I Like History Forum & Chat Board | What is your favorite historical time period and why?

I'm always curious to know what parts of history people like and why.

 

I love the American colonial/Revolutionary era with all the pretty clothes and political upheaval with the French and Indian War, the Revolution, Great Awakening, Salem Witch trials etc.

I also like the 20s and 30s with the craziness of Prohibition and then the turmoil of the Depression with the rise of fascism and communism and everyone picking sides.

I also like the Middle Ages but I probably would have died considering I have allergies and desperately need glasses.

 

I enjoyed reading about early man, the civilizations of sumer and egypt. I loved imagining how people could rise from living simple lives as hunters all their life, to slowly becoming farmers and building cities. I also enjoyed reading and thinking about the tribes of man that had first discovered and explored regions of the world like Asia and America and how different and difficult it was for them to live these enviroments.

 

My favourite Historical period is where I'm living in the here & now.



I like History because it helps me to appreciate where we've got to & how we got here.


Whenever I go into a shopping mall or a big supermaket I keep thinking that if I was able to bring along people who lived in practically any past ago  they would probably think they'd all died & gone to heaven.
 

Even though I haven't had any life threatening illnesses by modern standards I sometimes think would still be alive if I'd be living in some past age & what sort of quality of health I'd have now? No proper dental care, no monor operations,no modern medicines, bad sanitation & no chance of a year round balanced diet or a winter break in the sun.

There may be trouble ahead .. I  worry about over population, environmental polution & higher levals of background toxicity, global warming &/or the running out of oil reserves (whichever kicks in 1st) etc  But boy do we have a lot to be thankful about right now !!





 

 

I like the english middle ages through the restoration period.  I actually like read and studing the life of everyday people.  I am always amazed by their ability to continue on in life.  I believe that they were mental and physically stronger in some ways as compared to us now.



This seen when you consider that they would have 6 or 7 children that would die in childhood.  That would cripple people today, back then they would continue go through their lifes.  It was not uncommon for them to move away from their families and never see them again.  That sort of disconnection would not happen today.  Not that it is bad, but back then  that would take a certain inner strength.

 

19th century, because the working-class started to wake up to capitalism's lies. Also, the fashion was killer!

 

I enjoy reading and studying about Ancient Rome, the American West (especially California history), Latin American history, and 19th to early 20th century U.S. social history. A bit diverse, but that's the fun of history, isn't it?

 

I started with Revolutionary War, moved on to Native American History, now deep in to the Medieval period (both Europe and America)....Yep, history geek to the nth degree! I like it so much, I am planning to teach western Civilization at college level!

 

You appear to have forgotten that Hannibal beat the roman army in at least six major battles from northern Italy to within site of Rome itself, and in most of those battles the Romans had vastly superior numbers but were outmaneuvered by Hannibal.
It was only a lack of political will on the part of the Carthaginian governors who mistakenly believed that now that Hannibal had totally defeated the best armies that Rome could send against him Rome would act reasonably
and consequently refused to send extra troops or support to allow Hannibal to lay siege to Rome.
Unable through a lack of men and resources to crush an almost helpless Rome Hannibal was forced to withdraw to Spain.
Two years later having changed many of the rules governing who could join their army from only Roman citizens to basically anyone who wanted to fight against Hannibal, a massive Roman army tracked Hannibal and his now much depleted army to Spain, where, abandoning traditional Roman military methods, and instead using Hannibal's own
tactics against him the Romans finally defeated Hannibal.
Hannibal escaped.
The Romans did what became their tradition against enemies who fought back. 
They sailed to north Africa and sacked and burned Carthage to the ground.
Also you seem to have mistaken technology for culture. the Romans had nothing that we would recognise today as civilised culture, no music, no great poets, no theatre. 
What they did have for entertainment was unique in ancient history.They had Amphitheater's where they sent thousands of criminals, prisoners of war, and slaves to die in some of the most unique and perverted ways ever devised by man.
You appear to have drawn your love of ancient Rome from the lessons taught in Victorian times by people who were only just beginning to discover the Romans.

 

Silverlining, in your devotion to all things Roman you also appear to have overlooked Attila the Hun. The Romans were so afraid of Attila that for years they paid the Huns thousands of pounds weight in gold coins as a tribute so that the Huns wouldn't need to kill Romans to get their gold.

 

I keep changing my mind on fav's.  My current love is UK history, particularly Middle Ages on through Elizabethan Age.  I've seen Edward II castles in northeast Wales and imagine the lifestyles.  I wow that there are still places that people live that were built 600 years ago.  Life must have been cruel and I get sick at a soft breeze, so I probably wouldn't have made it past childhood!

Then I like the civil war era and the deep south.  But mostly for the dresses and the plantation style of living, although I do not agree with slavery at all.  But I think it's the romance of the time.

And there is the expansion of America when people started to move westward.  The American Indians were driven off and placed on reservations (another culture fascinating but being a white person makes absolutely no sense to me). 

Culture fighting culture.  We war.  It's survival of the fittest.

 

I like all History but, American History is my favorite. I have been an Ancestry researcher for about 10 yrs now. It continues to fascinate me what our ancestors faced settling this country. I have ancestors that were here from the very beginning of America. They fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and all of the wars since. I was not content to just find their names. I wanted to know what was going on in History when they lived. For example, I recently found my 2x great grandmother was coming out west on the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon and ended up settling in Wyoming. What I found out is, that she was one of the people that settled in that area because of a gold rush. They helped build  South Pass City, at it's height there was only about 1500 people, when the gold became to hard to find, it ended up becoming pretty much a Ghost Town. The people of Wyoming have now restored some of the buildings and made it a historical site.  There is a lot more to the story but I just wanted to share why history is so fascinating to me. When I look at their lives, it makes me realize what a miracle it is I am here. If they had made different choices or in the case of my 2x great grandmother, had her 1st husband not been killed by Indians and had she not married my 2x great grandfather, I wouldn't be here. Fascinating stuff History!

 

The 1920s and 1930s in Europe because it shaped the world as it is today.  It reminds us of how low humanity can sink but also how high humanity can rise to at the same time.  

 

The 1920s and 1930s in Europe because it shaped the world as it is today.  It reminds us of how low humanity can sink but also how high humanity can rise to at the same time.  

 

I don't think I can pick an absolute favorite but I really really love ancient history. To me when you start to look back at the earliest of times and the little evidence we have you get a really clear feel for where humanity comes from and where it's going. Some of my personal favorites are the Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean, like the Minoans, and the Americas pre-contact. I feel like there is so much history and knowledge there waiting to be told.        

 

I enjoy reading about the Roman Empire. It lasted a long time. It had an unbeatable army but  gradually it fell apart  I bet the politicians caused its decline.  Mybe people got tired of constant battles  and taxes to pay for them . Eventually the vandals attacked and won Rome and sacked it and carried off slavea. It seems to happen to all empires.

 

     I love pretty much all American History (even reconstruction, I find the idea of a ripped apart nation fighting to pull itself back together to be an incredible heroic and romantic idea in American History). But, I specialize in the build up to the American Revolutionary War (1763-1775), the American Presidency and it's occupants, and U.S. foreign policy from 1945-1990 (the cold war), but I am ABSOLUTELY fascinated by the Life and Presidency of John F. Kennedy.