RE: Favorite period of history (Full Version)

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redcoat -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/12/2010 11:01:34 PM)


All history interests me. I tend to go through phases when I am especially interested in one period or another. I often read up about a period related to a game I am playing – or play games set during a period that I am reading about at the time. At the moment, for example, I’m playing WitP:AE and so I’ve been reading various books and articles about WW2 in Asia and the Pacific. Other recent interests include the 16th Century in Europe – when I played Musket & Pike: Renaissance – and the Napoleonic period, when I played various Nappy games.



parusski -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/12/2010 11:08:06 PM)

Yeah, I love all history too redcoat. During the months of May, June and July I was on a middle ages romp. WOW, what a time to be alive. But in the months preceding that focus I could not get enough of the Napoleonic era(I even through in some Richard Sharpe tales on audio). History is an amazing thing. It is something people know about, but keep making the same mistakes over and over.



warspite1 -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/13/2010 8:06:00 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: parusski

........ It is something people know about, but keep making the same mistakes over and over.

Warspite1

What's the old saying? something like "the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history"



Capt. Harlock -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/13/2010 8:11:19 PM)

quote:

But the main reason I find the Civil War one of the most fascinating periods in history can be gleaned from a Shelby Foote quote:

"Any understanding of this nation has to be based, and I mean really based, on an understanding of the Civil War. I believe that firmly. It defined us. The Revolution did what it did. Our involvement in European wars, beginning with the First World War, did what it did. But the Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things. And it is very necessary, if you are going to understand the American character in the twentieth century, to learn about this enormous catastrophe of the mid-nineteenth century. It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads."


Very sound point, but my own personal taste runs to the 15-year period immediately before the Civil War. It was a fascinating time of struggle between different societies no longer able to ignore each other because of the immense changes being caused by the railroad and the telegraph. All who call themselves anti-war should study this period.



parusski -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/14/2010 2:53:27 AM)

You are so very correct warspite, I just rephrased it. Seems that most of us on this thread understand how governments and armies never learn anything from the past.



parusski -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/14/2010 3:07:34 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

quote:

But the main reason I find the Civil War one of the most fascinating periods in history can be gleaned from a Shelby Foote quote:

"Any understanding of this nation has to be based, and I mean really based, on an understanding of the Civil War. I believe that firmly. It defined us. The Revolution did what it did. Our involvement in European wars, beginning with the First World War, did what it did. But the Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things. And it is very necessary, if you are going to understand the American character in the twentieth century, to learn about this enormous catastrophe of the mid-nineteenth century. It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads."


Very sound point, but my own personal taste runs to the 15-year period immediately before the Civil War. It was a fascinating time of struggle between different societies no longer able to ignore each other because of the immense changes being caused by the railroad and the telegraph. All who call themselves anti-war should study this period.



I also find that period of 15-20 years before the Civil war very interesting and amazing. Many historians, and I agree, believe the seeds of this ghastly conflict started not too many years after the USA actually became a nation.

Back to the period 15 years before the conflict there were so many ways to avoid the war. I apologize again for quoting Shelby Foote, but he said(paraphrasing) "..Americans are wonderful at compromising, Americans pride themselves on compromise. But the great tragedy was that this time nobody compromised.." Don't have time at the moment to get exact quote, but you get the point.



SlickWilhelm -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/15/2010 3:45:24 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: parusski

Back to the period 15 years before the conflict there were so many ways to avoid the war. I apologize again for quoting Shelby Foote, but he said(paraphrasing) "..Americans are wonderful at compromising, Americans pride themselves on compromise. But the great tragedy was that this time nobody compromised.." Don't have time at the moment to get exact quote, but you get the point.


Compromise is good for nearly every issue.....except slavery. No compromise on slavery.

No revisionist history can ever excuse, pardon or condone the enslavement of one man to another. It's wrong. Period.




tprice -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/15/2010 1:58:26 PM)

I am fascinated by Mayan History. The rich spiritual nature of their culture which spread across the continent. And what was up with that calendar? What did they know that we don't?



KG Erwin -> RE: Favorite period of history (10/19/2010 10:22:49 PM)

I enjoy all sorts of history, but for the past twenty years I've gotten much more involved in American military history. First was the Civil War, then Vietnam, then the Pacific War (the Marines' island battles 1942-45), and currently it's the 1754-1783 period (The French & Indian War and the American Revolution). Most of my video collection concerns these periods, with a few exceptions. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the Germans of WWII, but now my favorite troops are those badass WWII Marines.

BTW, my all-time favorite US-themed movies right now are "We Were Soldiers" and the two HBO miniseries, "The Pacific" and "Band of Brothers".



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