Historians believe they need to find the truth. They make arguments, write papers, and give lecture on what they are saying is the truth. Historians want to learn what happened. This is important, because history teaches many lessons. Students of history agree or disagree with historian's arguments and what they say happened or what is the cause of some event. The best historians are the ones who write the strongest arguments. To make strong arguments, it's very important to use strong sources. Sources are either primary or secondary. The primary sources are the original ones, which date back to the events of that time period. Secondary sources are the arguments of other historians or anything that talks about primary sources. Choosing the best sources means understanding what the source is saying and using accurate information to make your own argument. When historians feel that the existing work fails to mention or inaccurately claims something that's important. to the historian, they write their own argument. The historian wants to write a better argument, which other historians and students will regard …show more content…
Therefore, he was not old enough to experience the Holocaust and World War II, like Bauer. He was still a baby. Browning's experience is good because he's not especially emotionally connected to the Holocaust. He published his most popular book, Ordinary Men, in 1992. This is also much later than the other two writers. Browning had the benefit of Dawidowicz, Bauer, and other historians work, like future historians will benefit from his. Browning is a functionalist, and he does not believe that the Holocaust was strictly Hitler's intent all along. The thesis of Browning's book is that the Holocaust was caused by many factors, and the anti-Semitism began on a smaller scale as Hitler tried to kick the Jewish people out of Germany, which eventually spiraled into deciding to commit crazy mass murder.
I do find Stearns argument convincing. In, what skills does a student of history develop?, Stearns talked about three main abilities history students develop. The first is the ability to assess evidence, which builds experience dealing with and assess seen various kinds of evidence. The second is the ability to assess conflicting interpretations. This is gaining the skill to sort through diverse, often conflicting interpretations. The last is the experience in assessing past examples of change.it's an essential skill in understanding change in today's society. In history is useful in the world of work, he tells of how the knowledge of history can open doors in the working
She carries the audience through her argument in a logical sequence. First, she makes her claim that student do not know history and explains her reasons (250). She then elaborates on what history students are taught and what exactly is wrong with the methods by which they learn (251). After this, she explains the job of a historian to the reader – how historians confront primary sources to “make some sense of what once happened” (252). To end the article, Simon describes how students can better learn history through exploring primary sources (253). This structuring and organization helps the reader to understand and to believe Simon’s
Historians produce knowledge for us to learn from in the form of written documentation showing what people have done in the
Browning believes that the anti-Semitic propaganda started by the Nazi’s in 1933 coerced the Germans into killing the Jews. I agree with the fact that propaganda was used to spread the Nazi’s message of hate and may have caused some Germans to detest the Jews. But was it strong enough to have lead them into a killing frenzy? I don’t think that the propaganda was a cause for the killing of Jews. “Goldhagen believes that the German brutality was motivated primarily by ‘racial, eliminationist anti-Semitism '”(Weinstein 2). So it’s not that the Nazis brain washed thousands of Germans, but they just added fuel to the hatred already present in the German society and gave them a way to justify their actions.
Within the realm of history, a source of evidence is essential in order to differentiate the fact from fiction. This is why a primary source is so vital! Because, a primary source provides the reader with direct evidence of an event or a speech; giving them a better understanding of the material. The only problem is: these sources do not provide the full facts, leaving the readers with a plethora of questions. Don’t get me wrong though, the readers should be asking a lot of questions! Because, with all of those questions, the reader can be engaged with the content in order to find some concrete evidence.
Another fact in support of Browning is that Hitler almost didn’t talk about his hatred of the Jews in public, so anti-Semitism didn’t play the main role in bringing him to power in 1933. After his election, German population was basically divided in two groups; people who strongly supported anti-Semitism and people for whom it was not a priority. Those who radically supported anti-Jewish laws passed by National Socialist Party, were violent toward Jewish population of Germany. Series of pogroms against Jewish-owned businesses were conducted in 1938, around 100 Jews were killed and 33.000 were sent to concentration camps. The Nazi political party gained more supporters during that time, because anti-Semitic measures looked like the only option to stop violence among German population. Another aspect of World War 2, according to Brwoning, that proves that anti-Semitism was not the main moving force in killings of Holocaust is that German soldiers killed millions and millions of none-Jewish people all around the Europe. German handicapped, Polish upper class, Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsies; all these groups of people were targeted during Nazi regime. So Brwoning argues that Jewish people were no different from other victims of Nazi genocide during years of World War 2. According to Christopher R. Browning, Germans soldiers who carried out the Final Solution
Christopher Browning is a historian on the holocaust and Nazi Germany. He is the Frank Porter Graham distinguished professor of history at the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
To start, when Hitler came into power, everyone loved him and he was like any average ruler until things started to change. Hitler led Germany into battle in World War II and mostly everyone was convinced that it was only a matter of time before they won the battle, but when this was not the case Hitler was outraged. From the article in historylearningsite.co.uk it illustrates what Hitler felt, ““stabbed in the back” by the Jews” (Trueman). This was most likely the result of feeling like he needed someone to put the blame on, someone to be displeased at. The Jews didn’t purposely make Germany surrender or have any part of having Germany lose the war, after all it was their country too. After this event, things started to go down hill for the Jews and what most people refer to as mankind's worst mistake. Secondly, Hitler started to use his power to exterminate or control the population of all Jews, thus abusing it and doing things that should not be done with his power. Since he thought Jews took everything away from him and Germany he started dehumanizing them and treated them as if worse than animals. The novel Night states that they were deprived of all of their jewels and precious belongings, having to wear a yellow star so everyone knew they were Jewish, living in the ghettos,
Hitler and the Holocaust is a very informational novel written by Robert S. Wistrich that not only explains this horrible time in history, but also gives us a look into the mind of Hitler and Nazi ideology. This book is not just centered on Hitler and Germany as it my sound, antisemitism spread like a plague all across Europe even before the Holocaust took place. In this work, Wistrich is not making an argument, but is trying to find an explanation on why so many inhumane actions were allowed.
In the novel Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning there contains a thesis in which the novel is centered around. This thesis is the theory that these ordinary people could commit these atrocities in the Holocaust because of the pressure from their peers and country that were participating in these appalling acts of violence and massacres of innocent people.
“A historian is like a storyteller, a scientist, and a lawyer” (Thinking like a historian, 2016). An aspect of storytelling, historians explain the cause and effect in history since something cannot happen. They think of the motive influences that character chose. An aspect of scientist, the historians would make theories and research the evidence available. Aspects of a lawyer, the historians argue their ideas and want others to believe in.
Christopher Browning is best known for his work and research surrounding the time of the Holocaust. He, as a fundamentalist, shifts the focus from the leadership of Hitler to the institution of the Third Reich itself as the culprit of atrocities. While there is plenty blame to hand to Hitler, his belief system states that there were many other factors included to the creation of the Final Solution. Browning was a professor of history from 1972 to 2014, with a specialization in Nazis and Holocaust history. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; whose purpose is to study and make advancements from intellectual conundrums effecting society. Because of his key knowledge of this subject,
To generalize the explanations of Browning and Lower, is to view the intention for these men and women genocidal behaviors. The behavior can be interpreted as seeking militaries duties and advantageous lifestyle. The expansions of Nazis’ regime promoted its power and it’s influenced to entreat or persuade Germans to be part of it. The Nazi movement was a political, military movement that spread all over Europe. These men and women just wanted to be part of it because it seem promising. The promise could have perceived as recognition and authority as Lieutenants or Captains by Nazis’ Commanders. Another persuasion is that the movement offered adventurous opportunities for women to establish jobs security and a better lifestyle. Some of these
What is the goal of doing history ? the main goal of doing history is to let people know their past, to let them know where they came from, their culture and what went down before a certain epoque. Another goal of doing history is to keep it alive because if our generation stopped doing history, nobody would be able to pass it down to the upcoming
When studying history, the way to obtain knowledge from it is to use primary and secondary sources, because we can only use sources from the events of past, and we cannot actually perceive the events. By the reason of that, I believe that history is an area of knowledge that is mostly made up of stories, and what we call history is the modern interpretation of those stories. This is because when I was studying about the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I found out that primary sources such as newspaper articles from America had bias in them. They