Favorite History To Learn About

So what's your favorite piece of history to learn about? Time or era? Conflict or architecture?

I myself like to read a lot about the Egyptians for some reason. And I also like reading into the Templar Knights etc. for no real reason I have a good fascination with King Richard the Lionheart. I think that's one of my daddy's Heros, I kinda take his history favorites too.

I forget the name, but I tend to be an Arthurian?? As well. One that reads too much into King Arthur. I grew up with the Arthur tale from a very young age. Of course over the years I now believe the story is akin to a Polish legend too, of course, details change etc.

And I love anything and everything Germanic and Norse and to our close neighbors in the East, certain Slavic mythology is right up my alley.

Polish history is very interesting to me, just how much they've really gone through, but also, just how much influence they had in making what Europe is today. When the Mongols came charging through, it were the Poles that basically stood up and said no. The Mongols came crushing right to our Deutsch border, and with a little help from the Teutons, the Mongols were refused. Also when the Turks came charging into Austria, they had Mongol ally backing. It didn't look good for Europe or Christianity. When the Mongols took flank with their cavalry, they literally surrendered after seeing the Poles line up their heavy Cavalry on the opposite mountains. Very interesting history there. Of course all you here about now is the debacle during WW2, but I believe the glory years of the Middle Ages would have been very interesting to observe and you rarely learn or hear much about Poland as a nation.

 

I really dig learning more aNd more about India about 520 years ago in nabadwip. In a time when an extraordinary saint named caitanya mahaprabhu was developing a style of singing and dancing in huge groups called sankirtan. Him and his close associates would sing and dance playing various instruments all day and night sometimes for days on end. And he and his brother would travel by foot for hundreds of miles sharing the sankirta philosophy, which basically revolved around the glorification of Lord Visnu or krishna, and krishna many different pastimes.

 

^
Indian history is interesting but to get any kind of overview you need to look further than Chaitanya or Vaishnavism. As with a lot of history of religions, you have to learn to separate myth from actual history.

Anyway I'm interested in most historical periods. Bit bored with WW 2, Britain in the 19th century and the Middle Ages in general, as I've read so much over the years about all of that. I had a period of interest in the history of America, which has now waned a bit. If I fix on a time which interests me I tend to max out on it for a while and go fairly deeply into it. Once one has a fairly good outline, it's just a question of the occasional top up of new information.
The renaissance is a time I still find fascinating in general, especially in Italy. Likewise the Roman Empire. New discoveries about pre-history are also very interesting.

Art history is something I'm also quite into - all periods, but I guess mainly European art from classical times up to now. Studying art can give big insights into the period when it was produced, or so I've always found. And the more you know about a period in history, the more understanding one gets of the art.

 

Just out of interest, do you have an opinion on Graham Hancock? I find he's one of the less whacky people out there with something to say about ancient civilizations. Nice guy too.

 

I keep an open mind. I'm not convinced totally by Hancock - but I think he has some good points. Trying to decide at the moment whether to read his new one 'Magicians of the Gods'.

 

Better add to that - I met Hancock back in 2011 after a talk he gave. The conversation moved to his novel 'entangled' where in one place he has a character take ketamine, and describes the effect. I asked him about this, and I was actually a bit shocked to learn that he's never tried it. To me that's a slightly questionable thing to do. It's slightly irresponsible to write about things like that without first hand experience in my view, especially if you're going to attribute some big experience to it. Maybe he's more careful in his non-fiction writing.

 

I'v always had a huge interest in ww2 history.

 

I'm in to WW1, anything, I collect the medals of UK soldiers, research them as far as I can.
I collect WW1 postcards, the kind the soldiers sent to family and loved ones, sometimes they put their names on the back, after identifying the Uniform, I will do the same kind of research!
I've bundles and oodles of trinkets from the first WW..
Supposed to be the one to never been repeated!

 

I enjoy ancient civilization and the concept of piecing together the stories of these ancient peoples' lives based on archeological evidence.

Im also really interested in evolutionary anthropology and how human culture initially developed.

I struggle with modern history, particularly western civ, because much of it is dominated and classified by war and war doesnt really interest me at all - although i do enjoy learning about it to the extent of how it shaped the world's current geopolitical landscape.

 

They also fought extremely well against the Russians around the time of the Russian Revolution.

One of my favorite historical topics is the Eastern Front during WW2. I even collect old board games on the subject including Fire in the East with its 5 square feet of maps and thousands of playing pieces.

 

I have lots of hex style turn based WW2 games on my computer. Or at least I used to play them. Panzer General and Steel Panthers etc. you should have talked to my grandaddy that fought in the east. He'd have told you some fantastic stories and adventures. Though the history books wouldn't have you believe what he'd have you believe.

 

This is a good thread by the way. Good responses. +10 AP (awesome points) for you all. refreshing to see, some intellect that isn't about watching your wives plowed in the gangbangs.

 

Bronze age through early iron age....



Mostly because I remember it well.

 

I haven't met a type of history that I don't like.

Although ancient civilization, early human history, the post WW1 era into WW2 are all pretty riveting for me.

 

Modern history has never really grasped me in ways older history does. Probably because I can already see myself in the 1900s. What I really to imagine is what I'd be like, say in the early 300s as a Saxon fending off them pesky Romans etc. what would the conditions be like? Sure, pointing a gun and squeezing the trigger is an easy way to kill someone. It takes no thought. What would the mind frame be, to swing an axe into someone. Chopping off limbs, brutal war. I think, you must have had to of had a very strong mind set to do that to somebody. This is what I like trying to learn and understand.

I do also fancy myself a bit of a warrior woman. I can loose an arrow quite well, I can swing an axe, I even used to fence competitively. I often practice house defense with my sword and my huge shield.

I think of myself most times, as a shield maiden. But also BERSERKER MODE in there too.

 

Reading recently an item about the English civil war. It appears that a proportion of the men on both sides couldn't actually bring themselves to shoot anyone. Muskets were found in the hands of dead soldiers with 5 or 6 balls in the barrel. They obviously went through the rather lengthy drill of loading the musket over and again but never actually fired. So although shooting someone say 50 or 100 metres away might seem an impersonal kind of action, to some it was simply not a thing they could cope with doing, even though their own lives were in immediate danger.

Clearly they didn't have the warrior mentality, and I suspect the same may be true in many wars where non-professional soldiers were used. I think I've actually come across a reference to the same thing in the US civil war. In both those conflicts though there was much hand to hand fighting - not much different from ancient battles in some ways. Running someone through with a bayonet would take a similar kind of mentality to chopping them with an axe I think.

 

Oh man, where do I start!

 

I'm a huge history fan, pretty much anything from the medieval period up to the English civil war will pique my interest (and a good deal either side). I used to practice historical European swordsmanship, at one point i was a fairly dab hand with a sword and buckler. we practiced from historical manuals from as early as the 1320's (i.33) and as late as 1650 (Cavendish- the truth of the sword). Fucking brilliant way to learn history- the fighting manuals are fascinating social records, and attempting to recreate them is a great way to try and understand the mindsets of people living at the time.

At the moment I'm really interested in the european mercenary armies of the 16th century and the early uses of gunpowder on the battlefield. I want to find a really good book about the German Landsknecht, if anyone has a reccomendation I'd be deeply grateful.

I'm also really interested in folklore and supernatural beliefs of different eras, crime and punishment and historical folk movements and rebellions, such as the diggers.