Which centuries interest you the most?

[Orser67]

Probably the 19th century for me.  The Industrial Revolution is arguably the most important phenomenon in world history since the invention of writing, and it's really fascinating to read about its economic, political, and social effects.

And there was plenty of other stuff going on, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars, the unification of Italy and Germany, the rise of Japan, the colonization of most of the Eastern Hemisphere by European powers, the Latin American wars of independence, the expansion of the U.S., and (perhaps most interesting for me) the development of proto-democracies and new ideologies. Also, kind of like what Beet said, the historical distance between us and the 19th century is really interesting in that it's close enough to see lots of parallels, and yet far enough away for us to develop more of an historical perspective. Really the only thing that's missing is that there wasn't enough Poland.

I tend to be interested in the Middle Ages the least, I think partly because a lot of the centuries and individuals kind of blend together for me, and partly because I have less of a frame of reference given the lack of the U.S.