Fifteen more years and we can ask questions about /r/AskHistorians!

My love affair with history began in 2nd grade when I memorized the cause of death for every U.S. president. I'm still a strange person, obsessed with impact of infectious disease on human history, and I'm so thankful to both my second grade teacher and /r/AskHistorians for allowing me an outlet to be an anthropology nerd. Happy Birthday, my friends!

sees meta thread ##SHIT POSTS GET YOUR SHIT POSTS HERE##

When I was a kid, my parents put me to sleep by playing cassette tapes of historical stories. That started my love for history. They are fantastic stories of fiction, except real. Whether it's the rise and fall of empires, or a small baker trying to eek out a living, or a beautiful princess or a psychopath tyrant or a weak youth growing into a strong leader, history have it all.

Oh my god a thread in AH I'm actually qualified to post in, this is fantastic!

Not even gonna lie, I got into history because I wanted to know who the hell all these people attacking me in Civ V were. It kinda just spiraled out of control from there.

No shitposting this time around? Awwww...

Hm. I liked history and the social sciences since I was a child, but it wasn't until I was in 11th grade and in AP US History that I fell in love with the subject. My APUSH teacher was amazeballs, and I keep that love alive through lots of book reading.

My passion has always been about understanding people in the historical past. Part of me wants to understand the present through what we've come to understand as our past (mythological or not), but part of me just wants to learn about history because it's fun.

I don't know I could give a clean answer to that question, because I didn't grow up loving history, I grew up surrounded by it.

My family is from a ghost town (which fact I only learned recently) and my family home was full of artifacts of previous generations, from the century-old piano in the living room, to the grammaphone in the basement, to my dead cousin's bed I'd inherited and slept in, surrounded by mementos of her life that also passed to me (no, seriously). My grandparents' home was a monument to the dead in the family, particularly my great-uncle killed in the the War and my previously mentioned dead cousin. For my birthday, I'd get things that had belonged to dead relatives. My father liked to stop off at random side-of-the-road memorial plaques to tell me about whatever contextless thing had happened there, so I overall got the impression history was rather gloomy and pointless.

This was well reinforced in high school, which was all WWI and WWII (which I was not and still am not interested in) and memorization of dates.

Yet still, I read historical fiction, and then read around any subject therein encountered, quite voraciously. Same for folk music, another love of mine, trying to determine the context and history of these songs without ever referring to them as history.

Then a notorious typo sent me spiralling into the world of Jacobites and it got out of control when I began telling myself a story as a means of curing boredom during mandatory training. One research question led to another, and since I was already on Reddit, I asked on /r/history, and someone there pointed me here and...

Oops. I was pretty hooked and spent more and more time here, even occasionally daring to answer questions. Then I got tapped as a Quality Contributor (one of the first!), and finally, FINALLY, realized I actually liked this subject I'd always thought I hated. It was a weird moment, and I'm apparently quite self-deceiving at times.

I like boobies. And penii. And fancy art.

No honestly, I'm really just interested in how privacy and the family evolved and why we ended up with the family and sexuality and the monogamy structures that we have today. History of pornography just comes from history of the book because thats one of the few windows we have into people's lives and thoughts and minds.

My dad read me Homer when I was little. A lot.

Happy Birthday! Thanks to all for keeping this sub serious, and and seriously informative. Everytime I click, I learn something because of you all.

In 1990, the eight-year-old version of me sat alone watching Ken Burns’ Civil War. As the notes of “Ashokan Farewell” drifted from the TV, I reenacted the battles depicted in the documentary using my set of pirate Legos. From that point on, my interest in the subject expanded and deepened. That first moment sparked my interest in the Civil War, and I recounted to my mother my understanding of the Battle of Gettysburg—an incorrect, eight-year-old’s understanding as it turns out. In spite of this early misunderstanding, I continued to love and study history and it has permeated all that I have done since. It led me to repeatedly check out the same WWI book from the local library and it took me to numerous locales as a Civil War Reenactor.

This love has continued to serve me well as I now begin my PhD work. I pray that it will, and if history is any indication it will, serve me well in my future endeavors.

So I admit I love garbage literature. My favorite genre is historical romance. No joke.

But I read these and wonder, did that author write that because it actually happened that way in the past, or because they are full of shit.

Love this place

Five years already? May many more still come!!!

My passion for history started when I had nothing to watch on the TV except documentaries made by National Geographic. I didn’t know by then why I liked so much, but I can say now is that I had a deep desire of knowing everything there is to know, from historical events to animal trivia.

I have always liked history. I suspect that if I wasn't obsessed with the way things Used To Be I would have had my residency in the Commonwealth of Virginia revoked. I grew up with the usual assortment of pop histories and documentaries and kid's books (shout out to Peter Connolly, who through a roundabout way might be the reason I met my wife), but I just kept reading. And if you read enough and ask enough questions, you get into rabbit holes. Eventually I was reading 'The Knight and the Blast Furnace' right after college and looking at every picture of a sallet I could find.

But why do I do this? That's harder to say. I like the almost...world-building aspect of studying the past. You're talking about people that lived differently than we do, thought differently than we do, and yet are still our fellow human beings. What they did made sense and if we are careful, it can make sense to us. Learning about history shows the diversity and malleability of humanity. After studying philosophy for four years and using pure reason to (try to) determine universal truths, studying history and using evidence to arrive at particular truths had a lot of appeal.

What's interesting is how AH has shaped and continues to shape the way I engage my own studies. I used to be a bit more scattershot in my interests. AH's questions make me a better reader and researcher in my own interests, even while they broaden my horizons as I talk to other people studying other things.

Fuck it. Armour is Cool.

According to wikipedia, fifth anniversary is "wood".

*giggle*

Ahem, serious time. I don't particularly like history, since I'm bad at rote learning (I prefer disciplines where you use basic theories to construct more elaborate ones), but over the years it's starting to grow on me. I learn a lot of surprising facts, like "there's no primary source on Jesus" or "the dark ages ain't that dark". Also, historical texts - interesting ones, anyway - are good reads at work.

That said, I shudder at the thought of how, in two decades, we will have questions in this sub along the lines of "what is the significance of Harambe?" or "is the value of rare pepes remain constant throughout history?"

Do I have to be passionate about history to reply here?

I was never much into history and still am not. This place is my sole dose of history. But I like hanging around because you folks are awfully smart and knowledgeable bunch and I sincerely enjoy reading about (to me) vaguest of topics I would not think about otherwise.

Come to think of it I am somewhat of an information junkie, and you have here as close to authentic information a guy can get his hands on.

I was always a voracious reader as a kid. I liked all kinds of stories, but some of my favorites were the ones grounded in facts, based on true events.

As I got older, I began to realize that many of the best stories didn't need any embellishing at all. So many crazy, incredible, mind-blowing things have happened throughout history and I wanted to know all about them.

Then I started realizing that you can't just have the stories. The historical stories I read intrigued me beyond the details of the texts, and I realized that I hated "plot holes" in history just as much as in novels. Fortunately, plot holes in history are not the result of some author's oversight, but rather missing information that one can often discover through other sources.

So now I like learning about history because it helps me fill in the gaps in the ongoing story of human history, one which I am actually a living, breathing part of.

To me history is special because it makes our unfounded assumptions of what we think of as normal obvious, when modern ideas are either shown to be common throughout all cultures, or whether they are seen as a single piece of a small part of our current culture.

Thank you to all the informed contributors of this subreddit! We don't get to post our mountains of thanks in the regular threads but that is part of what I enjoy about this sub, stay strict everybody!

As for why do I love history? No idea. As a child I never cared about it. One day something just clicked in me and I became compelled to learn about the past. I think as my horizons broadened and my own experiences diversified I just saw this rich interconnected nature of human experience and struggle and triumph that is so interesting.

Thanks again to everyone who contributes, your answers have probably ignited the passion for history in more than one redditor.

Hoo boy, I recently wrote about this exact thing to get onto a history degree.

The short of it is the stories. I love finding out how people lived and imagining in my head what their daily routine could be. It's like I went to /r/worldbuilding and read about the fantasy Mycenaean civilisation only it's real not fantasy.

Happy birthday AskHistorians! Such an amazing work, day in, day out. Love this place and you guys to bits!

(Seriously though, what kinda shaving cream would Hitler use? And what if...)

My love of history started in 4th grade when we studied Ohio history. It kind of died down until American History in high school. My main area of interest is the American Revolution and, unfortunately, I've got a long way to go before I can speak intelligently on the people, places and the events. With the kind of informal atmosphere, I've just busted through 1776 and American Sphinx (Jefferson biography) before that. Are there any books I need to get through next?

I actually didn't really like history for a lot of my early life. Virginia has a lot of history it kind of forces on you, but memorizing the early governors of Jamestown is pretty excruciatingly boring when you're 7. Instead I loved myth and legend. My dad read me tons of Greek Myths when I was little, and I quickly became obsessed with Arthurian Legend, Robin Hood, and (of course) The Lord of the Rings (my first and truest love).

These latter influences largely explain my later shift into medieval history, for history more generally I only really began to enjoy it in High School when a string of good teachers and in-depth AP courses started to show me that there was more to history than memorization and repetition. It also helped that I was really good at history, so that encouraged me to keep doing it in college.

Initially I thought I was probably going to end up specializing in Philosophy rather than History as I generally preferred the former subject, but my university's departments quickly convinced me that I'd rather be with the historians. Had I gone to a different institution I probably could have gone the other way, but I'm happy with where I ended up (academically anyway). Crossbows are pretty cool.

I've loved history since primary school when I was totally obsessed with the Ancient Greeks and Romans, especially the mythology. I loved The Odyssey when I read it (though I'd imagine it was a more simply translated version) as a kid and knew all about the Roman and Greek gods, and loved the lore around them.

I don't quite know why I switched away from liking, or preferring, ancient history but I do know that during secondary school I switched to the other end of the spectrum for the area of history I am now most interested in.

While I end up really interested in any area of history I read about, the subjects that I love to study more than any other are by far the combination of the Soviet Union, the Cold War, and America in the 20th century. This probably started in earnest during Sixth Form when I studied the Korean War and Vietnam and fell in love with the ideological conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Now this part is probably the most important reason for my continuing fascination with history; I had some great teachers. During secondary school there was one teacher, (let's call him Mr. S) that taught me about the Northern Ireland conflict as well as Germany (1914-1939) and he was great at getting us, or me at least, really interested in the topics. During Sixth Form (when I moved schools) it was Mr. M, who taught me about Korea, Vietnam, and about the Civil Rights movements in the US.

Although I was always going to be interested in history, it was the presence of these teachers that really pushed me on with wanting to study the subject and (I hope) one day make it my profession. For this I want to thank not just those teachers, but all teachers, especially pre-degree/university level, who engage with students and make them interested in any subject.

I also love the way that studying history can broaden your outlook on the world. It allows this jigsaw puzzle effect where at some points parts click in place and you think "Holy crap! So THAT'S why that happened"/"Oh so that's the origin of x". By studying the 19th century (most prominently the unification of both Germany and Italy as nations, as well as the relationship between the European powers), I really gained an insight into the origins of many events that occurred in the following century, and that's an incredibly enlightening feeling.

Thank you so much for the on-point Moderation! And for experts that post here, too!This is definitely one of my top subs.

You can only reply with a question right?

Wait does this post violate the 20 year rule? :p

The truth resists simplicity, and the best way to seek out whats true currently is to look backwards. And though I hate to admit it, politely correcting people, when it matters, about historical facts gives me great pleasure

Personally, "great man" theory and the desire to one day emulate one of the Giants among men drew me into historical study. Recently though it has been my focus on video games that feature historically accurate events occurring has really drew me in further. Also a huge thanks to the mods of this sub for keeping it clean and the quality of answers high.

Personally, "great man" theory and the desire to one day emulate one of the Giants among men drew me into historical study. Recently though it has been my focus on video games that feature historically accurate events occurring has really drew me in further. Also a huge thanks to the mods of this sub for keeping it clean and the quality of answers high.