which period of history are you obsessed by today?

[marty21]

American Civil War intrigues me at the moment, seem to go back to it fairly regularly - (studied it at uni in the 80s). Just read an excellent novel , 'Confederates' - Thomas Keneally, and I'm about to read an Alternate History novel - Harry Turtledove, which explores an alternative time-line where the Confederates managed to get the North sue for peace and America was divided.

 

[Orang Utan]

Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580 by Roger Crowley for the Mediterranean stuff.

I didn't know any of the history when I picked it up - what happened or who did what or who won what, so it was like reading a Games of Thrones style novel with great empires warring, slavers, pirates and make or break battle scenes.

this is brilliant - got halfway through it in the last weekend (which was a busy one). Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[coley]

The sixteenth century.

When I was at school there were only two things to know about the 1500s: Henry VIII had some relationship issues; and Drake interrupted a game of bowls to defeat the Spanish Armada. But it turns out some other stuff was happening too.

Portuguese were piratically destroying the world of Sinbad the Sailor in the Indian Ocean; Spaniards were genocidally plundering the new world, leaving up to 80% of the population dead; the Barbarossa brothers were on jihad inspired slave raids taking thousands of people at a time and depopulating the southern Spanish and Italian coasts; 40,000 people died in four hours in the huge sea battle at Lepanto; Suleiman the Magnificent was being magnificent; Ivan the Terrible was being terrible; Akbar the Great was being great.

It all makes the doings of a small rainy island on the edge of Europe look kind of insignificant.

Until the cry went up 'Whey up me lads n lasses, needing to be sortin out some bits of bother, ower the wetter' then this "small rainy Island" became very significant indeed.
Knackered The Cosrsican bandit, buggered auld Bismarck, proved the leader of the third reich was lacking in the supply of adequate balls.
Lots to condemn in the history of these "small rainy Islands"?would totally agree, but on balance, I rather like being a citizen of this mixed bag of ethnic history.

 

[coley]

It's about whales.

.dp

 

[coley]

The history of the whaling industry is pretty interesting. Some good old whaling ship films on YouTube

Sooner its 'just history" the better.

 

[Miss-Shelf]

American Civil War intrigues me at the moment, seem to go back to it fairly regularly - (studied it at uni in the 80s). Just read an excellent novel , 'Confederates' - Thomas Keneally, and I'm about to read an Alternate History novel - Harry Turtledove, which explores an alternative time-line where the Confederates managed to get the North sue for peace and America was divided.

Great novel by Keneally
But then most of his are - really enlightening depth of context
Hackney library (when hackney had a main library) had all his novels so i read my way through them, back when reading was a thing in my life

 

[Miss-Shelf]

Great thread, discokermit , and glad to see you back posting

I would like to dally in the history 17 & 18 century as Newfoundland was being colonised by Bretons(among others ). They went on such long fishing trips across the Atlantic

I'd like to know more about the old crofting communities in the west/Highlands before the clearances

I really like Martello towers and the architecture of channel island harbours - how war and maritime trading has shaped them

And the history of the cinque ports

I'm amazed earlier peoples sailed so far under sail

 

[19force8]

I would like to dally in the history 17 & 18 century as Newfoundland was being colonised by Bretons(among others ).

Any recommendations? My partner is fascinated by Newfoundland.

 

[dessiato]

I'm currently reading Laurie Lee's autobiography trilogy. I'm especially interested in the last part because he talks about his experience in the Spanish civil war. Next I'll try the one about when he goes back after the war. If I can remember its name.

 

[Sprocket.]

A Moment of War?
Great books from another time not so long ago.

 

[baldrick]

Spanish civil war. So recent, but so little talked about here that I seem to know more than many of my students. I can understand that with the teens and younger, but the adults, and especially the teachers, seem to know so little.

Massive split in society, family members on opposite sides, Franco-ist propaganda only allowing one POV. Certainly people today interested in the Republican side of things find it a very hard time getting it memorialised, lots of people still think Franco was right and they're pretty influential still in politics today.

Currently pondering some strange synchronicity - went running in Cannock Chase and stumbled across a Polish memorial of a Stalin era massacre. Took a photo of it, intending to investigate what it was about. Started reading Kershaw's 'To Hell and Back' on holiday where it mentions Katyn - "hang on, isn't that... Yes yes it is". Horrifying.

Also on the same holiday went up to the hills where I found a statue of Karl Habsburg. Thought it was odd, no real explanation of context and I don't know enough about WW1. And then in the same Kershaw book he explains that he was exiled to Madeira, where I was on holiday.

 

[bi0boy]

Restoration-era English court music

 

[ElizabethofYork]

The Peasants Revolt.

 

[mx wcfc]

I would like to dally in the history 17 & 18 century as Newfoundland was being colonised by Bretons(among others ). They went on such long fishing trips across the Atlantic

Did you see this news story, Miss-Shelf ? How did the remote French outpost of St Pierre and Miquelon vote? - BBC News

I had no idea there was a French colony off the coast of Newfoundland - the local flag includes the Breton flag.

 

[FreguentLy]

our time could be considered among most interesting ones. hmm...early renaissance, high middle ages. Roman empire. (republic + empire (excluding the decline) . .. USA . up to present times. Caucasia.

 

[Miss-Shelf]

Did you see this news story, Miss-Shelf ? How did the remote French outpost of St Pierre and Miquelon vote? - BBC News

I had no idea there was a French colony off the coast of Newfoundland - the local flag includes the Breton flag.

I did not see it but it's
Thank you

 

[discokermit]

interesting article on thanet as a phoenician trading post here, Caitlin Green: Thanet, Tanit and the Phoenicians: Place-Names, Archaeology and Pre-Roman Trading Settlements in Eastern Kent?

 

[Manter]

I am mentally back in USSR again as halfway through Sheila Fitzpatrick's latest, on Stalin's team. And have just found some new interesting Balkan, Armenian and Georgian ppl & commentators to follow on twitter so seeing a whole load of articles and pictures and so on that lead me down rabbit holes. I spent 20 minutes last night watching Cossack dancing from the 50s I found on someone's website

 

[kebabking]

This weeks history fad is the history of the English-Scottish borderlands...

It's not really this or that battle etc.. it's the low-level, day-to-day stuff of shifting loyalties, identities, influence, economy, taxation, justice and bastard feudalism.

 

[FreguentLy]

This weeks history fad is the history of the English-Scottish borderlands...

It's not really this or that battle etc.. it's the low-level, day-to-day stuff of shifting loyalties, identities, influence, economy, taxation, justice and bastard feudalism.

Actually that's sometimes the most interesting part. They say "if you know nations' land cadastre and tax history its' easy to tell nations' history" or something like thaT)

 

[Idris2002]

For a long while there it was the October crisis of 1970 that kept me interested - the most interesting thing to happen in Canada since, well, anytime.

 

[stuff_it]

Early 21st century, last week it was pre-European invasion North America

 

[articul8]

For me it'd be 1968-1984 and the Catholic recusancy of the 16th and early 17th Century.

 

[mx wcfc]

[QUOTE="articul8, post: 15067208, member: 17514"recusancy [/QUOTE]

wombles off to google wtf recusancy means before deciding whether that is a good thing or not.

 

[Ptolemy]

Reading a lot about Democratic Kampuchea, Cambodia under the notorious Pol Pot regime. The stories of the cities being evacuated fascinated me, and I couldn't find a lot of information about the country online, so have been poring through some books with various viewpoints...

Am also a big fan of Chinese history, particularly the Ming and Qing dynasties.

 

[Cheesypoof]

Late 60's life in Laurel Canyon. A great creative capsule of the late 60's. Life didnt just exist in Frank Zappa's cabin....or Sound City. An era I wish I had been around for, and which I constantly discover new things about.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Late 60's life in Laurel Canyon. A great creative capsule of the late 60's. Life didnt just exist in Frank Zappa's cabin....or Sound City. An era I wish I had been around for, and which I constantly discover new things about.

nah - self mythologising bunch of boring stoners making dull music and telling each other how great they were.

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

Really interested in learning about pre-Christian Ireland...

 

[mrs quoad]

 

[seventh bullet]

Reading a lot about Democratic Kampuchea, Cambodia under the notorious Pol Pot regime. The stories of the cities being evacuated fascinated me, and I couldn't find a lot of information about the country online, so have been poring through some books with various viewpoints...

Am also a big fan of Chinese history, particularly the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Pre-DK, have a look at Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese Model by Stephen Heder. Also, Falling Out of Touch by Thomas Engelbert and Christopher E. Goscha.