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As with everything, your ability to think in particular ways changes with age. As a kid, I hated literature, history, and geography. And little wonder; the interesting aspects of each of these subjects has to do with experience and wisdom, and ones accumulated knowledge of people and their behavior, and how it is colored and affected by their circumstances (including climate and economics).
I recently (yesterday, actually) saw a post on the Karaoke culture of urban Philippines, specifically how the Frank Sinatra song "My Way" has, unbelievably, been the last thing some poor Filipinos sang before they were stabbed to death. I know it's a terrible song, but this seems to be extreme.
I would have been quite uninterested in Filipinos, stabbed or unstabbed, thirty years ago. But since then I have met and got to know many fascinating Filipinos, and my attitude now is completely different. This is why it is so important to meet people of all sorts, and keep an open mind while doing it.
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"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." Robert Louis Stevenson
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You said, "the interesting aspects of each of these subjects has to do with experience and wisdom, and one's accumulated knowledge of people and their behavior." MY WAY: As a kid, I devoured history, literature and geography. As I accumulated wisdom and experience, I become less able to appreciate fiction. As I visited more and more geography, I came to realize that all places are the same, and nothing is exotic (once you go inside and shut the door, it's just you). Ancient history was the only thing worth studying to me, as a kid. I took Latin and Greek and dug the Iliad and the Gilgamesh epic. The Tang dynasty rocked my socks. Then in my 20s, European history with its royalty and renaissance. In my 40s, the brief 200 years of US history held fascination, and now I'm getting into politics and current events. Look out, this old lady will soon be time-traveling to the future.
Now if you're looking for something timeless, try ART.
I guess you relate to a subject based on how essentially unchanging its insights are.
Modern history is interesting to the extent that you relate to the consequences of various historical facts. The modern history of, say, Liberia (to pick a place at random) would be fascinating to someone who knows someone from there. Ancient history, of course, is fascinating for the reasons you mention.
As a kid, though, I took the stories I was told a little too literally, because I did not have the perspective of age. Now, having seen a lot of stuff going down all over, I have the perspective to appreciate some of what I was told.
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