About r/AskHistorians
In its own words:
The Portal for Public History. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments which break the rules. Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive, or they will be removed.
Community guide
r/AskHistorians (#380, about 2.9 million) brands itself the portal for public history: questions seek in-depth answers, and shallow replies are removed. Rules require clear good-faith historical questions, comprehensive sourced answers, no speculation/anecdotes-only, no <20-year politics soapboxing, and no joke-only top-levels. Text (~82 ppd).
Ask for depth, answer in depth
Questions should be specific and historical (more than trivia); answers must be comprehensive, original, and citable—not link dumps or jokes.
Versus casual history subs
Many history rooms allow short takes. Here top-level comments that are not real answers get removed—expect silence until a serious reply lands.
Practical pointers
No moralising agendas in answers; provide sources on request; stay courteous.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Aug 28, 2011, which makes it 15 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 5,319 subscribers (+0.18%). It sits just behind r/whatisit (#379) and ahead of r/GlobalOffensive (#381) in our ranking.
What sets r/AskHistorians apart
Compared with other large communities, r/AskHistorians leans heavily on text posts (100% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 34%). r/AskHistorians is more of a browsing community than a debating one: 4.7 comments per post on average, well under the Top 100 median of 13.6. For its size it is unusually busy: about 28.0 new posts a day per million members, more than 80% of the Top 100. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 0.97% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 95% of the Top 100.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/AskHistorians grew from 2,896,843 to 2,924,975 subscribers (+28.1K, +0.97%). That is about 639 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/AskHistorians talks about
Looking at the titles of 551 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “history”, “war”, “world”, “early” and “century”. Other frequent themes are modern, medieval, historical, american, actually and become. Recurring phrases include “world war”, “civil war”, “middle ages” and “united states”. By format, 100% are text posts and 0% are links.
Popular post flairs: Great Question! (9), META (4), AMA (4), Best Of (2), Meta (2), SASQ (1).
Activity and best time to post
r/AskHistorians gets about 82 new posts a day. The public archive holds 766,539 posts and 3,627,015 comments in total, about 4.7 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Saturday (98 posts) and the quietest was Sunday (69). Posting peaks around 17:00 UTC and is lowest around 04:00 UTC.
Rules of r/AskHistorians
The moderators of r/AskHistorians list 14 rules. In short:
- Users shall behave with courtesy and politeness
- Questions should be clear and specific, be asked in good faith, and seek an in-depth answer
- Questions should be historical in nature, and ask for more than basic facts
- Users should be able to provide sources on request
- Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive
- Answers should reflect knowledge and familiarity with the topic at hand
- Answers should not be speculative or anecdotal
- No questions that are soapboxing, or about events and politics <20 years
- No political agendas or moralising in answers
- Answers should not be only links or quotations
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/AskHistorians and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many members does r/AskHistorians have?
r/AskHistorians has 2,924,975 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #380 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 28,132 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
When was r/AskHistorians created?
r/AskHistorians was created on Aug 28, 2011, so it has been around for 15 years. The oldest post in the public archive is from Aug 29, 2011.
Is r/AskHistorians still active?
Yes. r/AskHistorians gets about 82 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 766,539 posts and 3,627,015 comments. In a sample of 551 recent posts we counted 471 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/AskHistorians?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Saturday and the quietest Sunday, and most posts arrive around 17:00 UTC, with the fewest around 04:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/AskHistorians?
The community describes itself as: “The Portal for Public History. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments which break the rules. Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive, or they will be removed.” Recent post titles often mention history, war, world, early and century. Most posts are text posts (100%).
Is r/AskHistorians SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/AskHistorians as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/AskHistorians?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/AskHistorians accepts text posts only. It has 14 posted rules, starting with: “Users shall behave with courtesy and politeness”; “Questions should be clear and specific, be asked in good faith, and seek an in-depth answer”; “Questions should be historical in nature, and ask for more than basic facts”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/AskHistorians?
Communities with similar topics include r/AskEconomics (1.5M), r/AskReddit (60M), r/HistoryMemes (12.8M), r/history (18.8M) and r/PublicFreakout (4.9M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/AskHistorians.