How do you read History

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How do you read History

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1morryb
Jul 31, 2008, 7:32 pm

My interest in history really peaked in the last few years. I am wondering do most people like to study and read about a certain time or certain individual and everything connected to that person. Or do you just like to grab anything that looks good. My interest in history spilled over into my interest in Theology so that I have started reading on the history of the church and in particular the American Church. So while I just finished up Undaunted Courage I am also reading Drinking with Calvin and Luther a history of alcohol in the church.

2mckait
Jul 31, 2008, 7:37 pm

with great skepticism

3AsYouKnow_Bob
Jul 31, 2008, 7:56 pm

It tends to be "one thing leads to another", usually deeper in time.

I went to a funeral behind Ft. Johnson here in the Mohawk Valley - - and soon found myself reading not just about Sir William Johnson, but working my way back to First Contact between Europeans and Natives here in New York.

Now I find myself looking at pre-Contact archaeology....

4wildbill
Ago 1, 2008, 10:25 am

I tend to read history on a topical basis. I have been reading the civil war for the last three to four years and have read at least fifty books on all areas of the war. I actually consider my pattern of reading to be studying the topic I am focused on. I imagine that I am in a one person graduate seminar. I get a great deal of enjoyment by adding to my knowledge of history in this way.

5ThePam
Editado: Ago 2, 2008, 7:33 am

I'm a happy meanderer. Things catch my attention and I'm off on to this or that.

Where my approach may differ from others is that now that our public library has JSTOR access I've forsaken history books (okay not entirely) for academic articles. More data, less time. That and I tend to search our first hand accounts of events rather than retellings of them.

6mk885
Ago 2, 2008, 12:10 pm

This is a great question- I vacillate between drilling down more on a particular timeperiod and place vs a particular person vs a theme vs an author vs just another intriguing history book.

I started with 1776, then read a George Washington Biography, then read more McCullough books, the Great Bridge which lead me indirectly to The Devil in the White City (both late 19th Century). Then continued with McCullough Theodore Roosevelt biography which lead me to another TR Biography.

In between, I read a few Explorer and Maritime history books.

Am now deciding between more Roosevelt clan biographies or more Independence time period.

Also have sitting on my book candidate shelf: Undaunted Courage, American Sphinx, Inventing a Nation, Brave Companions

So still searching for my definitive approach- just enjoying the books along the way!

7ALinNY458
Editado: Ago 3, 2008, 4:43 pm

Well, there are so many ways to pursue the study of history. It really depends on what your goals are, scholarly study versus personal enrichment. Since you are interested in the the impact of religion on American history then I recommend Hellfire Nation about the politics of sin in America. As a counterpoint read Susan Jacoby's Freethinkers about the impact of secularism in U.S. history. Enjoy!

8LamSon
Ago 29, 2008, 8:45 pm

A. Twentieth Century Conflict
1. WW 2
2. Cold War
a. Vietnam War
b. Middle East
c. Africa

However, I do wander from this outline frequently. Usually, "one thing leads to another", to quote AsYouKnow_Bob (msg 3)

9oldtrustylegs
Ago 30, 2008, 2:59 pm

When I'm not reading books for class, my reading tends to focus on my research interests; American Catholicism, 19th century American history, sexuality, and Catholic clergy.

10HistoryNutToo
Editado: Jun 7, 2011, 12:07 am

I read American history and WWII history. While reading a book I find that I don't know much about something I will find another book about what I don't know and read it before finishing the book I started. The last time this happened I was reading G.Tenents book and I found I didn't know much about Arafat. I had a book on Arafat but hadn't read it yet so I stoped Tenets book to read up on Arafat. Most of the time I will read an author or a period in time like WWII. I have to read some easy reading some times like Tess Gerritsen.

11DocWood
Jun 7, 2011, 7:09 am

I read a little bit like AsYouKnow_Bob, in which one thing leads to another as I seek more detail and depth on particular topics that tweak my interest. While pursuing my genealogy hobby, I discovered a pair of ancestors who met during the Seige of Petersburg, and began procreating without benefit of marriage. I thought they would make a neat novel, so I began reading Noah Andre Trudeau's book on the seige of Petersburg, and it went from there. I'm reading memoirs of common soldiers, books on the cavalry (he was a cavalryman), flora and fauna of 19th-century Virginia and North Carolina, catalogue-type tomes on arms and equipment, and have branched into books on women who served as men, Civil War medicine, feminist writings from the period, photography and journalism of the war, and it gets worse from there. I am even--heaven help me--going to re-enactments. It may be two years before I'm ready to start writing, but in the meantime I'm having a blast.

I have another ancestor, a Scot who fought in the Revolution, who also seems interesting: I may spend my entire retirement reading about that.

12Tess_W
Ago 1, 2011, 11:21 pm

Well, my plan is to begin to read thoroughly on a topic, but then it takes it's own path and normally one thing leads to another and then another and before you know it I have strayed from my original intention. For example, I began reading about Operation Body Guard (the great deception concerning D-Day during WWII) and then somehow I read something about black soldiers who weren't permitted to serve in parts of this operation. While searching for more on this topic I came across "Ghost Soldiers", which was actually a rescue team for the POWS in the Pacific, and read that and then came across one of Hitler's strategies for fuel that concerned Norway and Sweden and from there I went to read about the survival story of Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian Saboteur........far from the original topic of D-Day deception........so for me, one thing leads to another. However, I find this serendipitous because my "sojourns" are usually more interesting than what I had planned!

13srwinkler
Jul 24, 2012, 4:04 pm

I like to study a century of European/American history at a time. I'll start by reading a few overviews of the topic to get my bearings. I'll compile a working bibliography that includes not only political history, but the fine arts, literary works, biography, intellectual history, specialized works on topics I'm particularly interested in. I'll add some relevant courses from The Teaching Company. Then I'll read my way through it. My goal is to be immersed in the period from a interdisciplinary point of view.

14torrey23
Jul 25, 2012, 7:38 am

My main interests have always been the War for Independence and any of the Founding Fathers. I continually come back to these topics. However, when there is something that I do not know much about, I will read several books on that. For example, I was not very familiar with the French and Indian War. I started reading about that to learn more about it, then I went back to the War for Independence. I did the same thing with the War of 1812. I have done that with the Civil War, but I do go back to that periodically to learn more. I also like to learn about things concerning where I am going. I recently went to some of the places significant during the Sioux Uprising of 1862. Before I went there I read about the places.