> History talk

[Ellie]

What is your favourite aspect of history?

Do you prefer ancient, middle-age, or modern history?

Do you like studying history or is it just a thing to know?

Personally I like the middle ages (I'm talking here around Saxon to Tudor times). It's just so damned interesting. I like reading about the 1066 conquest of Britain and how we're basically all Vikings, etc. I like seeing how language has changed, and reading about medieval warfare. Castles, forts, ships of timber and sail.

I also however found studying modern history very interesting, especially the view that World War 1 began in 1789 and ended in 1945. (The Coalition Wars were essentially a world war leading to the unification wars leading to the split between the two huge powers that led to WW1 and ultimately WW2 - it can be seen as one long stretch as there was never really a time of peace.)

As a kid I was more interested in Ancient Egypt - and actually wanted to be an archaeologist for years but found at High School ancient history wasn't really studied other than six weeks of Romans. A real shame therefore that later found History at GCSE and A-level was all modern history. I got interested in it but was more interested in medieval/ancient at first.

 

[Venetia]

i've never been terribly interested in modern history at all. wwii is fairly interesting but outside that it's all treaties and documents and blah blah blah. ancient history's what i'm interested in most. especially egyptian, greco/roman, mesopotamia, and early nordic/germanic tribes. i actively seek out documentaries and things on it. when i was a kid i wanted to be an egyptologist, even. i'm also interested in prehistory (dinosaurs and all that).

in high school i was in all advanced-placement courses though and they stopped teaching ancient history after middle school. it was all american and late world history and economics from then on out, and god i wanted to shoot myself from boredom.

 

[Daxis]

Bah. History's okay and all, but I like the present better: clean water, electricity, less wars and rape and discrimination overall and whatnot. I always saw historians as people who simply looked at it from a glass, never understanding that serfs and slaves worked all day so that they can work another day. They had horrible lives back then, man, hell, they had horrible lives a hundred years ago, not to mention thousands.

 

[Venetia]

you don't have to long to be a part of history to be fascinated with it :x

 

[Ellie]

I'm not sure who my favourite figure in history would be. From studies, Lenin was kinda cool like, Disraeli cool but too much politics, Napoleon was cool for the world war aspect (Napoleonic Warfare was great to study TBH although I'd have preferred to do Frederich the Great and especially to do pre-blackpowder warfare!).

I remember about King Alfred a lot because my fave teacher covered it in what... year 3?

Julius Caeser was interesting too. We didn't study him enough though :{

I kinda wanna read History, not from a schoolin stance but from a fun one. I don't know what books are worth reading though.

 

[Ellie]

I've been reading up a lot on the American Revolution, mainly because I know absolutely nothing about it. I didn't even know the Wars of Independance and the Civil War were seperate wars :x

It's kinda boring so far though. I mean you beat British people :| you bastards.

I've also been reading up on British politics... rather boring still, but it's interesting if you go as far back as the origins of Whig and Tory.

 

[united washcloth express]

Read up on Canadian politics.

:devil:

 

[Ellie]

Does Canada even have politics!?

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Yes, and they're even more retarded and stupid than American politics. If you can believe that.

 

[Ellie]

I will research this tonight. I am very much interested, sirs.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

You won't be, I promise you that.

Kate Beaton has some pretty good comics on Canadian history, though!!

 

[No ID]

I love all the roman empire, Alexander the great, cleopatra stuff. I dislike like the medieval stuff, because its so played. I also like all the ancient Chinese stuff, even though I don't no much about it, but if I ever saw it on tv (and it was in HD). I'd watch it.

 

[Ellie]

All I know about China is someone built a big wall to keep some chinese folks away from some other chinese folks... and that it's a very big place. Oh, and the word Dynasty is thrown around a lot.

It seems interesting though.

 

[No ID]

right that's about all I know, They didn't really talk about it much in school. I also like those barbarians/vikings dudes. They were tuff.

 

[Ellie]

They look tough but in the end they were defeated by the French.

 

[Ellie]

Hmm. What do you guys know of the first gulf war? All I know about is the recent shit, the Iraq war and all that, but I don't even know why we're actually enemies of Saddam.

 

[Cryranos]

Cuz he wasn't nice to the peoples and his country.

And because he was "hoarding weapons of mass destruction".

Basically Bush needed a scapegoat so he crucified his daddy's old enemy.

 

[silver wind]

Hmm. What do you guys know of the first gulf war? All I know about is the recent shit, the Iraq war and all that, but I don't even know why we're actually enemies of Saddam.

I wouldn't call it history.
There are still black anti-gas masks in my closet.
I was a kid back then, and I remember my relatives from Tel Aviv fleeing to the south of the country, and a missile shock-wave shattering my grandma's window.
Saddam is an enemy of America because he went out of his way to become one, for some reason. Maybe he also needed a scapegoat ?
I should go read about that..

 

[Thula]

My favourite historic period is the Roman Republic and the Ancient Greece, epic shit. I quite like Roman Empire too.
Never been impressed by Early and High Middle ages and all their religious fanatism.
I hate 20th century history, it's probably where humanity reached the lowest levels of idiocy.

Don't particularly care about other ages.

 

[Cryranos]

I hate 20th century history, it's probably where humanity reached the lowest levels of idiocy.

Don't particularly care about other ages.

The middle ages arent also called medieval times and the dark ages just because people feel like it.