I don't often partake in giveaways, but why not? It is an interesting game.
Victorian Era / the British Empire altogether is my favourite. Not outstandingly so, but at the moment very noticeably. It is astounding to think how naive, how optimistic and sure of itself that nation was. Albeit morally questionable nowadays, back in the day it was all right, all good. The world was that of opportunity and adventure! The Great Blanks of the map, ripe for the taking: Australia, the Islands of the Pacific, the Far East, South America... India... and Africa!
Naturally that is an overly optimistic view of things, but I choose to think of those days in that light. Prime Grade A-Class escapism, yessire, one pint of that coming up!
I suppose this attitude comes from my grandparents. They led a reasonably simple life, but something in their furniture, the souvenirs they had gathered over their lives, something about the early 90's when I was a child echoed a distant memory of those glory days, that took seed within me and grew (or festered, some might say) into this fascination of mine. It was only this new millennium that I realized I had fusioned the best parts of the times between the renaissance and 1990's into a single, ultimate, imaginary glory age. Just as Blade Runner presents a dystopia of accumulated decadence and ruin, in my mind exists a counterpart, a golden age of accumulated civilization, glory and wealth.
...Ahem, kinda drifted away there. Back to the subject: Did you know that at it's heyday, the British Empire was the largest empire ever to exist, surpassing the more often cited tracts of land claimed by such figures as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan? I don't believe we will soon, possibly ever, again reach such scale, lest it be outside this Earth.
Post edited October 05, 2013 by Crowned