Story is about a man who possesses a very high IQ and is accepted to a space station (planet?) where others like him also live. He is able to travel back in time and watch the battle of Hastings. He questions why he is there
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How old is the story? – user14111 Jan 05 '16 at 23:36
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Written in the 60's. Maybe Simak, Sturgeon, Silverberg – Hugo Jan 05 '16 at 23:38
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He time-travels from his space station to the Battle of Hastings? Does he time-travel under his own power, or does he have a time machine? – user14111 Jan 05 '16 at 23:41
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1He uses a machine to view what happened in any past event – Hugo Jan 05 '16 at 23:51
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Randomly spotted this old question in the sidebar and noticed it didn't have an accepted answer.
I'm pretty sure this is Clifford Simak's "Immigrant", previously the answer to this question.
The destination was a planet, not a space station, of advanced telepathic aliens, who are carefully selecting the brightest people from Earth.
The main character, Bishop, tries out a gadget called a "live-it" which can immerse the user in a scene from anywhere in history:
What type of history, sir?” the face in the screen asked him.
“Type?”
“Galactic, Kimonian, Earth — almost any place you wish.”
“Earth, please,” said Bishop.
“Specifications?”
“England,” said Bishop. “October 14, 1066. A place called Senlac.”
And he was there.
He was no longer in the room with its single chair and its four bare walls, but he stood upon a hill in sunny autumn weather with the gold and red of trees and the blueness of the haze and the shouts of men.
Daniel Roseman
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Sounds quite a bit like Macroscope by Piers Anthony.
As Sean Duggan points out there may not be anything about the Battle of Hastings in Macroscope (been a while since I read it) but the remaining elements are a close match so it's at least worth checking out. It's a fun book by Piers Anthony in his prime
John Regehr
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Hello, and welcome to the SF&F Stack. Could you please expand your answer a bit by explaining why you think this might be the answer? – SQB Jan 06 '16 at 11:22
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It looks like a decent match to me. There's a space station, a genius, a device to look back in time. The only missing factor is that I see no mention of the Battle of Hastings in plot summaries. – FuzzyBoots Jan 06 '16 at 12:25
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If you can actually add mention of the matching details in your answer, you run a good chance of getting that downvote reversed. :) – FuzzyBoots Jan 06 '16 at 14:51