Since the dawn of civilization, a lot of important things have happened. Here are lists of about the many winding routes we took to get where we are today.

Historical Contexts

Weird History

If you weren't living in the 21st century, when and where would you live? There are many advantages to living in the 21st century, but there are also&nbsp;forgotten <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/which-era-would-you-want-to-live-in/jacob-shelton?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">eras of history</a> full of peace, rapid cultural&nbsp;building, and prosperity.&nbsp;Some people choose their&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/which-era-would-you-want-to-live-in/jacob-shelton">favorite historical era</a> based on their personality - but what was really the&nbsp;best time to be alive? And could the perks of a bygone era&nbsp;convince you to hop into&nbsp;a time machine?&nbsp;It is important to note that while an era might have brought amazing experiences to some people, those opportunities often came with&nbsp;pain and persecution for&nbsp;others. Still, there are surprising times and places where certain groups, like women, may have had even more rights than they do in Western society today.So, what was the best time in history to live in?

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What Were The Best Times In History To Be Alive?

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What Were The Best Times To Be Alive In History?

Susanna Olson

History

What are the largest empires in history?&nbsp;That question is much more loaded than it may first appear to be. There's no single metric by which the size or influence of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/historical-empires-collapse/michael-muir">any empire</a> is measured. As a result, there can be several answers to such a question. It's all in how you look at it.The biggest empires in terms of land is generally considered to be<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-it-was-like-to-live-british-empire-farthest-reaches/melissa-sartore"> the British Empire</a>. But, when the population enters the conversation, several dynastic lines from Asia truly reign supreme.&nbsp;Then, there's influence. If one were to assess which empire left the biggest genetic imprint on history, Genghis Khan and his <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-many-people-are-related-to-genghis-khan/melissa-sartore">Mongolian legacy</a> are still very much among us. Leadership, like that of Genghis Khan or someone like Alexander the Great in his vast Macedonian Empire, are also fair to consider.&nbsp;Culturally, groups like the Umayyads and the Persians made their own contributions, muddying the waters even more when trying to decipher which empire was the biggest. And, what about timespan? Egyptians ruled for thousands of years and, arguably, the Roman Empire continued through the Byzantine Empire and well into the 14th century.Collectively, these factors make determining the biggest world empires a challenge. But, by looking at land and population at an empire's peak, it's possible to get clarity about just how much influence an empire really had. Below you will find the dates each of the largest empires existed, when they peaked, and the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.space.com/17638-how-big-is-earth.html#:~:text=The%20surface%20area%20of%20Earth,%25%2C%20is%20covered%20by%20water.">amount of land</a> they controlled (out of the 57 million square miles on Earth) when they were at their biggest. Then, you'll find out exactly why they ultimately came to an end.&nbsp;

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The Largest Empires In History, By The Numbers

The 9 Largest Empires In History, By The Numbers

Melissa Sartore

World History

Throughout history, wealthy&nbsp;people &ndash;&nbsp;like many <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/notable-monarch_s)/reference" target="_blank">notable kings</a>&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;had extravagant weddings. For these inestimably costly ceremonies,&nbsp;pre-celebration festivities often&nbsp;included very lavish dowries on behalf of the new brides. Sometimes, these nuptials that involved famous dowries took place between <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weird-royals-in-history/danielle-ownbey" target="_blank">weird royals</a>&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;like uncles and nieces and already closely related cousins.&nbsp;But who had the&nbsp;biggest&nbsp;dowry&nbsp;in&nbsp;history?

A fair number of medieval and early modern princesses and archduchesses were given lots of land as their dowries, and their husbands wed them for the promise&nbsp;of significant revenue&nbsp;from these properties. Sometimes, these territories were so vast they&#39;re nearly unthinkable. For example, Eleanor of Aquitaine&nbsp;brought the rulership of most of southwestern France &ndash;&nbsp;her duchy of Aquitaine&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;to both of her husbands. Anne of Denmark wed Eleanor&#39;s descendant, James VI of Scotland/I of England, and brought the Orkney Isles with her. But was this the&nbsp;biggest&nbsp;dowry&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;world?

Other wives have brought a ton of cash with them to their newly minted husbands. Modern-day royal Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece, apparently brought $200 million to her husband, while Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza&nbsp;gave her spouse, Charles II of England, trading rights all over the world.

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The Most Lavish Dowries In History

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Carly Silver

History is a murky concept at best, and it gets murkier the further back one goes. That’s why it’s often so surprising to learn about famous historical figures who lived at the same time, let alone <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/historical-events-happening-at-the-same-time/kellen-perry" target="_blank">historical moments that happened at the same time</a>. Sometimes, it’s even more surprising to learn about historical figures who were born at the same time, which, rude as it may sound, often gives one a true sense of just how damn old some people are!History is full of amazing paths that crossed. Thanks to all the <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-most-important-leaders-in-world-history?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">famous world leaders</a> who were alive at the same time, humanity&nbsp;has had some&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/unlikely-friendships-throughout-history-v1/katherine-ripley" target="_blank">unlikely friendships throughout history</a>, like the one between&nbsp;Elvis and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/how-and-why-richard-nixon-invented-the-war-on-drugs/stephanroget" target="_blank">Nixon, who invented the&nbsp;war on drugs</a>. As they say, it’s a small world, after all,&nbsp;and it also happens to be a world filled with interesting people -&nbsp;many of whom walked the Earth at the exact same time.

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Famous Historical Figures Most People Have No Idea Lived At The Same Time

Historical Figures You Never Realized Lived At The Same Time

Stephan Roget

Sudan

Many people are familiar with the ‘vulture and the little boy’ picture from the South Sudan famine, but few know&nbsp;that the tragedy reaches far beyond the picture itself – it extends to&nbsp;the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-famous-photojournalists/reference?var=3&amp;utm_expid=16418821-311.AAszGoDYQ7WZsue0Bhz6ww.2&amp;utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F">photographer</a>, Kevin Carter. The photo&nbsp;of a starving Sudanese boy struggling to reach a food center, watched patiently by a hungry vulture,&nbsp;conveys a heartbreaking subtext; however, the details of the events leading up to the image, as well as the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ranker.com/list/last-words-written-by-famous-people-in-their-suicide-notes/notable-quotables?var=3&amp;utm_expid=16418821-311.AAszGoDYQ7WZsue0Bhz6ww.2&amp;utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F">photographer's life</a> following its capture,&nbsp;make it one of the most striking and complex stories of human suffering in the modern era.&nbsp;In 1993,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://all-that-is-interesting.com/kevin-carter">Kevin Carter</a> snapped the now famous&nbsp;photo in South Sudan while covering the famine plaguing the country, as well as&nbsp;the international relief efforts in response. When the picture first appeared in The New York Times, it ignited a firestorm that included both condemnations and congratulations for Carter. Most notably, the photo won him the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. Not long after, Carter <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5241442?storyId=5241442">took his own life</a>,&nbsp;unable to process the horrors he had witnessed in South&nbsp;Sudan.&nbsp;His end adds&nbsp;yet another layer of tragedy&nbsp;to&nbsp;this somber&nbsp;tale.

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'The Vulture And The Little Girl': Kevin Carter's Photo of Famine

The Vulture And The Little Boy: The Sad Story Behind The Photo

Kings & queens, princes & princesses. They're made of blood and bones like the rest of us, but they're told they can do whatever they damn well please. Sometimes, this causes problems.

Royal Pains

Lists of fascinating facts and lesser-known details about the lives of people whose names you learned in History class (or should have).

Down in History

European history is littered with <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weird-royals-in-history/danielle-ownbey">eccentric royals</a> whose wild behavior is almost too crazy to believe. King Ludwig II of Bavaria had a reputation for weird royal habits. As one of the most infamous European royals who met a mysterious end, Ludwig’s life is full of fascinating and tragic facts, stories, and anecdotes.Though strange Ludwig II stories have shaped modern perceptions about this fairytale king, his life was more complicated than supposed fits of madness. He ruled Bavaria when his kingdom lost its autonomy, thanks to the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire. He was probably unsuited to royal life, preferring to dream up fantastic, storybook castles than&nbsp;go about the practical work of ruling a kingdom in transition.Part of the mystique and tragedy&nbsp;surrounding&nbsp;Ludwig stems from his&nbsp;appearing as a king&nbsp;out of time, in some ways. He was backward-looking, falling hard for the mythical operas of Richard Wagner and conjuring up medieval castles to which he could retreat from the demands of modern life. His untimely, violent death in 1886 anticipated the end of the 19th century, when a world came crashing down a few decades later during&nbsp;World War I.Of all the bizarre European royals and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-ibrahim-i-facts/setareh-janda">Asian rulers</a>&nbsp;who&nbsp;fill the pages of history, Ludwig II of Bavaria was perhaps the most tragic.

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16 Bizarre Facts About King Ludwig II, The Most Extreme Fanboy of All Time

16 Tragic Facts about King Ludwig II, Bavaria's Favorite Mad King

Setareh Janda

Industrial Revolution

In the mid-19th century, great change spread throughout Europe and the US in the form of&nbsp;the Industrial Revolution. New technologies simplified labor and automated production, most notably through the steam engine, the locomotive, and the Bessemer steel production process. Manufacturing moved en masse from skilled, countryside artisans to factories in urban centers. These production and manufacturing changes transformed consumer habits of industrialized nations:&nbsp;large industries began supplying the growing middle class with goods, and&nbsp;individuals outside&nbsp;the established nobility - as well as the countries hosting them - were becoming wealthy.Furthermore, democracies were replacing old monarchies, and&nbsp;early modern socioeconomic&nbsp;class systems were&nbsp;replaced with&nbsp;egality, fraternity, and liberty -&nbsp;or so you the Enlightenment's political revolutions would suggest. Technology, prosperity, and even <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ranker.com/list/sex-in-the-victorian-era/aaron-edwards">intimacy</a> were all changing rapidly,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the 19th century seemed to be the greatest century to date.Photos of the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/factory-workers-hygiene-industrial-revolution/megan-summers">Industrial Revolution</a> prove otherwise. Nineteenth-century society was plagued with economic inequality, overcrowded cities,&nbsp;and unfit conditions for laborers.&nbsp;Though&nbsp;industrialized nations seized&nbsp;power from an archaic aristocracy, these nations&nbsp;utilized their power to establish monopolies and alienate the urban proletariat. Villages and towns outside urban centers dwindled; mass manufacturing made artisan work obsolete, forcing many artisans to join the&nbsp;ultimately disposable and unskilled working class. No longer were they individuals, but cogs of a new&nbsp;industrial machine. Haunting photos from this era show us humanity's indifference to others' suffering when faced with potential profit.

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The Most Haunting Photos Of The Industrial Revolution

23 Creepy Industrial Revolution Pictures

Brenden Donnelly

During the late 19th century, the East&nbsp;End of London was home to several factories that produced matches. Men, women, and children worked long hours for very little money, dipping matchsticks into phosphorus, unaware of the fumes they were breathing in and the toxins that were destroying their bodies.&quot;Phossy jaw&quot; was the most common physical side-effect of working as a matchstick worker, a condition that led to the deterioration of one's jaw to the point of utter deformity. A precursor to later factory-based occupational diseases like those endured by the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/horrifying-facts-about-the-radium-girls/laura-allan" target="_blank">Radium Girls</a> and an early example that using chemicals without a full understanding of their consequences can have <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/consequences-of-radium-in-common-products/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">disastrous consequences</a>, the resulting 1888 Matchstick Girls strike set a path for increased workers' rights and improved workplace conditions. Unfortunately, there was a great deal of pain and suffering along that path.&nbsp;

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English Factory Laborers Were Forced To Work With Toxic Chemicals Until Their Faces Became Deformed

English Factory Laborers Worked With Toxic Chemicals Until Their Faces Became Deformed

As long as human beings have been alive, we have been doing bizarre things that barely make sense. Here are lists of a few thousand of them.

Weird History Around the World

Old Stuff

Historical artifacts and photographs never fail to fascinate &ndash; they&#39;re like mysterious keys to other cultures &ndash;&nbsp;but this roundup of some of the strangest and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-historical-artifacts/pierce-nahigyan" target="_blank">most mesmerizing artifacts</a> from history might&nbsp;just take the cake. From a piece of bread that dates back to <a href="/list/facts-about-pompeii/theodoros-karasavvas" target="_blank">Pompeii</a>&nbsp;to some truly disturbing melted wax figures from a fire at Madame Tussauds wax museum in London, these images are sure to incite some reaction, be it delight or disgust.

Artifacts are objects made by human beings that &ndash; with the passage of time &ndash; come to represent a cultural or historical moment in the popular imagination. Which is why really weird artifacts are still so interesting;&nbsp;what do they reveal about the societies that created them?

For that matter, in the future, what will our cultural artifacts say about us?

Weird Ancient History

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Super Weird And Interesting Historical Artifacts That Will Mesmerize You

Weird And Interesting Historical Artifacts That Will Mesmerize You

Cleo Egnal

"Clothes make a man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." - Mark Twain

Past Fashion

Crazy fashion trends from history teach contemporary clothes horses&nbsp;a few things. One, people will go to ridiculous lengths to prove their station in society. They&rsquo;ll nearly break their necks by teetering on towering platform shoes, hobble themselves with skirts, and bind themselves up in an organ-shifting corset, all in the name of style. And two, exaggeration is key. From hugely padded sleeves to large embroidered codpieces, true devotes of trends believed that bigger was better. Some films <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/things-movies-get-wrong-about-historical-clothing/genevieve-carlton/" target="_blank">get historical fashion wrong</a>, but others are pretty accurate, no matter how ridiculous the clothes seem.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/deadly-fatal-victorian-beauty-trends-and-treatments/amandasedlakhevener">Weird fashion trends</a> from history were frequently dangerous as well. Vivid dyes could be made with toxic arsenic, while voluminous&nbsp;crinolines could easily catch on fire. Even if the clothing wasn&#39;t fatal, a&nbsp;lot of these crazy fashion trends from history seriously impaired&nbsp;a person&rsquo;s ability to live a normal life. People who wore bliauts couldn&rsquo;t really use their arms. Men who donned&nbsp;crakowes found walking a bit problematic. And extra wide panniers kept women from fitting through narrow doors.

Whether they&#39;re deadly or just plain nuts, you can be thankful these fashion trends are in the past and are not <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/old-fashion-trends-that-deserve-a-comeback/brenden-donnelly" target="_blank">deserving of a comeback</a>.

The 17 Dumbest Fashion Trends in History

The 17 Craziest Fashion Trends In History

Lisa Waugh

Lists about the zany little things we believe anyway.

Very Superstitious

Babies

For thousands of years, men and women have wanted to control the sex of their babies. Just like there were <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-ways-people-used-to-test-pregnancy/nathan-gibson">weird ways to test for pregnancy</a>, there were all kinds of ways to determine the gender of a baby during pregnancy. Kings like <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zwv4kqt">Henry VIII</a> wanted sons to ensure their royal lineage, and merchants wanted to avoid too many daughters so they didn't&nbsp;go broke because of <a href="http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-2/essays/husbands-and-wives/">rising dowry costs</a>. Not surprisingly, most of these crazy theories about determining gender were about having a boy.&nbsp;These methods for how to know the gender of the baby during pregnancy at home used a lot of common objects: bananas, parsley, and bread, for example. But some of the ways people tried to determine gender were pretty crazy, like eating rabbits' unmentionables&nbsp;or even chopping off a man’s right nad.&nbsp;All of these home remedies to know the gender of a baby required dedication, from rubbing a woman with goose grease to testing the winds before conception. Some even advised getting it on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/things-women-used-before-tampons/rebecca-shortall">right before a woman’s period</a>.&nbsp;

15 Completely Bonkers Ways People Used To Try To Control The Gender Of Their Baby

 15 Ways People Used To Try To Control The Gender Of Their Baby

Genevieve Carlton

Lists about cool cats for cool people who would like to be covered in cats.

Rad Cats

Lifestyle

Franz Helm's 16th-century military manual,&nbsp;Buch von den probierten K&uuml;nsten, includes some crazy illustrations of the strategies he lays out therein&nbsp;–&nbsp;most notably what appear to be cats wearing jetpacks. Helm, a German artillery master, wrote his manual replete with illustrations involving&nbsp;strapping rockets to doves and cats, presumably to effectively wage war against one's enemy.Using animals in <a href="https://www.military-history.org/articles/war-culture-animals-of-war.htm" target="_blank">warfare</a> or in some other form of torture&nbsp;or abuse wasn't unique to the 16th century (take a look at the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-the-name-bulldog/nicky-benson" target="_blank">history of the bulldog</a>, the sad reality of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-turnspit-dogs/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">turnspit dog</a>, or the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/katzenklavier-cat-organ/cleo-egnal" target="_blank">cat piano</a> if in doubt),&nbsp;but cats wearing jetpacks is a pretty weird image even for the Early Modern era, a time when <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/renaissance-book-of-miracles-apocalypse/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">visions of the apocalypse</a> included 400 flying dragons and an uptick in birth defects.So, are these cats really wearing jetpacks? No, but they're really weaponized with fire and intended to be used in battle.&nbsp;

Why Are These 16th-Century Cats Wearing Jetpacks?

People have been living all around the world for literally thousands of years. Here are some of the most interesting things human beings have ever done (that we know about).

Fascinating Ancient History

Fun facts and fascinating trivia about historical, bygone, and modern foods for people who love eating food.

Chew on This

A look at some of the oldest known, recorded, and/or existing things on earth.

Old School Cool

Archaeologists often make gruesome, significant, and fascinating discoveries, but some of their finds are downright repulsive &ndash; sometimes they unearth ancient <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-people-ate-in-colonial-america/setareh-janda" target="_blank">foods</a>.&nbsp;These foods date back thousands of years, making them actual archaeological discoveries,&nbsp;and most of them sound pretty disgusting.&nbsp;

Archaeologists find&nbsp;food all the time, whether it&#39;s&nbsp;hiding in ancient tombs, resting on the bottom of the sea in a sunken ship, or tied around the neck of a mummy. These ancient food discoveries range from the palatable &ndash; such as preserved honey found in Egyptian pyramids &ndash; to the completely revolting &ndash; 5,000-year-old butter pulled out of a bog &ndash; to the culturally significant &ndash; 4,000-year-old preserved noodles discovered at Lajia&nbsp;site, also known as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/bodies-at-lajia-the-pompeii-of-china/nicky-benson" target="_blank">China&#39;s Pompeii</a>.&nbsp;

Take a look&nbsp;through the oldest foods archaeologists have discovered, and contemplate facing these choices at a sadistic buffet. What would be the absolutely worst food to eat today?&nbsp;

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The Oldest Foods Ever Discovered By Archaeologists, Ranked By How Terrible They Would Be To Eat

Lists about period between the 15th and 18th centuries, when worldwide exploration, colonialism, and mercantilism brought the first periods of globalization.

The Age of Discovery

Christopher Columbus

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But what if Columbus never came back from his voyage? Columbus&#39;s three ships, the Ni&ntilde;a, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, might have run out of water, threatening the lives of all the sailors. They could have been lost at sea, or shipwrecked in a storm because they sailed during hurricane season. Or, most likely, Columbus might have reached the Caribbean and never returned to Europe. In fact, Columbus&#39;s largest ship, the Santa Maria, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/05/13/312142316/christopher-columbus-ship-the-santa-maria-may-have-been-found" target="_blank">ran aground on a Haitian reef</a>. Columbus barely made it back to Europe after his first voyage.

So what if Columbus sailed off into the Atlantic and never returned? Would Europe have given up on a western route to Asia, or would other countries have eventually sent their own voyages? Without silver and gold from the New World flowing into Europe, would the Habsburgs have maintained power? Would the British Empire exist? With less competition, would the Ottomans have conquered Europe? Without Columbus&#39;s voyage, the world&#39;s history would look drastically different.

What Would Have Happened If Christopher Columbus Missed The Americas?

What If Columbus Never Found America?

The world is a big place, and the scope of history is even bigger. It's pretty difficult to know every single event in history, but it's also possible to lose sight of how historical happenings from around the globe line up with one another.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-timeline-comparisons-history/melissa-sartore">Looking at a timeline</a> can be pretty mind-blowing when you realize Uranus was discovered before Antarctica and the Founding <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-founding-fathers/amylindorff?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Fathers of the United States</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-but-true-historical-date-comparisons/melissa-sartore"> never knew about dinosaurs</a>.&nbsp;Even when you condense time into a period like the Middle Ages, it isn't always intuitive to match up something that happened in Western Europe with an event or person in Africa, Asia, or the Americas. We got to thinking about what was happening outside of Western Europe during the medieval period and found some&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/more-weird-but-true-historical-date-comparisons/melissa-sartore">fascinating historical comparisons</a>.&nbsp;While it helped us put time and history into perspective, it also made us realize there's a whole lot about the past that deserves more attention. Take a look and let us know which events you agree have been unfairly overlooked.&nbsp;

Going Medieval

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11 Timeline Facts About The Middle Ages That Prove Western Europe Wasn't The Center Of The Universe

Facts That Prove Western Europe Wasn't The Center Of The Middle Ages

Many of the most impactful armistices in history are still celebrated as world holidays. But for every well-known declaration of peace, there are dozens of truces about which no one knows. Most recountings of military truce facts are rather dull. Every so often, though, the past surprises us with a ceasefire tale worth telling.

Shared holidays, mutual threats, and strange circumstances all play a part in making enemies agree to a ceasefire&nbsp;during combat. On certain occasions, opposing armies find themselves working together - even if arrangements don&#39;t last for long.

Indeed, war stories aren&#39;t always defined by <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-2-heroes/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">heroic generals</a> or <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-2-pictures/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">harrowing combat visuals</a>; sometimes, it&rsquo;s all about getting along.&nbsp;

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The Strangest Reasons For Truces In Military History

World History lists at Ranker - The ultimate source for hundreds of world history lists and rankings

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Saving Private Ryan

Patton

Schindler's List

Lists about life for soldiers and civilians alike during the Second Great War, which raged around the world from 1939-1945.

WWII

Looking closer at some of the best, most realistic, most brutal depictions of war in the history of entertainment.

Wars on Screen

Looking closer at films, TV shows, docs, and miniseries that explore, recreate, and occasionally flub up real historical events.

Watching History

All about Spielberg's epic & heartbreaking WWII drama, celebrating 25 years in 2023.

The best World War II movies not only recount historical events, but also deeply resonate with audiences through powerful portrayals of courage amidst adversity. World War II, a tumultuous period marked by bravery, sacrifice, and human resilience, has long been an evocative backdrop for storytelling. Films inspired by this era delve into the complexities of war, capturing the essence of heroism and loss on both grand and intimate scales. &nbsp;These movies invite viewers to reflect upon the past while appreciating the artistry of filmmaking.Showcasing diverse perspectives during one of history's most harrowing periods, these exceptional films immerse audiences in tales that span from harrowing battles to quiet acts of defiance. Great WW2 movies reveal multifaceted aspects of humanity caught in the throes of conflict by highlighting themes such as camaraderie, betrayal, hope, and despair across different cultural contexts. These stories come alive through outstanding cinematography, gripping performances, and masterful direction that evoke poignant emotions even decades after their release.Movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Great Escape, and Schindler's List stand as prime examples of remarkable World War II cinema. In Saving Private Ryan, director Steven Spielberg throws audiences into the visceral chaos of D-Day before transitioning to a captivating mission that showcases loyalty and selflessness among soldiers. Meanwhile, The Great Escape expertly blends suspense and adventure as it follows Allied prisoners plotting against all odds to break free from a German POW camp. Lastly, the monumental impact of Schindler's List is indisputable; its stark (mostly) black-and-white visuals coupled with compelling character arcs immortalize Oskar Schindler's efforts to save Jewish lives under unimaginable circumstances. Yet these are just a few gems amid an array of incredible wartime narratives. Other famous WWII movies contending for the top spots on this list include Hacksaw Ridge, Letters from Iwo Jima, Patton, and A Bridge Too Far.As cinema continues to evolve over time, filmmakers will persistently draw inspiration from pivotal moments throughout human history – particularly when they have the potential to strike emotional chords within viewers. In this context, movies about the second World War will undoubtedly remain a significant subgenre of filmmaking as they challenge us to confront the darkest chapters of our collective past while celebrating acts of valor and resilience in trying times. The greatest World War II films serve as vital reminders that even amidst the horrors of war, there are stories worth remembering and lessons to be learned about the human spirit's remarkable capacity for survival and hope.