On Friday Fives on Historical Periods of Interest

[danieldwilliam]

Is there a particular historical period or event, anywhere in the world, that fascinates you?

I am very taken with the Late Roman Republic as an historical time period. It's full of interesting characters an I think the general economic trends that led to the political trends are a warning for us today.

I also take a passing interest in Elizibethan espionage and drama, the Georgian navy,  the industrial revolution, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the US Civil War, 1940's naval conflict and fashion.

Also, any time period that Lucy Worsley is looking at.

Would you like to visit that time, or live in it permanently, or does the whole idea make you want to run screaming?

Good grief no. Especially the Late Roman Republic. It's probably one of the better time periods to live in before about 1600 but your chances of being either a slave or a slave owner are very, very high. Neither of those appeal. I could see myself making a lot of money in the industrial revolution but, given my family background, I'm more likely to have been a factory hand in the textile mills of Gloucestershire.

No, I will stick with the early 21st century. I think Stephen Fry had it right - I don't need to visit the past. I can find out about it and image it without actually leaving the comfort of the 21st Century.

Unless I was helping Dr Worsley with something.

What's the best piece of historical writing, nonfiction or fiction, you've ever read?

I very much enjoyed the series of books by Lindsay Davies about Falco, the early Roman Empire private detective. I thought there were a superb series of stories which got to the heart of the lived experience of being a middle-class Roman in the 1st and 2nd century AD.

For non-fiction, probably Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson which is an excellent one volume history of the US Civil War

What's the worst?

I don't recall actively disliking anything historical but I did bounce off a number of books about slavery quite hard.

 

Is there a historical site you would love to visit?

Depends a lot on what I'm there to do and how I'm travelling and what access I get to information. And also the nature of time.

Being in the crowd in Sarajevo in 1914 doesn't tell me anything I don't already know about the origins of the First World War but being in the audience for all of Shakespeare's plays would tell me a lot about the experience and a lot about the cannon.

There are lots of things one could find out from being in the general vicinity, but lots of things that would remain opaque unless one had privileged access.

Comments

[cmcmck]

With me it's the 17th century and my mind spends half its time there anyway after so many years studying it at a serious academic level. :o)

[danieldwilliam]

What particular aspects do you study?

[cmcmck]

I'm a military specialist so mostly the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (aka the 'English' Civil war which it wasn't just, nor was there just one of it) but I also get over into Europe and the Thirty Years' war with a side order of New World nastiness aimed at native peoples.

[danieldwilliam]

Any advice from the mid-17th Century for the citizens of the early 21st?

[cmcmck]

Don't turf out the royal parasites then let 'em back in!

[mountainkiss]

I would not swear to this but I think that YFJ is a specialist in the late Roman republic.

[danieldwilliam]

The legal aspects of the period or the general history?

[mountainkiss]

The latter, from his university career rather than his professional life.

[danieldwilliam]

Well, one more thing for us to discuss in the pub.

He can explain what was going on to me.