Hi!
I´m new to this reddit, my first post and glad that I finally took little time to create an account.
**I wonder, if you are interested in the larger overview of history or scale it down to we say a country like France during the early modern period (the 1492-1789), how would you go about and learn about the subject, remember it and understand it?**Because I often find myself, reading and forgetting without a clear roadmap where different events are located.(I understand this is a long period of time and both "remembering" likewise "understanding" it is subjective, however I mean it in a overview way with greater detail and nuance than pre-university courses would teach one.)
I´m interested in history the developments contrasts and continuities of it, and especially history of ideas. Other things of interests is political, cultural, and history of economics.I´ve read a little Big history, Homo Sapiens by Yuval and The Silk Roads Peter Frankopan - which, especially the latter were great. However they were a little too wide-spanning.
I´m grateful for your responses and pardon me if this isn´t the correct subreddit for these sort of questions.
History is a broad field, so you are never going to know everything about it all. And experts in history have spent years reading and writing about the subject. It's sadly not something you can just digest quickly.
My advice is to read scholarly books if you want to get a sense of how historians operate. These are usually different from popular histories (the line can be blurry albeit). You can also find historiographical discussions that give you an idea of the different interpertatons and arguments people have. This is not always the most enjoyable task for the average person. So, if it's too much at first, I'd recommend at least reading the introductions.
Also, an easy way to find more books to read is looking in the author's footnotes. They'll often mention other historians' work in referencing/providing a rebuttal for their argument. Plus, historians can sometimes be passive aggressive and snarky in their footnotes, which is always a treat to find.
It's also good to figure out what interests you. We historians all have our favorite time period(s). It's okay to enjoy a bunch, but often one will stick out--and it might not be the first one you look at either! As a lifelong history buff, I didn't discover my love of medical history until my third year of university.
And it's okay to forget exact dates and names sometimes. Of course, if you're writing something to publish or for a school assignment, you need to have the correct info. But don't get hung up on memorizing every minute detail. History is about a lot more than just dates of events.
Good luck!