What got you into history?

Atlantic12

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Thinking back, I assume I always loved history. But there had to be a point where something clicked in me as a kid and I ran with it.

The other day I was reading a nonfic book on ancient Rome, and it came to me. I think I was in middle school and we were doing ancient Rome, and we were in all the complicated stuff about the late Republic. That's when I learned how Sulla walked away from his dictatorship. I remember thinking nobody walks away from power like that. What kind of man would do that? So off I went to learn about Sulla (fascinating guy). But to understand him, I had to get to Marius, and to understand him, go back to the Gracchi brothers. To get the consequences of Sulla, I had to flash forward to Caesar.

That was it. How my lifelong love of history started. With one fascinating personality from the past. (If I dared, I'd write a Sulla novel, but probably couldn't do it justice.)

What hooked you? Or why do you write in the period you do?
 

Marlys

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Good question. The first adult book I read was a historical romance, which may have been my gateway drug. We also had stacks of National Geographic magazines in the house, and they frequently had history articles, so could be that, too. Or swashbuckler movies? Seems to me on weekend afternoons things like Crimson Pirate and The Flame and the Arrow showed up on TV. Historical fiction for kids, too: there was a series called Childhood of Famous Americans that I adored, and I remember sneaking upstairs at a friend's birthday party to read The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

By the time I was 9 or 10, I was inhaling historical fiction, biography, and non-fiction, with the Tudor era becoming a favorite for several years. Elizabeth I was my hero. I've never written in that era (yet), though.

So I can't point to a single origin point. We were a reading family, and I grew up surrounded by books, some of which were historical. I read everything I could get my hands on, and turned into a history buff. But not just that. Also a SFF nerd, a mystery lover, a horror fan, a romance junkie, and dictionary addict.

I settled into writing historical romance. I love the research and need to create happy endings, so it's a perfect fit.
 

autumnleaf

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I'm finding it hard to pick a particular moment. I wasn't particularly interested in History as a subject at school. I often found my mind wandering off on tangents -- How did the Vikings know where the monasteries were? If you survived the plague, were you immune to it afterwards -- and if so, did people of the time know this? What exactly was Catherine Parr thinking when she agreed to marry the notoriously wife-beheading Henry VIII?

I was always attracted to stories set in the past: Jane Eyre, Anne of Green Gables, Five Children and It. As an adolescent, I developed a taste for long and melodramatic sagas like The Far Pavilions and Forever Amber. At one stage I considered studying archaeology, before I realized the practicalities of the job were a lot less romantic than my "Indiana Jones" image (it's also a difficult field to get into even with a qualification -- I know lots of archaeology graduates working in I.T. or other non-related jobs).

Almost all the stories I've wanted to write have been set sometime in the past. I once tried to write a contemporary novel, on the basis that I could avoid all the time-consuming research. But I missed the research!
 

Lakey

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Historical fiction for me, for sure. I didn't get much out of history classes in school, and although I have two big brothers who are historians, and I always enjoyed listening to them explain things to me, it wasn't something I aimed to study myself.

But when I was an adult, I discovered that a strong, well-researched historical fiction turns out to be just the thing to draw me in, help me remember, and make me want to learn more. That, reinforced by an old taste for Victorian novels dating back to when I was in college, now makes me a sucker for anything that paints a vivid picture of life in another era, whether written now or then.

What got me into writing to a historical period was something slightly different - it was reading contemporaneous works, works written by members of the community I'm now writing fiction about myself - midcentury lesbian communities. I fell in love with the women I read about, and became obsessed with my imaginings of what their lives were like. I started to read more of their writings and of modern histories about them. And the only way I could process this, it seems, was to start writing my own stories about them.
 

CWatts

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Well, I grew up in Richmond, Virginia and my mother taught history so it was pretty much inevitable....

But what really got me hooked was European history in 8th grade, with a wonderfully irreverent teacher who dished on things like which kings were gay. What was absolute catnip for this social misfit at a snob school, though, was the French Revolution. At last, this was History for Grown Ups. I loved the moral ambiguity of all that violence in the name of human rights, but what was even better was that there were WOMEN fighting and marching and rioting. :e2headban
 

benbenberi

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Me, I started out with a childhood love of fantasy. The Oz books. The Hobbit & LOTR. The Borrowers. Then, when I was 10, The Six Wives of Henry VIII showed up on TV (CBS!) and my parents sat me down and told me I'd like it. I did! It was magic! After that, everything Tudor & Stuart & medieval was my candy. Fiction, non-fiction... I couldn't get enough. It's a direct line from there to a history PhD. (in 17c France - I blame Alexandre Dumas for that.)
 

Cindyt

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I had some very good history teachers in school. I think the first historical romance I read was Gone With The Wind, and I was hooked. I mean I just ate them up and wouldn't read another genre for years.
 

Atlantic12

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became obsessed with my imaginings of what their lives were like. I started to read more of their writings and of modern histories about them. And the only way I could process this, it seems, was to start writing my own stories about them.

I do this too! God I'm glad I'm not the only one... Plus I love to change their lives around to suit me, which is why I only set stories in the past using my own characters, not historical ones. So far, anyway.

I remember The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Marlys. Did you read Tuck Everlasting? I loved that book...

It's interesting to hear other people came to history via great history teachers too. The subject should be more respected in school, especially since our views of the past are part of who we are as individuals and societies. It's real and relevant to today. I can have a really heated argument about stuff that happened 500 years ago.

French Revolution...yes, love it too. Ages ago I started a novel with Robespierre and women philosophers and some kind of theatre troupe, if I remember right. Abandoned.
 

Siri Kirpal

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Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I came from a reading family, would read anything I could get my hands on, and had good history teachers (mostly). I also sat down with my Grandma before she died and got her earliest memories.

Why I read a lot of historical stuff now has to do with having a husband who's in a historical novels group (but they also read memoirs, non-fic historical narratives, bios, and books that weren't historical when they were written). If he brings home something that sounds interesting, I often end up reading it.

Got into historical writing, though, by needing backstory...and having a collection of diaries and other documents from the time I needed the backstory for.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 
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FrauleinCiano

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James Cameron's Titanic is definitely where it started. I was obsessed with the Titanic starting in 2nd grade because of it. I'd read books about it, and when I played pretend I'd imagine I'd been transported to the ship and had to help stop the disaster. Sailormoon on the Titanic. Pokemon on the Titanic. Any other thing I loved eventually had a crossover in my imagination with that ship.

And yet, I thought old things (especially cars) were gross until middle school or high school when my best friend's grandfather started taking us to antique stores. Saw a George Petty pin-up that I had to have (It reminded me of one of my Harry Potter OCs, go figure.) and I became a sucker for WWII era history and culture. It just sorta spread from there, back to the Edwardian era and picked up the rest of the Jazz Age along the way.
 

Marissa D

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I'd enjoyed the historical middle grade novels I read as a kid, but what Did It for me was Masterpiece Theatre on PBS and The Six Wives of Henry VIII when I was eight or nine--looks like there's more than one of us who got hooked via that particular gateway drug. ;) Then Jean Plaidy novels, which my library had a ton of...and then, eventually, a BA in history. Still like to read non-fiction about the Tudor era and earlier (especially the 14th century), but the long nineteenth century is my catnip.
 

Lakey

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I'd read books about it, and when I played pretend I'd imagine I'd been transported to the ship and had to help stop the disaster. Sailormoon on the Titanic. Pokemon on the Titanic. Any other thing I loved eventually had a crossover in my imagination with that ship.

I hope you don't mind me saying so, but this is utterly adorable. :Hug2:
 

snafu1056

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Oddly enough, video games. A company called Koei used to make all sorts of great historical strategy games and after playing a few I was curious enough to go out and do more reading. This was the pre-internet era so that meant having to go out and get my hands on actual books. That's when I discovered that a lot of history books, and academic books in general, are pretty friggin' expensive. The Learning Channel (back when they still cared about learning) was a great source of historical documentaries too.

A helpful side-effect of being a history buff is that it also forces you to tighten up your geography skills, so you become better in two subject for the price of one. I didn't care about either subject as a kid in school.
 

Atlantic12

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Snafu, that's not odd at all. I always loved historical adventure games. I was just thinking about the potential for app games and history crossovers. There's a current drama/adventure I haven't played yet where you're the protagonist during the Iranian Revolution. It's compared a bit to Telltale Games, and I love the idea of people being immersed in the moral ambiguity and personal conflicts during those hard moments in history. I think it's like why alt-history is so interesting. Nothing was inevitable. Choices did matter, and luck, and coincidence. All of that mixed up in a great game...I wish I had the skills!

Fraulein, Sailormoon on the Titanic -- excellent. I was into antique stores pretty early too. The little one where my parents live is my supplier of Life Magazines from the 40s and 50s. Those are *class*. Love the advertisements especially. And you get a really good idea what Americans thought of themselves and the world at that time, ie emerging superpower era.
 

CWatts

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French Revolution...yes, love it too. Ages ago I started a novel with Robespierre and women philosophers and some kind of theatre troupe, if I remember right. Abandoned.

That sounds fascinating. So many of the revolutionaries were involved with the theater. Yeah I've abandoned my project too, though one of my 19th century characters shares the obsession and in a very meta twist may be writing that melodrama I tried to in high school and college.

Plus I've got a backburner idea about women vampires and one is a revolutionary feminist who disappeared not long after the Terror, and another is the daughter of a notorious Founding Father....
 

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I was always super interested in history, to the point that I don't remember what my "gateway drunk" was. Going into 4th grade, I was very excited to have History as an official subject -- it wasn't at our school in 3rd grade and below. My 4th grade teacher was a big history buff, and I know the principal put me in his class (vs the other 4th grade teacher) because he thought I'd enjoy this guy's love of history -- and he was right. My 5th and 6th grade teachers weren't as great for history (but good in other ways), and in 7th grade I had a History teacher who was so fantastic that I wanted to teach History myself one day (until I tried my hand as a TA the next year, and got stabbed in the leg with a pushpin for my trouble, and found out just how little teachers can do about truly difficult kids, but that's another story for another day).

So yeah, TLDR is I was very young and don't remember the details, just that it was before the age of 9.
 

Elenitsa

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I have read historical books for children and I loved them. So yes, I was hooked on history before fifth grade. I have read Hiawatha by Longfellow (retold for children) in first grade and I loved it. There were books with adventures from my country's history too, with princes who were fighting the Ottoman conquerors, and I loved that. Then I got a book about Egypt... then the Westerns (Karl May, Fenimore Coooper, Liselotte Welskhop Horner, etc) and in the sixth grade cape & epee (Alexandre Dumas, Michel Zevaco, Paul Feval, Victor Hugo).
 

snafu1056

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I was talking to a woman recently whose teenage son became a history buff because of the Assassin's Creed games!

I believe it. Those games recreate entire historical worlds and let you run around in them. That'll make a history buff out of anyone.
 

angeliz2k

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I really can't pinpoint it. I don't know whether it's just in my nature or what. I've always been interested in history. In 2nd grade I did a report on Queen Elizabeth because, well, she has the same name as me. That wasn't the beginning of my love for history, I don't think, but it's the first specific example I remember of my history obsession. I was also super into the Titanic and the Oregon Trail in elementary school. I got a huge jolt of enthusiasm from the Dear America series. I LOVED those books and even spent time writing knock-offs in elementary and middle school.

By 7th grade, I was reading adult nonfiction on the Tudors because I was SO into them. I've broadened and shifted my focus since then. I'm now based mostly in the 19th century and a few decades on either end (so, the late 18th and very early 20th centuries) in Europe (mostly France and England) and America. But my sweet spot is mid-19th c America.

I do wonder whether growing up in an old house affected me--I think it must have. The house is about 200 years old, and you can *tell*. It's not all restored and prettified, though it's very livable. Something about living in a place with 200-year-old plaster, where snakes liked to hang out in the walls and where there were holes in my floor let me see downstairs . . . and chimneys for the stoves that would've been there . . . and a path out to where the out-house stood until the late 30's . . . and the old granary and barn and silo . . . It was the whole package, you know? I don't think it's a coincidence that the era I'm drawn to is the same period the house was built in.
 

frimble3

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First historical novel I remember reading was Geoffrey Trease's 'Word to Caesar', which we read in school. This neatly meshed with what I knew from the movies (a small town - the Saturday matinee couldn't be too child-centric because adults on night-shift, etc, went). So there was a steady stream of 'swords and sandals' epics, and stop-action fantasy. Greeks, Romans and vaguely Middle Eastern people were what I cut my teeth on. From there, Jean Plaidy, and on it went.
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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All sorts of things.

Dad reading me The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Getting involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism which put some history behind LOTR.
All the OTHER history in the SCA.
ALL the fantasy that has bits of history and figuring out which bits are real and which aren't.
Getting involved with the Longship Company, authenticity competitions, and museum demos.
Discovering Georgette Heyer and the Regency period.
Patricia Wrede's Marelion series.
 

MaeZe

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I love original sources. They draw me in, like the letters between Ben Franklin and his sister.

Meet Ben's Sister Jane, History's Forgotten Franklin

And like a new investigation into the Salem witch trials looking at original documents which dispels some long believed myths drew me in.

C-SPAN: Salem Witch Trials Legal Documents Project

I have an interest in evidence of what really happened, especially when it conflicts with long held beliefs. I suppose Howard Zin's work had something to do with that.

When I finish my fiction duology, I plan to write a book on the real history of nursing. Women have been written out of a lot of history and nursing is no exception when it comes to distorted history. If it's not written into history, it doesn't exist.

The same way if you don't verbalize certain things, they don't exist. Nursing diagnoses didn't exist until we put them into words. Before that, nurses were doctors' helpers. After we verbalized what we do, nurses became colleagues on the patient care team.
 
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angeliz2k

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I love original sources. They draw me in, like the letters between Ben Franklin and his sister.

Meet Ben's Sister Jane, History's Forgotten Franklin

And like a new investigation into the Salem witch trials looking at original documents which dispels some long believed myths drew me in.

C-SPAN: Salem Witch Trials Legal Documents Project

I have an interest in evidence of what really happened, especially when it conflicts with long held beliefs. I suppose Howard Zin's work had something to do with that.

When I finish my fiction duology, I plan to write a book on the real history of nursing. Women have been written out of a lot of history and nursing is no exception when it comes to distorted history. If it's not written into history, it doesn't exist.

The same way if you don't verbalize certain things, they don't exist. Nursing diagnoses didn't exist until we put them into words. Before that, nurses were doctors' helpers. After we verbalized what we do, nurses became colleagues on the patient care team.

Oh, the nursing thing sounds very interesting. I've been researching nursing/medicine during WW1. That actually IS an era where there's a lot of information on and interest in women serving as nurses. But, as was noted in one book I read, the focus is usually on VADs, and oftentimes the professional nurses are often made out to be horrible, inflexible biddies who want nothing more than to put the plucky VADs in their places. If you look at it more broadly, you could say this is because professional nurses were still something strange (a woman with a career outside the home!) while VADs would naturally return to the usual order of things after serving the war effort.