Essay on History by Heart: Why Empathy Impedes Accuracy

The idea of the exclusion of important narratives is a common theme amongst many of the historians involved in the discussion. The omission of such narratives would only stand to present an unfinished version of history from which one cannot grasp the lessons history intends to teach. Catherine Emerson would be the first to

In Telling the Truth About History, three historians discuss how the expanded skepticism and the position that relativism has reduced our capacity to really know and to expound on the past. The book talks about the written work of history and how individuals are battling with the issues of what is “truth.” It likewise examines the post-modernist development and how future historians

Everyday German children learn about the wrongdoings of the generations before them so that they can remember and make reparations. A student from the film talked about how it was their duty to make sure that events like the holocaust never occurred again.By aknowledging the past, Germany enables its youth(like the student mentioned above) to secure a better future for the country. Not only do Germans teach the future generations about the past they also make sure to remind the entire population through their art installations like the “Jews Forbidden Signs”. From these installations and little plaques in the ground, Germans are constantly reminded of the past so that they can never forget German history both good and bad. Contrarily, America seems to try to forget the past rather than honor and remember it. For example, America teaches a more censored version of american history. Recently in 2015, the school board of Denver,Colorado created a proposal to edit the american history curriculum to include “teaching materials[that] present positive aspects of U.S. history and its heritage.” Outrage spread throughout the district because the proposal tried to censor true american history. With numerous incidents like this spreading throughout the states, it is interesting to see the differences in historical education and the importance

Through the study of past evidence, historians become capable of creating educated interpretations of the past based on such evidence and previous knowledge. Difficulty in interpretation does not come from insufficient evidence, with an abundance of preserved historical works from writers, Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus for example, but the unreliable nature of literary tradition (Cornell, 1986) resulting in differentiated opinions of the usefulness of ancient evidence particularly with the incompatible stories of Roman foundation. The usefulness of stories from Romans can become increasingly valuable though there are some historians of the opinion the

I wish to be considered for the M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam because of my interest and research experience in traumatic history education. As an undergraduate, I analyzed how ex-torture sites in Argentina used critical pedagogy to promote certain citizenship ideals amongst students. If selected for the program, I would like to explore how student perspectives regarding traumatic (and often pivotal) points in their country’s history are affected by the use of certain master narratives.

Often in the general public of readers and audiences, the terms history and memory coalesce and seem to easily flow together when considering historical consciousness of the past, and yes, there is an intertwined relationship between the two. However, there are distinct differences between these two expressions. History can be described as “a reasoned reconstruction of the past rooted in research.” It can belong to anyone and can be known by anyone, whereas memory is usually passed down and owned by a certain community or group. Memory is also used differently – it can be framed to suit a person or community’s specific ideologies, it can give value, and there can be deeper meanings such as helping one cope with the weight of past in that

As she uncovers these truths it becomes apparent that these stories were hidden and that peaks her curiosity and leads to the guilt felt by not knowing a part of history that was so important. Reading Sarah’s Key under a historical lens proves that history is defined by major events that can get easy headlines and attract the attention of readers, while everyday events are ignored only to be rediscovered by journalists who end up being more credible than historians.

He says that “Difficult humanitarian issues like slavery and the Holocaust are first introduced through literature…” before students are able to learn about the events from a more historical perspective. He emphasizes the uniquely human experience of reading texts about these types of atrocities, and argues that the literature is an imperative component of the humanization of such horrors. In addition, he states that the “viewing [of] events from someone else’s perspective...are at the core of literary education…”, furthering his argument that literature presents a unique view from the perspective of someone whose life experience is completely foreign to the reader. Both of these arguments appeal to the reader’s emotions, forcing her to reflect on many of the elements of literature that shaped her perception of the world in ways that reading a history book never

Chapter one starts off with the topic question, “What do Historians Do?”, which John Fea slowly starts to answer for the readers. First, he tells what a historian is and what their job is. He explains that a historian must be good at bringing stories from the past to life. Some people are easily bored by a history book, but “in the hands of a skillful historian-writer, can be a page-turner” (Fea 5-6). Fea also mentions that a good historian will not only tell about the event that took place, but that he or she will also review the causes and effects of that event. He or she should lay out different perspectives of the story in order to avoid a biased presentation of information. Building on the idea that there are unique perspectives to a story,

He emphasizes that the rise of “memory culture” is purely a reaction against how fast it is accelerating. “Our own discontents flow instead from the informational and perceptual overload combined with a cultural acceleration that neither our psyche nor our senses are adequately equipped to handle” (Huyssen, 35). Sites and objects of memory are purposely created so we can recall the past which may be necessary in order to make our existence in the modern world more meaningful. In the article he talks about the Holocaust and how the Holocaust memory didn’t stop when the Holocaust memorial museum was built. NATO’s “humanitarian” intervention in Kosovo depended on the Holocaust memory, when looking at the refugees running across the border, women and children getting deported, rape, and destruction. The Kosovo war confirms that in the late 1990’s there was an increase power in memory culture but it also raises an issue about the Holocaust being a historical trauma. The Holocaust was proof of how the western civilians failed and reflected its inability to live in peace with differences and otherness that caused racial oppression and violence. In order to not relive the Holocaust, we must fix the past mistake in order to help us not commit any more mistakes in the future. In “Present Pasts: Media, Politics, Amnesia” Huyssen states, “if memory is

According to Aleida Assman, “While memory is indispensable, as a view from the inside, to evaluating the events of the past and to creating an ethical stance, history is needed, as a view from the outside, to scrutinize and verify the remembered events.” Assman presents memory and history as necessities. Moreover, she argues that memory and history act as checks on each other, maintaining a balanced perspective through their coexistence. Here, memory signifies something remembered from the past by an individual or group, considered an “inside” and inherently personal perspective. This insider element allows memory to make value judgments and create an ethical stance on events. By contrast, history denotes a record of events, meant to provide holistic facts and exclude ethical judgments. Typically, this record is viewed as factual and objective, as shown by Assman’s assertion that history scrutinizes (inspecting and examining) and verifies (ascertaining the accuracy) events from the “outside,” implying an unbiased perspective not belonging to any particular “inside” group or individual. However, history is, like personal memory, curated. This is often done by an official body, such as the state, or a group, as in the creation of history books. In Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s Our Class and Sergei Dovlatov’s The Suitcase, the tension between official history and personal memory grows out of multiple factors, including form and style; a move to the authenticity of experience over the

When I was a child my father would tell me stories before I would go to bed. Rather than being stories about magic or adventures, the stories that my father told me were stories about the past. These were the stories of Richard the Lionheart and Julius Caesar. Later I would find that these stories were not always the most accurate, but they were the foundations for my interest in history. From that early foundation, my interest in history was further fanned…….

Winston Churchill, the British Prime minister during World War II once said that, “History is written by the victors”. This is an idea that has piqued the interest of many individuals throughout history. It is an idea that challenges historians to broaden their horizons, and to look at something from a purely objective point of view in order to remove bias. However, often times primary sources can come in the form of diary entries or handwritten letters, which can contain opinion. Opinionated sources can give us a view of a certain demographic, or allow us to step into the shoes of the individual or individuals that created the primary source. What place does historical fiction have

Both Mark Baker and the American Social History Project’s decision to foreground personal memory and emotion follows the poststructuralist ideology of Hayden White, who infers that the knowledge an individual pursues serves to reconstruct a past that draws vital connections to their identity in the present. By choosing to fabricate his text through a bricolage structure, Baker accentuates his parents’ subjective recollections to explicate that the Holocaust was not just an event of history, but also a crucial component of Jewish ancestry and his own ethnicity. The structural division of the “fifty gates” as an extended metaphor denotes the composers emerging cultural value for the emotional truth in his rigorous comprehension of the past. An impediment manifested from history alone is portrayed in the juxtaposition between the sibilance “screaming, the sound of shots, mothers separated from their children” and the indifferent tone “shot 1381” to illustrate the unsympathetic nature of circumstantial evidence. The capacity of memory to humanise history is a major element in attaining a cultivated awareness of the past and one’s linked identity.

The historian’s task of developing an understanding of the past involves the study of the human past as described in the written documents and objects left by human beings related to a particular point or period in time. However, there is always the problem of authenticity of evidence and the interpretation of events that may or may not be accurate or relevant. Over time more and different evidence often appears and must be evaluated and compared to existing sources and their interpretation. Human science puts human experience in context and its aim is to explain human behavior by creating theories to predict it and then solve problems identified by those predictions considering them in terms of human self-knowledge that allows us to understand ourselves as people. It is very important for us as people to know ourselves: where knowing who we are and where we stand means knowing the things that distinguish us from other people, by knowing our true nature as humans.