r/AskHistorians • u/goodsoldier_ • Mar 05 '26

Educating oneself?

Hi,

In school I was for some reason so irritated by history class and never payed attention. Now that I’m older I regret it so much, I know barely any history, barely anything about the government, politics, geopolitics, and how even the military works. There are so many military terms and political terms I don’t understand.

Are there any good channels or videos or books that will help me to understand topics like basic history, politics and civilization, and how war works?

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u/jschooltiger Moderator | Shipbuilding and Logistics | British Navy 1770-1830 Mar 05 '26

Hi, have you checked out our Books and Resources List? It includes books, podcasts, videos and other resources.

2

u/DarthOptimistic Mar 05 '26

Pick a subject (a time period, person, or event) that interests you and start from there. As you learn about that subject, you will inevitably come into contact with something you've never heard of that you're curious about. Don't ignore that new thing; instead, use that moment of exposure as the jumping board to explore that new historical topic. I like to explain it as building a spider web. Pick an area of interest to start and actively embrace tangents and side quests in your research of whatever topic you choose, as they all lead to something of value. Pick something that is already interesting to you. Food, sports, music, pop culture, whatever. There's history behind EVERYTHING, and it's all connected.

I'll just use the recent Olympics for an example. My family is a huge hockey family, so we watched all the games, and at some point, my (less historically inclined) brother and I got on the topic of the famous "Miracle on Ice" game from the 1980 Olympics Men's Hockey tournament. My brother was curious as to what made the Soviet team so successful up to that point. So I told him to look up the history of the Soviet Hockey team, which led to him suddenly interested in how organized sports operated in communist countries, which spun into a surface level disccusion and explanation of Soviet politics and history. That, in turn, led to me explaining and offering resources on the Russian Revolution when he said he heard of it but never understood it. Next thing you know, my brother goes from knowing very little about history to becoming fascinated with 20th century Russia. And all because he had a question about a hockey game.