Anyone else nerd out on history?

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I woke up at 4am, couldn't go back to sleep, so I've been watching history documentaries. First the history of the Kievan Rus, then the early expansion of the Ottoman Empire, and now the siege and capture of Constantinople. For some reason, I find it very interesting, especially war history. The rise and fall of great empires, alternate history scenarios based on how one battle or decision could've gone another way, the traditions and practices of early peoples and how they've evolved, etc... The alternate history scenarios are especially interesting to me, because I think it helps bring to light the significance of how things actually went. I'm also a firm believer that if you choose to ignore history, you're doomed to repeat it.
 
I like that stuff.
I'm really into WWII in Europe and how a couple of different decisions both Allied and German could have swung the war in Germany's' favor.
Well at least until the U.S. developed the atom bomb.
And even then had the Germans had firm control of Europe would the U.S. have used the bomb there?
We will never know.
 
I like that stuff.
I'm really into WWII in Europe and how a couple of different decisions both Allied and German could have swung the war in Germany's' favor.
Well at least until the U.S. developed the atom bomb.
And even then had the Germans had firm control of Europe would the U.S. have used the bomb there?
We will never know.

I could ponder the "what if" scenarios all day long. WWII is full of them.

What if one of the assassination attempts on Hitler's life was successful?
What if the D-Day invasion never happened or was beaten back into the sea?
What if Germany accomplished air superiority over Britain?
What if the Germans steamed forward and captured Moscow in the early months instead of delaying to encircle Kiev?
What if the recon reports of German tanks sitting idle outside the Ardennes was taken seriously by French command?

The scenarios are nearly endless.

One I wonder about a lot if the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. What if he'd left Serbia after the 1st failed attempt rather than sticking around for the 2nd and successful attempt? What if the driver hadn't taken a wrong turn?

Would WWI had happened in the way we know it?
Would the Soviets have ever risen to power?
Would WWII have ever happened?
Would the US have ever risen to be a super power?

There's a Youtube channel called Alternate History that takes a stab at all of these scenarios with some rather well thought out theories. The one about "What if the South won the Civil War?" is a particularly interesting one.
 
I could ponder the "what if" scenarios all day long. WWII is full of them.

What if one of the assassination attempts on Hitler's life was successful?
What if the D-Day invasion never happened or was beaten back into the sea?
What if Germany accomplished air superiority over Britain?
What if the Germans steamed forward and captured Moscow in the early months instead of delaying to encircle Kiev?
What if the recon reports of German tanks sitting idle outside the Ardennes was taken seriously by French command?

The scenarios are nearly endless.

One I wonder about a lot if the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. What if he'd left Serbia after the 1st failed attempt rather than sticking around for the 2nd and successful attempt? What if the driver hadn't taken a wrong turn?

Would WWI had happened in the way we know it?
Would the Soviets have ever risen to power?
Would WWII have ever happened?
Would the US have ever risen to be a super power?

There's a Youtube channel called Alternate History that takes a stab at all of these scenarios with some rather well thought out theories. The one about "What if the South won the Civil War?" is a particularly interesting one.
Life is like that and I love the WWII history stuff too.

My wife and I sometimes discuss the series of events that had to occur for us to meet and it can be daunting. It is interesting to ponder time travel like in "Back To The Future" where any small inconsequential action could snowball and change the course of humanity.

Oh well, It's Sunday and I'm going to fire up the grill and consume a cold adult beverage or two and not worry about it.
 
My grandmother always said the older she got the more interested in history she was. I feel the same.
 
Roman history, and maritime history are a couple of my favourites to geek out on. WW2 as well, endless documentary's to watch and books to read.
 
My quest is to learn history how it actually happened. I've found that what I learned about history in school is a gross representation of the facts. I guess much of history is too cruel to teach to kids, so it's sanitized to the point that we learned a revised version.
 
Hitler took a bullet to the chest in WWI and survived.
What if he was killed?
And Germany had not gone down the Nazi path and remained peaceful.
I would think WWII would not have happened.
The Japanese would not have acted alone without their pact with the then power house German military.
 
Growing up in the 70s i used to watch "The World at War" series and had a shelf full of Ballantine books, which were exhaustive treatises on specific topics in WW2 such as the Afrika Corps
 
My quest is to learn history how it actually happened. I've found that what I learned about history in school is a gross representation of the facts. I guess much of history is too cruel to teach to kids, so it's sanitized to the point that we learned a revised version.
One College history class was eye opener for myself.
 
Growing up in the 70s i used to watch "The World at War" series and had a shelf full of Ballantine books, which were exhaustive treatises on specific topics in WW2 such as the Afrika Corps
"The World at War" series showed a lot of brutal footage from the concentration camps.
As a kid in the '50's I watched all the "Victory at Sea" shows and the music they played still brings chills to me.
 
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My quest is to learn history how it actually happened. I've found that what I learned about history in school is a gross representation of the facts. I guess much of history is too cruel to teach to kids, so it's sanitized to the point that we learned a revised version.
They probably toned it down a bit.
Remember history is written by the victors.
 
well the past is one; however, history is very compromising and influenced by a human agenda

also, history is dry on the surface and it takes an effort to make it engaging; once one digs it deeper, read below the surface, it becomes fascinating, but again one needs to rely on multiple sources

nonetheless, if you enjoy history then you got to have subscriptions so the Smithsonian Channel and the Great Courses Plus/Wondrium channel
 
My quest is to learn history how it actually happened. I've found that what I learned about history in school is a gross representation of the facts. I guess much of history is too cruel to teach to kids, so it's sanitized to the point that we learned a revised version.

This is my quest too, and you're right. The story of Christopher Columbus is a good example of that. We were taught that he sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but not that he went on a murderous rampage across central American in search of gold and never actually setting foot in North America.

History is always written by the victors. It makes you wonder then who really were the bad guys and good guys in history. How many times did the bad guys come out on top and portray themselves as the good guys? How many times were the actual good guys portrayed as being evil? To the people loyal to Nazi Germany, THEY were the good guys and we were the evil ones. If they'd been victorious, how would we be portrayed in modern history textbooks?
 
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A teacher once said you can trace back through time and get the world's population down to the low thousands.

I'd like to know where they were and what they were doing. Obviously most would be in agriculture. Hunter / gatherers moving to agrarian life styles is often cited as a major turning point in society etc.

I'd like to see a timeline of population against known activities....like invasions and wars. I believe historians have a fix on tech developments.
Bronze Age and Iron Age come to mind.

How many Huns or Vikings were there? How many people were back home during these times, etc.

How many civilizations didn't have written language which we'll never know about.

Coincidentally, not to be negative here, I seem to recall "what if....?" questions being disregarded during my childhood. What if the Germans had won The Great War?, was one which had approval. I guess that was due to temporal currency.
 
I've seen cited a few times that the earliest known battles/factions between humans occurred about 11,000 years ago... which is coincidentally around the same time religion became a thing. It was somewhere around 1400 BC (I think, I'll google to verify shortly) that the first war between civilized societies took place.
 
Fascinated by WWII, Vietnam War, the very earliest history of man. Those three I home in on. But also any ancient culture, earliest evidence of any culture leaving their continent, Korean War, ancient Chinese battles and wars.
 
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