This paper deals with ways history can be interpreted and influences different interpretations have on society and individuals. This is explored through
History can be defined as the study of past events, focused particularly in human affairs. Historians must research and infer to propose educated guesses to correctly document events of the past, which leaves a lot up to personal interpretation of limited facts. People often forget there is not just one sole history of something. Rather, a history of a people is composed of many different individuals living in the same time. Perspective can skew what history becomes. The past does not change, but our interpretations of the past do. More often than not, however, only one perspective is included in the retelling of a historical event.
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
‘Historians can infer particular facts about the past from the evidence available to them, the way they give meaning to those facts by presenting relations between them is a function of their own creative imagination’ (McCullagh, 2000, :1)
Imagine you have just completed a trip through the early kingdoms and city-states of East, Central, and South Africa. Your family and friends ask you about the trip. Your task is to give them an oral history of your experience. You may choose to write your account, record it, or make a video. Remember, your family and friends will share your story and pass it on to future generations, like oral historians in Africa. Make it fascinating! No one wants to hear a boring story.
Not all is known and the facts passed down may not reveal the whole truth. History is biased and can easily be manipulated by those with more power, and it is a modern historian’s job to weed through the commonly accepted information, and try to find the truth. If the truth is not found, then they present alternative theories to broaden the world’s knowledge on the possible course of events in the
They are his "chosen people". He did not value them over others, but invited them to become his special human partners and to have a history that was to disclose him to the world.[pic]
History is something that we all have knowledge of. It may be family history, or even your own but we all know of an experience that happened in the past. These experiences make us who we are, and they determine how we think. Not only that but they determine our emotions towards certain topics. Through characters in the book, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, " written by Jamie Ford, we learn that American identity is based on ones history and if we want America to become a stronger more united place everyone’s history must be accepted.
How does the way history is told have power in our understanding of the past and present?
Fill in the table below about these five major world religions. Do not fill in the shaded boxes.
History writing has evolved much over time with the contributions of many people. In the modern sense, it can be traced back to ancient Greece and China, where historians Herodotus and Sima Qian began keeping records of human existence. Although they were not literally the first people to write history, together they are named the first great historians of the Western world and the East because of their individual innovations and extensive work that has long affected history writing up until this day. There is much to debate when it comes to the greatness of these ancient historians, and although some believe they were both important and successful in what their works, The Histories and The Records of a Historian, accomplished, others
At the end of the Cold War there were some countries left in ruins. India and Pakistan, were both affected by the dispute. According to a research study conducted by scholars at the London School Of Economics, "following the success of economic liberalisation in the 1990s, which generated growth rates in excess of 8% and a rising middle class, expectations have grown that India might become a superpower, particularly in a West that sees in India's democratic heritage the potential for strategic partnership." In contrast, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the involvement of Pakistan's government in terrorist activities. In a leaked document of the British Defence Ministry it was reported that: "Indirectly Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism--whether in London on 7/7 [the July 2005 attacks on London's transit system], or in Afghanistan, or Iraq." Although these are not events that occurred during the time frame of the research, it goes on to show and serve as evidence that Pakistan came out a troubled nation. In addition to the involvement in terrorism, the citizens of the Muslim republic face poverty and are subject to a lot of instability in
What is History? This is the question posed by historian E.H. Carr in his study of historiography. Carr debates the ongoing argument which historians have challenged for years, on the possibility that history could be neutral. In his book he discusses the link between historical facts and the historians themselves. Carr argues that history cannot be objective or unbiased, as for it to become history, knowledge of the past has been processed by the historian through interpretation and evaluation. He argues that it is the necessary interpretations which mean personal biases whether intentional or not, define what we see as history. A main point of the chapter is that historians select the facts they think are significant which ultimately
Historians use literary techniques and even poetic devices to craft historiographies that are compelling for readers. For example, a historian may construct a plot or narrative based on a series of events or on biographical data. A fiction author likewise relies on historical events and biographical data to construct plots: a process White calls "emplotment," (1714). Emplotment is basically the "encodation of facts," (White 1714). The storyteller is a historian, for no fiction is created out of thin air. Likewise, the historian is a storyteller, for readers of history require a
The definition of history, is a question which has sparked international debate for centuries between the writers, readers, and the makers of history. It is a vital topic which should be relevant in our lives because it?s important to acknowledge past events that have occurred in our world that deeply influences the present. This essay will discuss what history is, and why we study it.