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1) 1918-1945 (World History)
I think that 200 years from now, the period from 1914-1989 will be considered one long struggle. Much as we talk about the 30 years war or the 100 years war (which was a series of wars), this could be called the "Ideological Wars" of the 20th Century.
One thing that I do that I think is really cool, is to read OLD history books. For example, I read a biography of Alexander Hamilton that was printed prior to the Civil War. It made conclusions about how successful federalism was that were wrong considering the struggle that was about to break out.
Another interesting book was a history of Europe from 1870 to 1919 called "50 years of Europe" by Charles Downer Hazen. It looks at that period from the theme of German's rise to it's fall, and being written in 1919, considers the matter settled.
Which points out a fact that history is rarely ever a settled thing.
I have lots of contemporary Spanish American War books, and one called "The War in Cuba" that was written before we got in, but which details the spanish perfidy. I also have a great book on the Greek Revolution of the 1820s, which was printed at that time, which I found in an antique store in Brazoria, Texas. I can imagine a Texas Revolutionary patriot reading that by the firelight as he fights in his own revolution. Probably never happened, but cool to think about.
Old history books have the following benefits:
1. No revisionism. Not that all of it is bad, but at some point, modern historians are just grasping at straws. As long as you consider the possible flaws of the past version (and perhaps weigh it against a newer book), this is good.
2. Gives you the sense of perspective of the time that those events were taking place. When you realize the totally alien conclusions that people in that era drew from previous events, their actions are not so unbelievable. I mean, I think Chamberlain was a fool, but if you read history books written at the time, you realize that most people thought that heating up the confrontation with Hitler would be akin to Bush calling Putin's Russia the "evil empire" and going back to the cold war days (only on a much more ominous scale).
