As the title says!

To clarify, you would be a neutral observer and none of your actions could alter history.

The 10 year old in me says DINOSAURS!!! But the other part says late medieval England as that's what my thesis is based on. *begrudgingly* It would be interesting too.

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easy - to around 1800 so I could flaunt about in amazing empire line clothing and be very 'accomplished' in society. If I could change events I would harrass Jane Austen into changing 'Lizzie' to 'Sneaks' and I could marry Mr. Darcy :-x

Edited to say, I know you said we can't go back and change anything, but might go back to my 2nd year PhD and see if I can kick myself into action!

oooh, one of my favourite procrastination techniques and being a historian too sooooo many times! I'd love to go back to the court of Henry VIII - very cliched I know, but its what kicked all this off in the first place - I'd so love to see it, smell it, observe those incredible events that shaped our history - I'd also love to see him and meet Ann Boleyn - oh it would be soooo good.

The other part of me says that if I only had one chance then I should go back to somewhere between 1851 and 1901, probs around 1871 to see the world I'm writing about, could I interview the women?? Now that would be incredibly useful! Wow, what an amazing concept.

And yes, I would so love to see a dinosaur ;-)

Yet another part of me would love to go back to me at the end of my 3rd year, say take the teaching job, the MA and PhD will be a living hell lmao - but then I wouldn't have met you lovely people.... ;-)

I love this question!!!
but my answer is very boring===
I'm not a history/medieval time/dinosaur person although I am fond of them...

if I could travel back in time, I would go back to the time when I was happiest--12 years old.
Then I will live my teenage life differently...and stil get to be me :-) :-) :-)
12-year-old satchi

Stressed, it's one of my favourite daydreams too. I sometimes get a bit sad when I realise there's no possibility it could ever happen :$ And Henry VIII would be AMAZING. I think somepoint during the Wars of the Roses would be good aswell, all that political intrigue...and fighting.

I would go back in time to two years ago to right things that I did wrong. The serious stuff out the way, I'd then go back in time to one million years BC with a box of matches, lighter and a 2L bottle of Fanta. Doubtless everyone would be amazed at how I could magic fire, the deliciousness of fizzy pop and they'd probably make me a god, or at least a king. Of course, being a PhD student, I'm aware of the serious ethical implications my actions could impose since both Raquel Welch and Ursula Andress would want to marry me. Not a problem though as I could play spin the Fanta bottle with the two of them to randomly (therefore ethically) select one.

I would go back to the start of time itself so that I could witness the 'big bang' or whatever happened at the start of the universe (if there was a beginning). It would also be cool to witness the start of life and watch all the creatures evolve.

KC, I'd go back to the 70s and go and see David Bowie's Spiders tour.

But aside from that there is not time I would rather be at than this one, just with more money!

In the past, I would want to observe a group of Neanderthals and marvel at intelligent hominids who if evolutionary or environmental history were different might still be here today. A species that at one point existed at the same time as humans. Imagine, 2 intelligent bipeds looking at each other....

In the (possible) future I would want to see i.e live in the same period as (not probable in my lifetime) at the very momment first contact with an alien species (reception via SETI, or verification of simple or complex life on another planet in our solar system, or something more exciting is made.

I would go to my parents' childhood. Always wondered what what they were like as kids.