I'm a history buff; have been all of my life. There is a fantastic set of books about the history of everyday life, through the beginning of recorded time, through almost the present, that I highly recommend and will give you the titles and authors, if you wish.
A lot of what I know about recent history, is through family stories and my curiosity about what life was like for my maternal great great grandmother, great grandmother, grandmother, and mother. As a child, I used to ask my great grandmother, grandmother, and mother to tell me all about their lives before I knew them. I was enthralled by their stories and have since read my eyes out about the times that they all lived through.