# History buffs, what do you like to study most? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811 "2008-12-18T21:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/61 "2008-12-22T02:22:45Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > Pretty much if it’s about the Soviet/Russian military, I’m interested. [Sean Connery]“WE ARE BROTHERS!!!”[/Sean Connery] Well I’m into Western stuff as well actually but must confess to a particular soft-spot for Soviet hardware, I think its the whole exoticism and mystery aspect to it. btw had an article published in the officer RAF “Air Power Review” magazine on the V-Bomber force a couple of years ago if anyone’s interested! Hell, I may as well show off when I get the opportunity, the chances come so few and far between… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/62 "2008-12-22T02:56:47Z")
Then I will, too. 😃 I wrote this a few years ago and it was published in _American History_ magazine: [George Washington: Hero of the Confederacy](http://www.historynet.com/george-washington-hero-of-the-confederacy.htm) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/63 "2008-12-22T03:13:08Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Then I will, too. 😃 I wrote this a few years ago and it was published in _American History_ magazine: [George Washington: Hero of the Confederacy](http://www.historynet.com/george-washington-hero-of-the-confederacy.htm) Damn good article there. Thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/64 "2008-12-22T15:25:43Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Then I will, too. 😃 I wrote this a few years ago and it was published in _American History_ magazine: [George Washington: Hero of the Confederacy](http://www.historynet.com/george-washington-hero-of-the-confederacy.htm) Nice article. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/65 "2008-12-22T15:44:48Z")
> [@Buran](#): > > [Sean Connery]“WE ARE BROTHERS!!!”[/Sean Connery] > > Well I’m into Western stuff as well actually but must confess to a particular soft-spot for Soviet hardware, I think its the whole exoticism and mystery aspect to it. > > btw had an article published in the officer RAF “Air Power Review” magazine on the V-Bomber force a couple of years ago if anyone’s interested! > > Hell, I may as well show off when I get the opportunity, the chances come so few and far between… 😉 color me interested! The modern (80’s) military is one of the areas I am trying to learn more about. And I’ll be reading that other article when I get to work, where I have free time. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/66 "2008-12-24T00:33:23Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Also WWI, which is just a depressing waste of life and historical headbanger (I always want to shout in the ears of Haig and the like - stop marching your men towards machine guns! Are you mental?!). What is mind-boggling in stupidity are the officers who ordered their man over the top after the announcement of the armistice. Seriously, there was absolutely no reason for that. If I was in that position I would have fragged them in a heartbeat. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/67 "2008-12-24T12:58:34Z")
For me it’s not so much a particular era as it is technology, architecture most specifically. See, each year, for a local community display, I do a rather elaborate gingerbread house. One year I did a Gothic cathedral… Each time I gain a new respect for architects. If it’s that much trouble for me to put up a model, how in hell, with computers and modern tools, did folks build cathedrals, pyramids, palaces, even simple homes. The Roman baths! Think of all the planning and plumbing! And bridges, don’t get me started on bridges. I’ve read Macaulay’s books of course, and have one book called Why Buildings Stand Up. But most history books give short shrift to how things get built. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/68 "2008-12-24T13:04:37Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > I’m obsessed with the Bubonic Plague, which from the 14th century to the 17th, killed almost 200 million people. The social implications of having so many people die just fascinates me. I like to read all I can about it, even historical fiction that features it. And did you know that even today, 1,000 to 3,000 people still get it every year? I would like to become an expert on it some day. You might be interested in Samuel Cohn’s _The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe_ where the author makes a good case that the disease was not rat based bubonic plague. Odesio ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/69 "2008-12-24T13:10:46Z")
Magical and religious beliefs in early modern Europe and what impact those beliefs had on the centralization of power, the formation of modern states, and the witch trials. Of particular interest to me is Scotland from about 1563-early 18th century. Odesio ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/70 "2008-12-24T13:20:50Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > What is mind-boggling in stupidity are the officers who ordered their man over the top after the announcement of the armistice. Seriously, there was absolutely no reason for that. If I was in that position I would have fragged them in a heartbeat. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of that actually happening; are you aware of any specific instances? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/71 "2008-12-24T14:06:19Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I can’t say I’ve ever heard of that actually happening; are you aware of any specific instances? From a History Chanel movie blurb: THE LAST DAY OF WWI reveals how Allied leaders found outrageous excuses to send thousands of soldiers to their deaths against a defeated enemy. Some desired promotion, others craved retribution. Despite the human toll, nothing was gained–territories taken that day were eventually returned to Germany. The senseless 11th-hour slaughter captures WWI in a microcosm–pointless carnage for no positive purpose. And from the author of the **Unknown Soldier** talked about how more men died during the last day of war than did the invasion of Normandy. I’ll try to find a specific cite if you want. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/72 "2008-12-24T16:46:17Z")
Please do. I’d never heard that there was a spurt of last-day combat. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/73 "2008-12-24T19:40:22Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Please do. I’d never heard that there was a spurt of last-day combat. From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_with_Germany_(Compi%C3%A8gne)):The news was quickly given to the armies during the morning of 11 November, but even after hearing that the armistice was due to start at 11:00, intense warfare continued right until the last minute. Many artillery units continued to fire on German targets to avoid having to haul away their spare ammunition. The Allies also wished to ensure that should fighting re-start, they would be in the most favourable position. Consequently 2,738 men died on the last day of the war. Augustin Trébuchon was the last Frenchman to die when he was shot on his way to tell fellow soldiers that hot soup would be served after the ceasefire. He was killed at 10:45 am. The last British soldier to die, George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, was killed earlier that morning at around 9:30 am while scouting on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium. The final Canadian solder to die, Private George Lawrence Price, was killed just two minutes before the armistice to the north of Mons, in street fighting with retreating German soldiers. And finally, American Henry Gunther is generally recognized as the last soldier killed in action in WWI. He was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them.[2][3] The last reported German casualty occurred after the 11 a.m. armistice. A Lt. Tomas, in the Meuse-Argonne sector, went to inform approaching American soldiers that he and his men would be vacating houses that they had been using as billets. However, he was shot by soldiers who had not been told about the ceasefire. Matthias Erzberger was assassinated by an ultra-nationalist death squad on August 26, 1921 for signing the armistice. It’s not an awful lot, but each one was unnecessary. Also from Unknown Soldiers: The Story Of The Missing Of The First World War > [@](#): > > And, knowing that the war was all but over, men still kept rising from their trenches, only to be met by a murderous hale of artillery and machine gun fire. By the time the guns finally fell silent, 11,000 more casualties were strewn across no-man’s-land. The day’s total was greater than the number who fell on D-Day in Normandy in 1944. Pg 222 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/74 "2008-12-24T22:18:54Z")
Thank you. Hadn’t known any of that! Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![Eggerhaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@Eggerhaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eggerhaus)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/75 "2008-12-26T03:00:26Z")
Anything on the US Civil War. Anything about A. Lincoln or FDR. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/76 "2008-12-26T16:08:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Augustin Trébuchon was the last Frenchman to die when he was shot on his way to tell fellow soldiers that hot soup would be served after the ceasefire. He was killed at 10:45 am. The last British soldier to die, George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, was killed earlier that morning at around 9:30 am while scouting on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium. The final Canadian solder to die, Private George Lawrence Price, was killed just two minutes before the armistice to the north of Mons, in street fighting with retreating German soldiers. And finally, American Henry Gunther is generally recognized as the last soldier killed in action in WWI. He was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them. It wasn’t always the generals to blame for these last-minute attacks. There apparently were quite a few lower ranked soldiers who wanted to be able to claim they had led the last attack or made the last kill of the war. (Presumedly they didn’t consider the possibility they might become the last casualty of the war instead.) It was especially true in artillery units where many gun crews wanted to fire the “last round of the war”. The problem was that everytime one gun would fire, another crew would hear the shot and respond by shooting a round of their own. This game of artillery one-up-manship continued for several days after the official armistice (and must have killed several people). Some artillery crews had to finally be arrested and taken away from their guns in order to stop them shooting. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/77 "2008-12-26T18:33:13Z")
The Reformation Era, from 1450 (printing press) to 1648 (Peace of Westphalia). Good stuff, that. WW1 is another favorite era. Far more interesting, imho, than WW2. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/78 "2008-12-26T18:43:16Z")
The nonpolitical - cultural history, material history, unmediated sources like ephemera or pop culture. I love trying to find relevance and echoes of great social currents in stuff that’s supposed to be meaningless. I’m a little leery of oral history, however, because there’s always going to be a selection bias in who gets interviewed and who doesn’t, and one doesn’t dare admit to it. I have the paradoxical good or bad luck to be totally absorbed by the 1930s - a very tricky era to study from anything but a political, class, or mass-movement perspective. Anything that doesn’t fit with that is pretty much left to unlettered obsessives like collectors, one of which I once was. ---
**Author:** ![Convict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Convict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Convict)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/79 "2008-12-26T18:48:06Z")
> [@the\_Lady](#): > > Russian, especially the fall of Nicholas II (and also everything to do with the imposter Anastatsias) I have what my wife calls “an obsession” with the Romanovs. It started after reading _A People’s Tragedy: Russian Revolution 1891-1924_ by Orlando Figes for a class on the Russian Revolution. I’ve read Edvard Radzinsky’s works on Alexander II and Nicholas II and am in the middle of _The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russia_ by W. Bruce Lincoln. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I find the Romanov story fascinating. If you haven’t already read it pick up _The Romanovs: The Final Chapter_ by Robert K. Massie. It has an extensive section on the impostors with a large part devoted to Anna Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811/80 "2008-12-27T00:04:18Z")
> [@Convict](#): > > I have what my wife calls “an obsession” with the Romanovs. It started after reading _A People’s Tragedy: Russian Revolution 1891-1924_ by Orlando Figes for a class on the Russian Revolution. I’ve read Edvard Radzinsky’s works on Alexander II and Nicholas II and am in the middle of _The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russia_ by W. Bruce Lincoln. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I find the Romanov story fascinating. > > If you haven’t already read it pick up _The Romanovs: The Final Chapter_ by Robert K. Massie. It has an extensive section on the impostors with a large part devoted to Anna Anderson. The author of Castles of Steel and Dreadnought? I didn’t know he had a book about the Romanovs, but I will watch for it now. In regard to casualties on the last day of the Great War, in the Unknown Soldier, puts the blame on the commanders who wouldn’t change pre conceived plans (one to get a lot of the blame was Pershing). The book states there were 11,000 casualties that day- more than fell on D Day. I do tend to question some of the facts given in the book though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-what-do-you-like-to-study-most/477811.md?page=5)