I do too. My history teachers tried, but most of what I learned about history I learned as an adult, mainly because I really like historical biographies. There was a time when I’d have multiple books going at once, but that was decades ago now.
What has really fired me up in the last few years has been listening to Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman, who are both essentially historians/history teachers/historical authors turned contemporary political commentators.
Until them I avoided almost all modern political commentary because it all sounds like fantasy football to me, with participants hotly arguing conjecture. But when I first heard Richardson, she was talking about how some particular thing with Trump had a clear parallel in something that had happened in Reconstruction, I could see it for myself, and suddenly history had relevance again.
I was hooked. She does a Saturday morning thing with Dr. Freeman, whose specialty seems to be Alexander Hamilton, and they both just talk history in the modern context and laugh. I haven’t read their books, but I might, and Richardson also has a Substack I catch occasionally.
Somehow those two have got me interested again, and it’s no longer strategists arguing fantasy politics. (I still don’t listen to anyone else, lol.)
Thanks for this bit of history. I wish more history books in school covered this part of our past.
I do too. My history teachers tried, but most of what I learned about history I learned as an adult, mainly because I really like historical biographies. There was a time when I’d have multiple books going at once, but that was decades ago now.
What has really fired me up in the last few years has been listening to Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman, who are both essentially historians/history teachers/historical authors turned contemporary political commentators.
Until them I avoided almost all modern political commentary because it all sounds like fantasy football to me, with participants hotly arguing conjecture. But when I first heard Richardson, she was talking about how some particular thing with Trump had a clear parallel in something that had happened in Reconstruction, I could see it for myself, and suddenly history had relevance again.
I was hooked. She does a Saturday morning thing with Dr. Freeman, whose specialty seems to be Alexander Hamilton, and they both just talk history in the modern context and laugh. I haven’t read their books, but I might, and Richardson also has a Substack I catch occasionally.
Somehow those two have got me interested again, and it’s no longer strategists arguing fantasy politics. (I still don’t listen to anyone else, lol.)
Never too late to learn.