I've been taught very little about the Italian presence in Africa - my HS teacher spent most of the (admittedly, very little) time she dedicated to colonialism in giving an extremely vague picture of it, only to jump to Fascism and WW2 afterwards. Hadn't I spoken with two family acquaintances who grew up and lived in Libya, I would have never known that there were - and still are - Italians living in Africa, and what they went through. Also, a close friend's grandmother grew up in colonial Eritrea, and her stories have always fascinated me... this is also why I wanted to learn more about that. Unfortunately, the whole topic has been conveniently forgotten in Italy.

I don't think there's ever a time that I wasn't interested in historical clothing - I can just barely remember dressing up as Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) as 4 or 5, and I have a sketchbook from when I was 8 or 9 where I drew women in historical underclothing on one side of a page and then all dressed up on the other, so you could hold it up to the light and see all the layers. In third grade, everyone in my class had to give an oral presentation, and I decided "18th century women's clothing" was my best option.

Around the same time I got very interested in archaeology and decided that was going to be my education path, which I did travel down through undergrad. In retrospect, I should have realized that what had really sparked my interest in that was the story of Schliemann putting Trojan jewelry on his wife. But I do study the history of fashion, textiles, and decorative arts from a more archaeological standpoint even now.

I like to say that I chose Ottoman history out of spite. Growing up in western Canada, our history classes were rather cluttered; American and European history, alongside the requisite Canadian, First Nations and Quebecois history ensured that there was not enough room for much else! So when I begun university, I took a course on Renaissane Europe, and suddenly this weird group called the Ottomans came up ever more frequently. Up until that point, the Ottomans had always been referred to as "the Turks", and so I chalked them up to one of the many Asiatic ethnic groups I knew existed but otherwise knew little about. As I dug more, however, I realized that I found the Ottoman Empire to be utterly fascinating. I wrote a paper on the Battle of Lepanto, and I'm now doing a masters program on Ottoman historiography!

First off, I consider myself an amateur historian. I studied economics and political science with a focus on foreign policy and trade. While researching trade agreements in Central and South America, I read an article on El Mirador and fell in love. Ever since then, I've gone out of my way to study Mesoamerica, in particular the lesser known sites as it is quite fascinating to me that some of the largest and most influential sites in Mesoamerica are still being excavated and discovered to this day.

I first became interested in the Counter Revolution in Revolutionary France through seeing an illustrated book on the Vendee in a French supermarket whilst there on holiday. When, some years later I went to University I, as an under-graduate, focused on the French Revolution. Later, for my Masters and beyond I further specialised in Revolutionary France, doing research in Paris (having to learn 18th century French and having to learn to read 18th century French handwriting in the process!). I now teach it.

There's just something so unbelievable about having clues to our past literally underfoot waiting to be plotted, measured and interpreted. I've put shovel to earth thousands, probably tens of thousands of times and there is still a little thrill of discovery when you find people have been there before you and they're waiting to tell you their stories if you're willing to put in the work of uncovering them.

I wrote this post almost a year ago and even in that year I have more to add about how I'd answer this question.

I wrote a couple papers in my undergrad about the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, though I had no real interest in the region before that. But after doing that I then went and taught English in Georgia last year, and the experience made me change my interest for my MA. Its a fascinating region that is not really studied or widely known, which also played a factor; I felt that it would be easier to make a name for myself in a lesser known field rather than one that is widely studied (my original plan was to work on Poland/Ukraine).

I didn't find history until I was halfway through my undergraduate career and started thinking, for the first time about the kind of life and career I wanted to have. My academics were all pretty theoretical/intellectual/abstract (Philosophy, english, latin, religion, literature of other languages, linguistics, etc.) The other half of my life was caught up in activism; I lived in an eco-coop, worked on the school farm, and did all sorts of other stuff in that vein.

Through sheer luck I took a course on environmental history and discovered there was a middle ground between my desire to luxuriate in the uselessness of stimulating intellectual pursuits and my need to feel like I was making the world a better place - environmental history! (My research is motivated not by activist intentions, but by a desire for understanding, though, and I think this is important.) I look at twentieth century America mostly, because that is the direct heritage of activism and also environmentally destructive practices, agribusiness corporate food systems, and partisan politics of sustainability that I have been active in, and struggling to understand.

I follow ideas, themes, and conflict in my research more than confine myself to a narrow time-and-place, as do many historians. Indeed, at least within American history, scholars who write multiple books on the same time/place/phenomenon (like Robert Rydell who has written extensively on World's Fairs) are much more rare than scholars who move from topic to topic following ideas: Lizabeth Cohen went from her first book taking place in inner-city Chicago in the early twentieth century to a second book centered in the postwar suburbs of New Jersey; the idea she followed was American consumption practices. (That's actually a slight beef I have with the 'flair' system of this subreddit, though I suppose that can't be avoided; they are more time/place than idea-oriented)

I recall an affinity for 20th century Europe as a young child, circa 5 years of age; with specificity, the Second World War. Therein I gained my general interest in historical study; however as time progressed, I shifted my preferences to my contemporary area of study: Archaic and Classical Hellenic civilization, circa 600-300 BCE. I had discovered an immensely astounding world of antiquity; the culture, language, the feats thereof; the mythology, the politics, the everyday life; it all was and is profoundly amazing, interesting, and truly influential upon our modern Western society. In many manners, academics - ancient history, foremost - have been an escape for myself; the stresses of life dissolve when one is afforded the opportunity to delve into an entirely different civilization, one whose customs and practices seem as though they constitute a foreign world to us, and still yet relate to us.

You know, I don't have a story for how I got into castrati, and I really should, because it's one of those specialties (compared to like the Civil War or something) that really people just DEMAND an explanation for. Like, I must have a damned good reason to be doing this, people assume. But I don't! If someone can please think up a story and send it to me that would be good. Really I just heard about castrati at some point in high school and found them fascinating.

But really. Let's see. This article and the following "learned" reddit comments are a lot of the reason why. People treat eunuchs like a big ole joke, for a lot of reasons, but perhaps because the idea of sex and generation is still THAT integral to our ideas of masculinity. No one would make these jokes about someone having their eyes poked out, or losing a leg. It's just... something motivatingly awful to me the way they're treated, both in history and now. If I can make even one additional person who normally wouldn't look a eunuch in the eye (metaphorically) at least think about them as real human beings for two minutes, then I feel like I haven't wasted my time today.

I've been colorizing images for a while, and that hobby came with a fascination of photography at a young age (My mother is a photographer), and the incredible quality of most 19th century photographs, especially those captured by Mathew Brady. From that, I became intensely interested in the American Civil War, which led to the American Revolution, which I became completely enamored with about 10 years ago, and ever since then, I've been studying these topics of history intensely.

My favorite topic though, is definitely color photography - it was, and still is absolutely mindblowing seeing these kind of photographs from the late 19th/early 20th century of moment in an average persons life from way back when - it's beautiful.

What got me into history in general were video games, particularly Age of Mythology and Rome Total War and Im amazed no one else has said this before me. After Age of Mythology I was always interested in ancient civ.

I always figured nationalism is one of the most influential reasons for people to become interested in history. Usually that nationalism is bad though, because those individuals may not always except what is not to their liking. Anyway Im not a historian, but I am getting my undergrad and probably masters in history to hopefully teach.

I've always been drawn to American History and baseball has always been a part of my life ever since I was 8 or 9 years old. These were really separate passions until I got to university and began to better understand baseball as a cultural artifact. Once I began to learn about and fully appreciate things like race relations and shifts in the American identity in the 20th century, and saw its parallels in baseball, I was hooked on the sport as a piece of Americana and much more than what was on the field.

honestly i don't like greek and i don't like the squabbling of roman history. i like it better when the families build towers and have it out with each other.