The Decline Of Western Culture

This paper deals with ways history can be interpreted and influences different interpretations have on society and individuals. This is explored through

Within the story of a Brave New World, Aldous Huxley gives perfect description of new forms of conditioning; conditioning and indoctrination on a scale of political and social standardization. In the World Government, the goal of indoctrination is for collective agreement; so that every person may believe exactly as the next person does as well not simply so that there is no argumentation, but also so if there were to be an individual who does not agree, or who had somehow found the truth behind the “lessons” of childhood conditioning, then their claims against the World State would find literally no support, as seen when the main character Bernard Marx tries to convince his “girlfriend” of the sorts, to appreciate nature (a hated activity

In the article Knowing History and Knowing Who We Are written by David McCullough, is an essay in which he informs how important it is to learn about our history and how it shapes who we are today. Throughout, he connects important events from American History and relates it to our lives and the world around us. The three main ideas; which are “Character and Destiny”, “Our failure, Our Duty”, and “Listening to the Past”. These ideas

World History in Context, written by David Christian (2003), questions the context of world history as well as the complexity of human history and the societies with which they live. In Christian’s article he argues that looking at world history in its global context, rather than one specific moment in history, is the way it is intended to be interpreted and allows historians to recognize reoccurring patterns and themes. World history is meant to be an unbiased account of only one specific species, humans (Christian 2003, 437-438). Historians often struggle with this challenging topic and tend to produce works extremely biased, usually towards stable ‘western civilizations’ and

As the professor James W Loewer, author of the book, referred that Americans have lost touch with their history. Our teachers and textbooks play important roles in our history study. However, it is their eliding and misrepresenting factoids that have been obstacles in our history studying. Because access to too much errors and distortion, many Americans can hardly understand the past of the country. As a result, we lack the ability to reflect on what’s going on right now and in the future.

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

Allison, Graham, and Niall Ferguson. “Don't Know Much About History.” The Atlantic, Sept. 2016, pp. 28–29.

The article “History Still Matters” by Bill Moyers expresses some important concerns in our societies over the loss of interest in history. Throughout the article Moyers explains the loss of interest but also shows the reader the subject is crucial for societies to progress. He uses deeper meanings to further understand the importance of history as well as expressing the reasons he thinks cultures have lost interest past events. The author also mentions that although people find no relations to history in today’s world, there are conflicts that can resemble current problems. It is also imperative to realize history has assembled our concurrent world. For those reasons we can have our own outlook and interpretations of history to further understand the progression and stage we are currently in.

History is the totality of all past human events, and historiography is the written record of what is known about our lives and societies. In the recent past, history lessons were meant to convey a certain patriotism or to turn an immigrant into a “true American,” but today too many historians are using historical analysis for political purposes. This probably dates to the tumultuous times of the 1960s. Gordon Wood offers a prescription for the proper use of history. Shunning the ideologues of today, he believes historians should “seek to study past events not to make trans-historical generalizations about human behavior but to understand those events as they actually were, in all their peculiar contexts and circumstances.”

“History is the study of any past or present happening or events for which there is physical, written or oral evidence available to substantiate the happenings or events. Some students of history have difficulty with their motivation for the subject because they cannot identify with the personal value of history” (A Guide to Critical Thinking in the Social Studies 1). Clearly, there are many approaches to the study of an era or theme, but those most frequently relied upon in all levels of education are those which seek to present facts, documented from a wide number of sources, primary and secondary, as objectively as possible, a practice which detaches students from their studies and seemingly takes the “story” out of history. Relying upon

In chapter sixteen of "Understanding Western Society: A brief History / Volume 2: From the Age of Exploration to the Present", the reader will be presented with reading material based on Absolutism and Constitutionalism in Europe between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. In this chapter the question is presented, "What made the seventeenth century an age of crisis?" It is explained that Europe experienced economic hardships due to changes in climate, disagreements in religion, and war. The war which largely contributed to this economic crisis is referred to as the Thirty Years War. The Thirty Years War was a religious war between the Catholics and the Protestants. Tensions between Catholics and Protestants date back several centuries. After tensions had reached an all time high prior to the Thirty Years War, a truce was formed by the Peace of Augsburg in the year 1555, however the truce did not hold up as time went on. In time, Lutheran princes developed the Protestant Union in 1608, which influenced Catholics to develop the Catholic League in 1609. These groups wanted to make sure that the opposing groups made no advancements in religion or territory. The Catholics had the Spanish Habsburgs on

The other intended audience for Schaeffer's book is the non-believers. Schaeffer hints to the fact that society's decline is a result of these non-believers. He points out how these people have coerced society to distance itself from the teachings of the Bible. By Schaeffer pointing out the possible end result of their actions, he is hoping that this book serves as a wake-up call. He is urging non-believers to change their ways before it is too late.

America’s postindustrial western culture has afforded many citizens with a quality of life that that can sometimes blind them from the realities of the social, political, and environmental injustices that the majority of the world is suffering from. Sheltered from these exploited countries, we are generally left to rely on the often bias and sensationalized media to inform our nation. Only when destruction lies before us are we humbled and inspired to implement change. Events that open unknowing eyes to vulnerability are the ones that shift the public interest. This catalyst can include anything from a terrorist attack to a natural disaster, or in this case, a drought. The California drought is a perfect testament to this. Back in

On occasion, authors approach cultural subjects as historians. However, Huston Smith limits the historical facts to stay focus on the values of the religions (Smith 10,12). Having an history filled book can cause readers to lose interests in his discussion. To keep the numbers down, Smith picks the religions that most people acknowledge and would share the most common themes in their life (11). He is passionate about his studies, and he wants the audience to find their own appreciation for religion. To accomplish this, Smith simply states that,”This is a book about values”(12). Some books describe a certain faith’s good and bad qualities and can sometimes put more emphasis on the bad if the

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