The history topics that bore people the most

The history topics that bore people the most

Which historical topic would make you rather have a tooth pulled than spend hours reading about it? The question, posed on a history forum, has gathered a hundred responses and a surprisingly clear pattern: it is not the remote periods that put people off, but the ones that have been repeated to death at school. World War II, the Spanish Civil War, pre-Roman Hispania and Ancient Egypt top the complaints. And behind every complaint lurks a criticism of the education system.

The most common diagnosis is the school rehash. Several participants agree that History class covered only four or five topics per school year: pre-Roman Hispania, the Romans, Muslim-era Hispania, the Renaissance and, if they were lucky, a rushed jump to the Industrial Revolution. "Every 2 or 3 years they repeated the same topics," sums up one of the most upvoted messages. The result: topics that should fascinate become punishment through repetition.

World War II and the Spanish Civil War: worn-out territory

World War II is the first name that comes up. "I've had enough of it," one reply declares flatly. Another participant adds that it is "in everything, very mainstream, which puts me off quite a lot." Yet there is no consensus: for another user, the conflict still holds interest, and it is the Spanish Civil War that triggers the yawns. "Reading Queipo de Llano in a text is enough to make me yawn," he confesses.

The 23F coup attempt also comes up. One participant recalls that as a young man he was fascinated to discover that barely a decade earlier there had been an uprising in his country, but as an adult he admits to being saturated: "Every single book, documentary, film and miniseries about it bores me now." He even mentions having read The Anatomy of a Moment by Javier Cercas and getting sick of the topic within 300 pages. The conclusion: media overexposure kills interest.

Prehistory and Ancient Egypt: the problem of names

Ancient Egypt draws a very specific complaint: "I get completely mixed up with so many dynasties and so many repeated pharaoh names." China provokes the same boredom because of its names. One participant puts it in context: Egypt up to the Roman conquest spans three millennia, comparable to studying the history of Spain from the Bronze Age to today.

The Neolithic also gets its share of criticism. The objection is that, without writing, there is no way to know exactly what peine or which languages were spoken. And prehistory in general is labelled a "fanciful invention." Against this stance, another participant argues that the scientific evidence is abundant: Celtic hill forts, settlements, entire cemeteries and preserved coins. The disagreement is total.

Pre-Roman Hispania and the debate over Rome

The Iberians, the Celts, Numantia and Viriatus provoke boredom in several messages. But the topic turns into a discussion over whether Rome was a contribution or an imposition. One position holds that the pre-Roman peoples already knew writing and money thanks to contact with Greeks and Phoenicians, and that Rome only brought less freedom. The opposing view argues that acculturation was voluntary and that, without the Romans, we would know hardly anything about the Iberians.

The gender bias and the history of Spain

One controversial comment claims that women are more drawn to historical fiction set between 1900 and 1950, or Victorian England, and that history without cars or cities puts them off. It is a generalization with no data behind it that the material does not support.

Spanish history after 1714 also takes its lumps, and peripheral regionalisms are the target of angry criticism. Another current of thought holds that history is written by the victors and that sources predating the 19th century are dubious.

In the end, historical boredom seems to be a symptom: the more a topic is repeated at school and exploited in the media, the less desire there is to read about it. Such are the ironies of pedagogy.