top | item 31436349

(no title)

It's worth noting the quote the title is referencing, when examined with any level of scrutiny, is completely unfounded:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/hd78tv/does_...

https://acoup.blog/2020/02/28/collections-the-fremen-mirage-...

discuss

q1w2|3 years ago

A Reddit comment with no academic sources listed should not be considered a meaningful source.

On a similar note, your 2nd source is a blog post about concepts in the book Dune, and contains only a couple references to historic societies - it's not an academic source.

I'm not taking a position on the OP title, but I would find an actual academic study on the possibility of such a phenomenon interesting.

tablespoon|3 years ago

> On a similar note, your 2nd source is a blog post about concepts in the book Dune, and contains only a couple references to historic societies - it's not an academic source.

I don't know about the reddit poster, but the blogger at least has the right credentials: https://acoup.blog/about-the-pedant/:

> Dr. Bret C. Devereaux is an ancient and military historian who currently teaches as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has his PhD in ancient history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his MA in classical civilizations from Florida State University.

That said, it seems like the "hard times create strong men" part of the formulation has been debunked more thoroughly than the "good times create weak men" part.