History - is it just me who hates the subject?

I love history so much that I have just begun a Phd in History

I think I agree with Luckygirl3 I love history but hate the preoccupation with wars and invasions and the constant ,even now,harking back to world wars .Its almost as if we should think killing is something we should be proud of.I hear young men boasting "we won the war" when in fact it was very much a joint effort that happened decades before they were born! I'd like to see this glorification of wars stopped ,we live in a time where these people who are being murdered in the name of "justice" or for oil or a grudge between leaders can be seen in our living rooms daily.Surely we can all see how futile it is and realise there has to be a better way

But who is this 'harking back'? Even on TV there are fascinating history programmes about all sorts of aspects of life in the past. If you choose to narrowly focus on wars fair enough but they're only one human activity among many.

Aveline

But who is this 'harking back'? Even on TV there are fascinating history programmes about all sorts of aspects of life in the past. If you choose to narrowly focus on wars fair enough but they're only one human activity among many.

I think reigns and wars are just the things we 'hang' history on so we can visualise those times, pinpoint the era and learn about the people who lived during that period.

If we research our own family history we can thus have an idea of how our ancestors lived and why they made certain decisions.
They did not all stay in their villages, tilling the land, some were far more adventurous and finding out why they moved, perhaps emigrated, is fascinating.

Aveline

But who is this 'harking back'? Even on TV there are fascinating history programmes about all sorts of aspects of life in the past. If you choose to narrowly focus on wars fair enough but they're only one human activity among many.

Food history is interesting too.

The wars themselves are not something anyone in their right mind would revel in, it's often the outcomes of those wars that change the course of history, sometimes for the better. The American Civil War brought about the abolition of slavery, albeit at the expense of so many lives. The 2nd WW brought down one of the most evil regimes of modern times. just imagine if the Nazi machine hadn't have been stopped what an awful outcome that would have been for the free world. They were practically on our door step and we have the testaments of those who suffered under their occupation of The Channel Islands to know just how bad it would have been if they'd reached our shores. Admittedly there have been numerous wars that have been utterly futile, The Vietnam War springs to mind. The Invasion of Iraq focused the mind on the folly of interfering in other countries domestic issues, particularly on a false premise, as was the case in Iraq and only served to destabilise a large swathe of the Middle East.

My history teacher read paragraphs from a history book and I watched hockey out of the classroom window 🥱.

But some of it must have stuck as I still remember the famous inventors, bridge and steam engine builders.

However I did learn quite a lot from my children's school days and now my from grandchildren.
We take our grandchildren on visit to castles, Roman and Viking sites etc.
Also to see mammoth and dinosaur skeletons.

I find visual history much more interesting than just learning about as my son put it
about ' a lot of dead kings and Queens'

A lot of the history places are now interactive.
We are Lucky to have a barracks close by with an air raid shelter and sounds of aircraft and bombs.
It also has world war one trench experience.

The Invasion of Iraq focused the mind on the folly of interfering in other countries domestic issues, particularly on a false premise, as was the case in Iraq and only served to destabilise a large swathe of the Middle East.
Very true

And without knowing about history, would we know that Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) was the cradle of civilisation? The various Mesopotamians developed writing, mathematics, law, cities, agriculture with irrigation, and so much more.

I hated hockey Cherrytree 😁

I didn't like history at school - at my secondary modern school it was all about kings and queens and wars. But I now love family and local history and social history. With family history I have been able to see original documents which relate to my own family. like a marriage licence bond from the mid 1700's with the signature of an ancestor, a 'settlement examination' (under poor law) from about 1810 which gives a 2x great grandfather's life story up to his mid 20's, someone who went from a small Suffolk village to New York where he was a 'steam boat pilot' - and a much better life - and to discover his and his families many journies to England and back again, but he still remembered his Suffolk parish of birth and his ashes were returned to this Suffolk parish for interrment in the family grave. This is the history I like and I keep on discovering more and more.

Yes Callistemon, I'm reading a book at the moment about Iraq, as you say, the cradle of civilisation, a rich and not so long ago, a culturally diverse country.

Harking back to wars, bit of a side swerve, I sometimes wish Britain would take a bit of a back seat, maybe I'm alone in that, but we're always In Like Flint, right behind the US. Massively pissed off to see Cameron, oh I beg your pardon, Lord Cameron's well nourished chops, strutting his stuff on the world stage as newly elected Foreign Secretary. I also can't help wondering why we are paying more into NATO than say Germany who still have to have a higher national gross product per capita than Britain, even if they have recently entered recession before us.

Anyway back to history!

I agree, I sometimes wonder if we (our successive governments) do think we're more important than we are!

No PM strutted on the world stage like Blair.

Aveline

But who is this 'harking back'? Even on TV there are fascinating history programmes about all sorts of aspects of life in the past. If you choose to narrowly focus on wars fair enough but they're only one human activity among many.

Exactly.
They do feature a lot in the classroom as wars changed lives and countries such a lot.
I love history programmes and books, culture, attitudes and morals and clothes have changed but not human nature itself.

Terribull I thought the expression was In Like Flynn, but maybe wrong.

I may have said that, how embarrassing if have been wrong😳

Oooo Oreo just Googled it they're both there! That's us stumped

I'm sure I couldn't make sense of even one little thing unless looked at through an historical context- from my morning cuppa ,to the right plant for the garden, how The Enclosures Act affected villages, how a Mozart concerto actually sounded or the development of vaccines. How can what is now not be a product of what was, so yes I very much love the subject & hoorah for our wonderful TV historians Michael, Janina, Mary, Alice, Tony, Bettany, Lucy, David, Dan and Simon!

My parents and grandparent must have introduced me to an interest in history. We are north Manchester so the Industrial Revolution led to my father’s family leaving Kent as agricultural work diminished, for mill work

I came to Manchester in 1985 to study at the university and learned a lot about the city in the process. I had no idea before that Karl Marx had been so closely involved with the city through his association with Friedrich Engels whose family were industrialists. It was due to their financial support that he was able to do much of his research in the factories here. Some of the footnotes in his writing certainly bring the horrors of the factory system to light. Young children slept on the floor under the machines and the girls were often raped by the overseers. If their parents objected they were out of a job.

I love history .
I enjoy watching a history programme and I love reading about it as well .

Does your hatred of history extend to your travels OP? ....I wasn't much interested in history ...but now I'm older ( 59) I enjoy it...I visit many different places in UK and abroad and love to soak up the history whether it be historic buildings, castles, art, museums ..... do you just sunbathe or go for walks when you travel? ...of course nothing wrong with that

I write historical fiction so of course I love history! Mind you, I'm writing about the women's side of things so there is not much killing to contend with.

I've just discovered more about the family history which includes history of The Vikings and their migratory travels 🙂
Fascinating!

I love history. It was my favourite subject at school and our teacher made it so fascinating. I remember learning about the plague and how people lived in the 17C. My favourite part of history is the English civil war. I have read many books on it over the years and am particularly interested in the letters and diary extracts that people wrote at the time.

I hate history in general after a very bad experience with teacher at school. I love the Regency period, however, from reading Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. I also find James Burke's 'Connections' really interesting as it's a different way to look at events and happenings.

If we didn't have history we wouldn't have a society so obsessed with ripping it up.
I love history, it's good to know what happened in the past but we shouldn't be apologising for what our ancestors did.