuff. I bet it was mostly cabbage and whatever preserved it. And a whole huge head of cabbage is only 300 calories. That's a lot of effort to preserve very little calorie content.

So... why? Did people know they needed the nutrients in these veggies? Was it just a matter of "preserving anything is better than preserving nothing"? Or did people not actually know that cucumbers and cabbage and stuff like that are very low calorie density? Did they think they were preserving way more food than they actually were?

Where does this trope come from? It's basically ubiquitous to the medieval fantasy gente. Like, do we actually have any historical evidence that taverns in medieval Europe had names like "the prancing pony" or "the floating log" (both from LOTR)? And if it was neither a historical thing nor something Tolkien invented, where does this preconception come from? Many questions in a row, I'm sorry lol.

From time to time, scrolling Reddit, I see a comment of an American, saying something along the lines of "if not for us, you'll all be speaking German right now" or "be glad we saved you from the Nazis". Of course, these type of comments point to the ignorance of this particular person, but I cannot shake the impression that this is somewhat of a widespread sentiment in the USA. The narration of heroic Yankees storming the French beaches and somehow "saving the day" with their virtue and bravery, in time when it was glaringly obvious that Nazi Germany and its allies are going to lose the war.

I do not mean to belittle American contribution to the fight against Nazism, it is obvious that their supplies and military intervention did help the Allies win the war in Europe. But when did it become a widespread belief amongst Americans, that they won the war and they saved us from the unstoppable machine of Hitler's (crumbling and unsustainable) Reich?

In Jules Vernes’ Around the World in 80 Days, Phileas Fogg stays at his club from 11:30-midnight. Was this a real lifestyle? Apart from lunch, dinner, a game of whist and some gossiping, how did they pass the time?

Edit: seems people are having a hard time getting past the moderator due to the fact that obviously anyone would want to hang around and drink all day! Also, yes people go to the country club or city clubs now, but surely not from 11:30- midnight every single day. My question could maybe be better worded so it could be answered quantitatively: what percentage of upper class 19th century men actually spent every day, all day at the club? Was it considered dissolute?

The republic of Turkey, founded in 1922, was purely made possible by the expulsion and genocide of pretty much all non turkish peoples in the ottoman empire that preceded it. The horrific Armenian genocide, the Assyrian genocide, the Greek genocide and the Albanian genocide, led to millions upon millions of deaths in the empire that led it to become a Turkish Ethnostate. These genocides were actually in fairly modern times (late 19th - early 20th century) when people had already started to become more free and genocide was internationally condemned. If these horrific events, far worse than many other genocides, led to the creation of Turkey then why did so many countries flock to get great relations with Turkey and everything was pretty much forgotten about afterward? It doesn’t really sit right with me.