What history do you find interesting? Inspire me!

[CaulkheadUpNorth]

I have a pretty good general knowledge, and retain "stories" better than "facts". However my historical knowledge is very low. I'm not sure why this is- I did history at gcse but remember studying Arab/Israeli conflict, history of medicine and the American west - all of which I found dull.

As an adult I've read books about Bletchley park and found that really interesting but that's about it. I have no knowledge of anything pre 1914 except the bare bones (ie Henry's wives).

I'd really like to know more, and wondered if you could tell me what area of history you enjoy or books you've read/places you've been that might inspire me.

Just seen the part about books that might inspire you.

Some of my favourites are Greek and Roman writers...Suetonius (Lives of the Twelve Caesars) is a brilliant read, gossipy and juicy (if not entirely reliable). Plutarch's Lives (of various great Greek and Roman leaders, statesmen etc) is similar.

And Herodotus' Histories is also a wonderful read, full of interesting myths and fables interwound with history.

History of medicine.

It covers ancient and modern, science and the arts and it is central to understanding how societies evolve.

Oh! And there was a book I read at uni called "Courtesans and Fishcakes" which was a brilliant volume of social history about Ancient Greece. It focused on how people lived, what they wore and ate and believed and how they spent their time. Was great.

One more

Sex and Punishment by Eric Berkowitz...I haven't finished this yet, but it is a fascinating look at sexual mores throughout history, which necessarily touches heavily on the role of women in different societies and ages. Will make your blood boil in parts, but really good / informative.

The Tudors are fantastic. I would recommend any book by Alison Weir for factual books. Phillipa Gregory is good for fiction and come to think of it Alson Weir has recently published a novel about Lady Jane Grey.

Some Victorian squalor is also good

The civil rights movement in American during the 60s is also very interesting IMO.

I love the reformation era and the renaissance

I am an historian specialising in Tudor architecture. Endlessly fascinating for me, particulalry the lost palaces of Whitehall and nonsuch. I also love reading about Victorians, particularly the way of mourning and death which still heavily influences us today. And finally the first and second world wars. Have just finished reading an autobiography by Ernest Gordon about his time in a Japanese POW camp I found in a second hand book shop. Really good writing.

My advice is if you read something interesting look at the bibligraphy and follow on from there. Also look in the local library and history centre they have great resources.

Another vote for the Plantagenets/Tudors :) The Middle Ages in general were pretty fascinating. I really enjoyed the Hicks book about Richard III, and would also recommend the Time Traveller's Guide to the Middle Ages. There are an awful lot of books out just now about Richard III because of the recent dig. I found Alison Weir a bit dry, but she does know her stuff.

Not quite finished the time traveller's guide to Elizabethan times - but I've always been interested in her so that will be the next project.

I like the kind of history that's more about how people lived their lives, so I guess more social history than political history. It started with reading about the early history of the USA: why people made that uncomfortable and sometimes perilous journey across the Atlantic, and how they coped with starting a new life in a very different environment. And then there's the Colombian Exchange, which is mostly foods going in one direction, and diseases going in the other.

I don't retain facts very well; certainly I couldn't recite the list of the various English/British monarchs/Prime Ministers, etc. So history from the points of view of ordinary people makes it more real to me.

And then there's world history, where geography plays a huge part. For a comparatively short time, the Mongol Empire was enormous – from China to the southern borders of Russia and almost into western Europe. It's probably simplistic, but it seems that after the fall of the Mongol Empire, China used the natural geography of its northern boundary to (re-)build the Great Wall for protection, but Russia sought to control neighbouring countries to act as a buffer zone. How we got to the now has a lot to do with the then.

But if you want something nearer to home, the story of the Vikings is an interesting one. Not least how much of our everyday language incorporates elements of Scandinavian languages.

The Victorian era is absolutely fascinating to me-particularly Dickensian stories, Jack the Ripper. The mystery stories and folklores are the best.

One of my absolute favourites is The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Love this thread.

I've read chunks of this book and enjoyed it

I like people

Jack the Ripper
Caesar
Bloody Mary
Christopher Columbus
Henry VIII
Catherine of Aragon

By researching the 'big' names I've been able to take in the little details about other less known people and moved onto researching them and then onto others from their story.

I know you've asked for pre-1914 stuff, but if you enjoyed reading about Bletchley Park then I would really recommend Operation Mincemeat. It's a book about a cunning plan involving a planted dead body to outsmart the Germans in Spain during WWII. Honestly it's brilliant- there's a guy featured in there called Joan Pujol Garcia who was an absolute legend- double agent, created a whole fictitious spy network throughout the UK. Someone needs to make a film out about how this chicken farmer and his wife set about becoming German agents off their own bats in order to approach the allies and ultimately played a pretty big role in the lead up to the D-Day landings.

If you moved to a town associated with chocolate - those Victorian entrepreneurs and philanthropists are interesting. Look at model villages like Saltaire, Bournville, Port Sunlight and so on, how that leads into the Garden City Movement with Hampstead, Welwyn and Letchworth. And then look at what Prince Charles has done with Dorchester...

I find the American West really interesting (started with reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a child) - how people will just pack up and set off to start a new life, literally cutting the soil for the first time, being totally self-sufficient. It also lead me to read about the Depression and Dustbowl America and the New Deal.

But I'm most keen on industrial history, and the conditions people lived in, moving round as industrialisation takes off. I like the history of the unions (possibly partly because of growing up not far from Tolpuddle.) And I'll always happily go round a museum of industrial history. Having had a German boyfriend, I was very excited to find there's a Route IndustrieKultur round the Ruhr region (don't think he was quite so thrilled at my insistence we visit mining museums and so on) - but it also made me very aware how British-centric my education's been, and comparing how Prussia and the rest of Germany and Europe industrialised compared to Britain was very interesting. Not quite so fascinated by Weimar and the Third Reich, due to it having featured heavily in my A-level and degree syllabuses.

Victorian social history, in shovel-loads!

Monarchs and lives which are so far removed from those of ordinary people leave me cold but the way the Victorians lived, ate, died, mourned, their morals, their medicines - I just can't get enough of it.

I guess the fascination for me is that the Victorians are so far away in so many ways, theirs were so different to our own lives and yet they are so close in years that we can almost reach back and touch them.

I tend to read what authors I love write about - despite having a degree in history, I really skim about, don't have a period/theme I focus on.

Having said that, I love mid 20th century American history - you could try Robert A Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson (4 volumes), it is the most wonderful and wide-ranging read. I also really liked his biography of Robert Moses, someone I'd never heard of before but I read it because I loved the Johnson biography so much, and which taught me a lot about 20th century New York, town planning, local government, corruption and activism.

I love everything written by C V Wedgwood, in particular The Reason Why about the charge of the Light Brigade, and The Great Hunger about the Irish famine/genocide of the 1840s.

I also love Barbara Tuchman, e.g. August 1914 (obvious what that's about) and The Proud Tower, about the Edwardian period in Europe.

Liza Picard's books (Dr Johnson's London, Elizabethan London etc) are great books for the toilet or a dull journey, very witty and full of social history.

Roy Jenkins wrote some cracking biographies, I really enjoyed Gladstone and Churchill.

I would strongly recommend reading Foundation. By peter akeroyd. It is dry in parts (you can skip bits!) but will give you a great sense of English chronology and then you can dive off from that into other books (Isabella, she-wolf of France, for example - who is fascinating IMO). It took me three months to read but was well worth it and has helped me remember stuff I learned at school and then build from it into other areas.

A great snippets book is Glory and Bollocks by Colin Brown which covers snippets from 1066 to present day, is an easy but well written and researched read, and will give you an idea of the areas of 'modern' British history that you might want to know more about,

Of course there are many other non-British eras of great interest!

Bill bryson's got a new book about America in 1927. It's not his best but it's quite easy to read. His history of the home was excellent.

I second Alison weir.

There's a bio of Marie Antoinette that was quite informative of French history.

I like all the women's history on BBC4 recently. I'm also keen on the history of science, Richard Holmes wrote a fascinating book called 'The Age of Wonder' about the earliest modern scientists that includes a fascinating account of Caroline Herscel, the first woman to be paid to be a scientist in the UK.

A great book is Elizabeth's London by Eliza Picard,
It's about everyday life in London in the reign of Elizabeth I, split into categories from birth and shopping to death and amusements. Very informative and well written.

OP, can I ask for this to be moved to History Club to keep the recommendations?

I can recommend listening to this audiobook:A History of the World in 100 Objects

I have been listening to it over last year and learned so much about history and reached out to read bits and pieces which are related to it.
It inspired me to go and visit Turkey (I am off for half term).

there's book of this title as well but I haven't read it.

This series was made by the BBC and the British museum - it would enhance knowledge of anyone who likes learning about history.

Cultural History-the history of beliefs and ideas. Some books I've found interesting are are:

-The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a C16 Miller
-The Great Cat Massacre
-Religion and the Decline of Magic
-Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic
-The Dream-Hunters of Corsica

I also listened to "At home" by Bill Bryson - very entertaining history of domestic appliances and anything about home - how it changed in history. I think worth reading or listening to and learning how things around our home changed, architecture and anything really around us.