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When you think about the past,10+ years ago what is your favourite thing about it?
Mine is HOW MUCH BETTER THINGS WERE MADE.... Quality was 1000% better,clothes felt better to wear,etc....... Houses were made better (Well 50+ years ago)
I am quite disgusted with how things have gone over the last few years,all this cheap crap replaced GOOD THINGS we remembered from years ago.......
Why in my day men were men and women were in the kitchen and children were respectful and minorities knew their place and pitchers weren't afraid to throw at a batter if he was crowding the plate and gay meant that you were happy and gasoline was 10 cents a gallon and you could throw your crap right into the river and...
Lots of people say homes used to be built better. Well coming from a builder I don't see it. Most old homes dont have good foundations, have beams and joists that are undersized, rattling single pane windows, plumbing that needs replacing, electric wiring that is dangerous, small rooms, and on and on. Yes the typical tract home is cheap and all but a new home doesn't have to be. I understand the charm to older homes, my home was built in the 30's.
As is normally the case, the good stuff survived, the krap fell apart or was tossed. Some things have improved tremendously. In the 1970s, the average car was a junker at between 50,000 and 100,000 miles. Mobile homes were having tough competition from cardboard boxes. Clothes are somewhat of an exception. Maybe it was all that non-biodegradable polyester?
Lots of people say homes used to be built better. Well coming from a builder I don't see it. Most old homes dont have good foundations, have beams and joists that are undersized, rattling single pane windows, plumbing that needs replacing, electric wiring that is dangerous, small rooms, and on and on. Yes the typical tract home is cheap and all but a new home doesn't have to be. I understand the charm to older homes, my home was built in the 30's.
I once rented a town house, one of the first ones built as a start-up by a builder who went on to make a whole row of them. As for quality, he told me "You're lucky. I built yours before I learned how to cut my construction costs."
Of course, a new home "doesn't have to be" cheap, and I've seen some that were not. But most are, nowadays, and "back in my day", that was not the case.
My favorite part of history and area of expertise is World War II and the American Civil.
I also have a great interest in the following: the Protestant Reformation, the Crusades, the Arab Conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Ming Dynasty, and Early Modern France (Post-Wars of Religion).
I think the OP thinks of history as ten years ago, not thousands of years ago. sad sad sad nudge nudge, if he/she can come up with the question go and study more and further since there is hope.
But that said, my favorite part of history is the dynamics of change. The end of empires, the loss of wars, the effects of disease and genocide. The time periods I'm most drawn to are 14 th century europe, when life was drastically altered by the black plague and the modern world was born, and the twentyth centrury, especially WW2. Part of that is wishing to understand my parents (especially my dad, ww2 pacific theater veteran). But this was the war that literally reached everywhere. I've read quite a bit about the Holocaust and its effects (plug for Liberators--America's witnesses to the Holocaust by Michael Hirsh). There is a fascination about how evil we as a species can get.
And growing up during the 60's when anger was everywhere and intensity was a part of life, I find myself drawn to times where change is on the cusp and is rewriting lives because maybe I understand it a little more. The long and generally uneventful times are fascinating too, but in a different way since they feel like one of the alternate places created in fantacy books.
For unknown reasons, I have an extreme interest in the practice of genocide and would llike to go get the rest of the history degree and specialize in that, especially in a historical and cultural context over time.
I also write star trek based alternate histories of the Dominion War in which the Federation loses and what happens to those who suddenly have society ripped away and are the conqured (mostly my own characters too) and how they and their world changes forever.
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