re: Favorite history topics?

American Revolution and early years of the Republic
US Civil War era and Reconstruction
WWI
WWII
Cold War (Korea thru present day - it hasn't ended yet.)

Like a lot of people I bounce around and when I find something that really interest me then I’ll dig very deep into the subject.

Most of 2020 was spent on the Zulu wars with particular interest in the battles of Isandlwana and Rourke’s Drift. Both took place a few hours apart and only a few miles from each other.

This year I’ve been pretty much all over Ancient Rome/Greece and the late Bronze Age. I’ve even spent a good amount of time studying Latin and Ancient Greek.

Every man should read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.

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Cold War (Korea thru present day - it hasn't ended yet.)

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Great podcast on Spotify regarding the Cold War… explained from all angles.. its chess on a world stage…

I really l love Ancient Rome and everything that comes with it. It’s humble beginnings as a kingdom, to it becoming a republic that slowly took over Italy. Then the Punic wars with Carthage which decided the course of Mediterranean history. The fact that Rome recovered from lake Trasimene and Cannae and still won the 2nd Punic war is amazing. The world would not see as many casualties in one day of warfare experiences at Cannae until the first day of the Somme in WW1. Then there’s Caesars Gaelic wars and the transformation of the republic into the empire. The various political dynasties and the batshit insane things that happened with each one with the five good emperors squeezing in stability during these times. The crisis of the third century and the massive civil wars that came with them and of course the rise of Christianity that’s eventually took over the empire. I could go on and on but the whole thing is just fascinating to me and how long that Rome lasted is something that will never be surpassed.

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the Russian revolution of 1917 set everything in motion

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WWI was the cause of WWII, and WWI started prior to the Revolution

The Franco-Prussian War might have been the actual event to set the 20th century conflicts in motion.

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I love cold war spy stuff

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If it didn’t so thoroughly infiltrate us and destroy us

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WWI was the cause of WWII

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Just one of the causes… the economic downturn of the 30’s played a major part also

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Lately it’s been the history of Black people in the Monroe(NE Louisiana) area

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I’d be interested in reading up on that. Any suggestions for sources?

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We actually know quite a lot, because they wrote about it

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Well, we know stuff from Egypt and Greece in the LATE bronze age. I was talking more early bronze age and in northern Europe where there was a lot of movement of people.

WW2 (particularly the eastern front and the Pacific)
The Wild West days
The Middle Ages

It's fascinating thinking about how different day to day life is for us than it was even back like 75 years ago. It's really fun to think about how different it was 500 years ago.