"Shakespeare? Far too modern for my tastes." - Anna, an old Classics teacher
So zooming forward from Ancient Rome, I am now firmly in the AD and reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to American History.
Why?
I started reading The Dreamer webcomic. And realised that all the other commenters were American and knew exactly what was going on here in the Revolutionary War. I knew that they were having a revolt. Against the British.
S'about it.
For a long time I've wanted to read up on American History, because in school we learnt nothing. This pushed me over the edge.
I haven't got that far yet. But I found out one thing to convince me that the Idiot's guide was right for me.
I'd always thought that Christopher Columbus was British. Name like that, fact that we ended up with most of the colonies, stands to reason right?
But of course, he was actually Cristoforo Columbo. Mi dispiace, Cristoforo, for my rampant ethnocentrism. Waaait...you were Italian? What, the Roman Empire wasn't enough for you guys, you wanted to start again??
Okay so he wasn't setting out to colonise at all, he was looking for passage to Japan. I would've loved to see the politely bewildered looks on the Native Americans faces when he was like "Excuse me, am I on the right bearing for China?" Oh, and my new favourite explorer is Pedro Alvares Cabral, who boldly led an expedition to India, but got a bit lost and found himself in...Brazil.
*Snerk* Now I feel much better about my poor sense of direction.