TL:DR, Thinking about going for a history degree what are the pros and cons.

Context: So I'm 34 and now my kids are both reaching school age I'm considering going to uni and getting a history degree.

I've always enjoyed history at school and had/have a good head for historical events and dates. I enjoy watching and learning about history and have an active fascination with bushcraft survival and human evolution (I know that's probably classed as paleontology/archeology)

Work wise my career has centred around outdoor education and adventurous activities. But I do enjoy the teaching elements of it

The closest my local University offers is history BA(hons) And I do quite enjoy learning things about the medieval period.

So what I'm asking is, what would you all as actual historians advise me.

Are there things I haven't considered? Any pros or cons you personally love/hate.

Tia

Recently discovered a service with political borders from 3000 BC to present. But the UX/UI is absolutely terrible and I've realised, that I could develop something better as a mobile app (I have 9 years of experience in that). Wondering, what people think here and what would they except from such an app, what features could be useful?

I have been watching interviews with historians on the Israel-Palestine conflict and it's surprising to me how a well-documented conflict leads to vastly different conclusions and I wonder if this is an exception or a norm. For instance, Norman Finkelstein looks at historical events and asserts that Israel is the culprit and Benny Morris looks at the same events and finds Palestine to be the culprit.

I viewed a clip here on reddit the other day that stated just that. He said income inequality breaks societies, and the USA is at a breaking point.

He said we have to "go back to the time of the pharos to see this kind of income inequality"

I'm wondering if any of this is true

To add some context:

We hear music literally everywhere now- shopping, eating, at social events, etc.

It really got me wondering about life pre-modern living and its relation to music.

Did restaurants/markets/whatever just have casual music (obvi played by people) for the common man to listen to?

Was music considered a luxury? Did kings have musicians around them all the time or was it just at banquets and such?

The Renaissance is a period characterized by innovation across many different fields from art, to political to military and much more. The discussion around this event usually revolves around Europe and it's often viewed as the thing that (whether accurate or not) took Europe from being a "backwater" to being the regional and later global center of gravity.

My question is, how accurate is the view that the Renaissance was instrumental in Europe's rise? And also what impact, if any, did it have on the Islamic world for example?

I have been recently reading Jonathan Spence's God's Chinese Son, which is about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the God Worshipping Society. Something that struck me as odd is how Hong Xiuquan kept elevating Yang Xiuqing, first accepting his claim to channel God and then making him East King and later on the Holy Spirit. Even after the Tianjin incident in 1856 Hong appears to have continued paying service to Yang's claims. Why would Hong do this? Wouldn't he be wary of giving power to a potential rival (as events would later prove to be true)?

The poor gentleman marrying a wealthy heiress is a pretty common trope in period media. But what would happen in real life if they never found anyone with money?

I recently read David McCullough's Truman and he discusses the work done by the Truman Committee on war profiteering and wasteful spending. From his description, it sounds like the committee struck a good balance between investigating corruption and finding genuine sources of profiteering while not slowing down the industrial mobilization or scoring cheap political points, and he largely gives the credit for that to Truman's work ethic and personal integrity. However, this is principally a biography of Truman and McCullough seems very favorable towards Truman overall, so I'm wondering if this positive view of the committe is generally accepted, and if so why this government investigation was so successful. Were there other important people in the committee who influenced it, and what other factors led to its success? Or was it not as successful as McCullough claims?

The Byzantine empire fell in 1453, towards the end of the Medieval period. Given that it was in essence the surviving portion of the Roman empire, would the culture of the byzantine empire (clothes, entertainment, literature, hair and makeup, etc) look more like what existed in the Roman empire than what existed contemporaneously in other medieval cultures in Europe? Even if just by comparison?

Also, side question, would your average non-byzantine Medieval person living in, say, spain or germany, think of the Byzantine empire as the "Roman empire"?

Passport

When was it mandatory to have a document proving identity to cross the border of European countries? How did they manage to transit from one country to another before?

Are there any digitalized records of the Upper Canada Rebellion 1837 on line? I'm specifically looking for the trial records of the participants in the Battle of the Windmill.

I have recently taken interest in the Byzantine Empire and how they saw themselves in relation to the Roman Empire. I hope you can help clarify some questions for me.

Did the Byzantine nobility (and common people) consider their Empire a successor to (rather than a continuation of) the Roman Empire or did they not really consider the Roman Empire to have fallen as they were still around? Would they consider the Roman Empire to have lasted until 1453?

Did they consider themselves Roman (considering their political heritage) or Greek (given their geographical location and language)? Or is that not really a distinction that can be made at that time?

Given that they are effectively the Eastern Roman Empire, did that have any implications on their relationship (good or bad) with the Holy Roman Empire which I assume was an attempt at reestablishing the Western Roman Empire (to some extend).

For clarity: https://youtu.be/BCJ6tGBZiH8?feature=shared

At 1 minutes 22 seconds is when it starts.

If this is a historical technique/architecture, could you please let me know what it's called? And anything you might know about it?

Ive only seen articles about trans women in ww2 pop up. I just want to feel valid and not alone :/

The death of Kublai Khan heralded decades of succession crisises within the Yuan court. None of the Yuan emperors post Kublai reigned beyond a decade continuosly while several reigns lasted months.

Mongol succession crisises had been common even before the Song were crushed after the death of Mongke Khan, so the death of a strongman figure trigger more infighting is no surprises. Did Kublai or any of his successors make a concertrared and somewhat successful attempt to pre empt another succession crisis.

Frank Herbert's Dune has been inspired, amongst other things, by "the sabres of paradise" by Lesley Blanch. She has not been a historian and wrote a long, long time ago, so i thought i'd read her along with something that has got more cred with the modern day historians.

Bonus question: what do historians hold of her book?

I’d like to learn perspectives so I can predict what will happen in our times.

Hey guys, i'm a historian trying to make a small list of maybe 3 to 5 books on Latin American history to deepen my understanding of the regions history. researching books has been hard because of biases, politicization, and oversimplifications of Latin America's history. what are some interesting and generally accurate books that cover from pre-columbian times until the present? Ideally divided into multiple books rather than all encompassing books, though if there is a good one that tries to cover it all please do tell me. I'm a native Spanish speaker so it would be nice if some are by Latin American authors. I don't care if there is a degree of controversy or bias, but i want to avoid problematic titles. So far on my list is Bolivar by Marie Arana, and 1491 & 1493 both by Charles C. Mann (had Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano but I removed it after seeing it was too controversial due to its far leftist perspective that some people found too exaggerated)

Someone told me the ideas originated in old english law not to protect an accused, but to protect the jury/trier of fact, because convicting an innocent person was a sin, so the high standard was required to ensure no-one made a mistake and went to hell. Is this true?

Was it American support for Israel? Was it multiple things? Do we have any recordings of him telling us why he thought America deserved it? Also, does anything in history compare to the magnitude and awe of that event?

Hello, everyone. I recently realized that my lack of knowledge regarding history is quite embarrassing, but I want to change that, I really want.  I decided to study/read more about history 3 weeks ago, and after some research I’ve made a list of what I plan to read but it is so overwhelming that I am uncertain whether this is a good starting point. The following is some sort of roadmap I made myself which I plan to follow along and I already started by reading a book, “The Age of Enlightenment” by Isaiah Berlin. Unfortunately, I didn´t enjoy it and had to put it aside. Then, I started reading “The Enlightenment” by Ritchie Robertson, and I am loving it so much that I´ve got a physical copy of the book. With that being said, could you please suggest me books for any of these topics? Also, if my list is odd, incorrect or you have a better road map, please feel free to let me know, I am open to suggestions. Thanks everyone for taking the time to read my post.

1. The Enlightenment (Late 17th - 18th Century)

2. The French Revolution (1789-1799)

3. The Industrial Revolution (Late 18th - 19th Century)

4. The Age of Imperialism and Colonialism (19th - Early 20th Century)

5. The World Wars (20th Century)

6. The Cold War (1947-1991)

7. Decolonization and Independence Movements (Mid 20th Century)

8. The Globalization Era and Contemporary Issues (Late 20th - 21st Century)

9. Present and Future

• The ongoing challenges of the 21st century, such as environmental sustainability, technology, the impact of AI and automation, and the shifting balance of global power (e.g., U.S.-China relations) are all shaping what the future holds.