Geography vs History

[slashpieturtlemix]

I tend to like history more unless the other is about anything Roman. I was a pretty bright bulb with history. I probably should have majored in it since I was finishing college level history courses with 100 and 99 A averages but my true fascination is with anything ancient. I love my ancient history. Anything Roman, Chinese, Greek, Egyptian or Persian and I am all for it!

[Prowler]

History sucks until you get a good teacher. Many people hate history due to terrible teachers. Math and philosophy suffer a lot with this as well. I love history because you need to know the past to understand the present. I like looking back and see how things have changed over the years. Plus, it's fun to discuss different interpretations of history with others and how our perceptions change as time moves on from a particular event. Not to mention history is very linked to other fields of my interest such as anthropology and linguistics. Gotta know history to know the latter ones.

As for my favorite periods... well, I like a lot of them. From Ancient Greece, Egypt and Ancient Rome(pre-Christianity) to the Age of Discovery and Japanese history after the Europeans made contact with them for the first time. Also WW1 and WW2, ofc.

Any Civilization, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron and Total War players here, by the way?

As for geography, well I've always been pretty good at pointing countries in the map and knowing their capital cities, but geography has much more to it than just that. It's also interesting to know what's the meaning of GDP, how a nation develops, its birthrates and deathrates, etc. And of course, it's important to know how to point stuff on a map if you like history. Imagine studying WW2 and thinking the USSR borders the UK

As elitist as this sounds, I find it odd how so many people are really terrible at geography. And by terrible I mean REALLY terrible. I don't think less of someone from not being able to point Vanuatu on the world map, but how can you have completed HS or university and not know that Paris is the capital of France, per example? How is that even possible? If someone doesn't know that then I shudder to think what else they might be ignorant about.

I always got complimented on my geography skills, bu I honestly don't feel happy about most people not being good at knowing capital cities and pointing countries on the map. They'd know it if they actually cared about it more.

[ssjup81]

Hm, both can be useful, but I find Geography to be more useful, especially if you aspire to travel. It's embarrassing going to other countries and then not being able to even locate where you are on a map....and if you are traveling, it's nice to use what you learned in Geography.

I used to be really good with both history and geography as a kid...but not so much now.

[Davetello]

Thanks for all your posts, liked reading them.

Prowler and ssjup - yeah, it can be pretty embarrassing when people don't know basic geographical facts. I once knew someone who thought that Europe was a country within the continent of the United Kingdom. Seriously.

[pandaderek]

I got my first degree in History. Its study can not leave out geography, anthropology, and many other fields, to give an estimated identity of something, someone, society, time period, or event. It's just the most important study for identity.

I hold history as the highest subject, past philosophy, my main discipline, because of the social aspect. I enjoy the arts that historians study, especially, the arts of the marginalized people of societies. They have the most appealing views of the world, to me. Like, I don't care for how Donal Trump experiences the world as I would KRS-One. The reality show that Donald Trump made would have no appeal to how I would be able to develop an identity of its society, but, the music KRS-One has made would...if I was a historian 1,000 years in the future. Or, I don't care for how the King William III viewed the world, through his politics, as I do Vincent van Gogh, through his paintings.

Although, I do think geography is important, as well. Especially, when it comes to renewable energy and building things, like cities. Like, Temecula, CA is a terrible place to build a big city, which they're doing, because it's in the valley...the smog from the cars can not climb over the mountains, therefore, the people living there are living in an environment, where the smog in the air is of higher percentage than big cities not located between mountains, which results in health issues and lowered life span.

Also, geography is important for how terrible European colonies divided up the Middle East...which is why there's so many conflicts, there.

[Davetello]

Originally Posted by pandaderek

I got my first degree in History. Its study can not leave out geography, anthropology, and many other fields, to give an estimated identity of something, someone, society, time period, or event. It's just the most important study for identity.

I hold history as the highest subject, past philosophy, my main discipline, because of the social aspect. I enjoy the arts that historians study, especially, the arts of the marginalized people of societies. They have the most appealing views of the world, to me. Like, I don't care for how Donal Trump experiences the world as I would KRS-One. The reality show that Donald Trump made would have no appeal to how I would be able to develop an identity of its society, but, the music KRS-One has made would...if I was a historian 1,000 years in the future. Or, I don't care for how the King William III viewed the world, through his politics, as I do Vincent van Gogh, through his paintings.

Although, I do think geography is important, as well. Especially, when it comes to renewable energy and building things, like cities. Like, Temecula, CA is a terrible place to build a big city, which they're doing, because it's in the valley...the smog from the cars can not climb over the mountains, therefore, the people living there are living in an environment, where the smog in the air is of higher percentage than big cities not located between mountains, which results in health issues and lowered life span.

Yeah, that's a good post. I agree mainly.

I too find the perspectives of subordinate or marginalised people fascinating. They're the ones with the most interesting stories to tell, to research.

[Wesley]

I prefer History. A lot of interesting events happened in the past.

[Davetello]

Originally Posted by Wesley

I prefer History. A lot of interesting events happened in the past.

Yep. I like temporal mechanics...the way that the present becomes the past and the future becomes the present.

[snake]

Love History. Everything about it.

[Wesley]

Originally Posted by Davetello

Yep. I like temporal mechanics...the way that the present becomes the past and the future becomes the present.

I like that, too. There's a tv programme called Reeling in the Years that looks back at the most notable Irish and international events from 1962 to 2009. It's amazing that the decades that I grew up in are now in the past.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

I don't like geography at all. I'm not interested in climates and terrain and stuff like that.

History on the other hand, I absolutely love. I love finding out about ancient medicines and old wars and battles. I find those extremely fascinating.

[Davetello]

I was learning about the Russian empire today. Very interesting stuff, although my attention span is a bit off. But I'd highly recommend people looking into it if that's their thing. My assignment is to compare and contrast this Russian land empire with the maritime empires of Britain and Spain. Really interesting stuff and worth reading about online, for those of you who love history.

[pannoni1]

I love both of these, and basically is where vs. when in its simplest definition, with the what and who used to identify and the why and how to interpret. I've always preferred Geography by far over history growing up and still do to a degree today (I even audtioned for the National Geography Bee in middle school, but lost in the school's finals), and in fact got my BS in that subject, but have grown to like history more, however history has lots of controversy that geography lacks in that it can be a more touchy subject, cheifly with the religious and political opinions that are frequently the subject of debate. That said in my home library, it really shows as I have nearly a thousand National Geographic issues dating back to 1918 (I'd rather upgrade to CD since most made since 1960 aren't that collectible), along with numerous Britannica Books of the Year mostly from 1940 to 2010, with some World Almanacs in addition. As TMNT fans, what this series has presented should help us to be more familiar with their namesakes (the Italian Renaissance, Japanese history, European cultures from the vacation in Europe sideseason, various time travel stories).

[Davetello]

Well, I have been reading more about colonialism - beyond the superficial level. I have to say that it's some very disturbing material. We all know it was brutal, but when you actually read graphic descriptions of what went on it simply depresses you. I have to write an essay on it this week but I'm finding the material very, very troubling.

[Davetello]

Reading about the Spanish conquests of the Aztec and Inca empires, and the formation of the New England colonies is well worth it, folks. Obviously most of us know something about these subjects on a superficial level, but on a deeper level they're fascinating.