As someone who has hung around this forum for a long while, any ideas on bringing some life back to it? I was thinking of starting up a historical movie/miniseries/etc. recommendation thread along the lines of the book thread.
The future of the History subforum...
- Thread starter Knight-Dragon
- Start date
As someone who has hung around this forum for a long while, any ideas on bringing some life back to it? I was thinking of starting up a historical movie/miniseries/etc. recommendation thread along the lines of the book thread.
ParkCungHee
Deity
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2006
- Messages
- 12,921
I'm putzing about with writing some articles. Any topics in Irish History someone would like to hear about?
ParkCungHee
Deity
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2006
- Messages
- 12,921
I can handle flawed!
Honestly though, I think the best part about the History forum is that while it generates a very low volume of discussion, it produces a very high quality of content, both in posts and in original material.
Honestly though, I think the best part about the History forum is that while it generates a very low volume of discussion, it produces a very high quality of content, both in posts and in original material.
The big problem in WH at the moment is that we old-timers have already been through the usual fare of newbies - crappy althists, poorly thought-out what-ifs, "Germany could have won WWII if only..." "Germany could NEVER have won WWI," etc.. There's very little that interests us still going on here, and less that interests us enough to actually discuss it. I don't know about you guys, but I'm so sick of comments like "if Mussolini hadn't invaded Greece, Germany would have invaded the USSR earlier, and therefore they'd have won." Sick enough to not bother correcting them any more, because, seriously, haven't I done it enough? Let alone all the times people besides me have corrected that one?
What we need is new blood that is actually capable of an intelligent discussion. Without wanting to insult anyone, the last guy I can remember actually growing and changing as a result of reading WH was Quackers. Most of the people who've come here since have simply left when they found out they were wrong about whatever their pet topic was. That's not good for our long-term survival.
What we need is new blood that is actually capable of an intelligent discussion. Without wanting to insult anyone, the last guy I can remember actually growing and changing as a result of reading WH was Quackers. Most of the people who've come here since have simply left when they found out they were wrong about whatever their pet topic was. That's not good for our long-term survival.
I think the only time I start a discussion here now is in the History Questions thread. Even then, I'm often ignored. Still waiting for an answer to my question about the Serbian royal family from about two years ago. The last really good discussion I remember here was our minor disagreement over Alexander the Great's Greekness. And that was pretty short.
Domen
Misico dux Vandalorum
Replace "First World War" with "Polish history" - and I agree. 
But then you have to delete "We can usually get something good going over" - because we usually can't.
But then you have to delete "We can usually get something good going over" - because we usually can't.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Speaking only for myself, I'll happily gobble up anything about Home Rule or the wars. Anything about pre-Kingdom Gaelic society would be interesting, too. (Been vaguely meaning to do more reading into that.)
Maybe we should start some of weekly "Let's talk about X" thread?
ParkCungHee
Deity
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2006
- Messages
- 12,921
Now when you say "Pre-Kingdom" do you mean Pre-1541?
I probably could stand to do a bit of research on the Gaelic Resurgence. In my head it's kind of "Vikings leave, stuff happens, then Henry VIII arrives"
Especially if we could pick topics we actually don't know about. Maybe we could organize it like a book club.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
If for no other reason than this, please don't move WH!
This.
I'm been here for like the last ten years or more. Pretty much anything I want to know, ask, or discuss, has been gone thru before, in some way. So nowadays (like for the last 2-3 years) I am pretty much not around anymore around here.
I think this would be a great idea.
I'm also interested in the subjects that people have brought up so far--maybe instead of writing long articles, we could post single paragraphs on a few subjects to spark a discussion.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
I also think this sounds like a fantastic idea, and would be glad to contribute. We could even archive them and link to past ones as collectively known "remember that time" reference tools in future arguments!
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
I would be extremely interested in a Third Home Rule Bill, but de Gaulle would be very interesting as well.
When I joined, I didn't think you even existed, because I don't think I saw you for three months.This.
I'm been here for like the last ten years or more. Pretty much anything I want to know, ask, or discuss, has been gone thru before, in some way. So nowadays (like for the last 2-3 years) I am pretty much not around anymore around here.
I love the "Let's talk about X" idea. And if we go with De Gaulle, I guess that's my cue, since I'm probably the closest thing to a De Gaulle expert (which is still very, very far away from it) that we have here.
ParkCungHee
Deity
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2006
- Messages
- 12,921
I think we should do post-war De Gaulle, because WWII is done to death.
The civil war period? Or De Gaulle in general? There's very little analysis of the Gaullist-OAS Civil War, largely because it was a secret, dirty little war where both sides completely threw out the rule book. Funnily enough, Frederick Forsyth - author of The Day of the Jackal, and a former journalist who reported on the war more than most - might just be the world's foremost expert on the period, and he's hardly an academic. The various government files dealing with the issue that have been released since - notably those of Germany and Italy - are very, very circumspect in how they deal with the situation (and mostly blacked out), though after De Gaulle had several high-profile OAS officers kidnapped in Germany the German files get a little, shall we say, frosty in their tone towards the Gaullists.
With the Gaullist victory, any attempt to study the period as anything other than "filthy traitors fighting against De Gaulle, embodiment of France" is out of the question in France itself, and few non-French academics have spared the period even a cursory glance, prefering to focus on the bigger Cold War picture. I've actually read more books about Algeria during the period than France. If anyone knows some decent sources on the Gaullist-OAS War, I'd be eternally grateful for them.
Similar threads
