Do you have a favorite historical period/conflict/person/thing to study?

I'm a big history buff myself and I've always found the Crusades interesting for how much it shaped everything that came after. It was horrific and awful and unjustified, but very interesting to study the facets of. From the concept of holy war to the enforcement of powerful extranational entities influencing national politics and function to even the foundation of modern banks, so much was born out of those incredibly bloody conflicts whose influence is still with us in the modern day nearly a thousand years later.

I also find the Roman Empire's rise, its schism into East and West and Rome's eventual fall and then the later flourishing of the Byzantine Empire similarly interesting as well as the rise of the Holy Roman Empire. Japan from the Feudal Period to Meiji Restoration was also quite interesting for just how very unique so many aspects of it were. All those to a bit of a lesser degree than the Crusades though.

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JoyfulSilence · 46-50, M

The Civil War.

I have even visited a few battlefields over the decades of my life. I even drove by one in in New Mexico once.

Once, while at Gettysburg, I took a walk cross-country. They keep it like it was, farmland and woodlots, more or less. I think some land may be still privately owned though, so I might have been trespassing, but I presume the locals are used to it. No buckshot greeted me!

Well, I was in the area of the Wheatfield and wanted to get to Little Round Top so headed straight for it. I soon found myself caught up in brambles in a shallow wooded valley, so I veered right to get around them. I struck a path that looped around to the right, and then hit a road that headed up the southern slopes of Little Round Top. I ended up where the Maine men had made their stand at the end of the line.

I realized that I had followed the same route of some of the Confederates on Day Two. I recalled reading a book describing how the Rebels had to cross a stream in a little valley (the same one I encountered, I think) and it was full of BRAMBLES. Surreal.

One day, I walked the same path Pickett's men walked. But this time, single-handedly, I drove the Yankees from the field. Except for some stubborn stone-faced Federals.

I am glad the Union won. Damn racist southern bastards, those Rebs! Although I presume racism was the norm on both sides. Yet to the common solider, especially by this time, it probably was more about defending the buddy next to you, and unit pride, and winning the fight at hand, than politics and idealism. Of course what do I know? I would have skedaddled at the first sound of the guns.

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@JoyfulSilence A lot of the Confederates were unaware of the manipulation by rich slave owners, to my knowledge. They were under the impression it was just about personal autonomy, state rights and such. The usual extreme nationalist diversions. US Civil War is indeed pretty neat, a lot of kind of worrying parallels to current sociopolitics.