What is your favorite Historical area or period of study? Why?

Question

The best argument wins! No votes shall be cast and I will select the winner. Now make your case!

Answer 1

The Depression encompasses so many facets of the human condition, political climate, social platforms, religious viewpoints, and economic impacts of the global world on one another and within themselves. It also captures the faces and names of those struck by this worldwide tragedy more than any other seeming point in history.

First, its roots stem as far back as the onset of World War I and extend virtually up until the beginning of 1950. These various events: both causations and outcomes still resonate in our lives today. Starting with the Versailles Treaty, the invasion of and dispute over land boundaries in Austria- Hungrary (which mirrored in some aspects the North and South during the Civil War), the invasion of Poland by Hitler and the threat to democratic nation's trade relationships as well as humanitarian concerns, the French liberation and its effect on both Western Europe and North America, formation of NATO in response to the aforesaid events, : the creation of national parks and forests, the GI bill and its role in the availability of education which created a defined middle class in America, the role of women and minorities in the workplace, the enactment by the Roosevelt Administration of various acts including the creation of the FDIC and Social Security at least in part to prevent a global depression and as a way to honor the sacrifice of those who heralded the cause of democracy abroad.

Second, the preceding age of cultural advancement in the twenties helped to spurn an effort to archiving and National Endowments, so that even as we were at war our history was preserved in a sharper, clearer way than ever before.

For these reasons and for the fact that the human spirit triumphed despite disasters, war, mother nature(such as the Dust Bowl phenomenon) ignorance ,(at least partways) and a multititude of other catastrophes. This alone, does not characterize the Great Depression (undoubtedly the cycle has been repeated throughout history). What then sets it apart?

No other period in history can boast of simultaneous advancement admist such abject misery. A true case of beauty rising from ashes. It's beauty because the truth lay bare for all the world to see not covered by nostolgia but rather resonate on the beauty of art through poem, song, motion picture, art, and drama to sustain the human spirit in it's most pressing and expedient of hours.

Answer 2

I really love to study about 1330-1390AD England and France. It was such a pivotal time! The Black Prince was reigning well in England. Clothing became sexy...it was tightly fitted around chests and busts, and guys showed off their legs and butts. It was a morally rebellious time! Songs became less religious during this time and more secular. The education levels became higher. Peasants were able to send their sons to be educated as laypeople in the abbeys (meaning they could come back to their villages and they wouldn't be monks). The middle class and merchant classes emerged. The Black Death took out so much of the population, and suddenly there were more jobs and wealth for everyone that survived. Great minds like Francis Bacon were writing. The Art of Courtly Love abounded by this time, having been set into social stone the century (and a bit more) before. Castles and architecture started becoming more beautiful, just for the heck of it. Bodiam Castle, for example, was the first pretty and symetrical castle built just because the owner/builder wanted something impressive and beautiful, not because it was really needed strategically for anything. Gothic arches took flight in cathedrals and palaces. The first European universities were established. What an exciting time!!! :D

Answer 3

Very good question. My favorite historical period, I guess, coincides with the one I'd most like to have lived in. From sometime after Reconstruction to some time before the 1920s. It was the best balance between 19th Century sensibilities--the stuff nowadays that everyone pays lip service to, but not many really practice--and (early and rudimentary) 20th Century technology.

Backup: (This is historic area and period) To be a teenaged or twentysomething Southern male after the South lost the Civil War and to be going West. There was nothing but desolation for them to stay for. And, in the West, the aftershocks of the war with both Southern and (equally battle scarred) Northern men played out. That would be exciting.

Or, being the young male Native Americans who fiercely wanted to keep fighting, essentially by then, federal troops. Finally--same genre, but earlier--those mostly teenage guys who, for a glorious and brutal nine or ten months, rode the Pony Express. What freedom!

Answer 4

I have 3 areas of study, but right now I am learning more about the Pre-Colombian period of Peru. It has become fascinating to learn how rich this time period was. It wasn't just the Incas and Nazca, but also the Chimu, Moche, Chavin and Aymara. It is interesting to see each intermingled with each other and could inspire each the other, eventually culminating into the Inca Empire. Their mythologies are also interesting and I really got involved with their stories. There is so much I could tell about their mythologies, but there really is not enough time. I will get to learn more when I take the class Latin America - Pre-Colombian to Colonial at college next semester.

Answer 5

I always preferred ancient history, focusing on the Roman period.

This was a time of rapid academic, technological and geographical development, perhaps greater even than our own. I think that much can be learned from examination of the life and times of Cicero, Caesar, Augustus, etc., with the cross-currents of cultures across three continents.

Plus, I spent four years in high school learning Latin, so it was in my best interest to take a liking to 'The Gallic Wars' and 'The Aeneid' among others.

I will leave you with one of my favorite poems, by Catullus, which shows how interesting a time it was. This poem was made into a pop R&B love song (Never Too Much) by Luther Vandross, lo these many millenia later!

Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus...
soles occidere et redire possunt:
nobis *** semel occidit brevis lux,
nox est perpetua una dormienda.
da mi basia mille.

Translation:
Let us live and love, my Lesbia...and value at a penny all the talk of crabbed old men. Suns may set and rise again: for us, when our brief light has set, there's the sleep of perpetual night. Give me a thousand kisses.

It goes on: And then a hundred more, and then another thousand . . .

Answer 6

the time during the holocaust and world war II because there was so much going on. Hitler was taking over Germany and showing a hatred that had never been so fully known and we are still discovering things and debating about it today. also it was a time of change for the entire world. everyone was still trying to work through the first World War and now there is another one going on! many countries hadn't even recovered yet. it was also the first time there had been an attack on American soil on the level that Pearl Harbor was. it took us completely by surprise (as far as the people on board the ships were concerned) and we were very much ill-prepared. there was a lot of new technology being honed at this time as well. planes were able to go further, guns were working better and more efficiently and we were working on the nuclear bombs that would be used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. it was a time of learning and a time of great tradgedy as well.

Answer 7

My favorite era is that of Ancient Sumer. We learn more and more about this period in history everyday. They were amazing record keeprs and invented the first form of writing. Their history, society, religion and culture is rich and detailed.
Studying it gives a better insight on the current state of affairs in the middle east. The Sumerians had a code of laws, beautiful poetry and strong religious convictions. The Sumerians existed from about 4000 BC to about 2350 BC when they were absorbed into the Babylonian culture.

Answer 8

I love Colonial America and the American Revolution. I live in Massachusetts, so it's so easy to go and see the historical places. My town, Assonet, was one of the last Tory strong holds in the colonies.

This period is the beginnings of the greatest nation in the world. It all began with 55 names on a piece of paper, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Answer 9

I absolutly love ancient Rome. There was so much curruption and creation going on in those 1000 or so years. It was one of the most historically important civilizations and it was the most powerful empire of that time. i just think it's all so interesting. There is so much to learn from it, you can't possibly know EVERYTHING. :-)