What Point in human history do you find the most fascinating?

I mean there's a million good answers, but I think probably the most interesting time to be a human would've been the Colonial period. A, if you were from whatever colonial empire, you get to sign on with a ship and go someplace that like two people have ever come back from. B, if you're from any of several colonized civilizations, you get a real actual just war -- which would be a lot of things, but none of them 'boring.' Bonus points if you're in Japan, because then instead of war you get to experience the fastest period of cultural advancement in human history. C, in a select few places, you get to contribute to the birth of a brand-new friggin' country, which would've been exciting as all hell. D, pirates and ninjas/samurai and cowboys and like a shitload of equally incredible traditions all coexisted in the world at once (lookin' at you, mamlukes).

It's without doubt the most interesting 2-300 years in human history.

Then again, if I pick 'right now,' I get to keep my PS4, so....... decisions.

I like ancient history, or I guess more appropriately history of societies that are only on the cusp of modernization. I don't even know why, but there is just something strangely poetic about that phase in the development of civilization, where society is only just crawling out of tribalism and the first hints of what will become the modern world is starting to appear. I guess it is sort of cliche, but the Greek and Roman worlds always seemed especially interesting. In both of those cases, that marriage between modern and tribal is especially apparent.

But what time would I want to live? Now. I think the best times in history to be alive would be either the last 100 years in the Western World or the 2nd Century AD in the Roman world. I would imagine there is a Chinese equivalent, but I am woefully under-educated when it comes to China.

I'd like to be able to visit gold-rush San Francisco, pre-Castro Cuba, Cambodia during Pol Pot's reign of terror, and the Palestinian province during the Zionist movement.

Each of these places hold some significance to me personally, and all of them were during this dramatic shift in the area's history that would reshape it forever.

I've only known these place's on the other side of the event, the aftermath of the history. I'd like to be able to actually see what happened that led to the situation today.

Then I would maybe stop off at an expensive 1920's tailor to get some swagging dress clothing, and then a general goods store on the American frontier to get some swagging 'outdoors casual' wear. And also drop by a Hellenistic armorer to get some nice linothorax armor.

Actually, forget everything I've just said. I would rather go back to the dawn of Paleolithic era, and then collect clothing from every decade from then to the present day, all from various parts of the world.

If I spend any amount of time on wikipedia, I end up in the fashion and armor sections, looking at pictures of houte couture from nine hundred years ago and scrutinizing the changes in armor over the centuries.

(Did you know that for a time, European suits of armor had special concave disks of armor that would protect the wearer's armpit from unfortunate stabbings?)

I think that once I have collected all the fashion that has ever existed, I can begin to do something meaningful in my life. Like holding the most comprehensive fashion show of history.

It's hard to pick.

I'd say the Enlightenment Period for the simple romantic image that was the time the European Middle Class really started to blossom. And with it some activities we come to associate as comfortable arising in a very classical setting. I am of course talking about the rise of the coffee house and people going there to casually drink coffee in social setting. There's a sort of warm, mid-summery glow to that sort of picture. Where as the old pubs, taverns, and inns have a sort of older moldier light in that respect. Bars in that respect don't seem to carry the same light as the coffee house which has the romantic image of intellectual advancement flaunted during that era.

Besides the coffee house you have a great shift in thought leading to modern liberalism and the idea of national revolution.

Of course during that period you of course have some of the most violent religiously-inspired conflicts as the Christian World schisms. Never mind the Crusades, that shit was old school with only a few ten thousand being deployed and vague k/d rates. Thirty Years War you get hundreds of thousands moving out and millions dying across central and western Europe in an internalized German religious conflict to an effort to maintain the old-school status-quo.

Alternatively the Cold War era is rather interesting, one put down in a romantic light by Warren Zevon in songs like Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner and Lawyers, Guns, and Money. Together the two songs construct the theme of some of some of the interest in this period. You also have most broadly the factors that most directly dictate the current paradigm of the world. There's a lot of intrigue and back-door conflict to go around on top of that and considerable movement forward in many fields.

However that era seems to fuel the idea that war breeds advancement as looking back at the Cold War people can note a lot of minor conflicts speckled across the globe that may have had the interest of any one of the modern Great Powers or any one of the two (or three, pre-Suez Crisis) Super Powers. This gives the impression I feel that a lot of scientific development was had because involvement in globalized conflicts like Vietnam or Korea or the entire environment of stiff political competition between the Soviets and Americans. And although that may be true, there's still a variety of factors I believe people overlook when considering the pace of technology: namely the communication infrastructure that had come to exist at that time and the globalization of the scientific community so it wasn't all one relatively wealthy person sitting at home reading dusty tomes, it was an effort now of multiple minds and multiple minds below them. People forget that.

And of course there's the typical fascination of the medieval ages. My eyes have lately been drifting over the Slavic, pagan world with a sort of fascination. And of course that period contains some internalized events in the Muslim world that continue to echo even today.

I would've loved to have been around to see the American Revolution.

But, being female, and brown, probably best I'm where I am now. ^_^

I've always been drawn to the Victorian era. (Which will hardly surprise anyone considering my handle, I'm sure.) There's something that fascinates me about it -- the literature, the fashions, the architecture, the history, etc. It's always felt to me like I was born in the wrong time period and that's where I was supposed to exist. (Though, that said, I would really miss the convenience of computers/electronics...)

I wouldn't mind the European time(as in the one when quarterstaves, rapiers and rondells flourished)but I also would happily travel exactly 14 years ago and help those in need, I'm sure you can all understand where I'm going with that one.

I wouldn't mind the European time(as in the one when quarterstaves, rapiers and rondells flourished)but I also would happily travel exactly 14 years ago and help those in need, I'm sure you can all understand where I'm going with that one.

"European Times" is oftly vague and incorrect. There's been no "European Time" :P. Saying that might well imply everything from the Age of Exploration until now, since arguably the entire world is or has developed according to the influence of European society and governance. Hell, the Chinese government isn't arguably Chinese, you could argue it's Leninist-Russian (given the China-Soviet schism).

But I suppose you mean the Middle Ages in Europe. Though the weapons you mentioned are post-medieval.

@Dinh AaronMkthats what I mean, thank you for clearing that up, I'm not exactly a historian, but if Egypt or weapons of that type are the subject, I'm listening.

RP wise, I love almost all time periods, minus some points in the ancient world.

Realistically, being a middle class Asian, I'd be fucked no matter where or what time period I'm in. White people are mean ;-;

RP wise, I love almost all time periods, minus some points in the ancient world.

Realistically, being a middle class Asian, I'd be fucked no matter where or what time period I'm in. White people are mean ;-;

You should be fine so long as you don't go to the old west, or 1940's America.

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or 1940's America.

Damn dirty Japs.

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You should be fine so long as you don't go to the old west, or 1940's America.

Or -- let's be honest here -- most parts of Asia, for most of recorded history.

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Or -- let's be honest here -- most parts of Asia, for most of recorded history.

Well, if we are going that direction, none of us should probably leave the modern world. It's only downhill from here.

I'm really into ancient times like ancient Egypt and different countries out there. Mainly because there is so much achievement in human history that happened in this time and some of the most basic human inventions happened in these times. Like irrigation with the Egyptians, algebra from the ancient Middle East, and the seven ancient wonders of the world.

Though if we're talking favorite time period I'd wanna live in, aside from the ancient times, I'd probably wanna live through the 1980s. Just to be a teenager in the 80s must've been amazing. So much happened in the 80s: some of the greatest songs were released, the Wall fell, Ronald Reagan was president, and so much more happened in the 80s that would be amazing to have been alive to see.

Well, I was alive for the last two months of the eighties, and I was born the same week the wall fell, so if you have any questions just ask.

Does "pre-history" count? The Upper Paleolithic? It was a period in human history, albeit not really a recorded one, but existed never the less. Various reasons for my interests, from Lascaux to the Lowenmensch Relic or even the living things of the period. Either way, if we're toying with the idea of "favorite point in time" this easily has my vote.

Ronald Reagan was president

You may want to rethink your priorities if Reagan is a good thing.

That is of course if your current social status is on the benefiting side of his trickle-down policies and not among the majority of us.