Reading Worms - Preferences

[lavender]

What is your favorite time in history or social/political issue to research or read about? Why?

 

[deliciously_naughty]

What is your favorite time in history or social/political issue to research or read about? Why?

Time Period:French Revolution, 1rst and second waves of feminism (us), history of prostitution

Social issues:gay movement, feminist movement, civil rights movement


edited to add...

why?---almost everything that is currently going on in europe can be traced to the FR, so I find it interesting

waves of feminism...I'm a student of women's history

prostitution...it's the oldest profession and also the most reviled in many ways. I'm curious as to the whys and hows of how it was shaped how it survived, etc.

gay/feminist movements...I'm a participant in their current movements and I'm curious about the history

Beyond that I'm a grad student in history so my bookcases are filled with various periods, countries, issues, etc.

 

[Pyper]

Right now I'm on an Upper Paleolithic kick. Possibly the greatest time of cultural innovation in all of human (pre)history, and Neandertals to boot!

 

[JazzManJim]

The UNited States, right around 1850 and for the next 30 years. I've always found it compelling that my country tackled outwardly an issue that many nations still have not dealt with today and did so right where everyone could see it then were willing to risk losing the whole nation to resolve it.

Around that you have the dying gasps of a pseudo-aristocracy that was a remnant of our European origins and the reactions of major countries around the world as a result of what we were doing. It's something I hoenstly can't learn enough about.

 

[kotori]

i don't have a favorite "time in history" but i do have a favorite genre: biographies. if they're well written, they put an individual's life into context of his/her time and place. i just enjoy the history being hung on the "framework" of another person's life. maybe it's the voyeur in me.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

i don't have a favorite "time in history" but i do have a favorite genre: biographies. if they're well written, they put an individual's life into context of his/her time and place. i just enjoy the history being hung on the "framework" of another person's life. maybe it's the voyeur in me.

Fireweed by Gerda Lerner is amazing!

 

[SlipperyKitten]

Europe between 1914 to 1945--the heavy tension and social evolution intrests me

 

[Olivianna]

A few faves:

14th-century Europe: military history (France v. England, crusades), religious history (ack! Two popes!), commerical activity (trade), other (Catherine of Siena, plague, Giotto).

Early Medieval India, especially Islamic: pre-Mughal Sultanates of Delhi; relationship among Muslims, Jains, Hindus; architecture, painting; history of Sufism in northern India, and Sufi connections with sultans.

U.S., 1850-1900: Industrialism, expansionism, Central America, race relations, Cult of True Womanhood, parlor culture, costume, painting (landscape and genre), architecture, Colonial revival, Philadelphia Centennial, photography, immigrants...

 

[Guest]

 

[Temptress_1960]

Let's see...

Some recent interests...

The Romanovs, Nicholas and Alexandra, that period of Russian history.

AIDS.

Napoleon, and the other Bonapartes.

The Tuskagee Syphilis Experiment.

Biographies are good, particularly those of the Vanderbilts, the Kennedys, presidents, first ladies.

I read most anything. For fiction, I like trashy stuff, mysteries, romances, etc.

Non-fiction, whatever strikes my fancy.

 

[Guest]

the Gothic period and the Ancient Egyptian dynasties. I love the imagery.

 

[Weird Harold]

What is your favorite time in history or social/political issue to research or read about? Why?

I don't really have a "favorite" time or issue unless the future counts -- the majority of my reading is Science Fiction and Fantasy.

I do have a verystrong interest in "Black History" because I want to correct all of the mis-information I received in the 1950's and 1960's because the history books were "bleached." For Example, I learned that the term "The Real McCoy" came from the invention of the automatic oiler for steam engines by a man named McCoy, but I didn't learn until much lter in life that McCoy was black.

 

[Starfish]

I am into Ancient Roman political history mainly. However, I like to read about the dynamic nature of primitive warfare tactics . I mainly focus on swordsmanship, and other pre-artillery warfare, but have read up on a lot about the use of primitive artillery, such as bows, slings and catapults.

Otherwise, I consume my personal choice reading into biography studies of the artists I admire through history, but I have little extra time these days.

 

[Dietrich K.]

The Revolutionary War era. I get so pissed at books stores that have shelves and shelves of stuff about the Civil War, but hardly anything about the Revolution.

 

[Diablogrl]

i don't have a favorite "time in history" but i do have a favorite genre: biographies. if they're well written, they put an individual's life into context of his/her time and place. i just enjoy the history being hung on the "framework" of another person's life. maybe it's the voyeur in me.

ditto, except my favorite genre is popular scientific historical literature...Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould...they focus on our understanding of science as it has evolved through the years. Sagan's book are outstanding, the one I'm reading now, Comet, covers early man's perception of comets through modern age's understanding (up to the time of the writing of the book at least).