It was called "Up the Line". Very entertaining, cleverly plotted, hard to put down. Tourists were being taken by tour guides back to events in history. To answer your question, the most popular destination was the Crucifixion Run, to the crucifixion of Jesus. There were several interesting time-travel paradoxes in the novel. One was called the Cumulative Audience Paradox. The first group of tourists who went on the Crucifixion Run, there were only the original people there, plus that group of tourists. The next time a group of tourists went back, there were the original people, plus that first group of tourists, plus the current group. The third time, there were the original people, plus the first two groups of tourists, plus the current group. These historical events were filling up with tourists. A great novel, and vastly entertaining.

-- Ron

That's an interesting concept! I would avoid visiting Hitler (or his parents) without wearing full body armor.

I am interested in time travel themes and paradoxes, but I'm not familiar with Robert Silverberg, so I looked for "Up the Line" but I couldn't find it at my library. I did find it as part of a 3-novel anthology called Times Three : Hawksbill Station, Up the line, Project pendulum / Robert Silverberg in another library system, so I requested it via interlibrary loan.



Thanks for recommendation

I think there would be a lot to be learned, beyond specifics of what happened then.

I'm convinced that people then would think quite differently from the way we do for lots of reasons, not the least of which they would have zero understanding of the kinds of things Freud has introduced to modern thinking.

So what were all of those people thinking? I'd hope to bring a video camera of some kind with me. And I do realize that I would probably not understand word one of what anyone was saying, given how much the language has changed. But even a few hours recording everything I see and hear would be wonderful.

Well, okay, assuming no language obstacles, I'd also visit the time frame when Henry VII took over. Lots of interesting things happening then.

No one other time or decade stands out. I'm interested in all of history. Maybe some time in ancient Egypt, more or less at the beginning of civilization as we know it. Or very early in the development of language. Sigh, so much time.

Hay day!

Times that have fascinated me.
Also, the 1840s, a time of amazing intellectual creativity, with both John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx publishing their most seminal works. (On Liberty and The Communist Manifesto) It had to be an exciting time.

The moment of the present and the possibilities of the future are all we have.

Enough deep thoughts. I’m going to bed.

Good night.

When Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. I’m into artists, so I would love to have known Leonardo . There’s so many that it would take me a thousand lifetimes.

I'd go back to when all of my family--parents and siblings, were still alive.

On a historical basis, I don't know. I'm not real keen on checking out ages with no bathrooms, no FDA policing our food, and no vaccinations.

It would be hard to pass up on that option

I'd like to meet the Post-Impressionists painters, the early moviemakers, and give my child self some much-needed advice. Of course, there's the chance I would introduce novel viruses that we are immune to but would decimate earlier populations.

Between 1880 & 1920.
The slam bang rate of technological change and how people would have reacted with wonder and awe is fascinating to me.
We think nothing of an airplane flying overhead. How did folks react in 1906?
How'd they feel the first time they talked on a phone?
And so on. It would fascinating to witness that.

San Francisco in the 60s for the music and counter-culture. ( I lived near there then but was too young to really experience it)

Italy during the latter part of WWII where my dad's air base was. I'd like to run into him and see what he was like then. He turned 21 over there.