# Which period of history would you live in? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 18, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811 "2004-05-18T18:07:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baby\_Fish\_Mouth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@Baby\_Fish\_Mouth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baby_Fish_Mouth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/21 "2004-05-19T00:26:24Z")
I would have loved to be an American colonist during the Revolution. How amazing to be able to say you were there during the birth of a country. I’d be throwing tea into the harbor and sipping pints with Samuel Adams. ---
**Author:** ![Obsidian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/51bf81/32.png) [@Obsidian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obsidian)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/22 "2004-05-19T00:27:07Z")
I love playing this game. I would love to live in the northeast during the middle colonial period (1700ish). With clean water and plenty of food, and a climate & population density that kept many epidemic diseases at bay, there was a period where life expectancy approached modern levels. The idea of working on a farm in very appealing to me. And I’m very aware of the amount of work a woman needed to put in just to keep everyone clean and fed, but I think it would be much more rewarding than sitting behind a desk all day pushing paper around for my someone else’s fortune. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/23 "2004-05-19T00:37:20Z")
I’d like to be my current age in, say, 1984. I could get a computer while they were still somewhat simple and had programming languages built in, learn said languages, and maybe found a software company or something. Also, I could make sure to buy stock in Microsoft 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/24 "2004-05-19T02:27:42Z")
I would rather be able to jump around to different time periods depending on my mood. The turn of the 19th century in England, the 18th century in various decades and places, Elizabethan England, the 1920s in New Orleans or Hollywood, the 1930s right here in East Texas or in New York City, the 1940s and 1950s in New York, the '60s upstate… I couldn’t pick just one. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/25 "2004-05-19T09:39:08Z")
> [@PookahMacPhellimey](#): > > Congratulations. You live in the early twentieth century. No really, I do live in the twentieth century. D’oh! :smack: You come close to convincing me I should be a roaring twenties flapper girl too. That would indeed be very cool, but I still say “hail Caesar!”, barbarians! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Drizzt\_Do\_Urden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Drizzt\_Do\_Urden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drizzt_Do_Urden)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/26 "2004-05-19T10:40:47Z")
Hmmm…I would either choose to be a Scandinavian resident (Norway of Iceland) circa 600 C.E. or an inhabitant of the Germany/Austria/Switzerland area in the Late Middle Ages. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/27 "2004-05-19T11:23:34Z")
The 70’s. I totally missed disco!!! I am just kidding. I’d really love to be part of the Beat Generation maybe. Or maybe even earlier in Paris in the period between WWI and WWII. That would have been a cool place to live at a very cool time. There are many books about this time period and I love them all. ---
**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:** [May 19, 2004, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/28 "2004-05-19T14:59:49Z")
They’ll take me out the 21st century kicking and screaming the whole way. Who wants to give up things like medicine, science, printing, plumbing, indoor heating, refridgerators, electricity, the internet, telecommunications, civil rights, old age, voting, etc. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/29 "2004-05-19T15:06:58Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > They’ll take me out the 21st century kicking and screaming the whole way. Who wants to give up things like medicine, science, printing, plumbing, indoor heating, refridgerators, electricity, the internet, telecommunications, civil rights, old age, voting, etc. Hey barbarian! About half of those us Roman had covered two thousand years ago. Just watch Life of Brian. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/30 "2004-05-19T15:11:48Z")
USA 1960’s no question. See the Beatles, Hendrix, WoodStock, Moonlanding, San Fran and way to much to remember. Travel around off my tits in a VW camper tuning in and checking out. Peace man 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/31 "2004-05-19T16:33:27Z")
Tahiti sounds like heaven on earth, until those pesky Europeans showed up and introduced the Bible and venereal disease. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Serpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@Silver\_Serpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Serpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/32 "2004-05-19T16:41:25Z")
Way back in the day. With some tribal society before the Agricultural Revolution took hold. OH! Minoan Crete, way before the Greeks came along. Kick-ass egalitarianism, no real warring, folks took care of each other, wonderful art, beautiful houses. Or with just about any of the American Native tribes. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/33 "2004-05-19T16:45:44Z")
> [@Silver Serpentine](#): > > . . . no real warring . . . Or with just about any of the American Native tribes. Yeah. 'Cause they _never_ fought with each other . . . ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/34 "2004-05-19T16:57:47Z")
> [@YellowTail](#): > > New Orleans around 1910-1920. It would have been wild to walk down a city street and hear all the greats playing: Louis Armstrong, Billie Holliday, Jellyroll Morton. What a party! Sorry, but Billie Holiday wasn’t born until 1915 and spent most of her early years in either Baltimore or New York. She may have been singing at age 5, but it probably wasn’t in New Orleans. I second the idea of going back to Tahiti prior to the European contact. Put me in a little grass hut with a beautiful brown skinned, doe-eyed maiden, a beach to play on, and something to eat and I’m doing A-OK. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/35 "2004-05-19T17:27:18Z")
> [@Rufus Xavier](#): > > I’ll take Hollywood, CA during the 1920’s. A truly hedonistic culture coupled with tremendous career opportunities. Yes! Bring on the morphine and laudanum. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/36 "2004-05-19T18:18:44Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Yeah. 'Cause they _never_ fought with each other . . . Harry Turney-High argued that most Native Americans actually _didn’t_ have anything resembling war. He described it as mass murders and stealing. _Primitive Warfare_ is a fascinating read. Let’s see, my choices: [ul][li]If I won’t get it, I might choose to go back to the Black Death. I can’t help but think that it would be really fascinating to watch happen.[/li][li]Classic Greece. Though I imagine that it would much more mundane than I picture it. Plus, I’d probably get myself ostracized.[/li][li]Republican Rome. Maybe later Rome; but, probably not. [/ul][/li]I guess that I’d choose today if it came right down to it. Unless I had to live as truly poor person today, in which case being an average Roman citizen would be preferred. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/37 "2004-05-19T19:23:40Z")
> [@js-africanus](#): > > Classic Greece. Though I imagine that it would much more mundane than I picture it. Yeah, I thought of these guys too. But what are you to make of a society that considers politicians the highest form of life? ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/38 "2004-05-19T19:29:44Z")
The 60s and 70s would be great, but the idea of living through the entire 80s (I really only remember a few of years of it) with the “me me me” attitude and “unique” trends/music makes me want to reconsider. I was young through much of the 90s, but it would be interesting to be teenage or older through the early 90s instead of the late 90s, though this would again mean living through more of the 80s. Besides that, the 1700s in the Colonies would be interesting, as would midevil times. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/39 "2004-05-19T19:55:38Z")
Take me back to 600 BCE and leave me with the Scythians. It doubt it would be a peaceful life but it sure would be fun. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811/40 "2004-05-19T20:17:58Z")
**Mississippienne** ’s got the right idea. I’d want to go on the voyages with Captain Cook and visit uncharted tropical islands and live with the native people before “civilization” all but eliminated them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-period-of-history-would-you-live-in/245811.md?page=3)