If it were possible and you could pick just one period in history, where and when would you visit? and why? ( you can only be an invisible bystander- no interfering with the past, i.e no telling Lincoln to give the theatre a miss....etc)
Me, i think it would have to be sometime during the american civil war, and witnessing one of the many great battles. It`s just a period that has always interested me.
2007-02-25 21:17:50 · 17 answers · asked by Charles Montgomery Burns 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
A lot of really good answers! Don`t think it`s fair for just me to decide, so I`ll put it to a vote.
2007-02-28 01:10:34 · update #1
If I could go back in time I would go back to ancient Greece to watch the stand made by the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae against the Persians
2007-02-25 21:22:30 · answer #1 · answered by Sean D 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I think it'd have to be something 'stirring'. I take the point about using time travel to 'solve mysteries', but I'd suspect you'd find (and who makes the rules for these things...) that you'd probably 'miss' the clues even if you were there - I'm thinking about the notorious 'unreliability' of eye witnesses. When you're surrounded by rapidly moving events (such as the assassination of JFK) you often know less about what is going on than the folk who watch it on television later that day. The other problem in 'going back to see things' is that there are seldom vantage points in real life. We are used to helicopter's video footage. Again in real life you seldom get a panoramic view of things - which is why being a Civil War General was a lot harder than it might seem at 'first sight'.
So if you can't change the world you are going back to, and are unlikely to find any 'facts' or 'truths' from the past and bring them forward with you, what you can do is 'have an experience', and bring that back with you. So visiting Judea in the 1st century might be an option, but remember that Jesus spoke Aramaic, and you wouldn't have subtitles. Likewise, Joan of Arc's speeches would go over your head.
I think, for an English speaking person it'd be a choice between hearing the two 'greatest' speeches in history as they were first delivered. Firstly Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (which was over so quickly that it initially created more confusion than inspiration and caused Lincoln to remark that 'it didn't seem to scour' - meaning 'cut a furrow' or make an impression). And the second being Churchill's 'on the beaches' speech. Oh, and the other place might be the concert hall where Beethoven (who was by then deaf) conducted the first performance of the Ninth Symphony. By all reports it was 'astonishing'.
2007-02-26 07:53:22 · answer #2 · answered by nandadevi9 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
First I would have said I want to go way into the future, the past is history. But now I love the idea of going to observe Jesus first hand. What wisdom that would bring. So little is really recorded, translation and copies may have distorted what we have. There must be so much more to learn there.
2007-02-26 15:44:46 · answer #3 · answered by G's Random Thoughts 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would to visit a 'pre-European' America. I am fascinated with Native American culture and would like to see at its peak. That time frame before the arrival and just upon arrival of Europeans must have been very intense. The clash of culture and religious beliefs...it had to be compelling.
2007-02-26 06:48:24 · answer #4 · answered by Cornbread 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would defenitely go back to 1415 so I could watch the battle of Agincourt. I would give anything to see Henry V make the French look like idiots.
2007-02-26 09:29:33 · answer #5 · answered by Roger W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1969. To witness the moon landings, and to share with the entire world the feelings of relief and excitement.
2007-02-27 12:08:45 · answer #6 · answered by CTU 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the period of the wild west.to ride off into the sunset with not a care in the world breathing fresh air
2007-02-26 09:14:54 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mediteranean @ the time of Solon's exile to find out the truth about Atlantis
2007-02-26 06:56:17 · answer #8 · answered by Aine G 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'd want to go back to when the roman empire was in its prime and see how exactly it was.
Or when the Sphinx and pyramids was being built so I knew the exact dates and how!
2007-02-26 05:23:07 · answer #9 · answered by Ni 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Back to 1960's. So much happened that we aren't sure about. It'd be a majorly informative roadtrip.
2007-02-26 05:27:57 · answer #10 · answered by irmaynerds 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋