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Cover made by @LMLuvaine

This is an @editorsUNITE Thread Discussion.

This thread is for historians and people interested in history. Choose any topic or time period and discuss. Don’t be hesitated to ask questions! If you need help on your HF story; bring your questions to the experts!


Historians: When you post a lot of information on different topics you will be added to the “Great Historians” list below which is basically a list of people who know a lot about history and are therefore honored on this thread.






@ctyolene
Peninsular war
Regency London

@GMSoban
~American History from 1700s-present This is what I specifically know about in American history are the wars (ranging from 1812 to Persian Gulf), the sexual revolution, and early 20s to 50s.

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~ English history from 1300s-present In English history I know loads about the literature, culture, and foreign affairs such as wars, treaties, and monarchs.
~ Restoration period, Renaissance
~ Ancient Greek history, culture, philosophy and language
~ (Basic) Roman history and language
~Middle Ages
~Serial Killers in history
~French revolution
~anything related to Jack the Ripper (wrote a paper on it)
~Mafia history.
~I also specialize in rare books, artifacts, and antiques
~religion as in Demons, Angels
the paranormal aspect of things such as ghosts, entities, and old folklore tales like the Jersey Devil and Mothman.

@Alice_Iceflower
~Bladesmithing
~ Medieval English city life and politics (1150-1250, roughly)
~ Thallium poisoning
~ Normal working of a human body, and its anatomy
~ Ancient Greek history, culture, philosophy and language
~ (Basic) Roman history and language
~History of the Low Lands, and language (obviously).
(The last three of these topics are known in lesser detail, since they are remnants of my high school education.)

@KiplingKat
~Maritime history (I did my honors thesis in this)
~General Ancient and Medieval Europe
~British history
~American history
~Some Asian history (I had a couple classes, read a couple books)

@BirdyEdwards
~early 1900s
~ the 1950s.
(Mostly American since I did extra research on that cause it's hard to find, but I know basic UK info too.)
~the American Civil War. (Not battles and stuff, but things like lifestyle)
~tuberculosis
~ sociopaths/psychosis.

@praeciarus
~random time periods of interest
~Tudors
~Titanomarchy
~Greek Mythology

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Hey look, it's a me.

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@BirdyEdwards lol. What time period do you specialize in?

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Thank you for the compliment. :) Yes, I would be happy to give precis and point writers in the right direction for their research (but not do research for them, sorry but I have my own research and things to write).

~Maritime history (I did my honors thesis in this) ~General Ancient and Medieval Europe ~British history ~American history ~Some Asian history (I had a couple classes, read a couple books)

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Actually how to research might be a good place to start.

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@KiplingKat How would you suggest researching? I usually just pick up a random book that looks thick and hope I get good information ^__^

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I've been doing a lot of research on the Peninsular war and Regency London, so I'll check stuff in those periods.

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To start with, don't get your facts from fictional books. Reading a Georgette Heyer romance is not going to give you enough concise information about the Georgian era. What information you get, you will probably not fully understand.

Go to non-fiction books, and not just any non fiction books. When you pick up a history book at the library or bookstore, flip to the bibliography. It should be around (or at least) two pages and be filled not just with other books, but journal articles and "original sources" (meaning actual records and documents from the era). Any non-fiction history book with a one page bibliography of nothing but secondary sources (ie. the author pulling their research from other people books/research) is not worth it's salt.

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@KiplingKat I wish there was a Like button on Wattpad.

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How much research you do it your call, but I should think a decent minimum of five books and or journal articles to really become comfortable with the era.

I know very few schools in the U.S. still teach this technique, but organize your notes on 3x5 note cards. Keep them divided into topics.

For instance I am writing a book on the Norman Conquest, so I have a (at least one so far) little 3x5 file box divided up into: History/Timeline, Historical Figures (which is further subdivided into individuals), War, Trade, Law, Land Management, Animal Husbandry, Arts, Gender Roles. All the facts I have collected are right at my fingertips.

I will not use all of them, but they are there if I need them.

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@KiplingKat oh wow; i never know or thought to do that. I want to start taking notes. lol What do you do when various history books contradict each other?

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@KiplingKat No, I was never taught to do that. Do you keep a seperate one for each era? and what is Animal Husbandry?

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Actually I remember someone saying (and a paraphrase) that for historical fiction, you do a ton of research so that you can speak about the era with a natural feeling authority, but only about %10 of the facts you have found end up on the page.

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@IsadoraFier I would keep a separate box for each project.

When to history books clash for a non-fiction project, you have to go the original source, or as close to the original sources as possible, and see what it says.

But with fiction, you can probably get away with picking the version that suits your story. For instance, people's reactions to William the Conqueror are very polarized. They either think he is a prince or they think he is a bastard, there is evidence to support both suppositions so you are free to choose.

Of you run into two books that differ on a hard fact, like say the date of Agincourt, go find one or two other sources and see which account they agree with. Go with the preponderance of evidence.

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"Animal Husbandry" in in modern usage is the care of livestock, but I use terms general terms of domestic animal care. How to care for and utilize hunting and farm animals.

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@Ctyolene :)

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@KiplingKat Oh kk thank you. One thing that really bothers me when I’m researching history is when the books are very bias and it’s hard to find ones that aren’t. Mainly when it comes to dictatorships. What do you suggest for those?

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If you have appalling handwriting like me, you might want to open a folder on the computer and put this stuff into it in different files depending on what you are resesaching. But yes, you need to do a lot more research than ever appears on the page.

It's also worth taking a few riding lessons, or watching a blacksmith, or learning how to handle a sword.

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@IsadoraFier Try looking up books written by other people. If you are doing the Napoleonic wars for instancce, don't just look at the English books, look at the French ones too. Or ask some French experts. People are great, they'll tell you all sorts of things if you ask politely.

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@IsadoraFier Read multiple books on the topic and see what parts they do agree on. Work with those mutually agreed upon facts.

Hitler may or may not have been a good leader for Germany's national well being, but everyone except a few crackpots agree he tried to wipe out many "non Aryan" groups with a specific hate-on for the Jews.

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@Ctyolene is right. If you get really stuck, you can try e-mailing a professor at a University who is an expert on the topic. As long as you are polite and do not take up too much of their time, they are usually happy to answer any questions.

She is also right about learning the physical experiences. If you are writing something in the Three Musketeer's/adventuring line, find your local fencing club and ask if you can come to a practice to watch and ask questions, even try it for yourself. You can relate your character's experience much better if you know what it feels like. Be able to use the terms more fluently when you know what they really mean.

Also see if there is a historical reenactment/village to visit. Those Civil War re-enactors are (pleasantly) crazy, but they *really* know their history.

And she is right about getting the opposing side of the story.

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Oh, dear. I'm up with the great historians?

Why, I am flattered, but afraid to say much of my research was done on the internet, usually through Wikipedia. My excuse: my library is Dutch and retarded in history related topics. In the categories, they skip from The Middle Ages (which contains 20 books, 12 of which on crusades), to the 20th Century. That, and I don't have the money to buy history books.

Anyway, I'll just list the things I know a fair bit about. Bladesmithing -- Medieval English city life and politics (1150-1250, roughly) -- Ancient Greek history, culture, philosophy and language -- (Basic) Roman history and language -- History of the Low Lands, and language (obviously).

(The last three of these topics are known in lesser detail, since they are remnants of my high school education.)

I also know quite a bit about the Normal working of a human body, and its anatomy. I know a bit about Thallium poisoning, too, if you're looking for a cool poison.

I am terribly interested in WWI and industrial England, but I don't know too much about it.

Right, that's about it... questions welcome, if anyone should like to ask me one.

~Alice.

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@Alice_Iceflower lol. I wouldn't mind knowing about Thallium poisoning. Probably not the best thing to choose immediately xD but I still want to know.

@KiplingKat @Ctyolene Experincing it probably would help me a lot more. As well as looking at both sides and asking actual people (that should be fun ^__^) Thank you both.

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@IsadoraFier It's a cool poison, though that probably classifies as 'random knowledge' and not as historical fiction.

Anyway, thallium is a heavy metal. It was used in common rat poison until around 1970 (available in supermarkets), and obviously used as a human poison too, usually done in tea (no idea why). It doesn't taste or smell or show (or barely).

High doses give extreme stomach aches and death, not much later. It was often used in many, very low doses for slow poisoning (i.e. by a spouse). After some two weeks, your hair falls out (classic symptom). It has many other, earlier symptoms, mostly neural.

The antidote is Prussian Blue, the most common type of blue ink, used for blueprints.

Historical time range of its use must be from the 1910s up to now (though it's not very effective anymore, since we know the antidote).

-- That's about the basics, I guess... to be saved in the 'random facts' folder.

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