I believe I have mentioned in the past that I am fascinated by that period of American and world history between 1930 and 1946. Those 16 or 17 years were important for a number of reasons and I do not quite understand just why I fixate on them. In many ways, I am sad because I was born after them and did not get to experience them firsthand. In others, I am glad I did not have to live through them.
I read books written during, and about, that period. I watch movies about, or made during, that period... thank you, Ted Turner, for TCM... and am transported back there. If time travel was possible, and I had access to a time machine, that would be the first time period I would visit.
To understand the period, you need to also get a grasp for the decades preceding it. But, though I read about the Spanish-American War, the early years of the 20th Century, and World War I, and the Roaring Twenties, I never got as fascinated by them as I have the next period. I often wonder why we, as humans, fixate on things. What draws us to one thing or another? Why do I play golf even though I am barely adequate at it? But I digress...
Getting back to World War II and the events leading up to it... Some say that World War I and II were actually just one long war with an odd and prolonged truce between the violent periods. There are times I agree with that and others where I don't. Mostly, I don't. But I do think it is true that World War II was the inevitable result of World War I. The rise of fascism, the last vestiges of true (or, maybe, just blatant) imperialism, the effect of losing and winning by the respective nations, the mistakes made in the aftermath of World War I still impact us today. It is a bit ironic that the war dubbed The war to end all wars spawned so many more.
But enough about what I am fascinated by. Intrigue me. Tell me what other periods I should fixate on. What period of history, more than any other, you would wish to experience firsthand?
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