What is the best way to get good at History?

Question

History in general(US hist, World hist, history on religions, forms of government)etc.
I want to be a history BUFF. Well rounded. I want to know important past events, philosophies, and people.

Answer 1

Two suggestions, first, pursue history in terms of what you really enjoy. History is everything that happened in the past, not just the story of dead white guys. Find what you are interested in, sports, life, war, and study up on that. Everything else will fall into place alongside of it.

Second, don't be afraid to watch History Channel and History International channel, as well as The Learning Channel, Discovery channel, Travel channel, etc. There is almost always something good on one of these t.v. channels.

Answer 2

Your local library is the place to start. There is no substitute for pulling a book down and reading.

Another thing is to visit historic sites and museums. Every city has at lest some places. You may find opportunities to participate as welll as a volunteer. For example, I spent several years volunteering as a tourguide at a local site--and in the process learned how to do a number of crafts that people used to do as part of their daily lives (weaving, candlemaking, etc.)

Be selective in your reading. It takes a bit of practice to learn what's worthwhile. Here's two tips on how to do that:
1 do searches on the net on general topics (say, the Industrial Revolution). You'l see some results that are the syllabui (course outilines) for college history courses. The reading lists that will be included are a reliable guide to get started with the topic.
2) If you arn't sure, check the publisher--if its a university press you can be 99% sure it's at least reasonably good (whether you end up agreeig with the author's interpretation or not). A lot of fine books are published by commercial publishers too, but until you get a bit familier with a topic, it can be hard to tell which are the good ones.

Have fun!

Answer 3

Read
Watch the History Channel
and PBS!

When you find a topic interesting: read more on it!
Surf the web for what is a hot topic for you.

When that becomes slow, look at your family's heritage, where they came from, perhaps a relative who fought in a war, talk to some older relatives, friends of family.

When I was a young boy: I was able to meet men that had fought Indians in the 1880's "old west", men from the Spanish_American War in 1898, the Depression of the 1930's was well not that long ago for my parents, and such.

But one also has to keep in mind their personal interests: so I like to look at say what people were eating and such over history. Music is also something I was always 'into".

Just a few reflections, no real direction but encouragement.

I still research most every movie I see on the Internet. Love the trivia and such.

Answer 4

I'll give you the same answer as all of the above: read a lot of books.

Some books you should surely read are the books of Jared Diamond:
Diamond J.: "Guns, germs and steel". It tries to explain the inequality in the world of today by looking at history.
Diamond J. "Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed". In this book, Diamond gives several examples of how great societies (Maya, Vikings, Anasazi, Easter Island,...) could suddenly dissappear, how some societies (Japan, ...) could survive their dissasters. He also explains the Rwandan genocide, problems in Australia, and the USA (Montana, Los Angeles).
These two books by Diamond are very good for your general knowledge of history, and why you can't look at the present without looking at history.

Barry Cunliffe (ed.) "The Oxford illustrated history of Prehistoric Europe".
Sun Tzu: "The art of war, translated, with a historical introduction by Ralph D. Sawyer" ISBN 0-8133-1951-X. I don't know about a lot of other publications of Sun Tzu's Art of War, but this one contains a partial history of China.
Daniels P. & Hyslop S.G. "National geographic almanac of world history" (I haven't read this book, so I can't tell you if it's any good)

If you want other good books, you should try to seek them at www.story.be . This is a Belgian scientific bookshop, but you can set the language to English. Just enter some search terms like "World history", " American history",... and you'll get an entire list of scientific books (so quality is ensured).

Answer 5

I particularly recommend genealogy - your own family history as part of your study. In general choose a focus that interests you, a real grabber. Genealogy may jerk you to a halt now and then, requiring that you consider another, or other perspective/s.

If for instance you've chosen a particular event to research deeply, all the other things you want and need to know may in some way be precedents of that (time or place or) event, and what comes after may include consequences.

Answer 6

1) Go to library.
2) Get library card.
3) Start checking out books.
4) Read the books you check out.

Seriously, the only way to get good at anything is to practice. In order to get good at history, you have to read. I consider myself "good" on the War Between the States, and I've been reading on it for nearly 40 years and I haven't even made a dent in all there is to learn.

Answer 7

Read, travel, visit museums and study it in school. Movies, TV & PBS are good too if you use them as a starting point. I quite often read about things I saw on TV or at the movies. Even things brought up here in Yahoo answers. There's a lot of it out there and it's nessecary to get different sources/ perspectives.

Answer 8

the only way to learn is to read. watching a documentary might give you some facts but in general it will present you iwth only one opinion and usually a very vyer simplified one. only once you read a LOT of varried oppinons will you actually start getting a grasp of how history really works and find the thuth hidden in the pages of history books. also traveling a lot will make your study easier cause there is noting like visiting places you read about in books

cheers and good luck

Answer 9

I think the best way to get good at history, as well as interested is by doing your family Genealogy. Once you find that your relatives are a part of history you become more interested and dig for more info. Therefore you become more knowledgeable.

Answer 10

There is only one way to get where you want to go. READ. Read a lot of different things. Start with history texts and continue with research monographs and contemporary accounts... Get a good grasp of economics and population biology, too; they often do a better job of explaining history than historians do.