I Love History..Do You?

I dig history. I teach it too. My favorites are US and European/African/native american although I have always enjoyed Asian history when I have time to study on it.
I love teaching the Civil War-it really gives me a chance to let the students explore socio-cultural issues pertaining to gender and race and class. Personally I find wars, particularly WWII and Vietnam, most interesting. Also very fond of all the stories behind great royal families-the intrigues and scandals.

Originally Posted by Essayons89

How easy are the older historical books to read? I've been thinking about getting the works of Livy, Polybius, Plutarch, etc. Have you read any of them?

Click to expand...

I'm a quite young (still in high school), so I haven't read them completely. They are more difficult to read than the more modern material, but once you get used to them you should be able to read them without any problems. I've read excerpts, and from what I've read, they seem more interesting than anything you'd find written about the subject today.

I own The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, The Histories by Herodotus, and The Early History of Rome by Livy (Books I-V of Ab Urbe Condita). I also own a biography on the Roman poet Catullus which contains some translated poems. Beware! I don't recommend Catullus's poetry to young readers. It is perhaps too sexually explicit.

Oh, I also own the works of Homer (The Iliad and The Odyssey) and Virgil's The Aeneid, but those are more literature than history. And I have Ovid's The Metamorphoses.

I've heard that Cicero's writing is exceptionally good. You might want to look into his speeches and letters.

Most texts you can find on the internet, so I suggest looking them up and sampling them before you go out and buy them.

Originally Posted by rugthugs

I dig history. I teach it too. My favorites are US and European/African/native american although I have always enjoyed Asian history when I have time to study on it.
I love teaching the Civil War-it really gives me a chance to let the students explore socio-cultural issues pertaining to gender and race and class. Personally I find wars, particularly WWII and Vietnam, most interesting. Also very fond of all the stories behind great royal families-the intrigues and scandals.

Click to expand...

I would love to be in your classes I am facinated by the intersections of race/class/gender and how they play out in our lives. Do you teach high school?

Originally Posted by Dori

I'm a quite young (still in high school), so I haven't read them completely. They are more difficult to read than the more modern material, but once you get used to them you should be able to read them without any problems. I've read excerpts, and from what I've read, they seem more interesting than anything you'd find written about the subject today.

Click to expand...

I'm quite impressed with those books that you have. I googled Livy and read a few examples of his texts. They remind me a bit of J.R.R. Tolkien's early works on Middle-earth that are found in the The Book Of Lost Tales 1&2. They read more like history rather than complete stories. The same is true of The Silmarillion.

I read either The Odyssey or The Illiad way back in high school, I just can't remember which one.

Originally Posted by Katiemae1277

did you read any of the other books in the series that his son Jeff picked up with? Of Gods and Generals was one, they also made a movie on it too I believe. The father, Michael, passed away, but they have similar writing styles. I do remember that there was Revo war series, I might have to check it out myself!

Click to expand...

No, I haven't read any of the other books in the civil war series yet. The Last Full Measure is the other book in this trilogy. I need to add all three to my collection.

Originally Posted by Trouts mom

I find history boring, but I do like learning about different religions

Click to expand...

The two, history and religion, are quite often intertwined when reading about ancient civilizations. I've learned more about religion by reading books about The Crusades, the fall of Constantinople and Medievel Europe than I have ever known before. The catholic church was a very powerful entity during the Middle Ages. Acceptance by the church was as seen by Royalty as one way to legitimize lordship or kingship. I have also learned a bit about Islam and have a much better understanding of the differences between the Sunnis and Shia that continue to this day.

I like ancient history as far as Ancient Rome, Greece, etc. Generally that area of the world. I love the architecture. I would love love love to be able to visit places like Pompeii and pretty much any area wit ancient ruins. Back in high school I placed first in the state Roman History tests for the Junior Classical leauge for a few years. But honestly that was not hard to do at all because so few were in there. Now at the national tests....Oh my gosh! It was totally over my head.

I like taking some of what I've learned about the interior and structural design concepts of that time period and bringing them together with more present day styles. I did designs for several rooms in college based on that. They were deffinatley my favorite projects.

I would have loved to seen some of the Wonders. Could you imagine being on a ship as it sails between the legs of the Colossus Rhodes or seeing the Great Lighthouse at Alexandria or gazing up at the immense size of the Colosseum in Rome from the street before walking in to take your seat to watch the games?
If only we could go back in time....

Some of the favorites, in my book collection:

Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of World History

Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of US History

History Laid Bare: Love, Sex and Perversity, From the Ancient Etruscans to Warren G. Harding

(These three appeal to my wry/warped sense of humor).

From my Tombstone years:

The Chronicles of Tombstone (the author/historian is a friend of mine)

100 Years Ago: the 1890s

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

The Encyclopedia of the Victorian World

(The last two are very handy, when reading Dickens, Austen or the Bronte sisters).

Let There Be Clothes - a history of textiles and clothing, from prehistory to Princess Diana.

When I was a child, I hated history, thought it was sooooo boring.
Now however I don't mind it, I got several war history books back in NZ, mainly ww1 and ww2. I love Japanese history, specifically feudal Japan.
The Tokugawa period, is one part of their history that appeals most to people.


I haven't read any of the books you mentioned.

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

In school I hated history. Not really the history part, but more the having to memorize dates that things happened. It wasn't enough that you knew some ancient battle happened and who won but you had to know the actual dates!!!

.

Click to expand...

This is where people get lost in history, Gee, why does the date matter?
just so you know, the civil war was before ww1, and that rome was before that, etc. Dates dont matter.

lol several of my teachers really wanted me to become a history teacher also(not enough money in that) i have found that, that most people care or want to learn more of the events and the people. That is the story not some man made date.

I do like history, but suprisingly I was never good in history class at school. I think it was becuase it was presented in such a boring fashion. I really enjoy knowing the history of my own town, and seeing how things have changed over the years. That fascinates me.

I have been a big history fan for years. My main focus seems to gravitate towards ancient history. I read a lot about ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian culture and mythology.
I am a real fan of TLC and the History channels as well.

I also like Arthurian and European Biographies

Originally Posted by theimp98

This is where people get lost in history, Gee, why does the date matter?
just so you know, the civil war was before ww1, and that rome was before that, etc. Dates dont matter.

Click to expand...

I tend to agree with this. I don't worry so much about actual dates but rather I want to read and learn about specific events or cultures.

Anyone want to hear a completely random fact I picked up from watching the History channel's series on the history of toielt plumbing???

Turns out the reason people call it the "crapper",is because the original inventor of our modern toilet system's last name was Crap. So the brand name of the first moder toilet's was "Crap".

That's where the term "sitting on the crapper" came from. If you were going to buy one of those nifty new toilets, you were buying a Crapper.

Not a very classy subject, but to this day (I watched this years ago) I still remember that everytime someone utters the word "crap".

Wow, I didn't that was how the toilet came to be called that. i always thought it was for a different reason.

I used to love history at my first senior school which was a convent. We used to learn about the stone ages and iron age, vikings etc.

Then I had to change schools and it was all the industrial revoloution

These days I love to research things for myself but something has to spark the interest in that particular thing. Like I watched Titanic and was down the library the next day taking out all their Titanic books.