Welcome to our History Questions Thread!

This thread is for all those history related questions that are too simple, short or a bit too silly to warrant their own post.

So, do you have a question about history and have always been afraid to ask? Well, today is your lucky day. Ask away!

Of course all our regular rules and guidelines still apply and to be just that bit extra clear:

Questions need to be historical in nature. Silly does not mean that your question should be a joke. r/history also has an active discord server where you can discuss history with other enthusiasts and experts.

Hi everybody,

Welcome to our weekly book recommendation thread!

We have found that a lot of people come to this sub to ask for books about history or sources on certain topics. Others make posts about a book they themselves have read and want to share their thoughts about it with the rest of the sub.

We thought it would be a good idea to try and bundle these posts together a bit. One big weekly post where everybody can ask for books or (re)sources on any historic subject or timeperiod, or to share books they recently discovered or read. Giving opinions or asking about their factuality is encouraged!

Of course it’s not limited to *just* books; podcasts, videos, etc. are also welcome. As a reminder, r/history also has a recommended list of things to read, listen to or watch

I'm most interested in about the 1400's in England. Early Tudor and pre-Tudor times or so.

How were alehouses (or perhaps taverns) laid out? Are there any records of sites of these that have survived to today? What rooms would they have had? What things would have been (like objects) and been done (like activities) in these rooms? Were the buildings themselves often 2 stories? Did most have their own dedicated well? How much did they rely on buying drinks by the barrel/cask from others vs an alewife making it by themselves? Did alewives often have employees (or like their sister helping them) if their business was profitable enough? How often were such buildings & businesses owned by women vs owned by their husbands? If a man owned them, would his wife make some of the ale/etc, or would she have been considered well to do and spent her time more ordering others around to get the work done?

If a woman was an alewife, then how much of her day would that occupation often take up? 3hr, 10hrs, or more?

If they also served bread, buns, or meat pies, would they have gotten through the (licensing) trouble of having their own oven, or did they often still take everything to the town baker?

What I've read before seems to paint an alehouse often more akin to a few friends coming over to your house for a drink, except the woman of the house would have made that drink herself. Compare contrast a tavern where you could rent part of a bed if you were traveling and would probably be served wine instead of (functionally) weak beer.

Were they often wattle and daub construction?

Do we have surviving first-hand / primary source accounts of what it would have been like to walk into one of these establishments as a customer? What about as a worker? How many people were needed to run an establishment that served a few dozen customers or more each night?

I once read a source that talked about how women in a tavern during the day were usually there to talk business, while women there at night were usually there to sell their bodies. Would such activities happen on the premises? Were there rooms for that?

I've read that there were laws requiring prostitutes to wear certain things to show that their services were for sale to others. Were there any trends of what these were or was it simply random seeming / varied too much from village to village / town to town?

My two main sources for this so far have been Alcohol, Sex, and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (I found a copy in a library many years ago, stayed and read for hours) and The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England (of which I have my own personal copy). I also found the BBC's Tudor Monastery Farm to be wonderfully fascinating.

Welcome to our History Questions Thread!

This thread is for all those history related questions that are too simple, short or a bit too silly to warrant their own post.

So, do you have a question about history and have always been afraid to ask? Well, today is your lucky day. Ask away!

Of course all our regular rules and guidelines still apply and to be just that bit extra clear:

Questions need to be historical in nature. Silly does not mean that your question should be a joke. r/history also has an active discord server where you can discuss history with other enthusiasts and experts.

***UPDATED Part III added 3/15

In the latter half of the 20th century, corporate America and the wealthy elite systematically waged a sophisticated campaign of influence to reshape the political economic system to favor their interests at the expense of labor and the working class. No unwitting convergence, the evidence clearly demonstrates an intentional, multi-pronged offensive by capital to consolidate power and redistribute wealth upward.

The Mobilization of Corporate Force

The 1971 Powell Memorandum served as a virtual blueprint for this initiative. The future Supreme Court Justice explicitly instructed corporations to vigorously promote pro-business policies and shift public attitudes to counter perceived anti-capitalist sentiment. Corporate interest groups swiftly answered the call, forming the Business Roundtable, the Heritage Foundation, and an constellation of think tanks devoted to championing free market fundamentalism.

Simultaneously, the University of Chicago economists led by Milton Friedman cultivated a re-invigorated strain of academic theory elevating unfettered capitalism and deregulation above other policy considerations. Legal scholars advanced complementary concepts prioritizing "economic efficiency" over other regulatory purposes through the law and economics movement.

Intellectual bastions were erected to provide theoretical justification for corporatism. This fortification of "free market" ideals created an formidable axis of corporate lobby groups, partisan think tanks, and pro-business academics aligned in pushing for a rightward ideological realignment favoring capital over labor. No longer would stakeholder interests be balanced - shareholder value was now the preeminent imperative.

https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/1/

Capturing the Policymaking Apparatus

With economic crises of the 1970s creating a policy vacuum, this alliance accelerated efforts to capture the policy making apparatus. Corporate PACs could directly bankroll political campaigns. Lobbyists reshaped regulatory bodies to be subservient to industry interests. Conservative legal movements including the Federalist Society cultivated a pro-corporate judicial philosophy.

When Ronald Reagan ascended to the presidency, this momentum was rendered into a comprehensive power realignment. Reagan's administration slashed taxes for the wealthy while gutting organized labor. It deregulated finance, telecommunications, and other key industries. Every cabinet department privileged business priorities over worker rights, consumer protections, or environmental custodianship.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1988/10/02/the-legacy-of-deregulation/c553674b-8bd2-436e-9be7-7de95f798fbb/

Over subsequent decades, this paradigm ossified into institutionalized pillars of corporatism. Legislators repeatedly revoked regulations for their industry donors. Tax policies turbo-charged wealth stratification with generational repercussions. Federal judicial appointments enshrined an economic fundamentalism devoid of countervailing values. What was once a process of democratic policy making became a seamless conveyor belt of rent-extraction for elite interests.

Edit: Contemporary link removed.

Hi everybody,

Welcome to our weekly book recommendation thread!

We have found that a lot of people come to this sub to ask for books about history or sources on certain topics. Others make posts about a book they themselves have read and want to share their thoughts about it with the rest of the sub.

We thought it would be a good idea to try and bundle these posts together a bit. One big weekly post where everybody can ask for books or (re)sources on any historic subject or timeperiod, or to share books they recently discovered or read. Giving opinions or asking about their factuality is encouraged!

Of course it’s not limited to *just* books; podcasts, videos, etc. are also welcome. As a reminder, r/history also has a recommended list of things to read, listen to or watch