Galaxy, between Shakespeare and history, you, as they say, “da man.”
I read Holland’s “Rubicon” after watching the first season of HBO’s “Rome” a couple of years ago. It’s a terrific, well written, easy to understand introduction to the late Roman republic, a period, along with the early imperial period, that I’ve always found fascinating (in no small part because of my religious past as a Christian–which has translated into a passion for New Testament and Jesus quest scholarship). I haven’t read “Dreadnought” but I’ve read Massie’s book on the Romanov’s when I was doing research for an opera on the life of Anna Anderson, the most famous Anastasia pretender (a project which has yet to materialize but which I hope to revive someday).
I’ve been finding myself increasingly captivated by the American revolutionary period ever since I read Joseph Ellis’ wonderful little book, “Founding Brothers” about five years ago. Obviously, as a classical musician, I am also captivated by music history, particularly of the 20th century, though that’s more professional interest than a hobby. Biblical history of the early Jesus movement is particularly interesting to me, as I said, though I haven’t engaged in that hobby of mine for a couple of years now. Some books that have stayed with me in that area, though, are John P. Meier’s massive “A Marginal Jew,” not an easy read by any means; John Dominic Crossan and (John?) Reed’s “In search for Paul,” which led me to redefine how I looked at the often maligned real founder of Christianity and turned me into something of an apologist for him; and Robert M. Price’s “The Incredible, Shrinking Son of Man,” a highly controversial book which suggests that Jesus scholarship may not go far enough (Meier is a member of the Jesus Seminar who also happens to be highly critical of its research, not for dashing conservative views on Jesus, but for not dashing them enough) and suggests that the Jesus of the gospels may not have existed at all, but that these stories may very well be an amalgam or telescoping of various would-be messiahs during the Jewish war period of 66-70 AD, when the gospels were written, with stories of itinerant preachers or possibly one historical itinerant preacher named Jesus who may have been active a generation before the war…or even 100 years before (since Paul’s letters, written before 66, put a kibosh on a few of his more controversial theories).
Anyway, I’ve said too much for such a simple post.
I took History until A-Levels. It was a great subject. My favourite teacher of all time was my History teacher that I had for 5 years of secondary school. I chose to do a science degree (Pharmacy) and I certainly don’t regret it. But a History degree would have been my choice after just after a few of the other sciences. I still like to do like reading history books, when I can find the time. I really like Irish History. I also like the period between 1919-1939. How various events came together for war to start again. I think its facinating how events from around the world such as Versaille treaty, Absynnia, Manchuria and The Wall St Crash (among many many other things) all contributed to WWII.
I’d never thought about it that way. Makes me wonder what will happen as current events coalesce. Things seem awefully familiar as the first decade of the 21st century begins to wind down…
This the second time today someone on the forum has made me blush. :o
“Rubicon”
“Rome”
I have yet to see all the episodes of Rome, I’ve seen the pilot but never found the time to watch more. It’s amazing, though, how accurately they depicted this period. And as Tom Holland wrote in the Rubicon foreword, it would be pretentious to say that our western democracies were based completely on Athenian democracy, all of the western nations are also descended from the Roman Republic and face the same eternal problems of corruption, lust for power and more or less degeneracy.
“Dreadnought”
Dreadnought is a huge book, but narrative history at its very best. Massie draws an astonishingly many-faceted picture of the period from roughly 1870 to 1914, with the arms race between England and Germany as the central focal point, but also narrating events from both countries colonial history as well incorporating two or three dozen mini-biographies into this really large book. Anyone who’s into naval history will enjoy Dreadnought very much.
Biblical history of the early Jesus movement is particularly interesting to me
It is interesting! The first thing we had to do in a class about working with source material for historiography was to take apart the various parts of the Bible that deal with the birth of Christ and deduct from whom each evangelist had copied their account, how they were altered, what other sources were used for these stories, what was historically acurate and what was not - I don’t remember it very clearly, but there were huge flaws in some of the gospel when it came to how they described the provincial boundaries of the Roman empire and such things and some were contradicting others.
And yes, you’re right, from what I know, there’s some consensus among classicists/ancient historians that there was a certain fin-de-siècle mood throughout large parts of the ancient world, but especially among the Jews and that there were all kinds of gurus traveling through the ancient East and the figure of Christ was created weaving different people and various stories together into one account.
The French commander in chief said in 1919, after WWI, that the peace would last for 20 years. Obviously, he was right, but that was just dumb luck. There was a myriad of factors that led to WWII and historians have been arguing since almost six decades about which factors were more important than others.
What I can say is that from the year 1933, its prehistory and its aftermath, two lessons should never be forgot:
When the mass of the people and especially the middle classes start looking for an authoritative father figure who can take care of the mess the politicians and the CEOs have gotten them into, the shit is starting to hit the fan. It’s the middle classes you have to cater to as a politician - at least in the long run, because it will take the small people all long time until they act unanimously, but once they do, the can topple an entire democratic system and bad things will ensue, because when people lose money, jobs, houses in the wake of abstract events like a stock market crash, they may become desperate. And desperate people will act irrationally.
You can’t sit out an expansive dictator. In 1934 Hitler tried to putsch in Austria, he was repelled and immediately backed down with a bloody nose. That was the one and only time before the Battle of Britain that somebody actually stood up to Hitler and hit him right back. And he ran away with his tail between his legs. If the British, the French and also the Americans had been less apathetic, a lot of things would have gone very differently.
I’ve heard that quote, it was a very good prediction. Although we all remember predictions that come true and tend to forget incorrect predictions. For example if I say at 2pm (local time) tomorrow there will be a massive earthquake in Tokyo and it happens it would be really cool (not the earthquake, my prediction) and it would be remembered. However as it most likely won’t happen my prediction will be forgotton.
I think it was Cologne, the German army tried to occupy it. They were under orders to retreat at the first instance of response from the French. Of course none came. Subsequent events leads to the munich agreement, as laughable as that was. Peace in our time indeed. If only someone would have stood their ground sooner, but each small step didn’t seem that unreasonable to the allied powers.
I am a history major also, and a huge history geek. When I was a young kid, I wanted to be an archeologist more than anything in the world. Now, I want to be a teacher so I can try to inspire the same level of excitement in my own students (hopefully). Some people say history is important so that we don’t repeat our mistakes, but to me it’s about unraveling the greatest story there is.
I tend to become interested in one particular subject, and then read everything I can about it, finishing with primary sources from opposing viewpoints.
Right now my current areas of interest are:
American revolutionary war—focusing on British and American soldier’s diaries right now.
Colonialism in Africa
Early Chinese history—pre unification
I will probably post more later, but I will leave it at this for now.
Starbuck will meet the final Cylon, a guy named Romo Lampkin.
They will meet fall in love and be the last ones to survive.
They will land on Earth and from then be known for all history as
Adam and Eve. Battlestar Galactica 5.0 = Bible:eek:
Didn’t see that one coming.
Anything before 1600 really bores me, but i do fancy the modern history. Wars are quite appealing, something about wars fundemently alters people, regardless if there fighting or not.
I was a History minor in college. I have always been facinated by history, specifically ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. My interest leaps to about 1000 AD Europe then skips to the Renaissance, Victorian era and early America.
I could just say, “all history”…but that is a bit boring.
I loved that series being a history buff myself. Although I absolutely hated what they did to Cleopatra. I think it’s because I have focused more on Egyptian than Roman history. I know the craaaap they got wrong or just played fast & loose with & it really disappointed me.
It was really the last 2 or 3 shows of the final season. I liked the new twist on the culture, making it more…hmmm can’t think of the right word…earthy I guess. But the events leading up to Her & Antony at the end…ugh.
That and Octavian was not in Rome when Julius Caesar was assasinated (at the end of season 1) and some of the religious and cultural practices are slightly anachronistic (a character is offered a dormouse as an appetizer during a meal, a delicacy that had fallen in disfavor by the late Republic). Chock it up to artistic license, I guess.
It’s great to find a history thread going!! I have a history degree - major area of study was totalitarianism but there’s not really any era I don’t enjoy learning more about. It always amazes me how many people didn’t like history in school, but then again, when I think back to those lame history textbooks, maybe it’s not so surprising. It’s a shame because there’s a ton of great books out there for kids of every age, about every historical era.
Currently reading “To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World”, will soon be reading “The Pirate Queen: Elizabeth I and her Pirate Adventurers and the Dawn of Empire” - both for an exam.
Quick question: anyone else seen and enjoyed Tom Hanks’ “From the Earth to the Moon” miniseries? I totally loved all but a few episodes.
I’ve only seen a couple of them but enjoyed them. The only one I remember is a rather lighthearted episode starring Dave Foley from the old Kids in the Hall. One of these days I’ll catch up with this miniseries.
Awesome scholarship and an incredible amount of research done by an Australian historian. I’m reading parts of it to prepare for an exam about the Seven Years’ War - The French and Indian War for my North American friends.
