History - what gives?

[essayons89]

I pretty much like all aspects of history, the less it's sugar coated the better. I do have my favorite areas, though: Ancient history starting with the early humans and the rise of the first civilizations all of the way through the decline and fall of the Roman Empire (

), American history from the colonies all of the way through the Civil War, and World War 2. I also love military history.

I'm always hungry to learn more. Ancient Chinese history interests me, as well as Indian history (the country) since we only touched on them briefly in class. I have a small mountain of books here that I haven't even cracked the covers of yet. With more being added every month.

I also want to write about history. Nothing major at first but I wouldn't mind dabbling in something to get my feet wet. I've been bouncing around the idea of researching and writing about the beginnings of Rome to the point where it became a republic. I just worry about overwhelming myself.

 

[ut0pia]

Originally Posted by Essayons89

I pretty much like all aspects of history, the less it's sugar coated the better. I do have my favorite areas, though: Ancient history starting with the early humans and the rise of the first civilizations all of the way through the decline and fall of the Roman Empire (

), American history from the colonies all of the way through the Civil War, and World War 2. I also love military history.

I'm always hungry to learn more. Ancient Chinese history interests me, as well as Indian history (the country) since we only touched on them briefly in class. I have a small mountain of books here that I haven't even cracked the covers of yet. With more being added every month.

I also want to write about history. Nothing major at first but I wouldn't mind dabbling in something to get my feet wet. I've been bouncing around the idea of researching and writing about the beginnings of Rome to the point where it became a republic. I just worry about overwhelming myself.

If you want to write about history you really should become a college professor because you'd get so much recognition and actually be guaranteed pay for your work..My professors have all published many history books...
I want to write about history also but my ultimate dream is to write historical fiction ....lol I'm more of an emotional person (the personality test I did that strange_wings gave a while ago told me so too

)so sugar coating and twisting it up is what i'm ALL about!

 

[essayons89]

My goal is a Phd, so becoming a professor is an option. By sugar coating I mean I don't like when history is sanitized. I find school history textbooks to be a bit lacking in information but I at the same time I understand it's not practicable for them to be so.

I have a friend at work who loves historical fiction.

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by Essayons89

My goal is a Phd, so becoming a professor is an option.

Or you could become a published writer that always talks on various documentaries who looks and says some pretty eccentric things.

(some of them you always wonder if they do anything else...)

Originally Posted by ut0pia

I want to write about history also but my ultimate dream is to write historical fiction ....lol I'm more of an emotional person (the personality test I did that strange_wings gave a while ago told me so too

)so sugar coating and twisting it up is what i'm ALL about!

You're own post and reactions on here make that very apparent. No test needed.

I have a friend who's majored and has published some work on medieval history. Of course her work is in Dutch so I won't ever get to read it.

She can be a real hoot to talk with as she works the craziest references into a conversation. She also writes some historical fiction.

Good luck to both of you in your endeavors.

 

[valanhb]

Just some random thoughts...

I LOVE that we can have such intelligent discussions here!!! You guys rock!! (So much for intelligent discussion, huh?)

I think there somehow needs to be a happy medium in the classroom between the dates and numbers, which generally are very boring but necessary to learn, and the human factor - more of the sociological aspect. I think young people would be much more interested in history if it were somehow more personal to them. Diary of Anne Frank was required reading for so long, but I never had to read it when I was in school. That put a personal story in the kids' minds, and made the Holocaust more real because it wasn't just the numbers. It's difficult for me to wrap my head around 6 million people killed in the Holocaust, or 20 million dead when China implimented communism. It's impossible for most teens to do so.

I also think that "movies" when they are done accurately and without all the special effects and blood and guts (though that can be accurate, it tends to take away from the understanding the whys and hows in lieu of the special effects) definitely should have more of a place in the classroom and in learning in general. Let's face it, the upcoming generations were not raised on books. They were raised on TV and computers, and that medium will make more of an impression.

I think certain episodes of Band of Brothers are amazing to show the brutality of war, how personal it is, but yet how it can be necessary sometimes. Actually, I love the whole miniseries. I also think that Conspiracy with Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci as Heydrich and Eichmann is incredibly powerful. If you haven't seen it, it is a recreation of the conference held by Heydrich and Eichmann discussing the "Final Solution" which was taken from actual meeting transcripts/stenographs (that were supposed to be destroyed, but as I understand it one copy did survive). As you all said, the Nazis were meticulous with their documentation. There are a few scenes that are outside of the meeting and were dramatized, but the meeting is very real and unbelievable at how cold and calculating these men were.

 

[essayons89]

The Band of Brothers episode "Why We Fight" would be a good one to show. Conspiracy sounds good, I may have to check that out.

 

[wellingtoncats]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

You're probably right. If you go back and review the favorite subjects in school most members here said they hated history. Very likely the people who dislike the subject tune out during it.
many ranges - it's the same with many lizards. I thought that was one of those common sense things that everyone knew.

OK so I went back and reviewed this thread and a grand total of 4 people said they hated history and I think there were 14 people who said they hated maths (rough count).

The people who had history down as one of their favourite subjects was between 5-6! soooo overall on TCS we're history buffs, me included

 

[strange_wings]

^I could have sworn more people said they found history boring or that they didn't like it.

However, we've also had threads like this at least a couple times before so maybe I'm mixing them up.

For the record, I don't really hate math - I'm just terrible at it.

I did have bad teachers, though, and couldn't stand a single one of them (a couple shouldn't have even been allowed to teach considering they were no good at it and verbally abusive to students).

 

[essayons89]

Dates, names and places are important and I can see where people can be turned off of learning history if those things are the sole focus but I think it's just as important to look at the why and how events took place. It does no good to know that World War I started in 1914 if you don't know the events that led up to it.

Going back to the stupidity of Hitler, I still shake my head at him dividing his forces in Russia. If it were me I would have left my forces concentrated and : 1) Went for the oil fields in the Caucusus to secure those first, and 2) Focused more on keeping my troops supplied and the supply lines open. You also don't start a war on two fronts.

Despite being one of the biggest psycopaths the world has seen, he was also a mental midget.

 

[junebugbear07]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

^I could have sworn more people said they found history boring or that they didn't like it.

However, we've also had threads like this at least a couple times before so maybe I'm mixing them up.

For the record, I don't really hate math - I'm just terrible at it.

I did have bad teachers, though, and couldn't stand a single one of them (a couple shouldn't have even been allowed to teach considering they were no good at it and verbally abusive to students).

I sooo know what you mean about math! I hate it lol. I am good at something if i have a good teacher who makes me like it. Like in 8th grade, i got an A in algebra 1 because my teacher was awesome and i knew what i was doing. And Geometry in high school, i got A's and Bs because again my teacher was awesome. Algebra 2 my teacher thought he was real smart, and he called us dumb all the time, he said we could ask questions, that he prefered us to ask, but when we did, he would be like Ohhh how could you not know the answer to that, its soo easy...in a rude tone. He degraded all his students even the smart ones in calculus....thats why i never took calc. My Statistics teacher was pretty cool too, but she left us half way through the year and my B went to a C. The new teacher didnt know anything, she took stats once in college and was learning while we were learning...

mind you this was an AP class so when it came time to take the AP test....most people even the really smart didnt pass because she left us unprepared. I also loved english, mostly to read books lol or write stories, im good at writing, at least i think so lol.