Public Historians

For my summer assignment for AP U.S history I had to read the novel, A People’s History of the United States. This novel is a nonfictional literary work that was written by the American historian, playwright, and social activist named Howard Zinn. In this novel, Zinn attempts to present American history through the viewpoint of the common people rather than the conquerors and the economical and political elite. The chapters that I had to read from this book were chapters 1 through 10. The chapters were very informative and it allowed me to revisit major events in American History. Therefore; prior to reading this novel, the three events that stood out to me were the Arawak Indians that encountered Columbus, the enslavement of African Americans

The Smithsonian Museum is a selective representation that allow an intuitive recollection of history oriented by our personal experience, whilst challenging the inflexible traditional museum through its ability to be altered and manipulated by our personal memory and reminiscence. Continuous uploading and addition of new content in conjunction with constantly altering graphics ensures that the website is viewed differently by every responder, allowing our memory of the 9/11 to steer our interpretation of the text. The provision of a 'Tell your story' link, directing responder's to "help document this historic event", places equal academic validity in the function of memory as that of an artefact, and in doing so, essentially intertwines the roles of history and memory as being complementary in the documentation of fact. Supporting this distinct representation of 9/11, the title of the website 'Bearing Witness to History' allows the individual testimonies of its responders to enhance this representation of a unified response to the attack. This is supported by curator William Yeingst who

“The Headstrong Historian”, a short story among a collection of stories written by Chimamanda Adichie in the novel, The Thing Around Your Neck talks about a woman who gives her only son, who was born after several miscarriages, off to foreigners to train him in the English language in order to be a better public speaker, so he could win a property acquisition case against her in-laws in court, following her husband’s death, but instead, he gets completely transformed by the statutes of the white man and she has no choice but to accept him even when he tries to impose the white man’s practices on her. In this paper, I’m going to be using the concepts of Ambivalence and Hegemony, and Bechdel Test and Gender

It seems like in today’s day and age, most historical documents are looked over, blatantly ignored. Many people are misinformed of what they are meant to be and what the meaning is behind them. After I received my summer assignment, I asked my father if we could go to the National Archives Museum and learn more about what I’d be writing an essay about. He replied, “Of course.”

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,

Cultural heritage defines who we are as human being, as a community, as a country, and as a nation. Equally, in this country we have a shared history and identity. Hence, it is very important that archivists work to preserve our country’s cultural heritage. Going back as far as the 1960’s, archivists amongst others have been working to preserve our cultural heritage and it very important that they continue to seek out cultural heritage educational programs and the local communities, to learn more effective and efficient way to preserve and share lost information about America’s diverse heritage. If they are not educated on cultural heritage, they may not be able to conserve the archival materials that define the people of those communities,

Through this internal assessment I have learned about the challenges of bias that historical events pose. Bias is found in archive based-history, through the primary sources that are available, which then easily transfers into the investigation, as it can be very difficult for a historian to stay unbiased when writing.

New Historicism is a critical practice emerged in the in the early 1980s. It developed essentially through the work of Greenblatt, and became the new “status quo” in the 1990s. This new historicist practice seeks to reveal the ways in which culture and history are the main sources for the human experience. New historicists participate in the activity of interpreting and explaining material documentation as the representations that a society produces of itself. They tend to view society as a web of cultural discourses that circulate within it, and are created by particular conditions in a particular place and time. This critical approach, therefore, is interested in examining the process by which a society organizes and produces its own

The historical and social importance of the civil rights and women’s rights movements is undeniable; they represent the struggle for justice and equality in the United States. The figures and events people associate with it and how this knowledge is acquired is something that has been evolving through the years. Most of the population, most notably the younger generations, fail to demonstrate much familiarity of this pivotal time in American history. Retaining the occurrences of the past is key to ensuring that the same patterns of oppressive behaviors do not reemerge in society.

Investigating the Extent to Which Historians Can Be Objective ‘You have reckoned that history ought to judge the past and to instruct the contemporary world as to the future. The present attempt does not yield to that high office. It will merely tell you how it really was’ - Leopold Von Ranke ‘ There are no facts, only interpretations’ – Nietzsche

The use of technology has been quickly growing in the humanities but it is not necessarily welcomed. David Greetham explains this in his article The Resistance to the Digital Humanities, which discusses how the digital application of humanities is facing certain types of discrimination in favor of doing things the old fashioned way. No matter what the content of the digital publications they still face discrimination and are not seen as “real” works. The use of technology has been growing in many fields in the past twenty plus years and the humanities are not exception to this rule. Now this is quickly changing and Greetham is arguing that this is something necessary to change so that the the field can expand and do away with old prejudices

Recording history or current events has never been easier. Most of society has the entire world at their fingertips, our lives are spent online in a digital world. We tweet our daily routine on Twitter, Facebook our loved ones, and track different trends on Instagram. These underrated advances in technology are how we perceive ourselves as having surpassed preceding cultures. However, these advancements in technology have not always existed. Titus Livius, or Livy, a historian from the Roman Republic, dedicated his life to keeping a transcript of Rome’s history. Livy’s noble ambition was an eminently daunting task that was vital for Rome’s legacy.

The rise of technology allowed us to express and share history in different mediums; however, the rise of technology has also corrupted the portrayal of history. In today 's society, we can watch movies that portray the stories of African-American women like Hidden Figure or the Women’s Rights Movement such as Iron Jawed Angels with the press of a button. Scholars have argued that technology has expanded the different ways we can gain historical knowledge. Scholar, Alison Landsberg, introduces the idea of prosthetic memory, which she defines as a deeply felt memory of a past event through which one did not live, which we gain through experiential learning (Landsberg 2). Landberg argues that modernity and technology are new ways of gaining

Advanced information technology is widely used in the millennium age. History is can be reprinted, re-edited and re-presented (Chan, 2013). Relatively, history can be shown in a more realistic way than before. Audience can spend few hours to have a brief understanding of history. However, I think the motivation of making historical movie is not merely for education but consists of other reasons. Seediq Bale will be taken as an example for elaboration.

On October 4th, 2017, I went to see Abby Smith Rumsey presentation about “How Digital Memory Will Change Our Past and Shape Our Future.” This was an Inaugural Digital Scholarship Lecture that occurred in Pruis Hall from 7:30-9:00 p.m. (Q.1.) Rumsey’s general purpose with the topic of “How Digital Memory Will Change Our Past and Shape Our Future” was to inform the audience about digital memory. The speaker wanted to inform the audience about the memory and technology that goes along with digital memory.