How did you start getting into History? What led you to pursue

Probable autism and an inability to connect with young peers so I thereby sought to find connection and emotional intimacy through learning about people long dead,

>>534782

Game of Thrones (inb4 pleb). I got interested in the books, which led me to grand strategy games (CKII-EU4) which got me into actual history.

I didn't realize I was horny for history until I read about Scipio and Hannibal and no one knew what the fuck I was talking about. Thank you based generals. Now studying history in college and enjoying it.

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>>534824
This

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>>534832
>>534824
>tfw 4th grader and thought my friend would be interested in this fucking VHS tape i ordered from the History Channel about WWII battleships

what a long lonely road i've been trekking on all my life

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>be little kid
>watching cartoons
>change channel
>it's the History Channel
>fucking barbarians beating the shit out of each other
>this is way better than dumb cartoons

Never looked back.

Still watch dumb Japanese cartoons though.

>>534782
I loved books like LOTR and Wheel of time. History was like real life fantasy.

I always enjoyed history, because it is fascinating to understand the origins of civilization and the events that brought us to this point.

In particular I was interested in 20th century history, because of the world wars, and later I got interested in the vietnam war.

I enjoy reading, so I would read about events in history outside of warfare as well. Diplomatic relations, pivotal moments in american history a bit, etc. Just always picked up whatever I could, and read what I thought was interesting. Persons, periods, events, whatever. wikipedia articles, books, documentaries. found it all interesting.

I jumped down the rabbits hole when I started my undergrad in classics, which i was going to blowoff and switch out of, until I realized I loved it.

>>534950
>>534950
This as well. I like large franchises and comics because they offer so much history. They're honestly a lot better than real history, though, because once you sort out your continuity errors they are at least complete-ish. Real history has loads of gaps and things we can never recover or learn, and that saddens me.

>>534782
Sunday school, vidya, and history channel.

>>534782
The first book I read by myself was a historical novel about Alexander the Great.

>>534963
Elliot?

>>534782
My father, uncle, and grandfather all majored in History in college, so in a sense you could say it's in my blood. It wasn't the topic I was most drawn to, but I was good at it and put in advanced history classes in school. However, it wasn't until my first history class in college that I began to actually enjoy it. The key turning point was when I arrogantly avoided studying for my first exam and failed it tremendously. The shock was incredible because I just assumed I'd know the answers off the top of my head like I had in the past, and studying my ass off to get high A's for the rest of the class really got me invested in the subject.

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>>534925
>>534944
>>534961
>tfw similar experience as me
>tfw I want someone like this as a bf
>tfw I never meet someone like this in IRL, and therefore my dream bf is just that, a dream

>>534944
This.

>be 3rd grader at the babysitter's house
>me and my sister both get turns to pick the channel
>my sister watches Toonami
>I switch it to a history channel documentary on Vietnam

>>534782
My dad had a book (Time's history of WW2 in pictures, I think) and that pretty much started it. That and the first books I remember reading were based around Greek myths and Alexander the Great's campaigns.

Now I study military organization and logistics for fun, with an emphasis on North Africa during WW2.

>>535177
>>535142
>history major

>>535203
My grandpa went on to become a dentist and a millionaire and my uncle is a lawyer making a comfortable living. There's nothing inherently wrong with majoring in history. I get it though, hilarious banter.

>>535217
Wow so they had no other options Huh?
What if I don't want to be those things IDIOT

>>534782
Dunno, always thought it was interesting

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>>534782
In 3rd grade I would always go to the library and read children's history books. I fell in love with the diorama like art of ancient cities and the crazy facts about how people lived long ago

>>535203
No, actually. I'm in a STEM major, and regret not going for something else all the time. I just happen to like organization and logistics in a desert environment.

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>>534944
>History Channel is now about aliens visiting thrift shops located on swamps rather than Barbarians beating each other

Is there any good alternatives?

>>534782
Coming from a poor country I found it funny why Westerners hated Hitler so much.
I tried to figure out why. Never did.

>>535325
Because he wanted to kill everyone that wasn't a blonde Christian German?

>>535325
One world War was plenty.

>>535304
You can switch your major in uni underage fag

>>535335
It saddens me that the majority of people think this is true. Either that or shit bait

>>535335
Strange he would ally with the Middle Easterners, the Chinese, and the Japanese, then.

>>535335
hitler was jewish too!
that's so stupid
he was just a crazy dummy
i learned that in like 8th grade

>>534782
Honestly, for as long as I can remember I was always interested in history. It was kind of something that just came natural to me. I wish what I was naturally interested in was something that could land me job though lol.

>>534925
lol. I remember being about 10 years old and staying with my great aunt in the summer. She had a documentary series on the history of Christianity in VHS that was about 8 hours long and I sat and watched the whole thing.

>>535322
No. Get netflix and watch documentaries.

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>>534824
I came here to post this.

I use my love of history as another form of escapism.

>>535177
First book I remember reading was a kid's book about the history of flight.

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>>534782
In middle/high school I always found the stories in history fascinating but I fucking hated how it was all about memorizing random dates and just reciting bland facts.

Then I got out of high school and started getting really into politics, and from there I started wondering where the political ideas we hold now come from. So I read up on their history, which transformed into reading about history in general, and that's when I discovered that it's possible to do your own research on history without some bored teacher forcing you to memorize stuff you don't care about.

It's been a love affair ever since.

Pic related, the thought that prompted me to get into politics as a pot-smoking 18 year old with no cares in the world.

>>535430
dont major in humanities KID

>>534824
Something like this. I also genuinely think constant exposure to electronics and media conditioning has made everyone retarded drones

>>534782
Extension of my interest in politics, then history just became much more interesting than politics for me

>>535478
>implying im still that young

I'm learning welding SENPAI

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I'm from Hastings and my mum went to school at the abbey the Normans built on the battlefield. I've been excited by the 'dark ages' for as long as I can remember.

>>535547
OK who cares

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>>534782

>Always liked fantasy stuff as a kid
>Dressed as a heroic knight for Halloween, my mom used to make me homemade tunics and dress me in my little knight outfit before going out, would pretend I was helping to save people from evil
>naturally began reading about King Arthur and from then got into reading mythology quite a bit, got to the point where I could recite almost every known Greek myth by the time I was 7 or 8
>began reading fantasy novels in general, really liked the very detailed ones like Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, etc., used to pore over maps
>started reading Cross-section books because they were so goddamn badass, pic related was my favorite (I used to think about how cool it was to be a miller with my own windmill back then)
>started playing history related games like Civ or AoE, Empire Earth
>approached history from the same angle as reading a fantasy novel
>still see history as a whole as a huge novel, the most detailed one imaginable about humans on planet earth
>read it as a case study of human experiences and actions
>I now read history textbooks for fun

It's so fucking fascinating, I really don't get how someone can think history is boring unless they have a shit teacher who just does rote date memorisation.

Horrible history books

>>534925

Fuck man I used to watch documentaries with my friend all the time, we loved that stuff

I remember I specifically video taped a documentary on wine and winemaking or my grandparents when I was 11 or 12, they loved that shit

I miss the old History channel before they started doing the 'DID NOSTRADAMUS PREDICT *HITLER*?!!!!'/Pawn Stars/reality T.V. bullshit. It's such a shame. I liked their documentaries on Romans and Barbarians and stuff.

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>>535142

>The key turning point was when I arrogantly avoided studying for my first exam and failed it tremendously. The shock was incredible because I just assumed I'd know the answers off the top of my head like I had in the past, and studying my ass off to get high A's for the rest of the class really got me invested in the subject.

Are you me? In American high school we're taught to waffle and BS on answers for the AP test if we don't actually know the answer, it had always been successful for me in the past so I figured I could do it on my first history exam at a fucking elite school in the UK. I tried something along the lines of arguing that the Aeneid was an Augustan propaganda piece because that was the only thing I SORT have studied (the question prompt I chose was examples of Augustan propaganda)...fuck. When I got the results back, I got a 17% on the exam, which wasn't just a fail, it was a BAD fail, literally. Anything under 20% is classified as a 'Bad fail', as in you didn't just pick a basket of whoopsie daises, you're simply a fucking idiot ,pic related. I completely shut down for a few weeks and got super depressed before I slapped myself and got back into things. Graduated a year and a half ago with a very respectable degree classification, missed getting a first class dissertation by 2% though (I could have gotten a first if I didn't make a few referencing errors) which I will be eternally salty about.

>>534782
Well, I loved history ever since I can remember. Probably got into it through games such as "Joan D'Arc" etc. Also yeah, total war series.

>>535659

Where did you study?

There's a huge difference in the way history is taught in the US and the UK. I went to a top university in the UK and spent a year at Berkeley and it was a fucking laugh, practically high-school tier stuff.

>>535142
>but I was good at it

No offense, but what is there really to be "good at" when it comes to history, other than rote memorization?

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>>534782
>watch funny kids shows about history, monthy python, etc. edutainment
>as i grew up, get into it more. read fantasy books and historical books, learn about greek mythology, rome and egypt. Shit's so cool they have so many gods
>Get into it more by reading game of thrones, buy games set in the same period of time, grow up more get books and shit
>Actually listen in school and find out more outside of school
>Find a vietnamese image board with like minded people
And now I'm addicted
>mfw all of my friends are history plebs
>i must all the feels under one face

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>>535157
>You will never find a nerdy qt3.14 interested in history

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>>534782

i grew up during a war

this made me fascinated by how human beings actualy behave, the things they do to each other, how they do it and why, what it means to them in those moments, how they 'explain' that to themselves, how they organise

it also made me realise the one fundamental reason people do these things is simply because they are human

this made me interested in the endless variety in which these behaviors and logic repeated themselves in all sorts of circumstance troughout history

it also gave me a rather bleak outlook on things like humanity and individualism, for example, i could never have been a liberal or a pacifist, since i couldnt believe in tose things any more than i could believe in god or the easter bunny, my mind was all for it but reality is against it

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back when i was a kid i watched 'Gladiator', which got me interested in antiquity.

As i learn more and more about history though, i have started to realize that my knowledge on history is so fucking minuscule, i'm still dabbling in antiquity mediterranean and 13th century onward europe, haven't even started on persian, indian and chinese history

>>536518

U of Edinburgh

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>tfw playing victoria 2 and learn my nation had the best empire to exist

>>536653
I get depressed sometimes because I realize I know so little and I'll never have more than a fragmentary knowledge of anything

>>534832
Ha. Game of thrones got me into history as well. The only downside is that history has kind of ruined fiction for me.

I honestly had a couple of brilliant teachers, one from about 11-15 and then another from about 17-18 and they imbued me with a passion for Politics and History and then later Philosophy, they are the reason I would not mind being a teacher if I do not go into academia, to pass on that passion to younger people.

>>535142
This. My first semester at college I took a course on the history of modern Japan. I bombed the midterm. My professor was this old half japanese half Chinese guy. He spoke to me sternly and knew I wasnt taking notes. I shape up and he's been my adviser for a couple years now.

Otherwise it was books, video games, aND my dad's love for the history channel. I miss the old documentaries.

>>534824
This. 7th grade was a shit show.

CAPTCHA was pancakes.

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Just by being a child and thinking about how events occured, the scale of it, the different times, the encounter between civilizations. I was enormously curious about history among other things. I liked to wander in thougts.

>>536525
Beats me, I guess just being aware of a lot of information? For some reason a lot of people just can't into history and find it to be a really difficult subject, and being able to remember things apparently means I'm good at it.

Shut yo moif

D'Aulaire's books of myths

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>>534782
I got into East Asian History as a kid thanks to Anime & their Samoorais.

This, in turn, was gateway to Chinese History, which is my current interest.

Now slipping into Central Asian History bit by bit.

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Well, even as a kid, I've always had fascination with the Middle Ages, feudalism, knighthood, Christendom and all that shite, you catch the drift.

As I matured and developed a genuine curiosity concerning the ways in which humans operate throughout their existence, history was one of the (indubitably most important) stepping stones towards knowledge - a hobby I've placed great emphasis upon.

I was also always more inclined towards the social sciences (With history taking the lead of interest) yet funnily enough, I am now one semester away from graduating as an electrical engineer, so there's that.

I've always been interested in history, for the 15 years I've been able to think. I guess the first experiences in history being enjoyable were when I was like 5, watching history channel documentaries (pre-ancient aliens).

>>534782
Playing Civilization 3 as a 10 year old

>>534782
ISIS

No really though, my ancestors have lived in Northern Iraq as far back as we can trace and once I started hearing about them destroying Assyrian artefacts I began to feel extremely sad, like people were erasing my people and their history. So I decided to learn about Assyrian and Syriac history.

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My dad bought my Age of Empires when it first came out. I liked upgrading and having all my buildings change how they looked. Then I got the D'aulaires Book of Greek Myth and have enjoyed ancient history ever since.

I'm going to be taking a class on archaeology of and Egypt and Mesopotamia this semester. Very excited.

>>536609
Mind if I ask where you're from?

>>534782
AoE 2bh pham

>>534782
A fascination of Egyptian myth led me on that path, while a reactionary view led me on the path of general history since pre-Socratic Greece, mainly involving schisms and the mechanisms of certain revolutions.

>>534782
Guns desu

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>>534782
Started early on reading biblical stories, greek myths, norse myths, arabian nights etc. and I developed a fascination with lost ages.

I think that's why even to this day I prefer ancient and medieval history more than anything relatively modern.

I also took a bunch of art history and classics courses in college for fun, which just reinforced the love.

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>>534782
>I got into History through the Civilization games and Total War

are you me?

History used to have this show called decisive battles with Rome Total War dramatizations. I feel in love with Hannibal Barca because of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_7dtbp-0nQ

>>536609
This is the same case for me as well, I find it interesting how humans revere their ancestors, to the point where they appear inhuman. It made me realize that the difference between a leader and his people is that a leader can hide his flaws, therefore appearing competent, inhuman, essentially.

>>540232
Think that still exists on the military history channel

I literally have two dozen diagnosed psychiatric disorders and went to a Catholic school wit no "special education" department at all. So when the other kids mocked me, throw my books in the mud, etc.,etc. my teachers would mostly just let me go to the libary and the rule was I could only stay there as long as I was reading so I would read the classics because they had the longest chapters so "just let me finish this chapter got me another 20+ minutes of peace. So I started looking into the time periods novels like "Dracula" "Great Expectations" and "The Three Musketeers" were written in and just continued from their. Now I'm studying history in college and writing a novel of my own so basically self-preservation and a college reading level in third grade led to my love of history I guess.

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I've always had a passing interest in history but it only started falling together when I spent days playing Civilization V while listening to Crash Course World History. The overview of history made further learning about history much easier because it gave me a context in which to place all other events within.

>>534782
I've always been interested in war. Every show I liked I liked because it had lots of action and grandiose battles. This eventually got me into world war 2 history and facts by the time I was in 2nd grade. World war 2 history was the only thing I really cared about and I picked up anything that had a Tank or anything else related to war on it. I eventually branched out when I became more interested with knowing more about my ancestry and that led me to ancient Roman history. Learning about Italian/Roman history got me interested in European history as a whole and I branched out into history in general.

>>542245
War is overrated desu.

Hip

Europa Universalis 4

>>535619
>see history as a whole as a huge novel

This
Well put, my friend

>>535157
Are you that one baby who cried about a guy she liked being into WW2 and Nietzsche?

>>534782
Medieval Total War 2.

I still desire to be just like Henry the Vth one day. One day....

>>536972
This. Most peopel just can't get themselves to be interested in it thus it's hard to study and pay attention. The main thing is few people living in the present find it hard to give a shit about the lives of people in the past who are now dead,
This is the opposite for me( and i guess this answer's OP's question) because I like to see how humans have changed or remained the same in their perspectives over the centuries.

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>>540119
I second this.

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>>534782
Watched a lot of discovery channel and world (back when they had a crap ton of history series) when there was nothing on TV. I always found something that interested me.
Before that, there were information school books about history and similar that I found on certain recesses during those times I didn't hang out with anybody, then even before that I guess there was chess, age of empires and certain films with historic leanings too.
Sometimes I even discussed that type of stuff with buddy at school.
And finally my dad and curiosity.

>>534963
by Valerio Massimo Manfredi?

>>535619
This is me except for a few of the last ones, the Halloween one, and the starting off early one.

>Civilization II
>Age of Empires
>Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

about to write my thesis. god bless this profession

I live somewhere our history is no longer respected and culture and tradition is mocked. I look to history to learn from great men, and to emulate them, and connect with my heritage.

>>544621

straya cunt

>>534782
Assassin's Creed made me stop thinking of history as paintings and dates (school system is shit at history), got me interested. Paradox Grand Strategy made me fall in love. Now virtually all my entertainment (mostly vidya and books) is connected to historical knowledge in some form.

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>>544464
>LOGH

Patrician taste

>Babylon was rad so I read up as much as I could.

I still think so.

And there's jack shit on the subject compared to Egypt.

I watched yu-gi-oh and thought egyptians were really cool

>>544201
>she

Triggered.jpg

>>540108
This book man. Sis got it for a middle school class, stole it and read it been in love ever since.

>>534782
I just always had an interest in the ancient Greeks, and that lead to the Romans and so on and so forth

>>544961
Oh right, and I loved (and still do) the way that History almost seems to repeat itself. It just winds itself into this glorious story that you're a part of now. [spoiler]It has fueled an unhealthy fear of being forgotten though. To me, the worst thing I could imagine would be dying and not being remembered for doing anything[/spoiler]