History Fanatic? Here’s Who to Follow on Reddit

For history students there are a number of great resources out there at your disposal. For those of you that took our suggestion to follow r/AskHistorians on Reddit*, then you will also appreciate r/HistoryPorn.

Do not panic. This is not porn in the adult sense, but a reuse of the word to indicate a strong appreciation for something. r/HistoryPorn is a subreddit** that features only historical photographs.

So why expose yourself to a series of user-submitted historical images? Given the base of followers, only the most fascinating images tend to surface to the top. You may be familiar with many of the images, but you will not be familiar with all of them. Peering into history through visuals is just another way to learn about new and interesting events. Then you can check out the commentary to learn more.

Consider this striking image of Nazis sitting in a crowd of blacks. These are members of the American Nazi Party waiting to hear Malcolm X speak at a Nation of Islam summit in 1962.

This is not something you see every day (or ever!). The commentary on Reddit reveals that Malcolm X invited members of other groups. The Nazis would have agreed with, at least in principle, the concept of racial separation advocated by Malcolm X at the time.

This of course just skims the surface of a fascinating snapshot in history, but it is these small windows that constantly occur on r/HistoryPorn. Follow it. You will always find something interesting.

*Reddit has become the hottest site for social-driven news, entertainment, and wasting time. It is a site where anyone can submit a link to anything and the registered users of the site vote on whether the link is good or bad. The hottest stuff float to the top and bad stuff sinks to the bottom. Once you get past that, you will realize that Reddit is a great place to collaborate and learn about your fields of interest.

** A subreddit is a sub-site focused on a particular topic. These subreddits have their own moderates and rules.