It's 1912 and Titanic has only hours left...

[johnmiic]

A competing theory:

[Duncan]

I still have some hope. My generation-and I assume you're part of it-grew up playing video games and many said we would grow up morons because of our addiction to that. Yet as I talk to people I know from the `80's, who went to High School with me, I find many of them watch: History Channel, History International, Nat Geo, DISC, TLC, etc.

Agree. I'm starting to do the same thing. I went to a solid school & got good grades, but really didn't like history or social studies. In hindsight, I'm not sure it was being taught properly: memorize names, dates, places, etc. I strongly prefer to watch the History Channel, where you get a flavor for the reasoning/politics behind the events. History repeats itself because people have been fundamentally the same for thousands of years. They're motivated by money, sex, power, fear, greed, etc. Not exactly sure how schools have managed to make that boring.

Downton Abbey is a good example of what I mean. Yeah, it's fiction, but it's generally a fair representation of that period. WWI, sufferage, servant life, inheritance - even the Titanic played a role. I was interested enough in the show to watch some of the documentaries on life at that time. Turns out that a lot of the big estates were in need of cash infusions, as the economy shifted from farming to industry. New-money Americans wanted titles, so a number of American heiresses went to the UK to marry titled men. That's pretty interesting, but I don't remember any of it being covered in my history class.