What's your favorite topic(s) in History? (WWII, war, 60s)

[Wordsmith12]

I only enjoy reading and learning about American History. I took World History and European History in college, but neither struck my fancy.

In particular, my favorite things/people to read about include:

-The American Revolution
-The Founding Fathers
- Colonial era
- Historic places
- War of 1812
- Lincoln and the Civil War
-Teddy Roosevelt and Wilson
- WWI and WWII

Anything through the end of WWII is fair game. Once you get into Eisenhower and the Cold War, that's already too modern for me. It's still interesting, but not as much.

What about you?

[Davy-040]

Early modern period (1400's-1700's): Age of Discovery, The Renaissance

[Dopo]

1776 to the Civil War
I find it very interesting how the US government for 100 years tried to keep a balance in Congress between free states and slave states.

[G0DDESS]

Dark Ages - Early American 1900's. Especially the dark ages and European history..

[JimRom]

Crusades, hands down. The Crusades set the tone for every interaction between Christians and Muslims that has happened in the last 1000+ years.

[green papaya]

The California Gold Rush

Old San Francisco & the Barbary coast and the Days of 49

the Native Americans and the Indian Wars, the Little Big Horn

the Oregon Trail and the natives of the American West & Early Pioneers and living History events

The Old West , the Transcontinental Railroad construction

Turn of the Century Victorian era NYC

Coney Island

Spanish American War, WWI , WWII , Vietnam

[Babe_Ruth]

Wordsmith, cool topic..

My main (but not sole) interest is American history (& American pop culture).
Civil War/(War Between the States).. the Wright brothers.. the Confederacy & the antebellum South..
Early rock & blues history & development.. The cultural turmoil of the 1960s. The philosophies of the Founding Fathers.

I've also always been interested in tragic rock stories like Jim Morrison, Cobain, Sid Vicious..

[green papaya]

Early Man is also interesting about how we evolved into modern man

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by JimRom

Crusades, hands down. The Crusades set the tone for every interaction between Christians and Muslims that has happened in the last 1000+ years.

I don't agree with that... but I'll have to do more reading about it.

[JimRom]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I don't agree with that... but I'll have to do more reading about it.

I didn't realize it until I'd done quite a bit of studying on the subject. If you ever wonder why radical Muslims seem to have an ingrained hatred of Christianity, though, there is definite historical reason. Prior to the Crusades, the Middle East was one of the most advanced and enlightened societies in the world. The Middle East of medieval times was home to the first degree granting University, was the first area in the world to require a medical studies degree for people practicing medicine, and was far ahead of Medieval Europe in just about everything from mathematics to animal husbandry. They were performing invasive surgery while European doctors were still applying leeches to cure schizophrenics of "bad humors".

The Christian invasion and the resulting aftermath - including the destruction of vast libraries of knowledge, followed by the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan less than a century later, crushed the Islamic Golden Age and threw the area nearly back into the stone age.

I do recommend reading more about this period of history, as it is absolutely fascinating. The entire known world was turned upside down by the Crusades.