In reading a Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich you realize that history seems so much less complicated when you are the one standing back and reflecting on the past. You realize how easy it is to often forget that every single new idea, religion and war was a struggle that lasted generations upon generations. History is more than just a page or a story, its our account of the world. That goes to show how short life and history is, you realize that history is always repeating, war after war, peace then war. There are good and bad periods in history and its up to us to learn from them. In a way history is much like a human being it goes through stages, learns about life, and has inner struggles or wars about their ideas and their beliefs.
I don’t know how to drive, but I’ve heard that your rearview mirror is extremely important, as is history. It’s like looking behind you, or that phrase, “How do you know where you’re going, if you don’t know where you’ve been?” History can be boring, but generally when it’s boring, it’s probably being told wrong. People and stories are interesting and they make up who we are, and we need them. If we toss out that mirror (our history), we’re likely to back-up into something nasty or get rear-ended. The moral is, if we know our history we can avoid making some large mistakes, because we’ll be able to see a little
"The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or
I do not know if there is any other field of knowledge which suffers so badly as history from the sheer blind repetitions that occur year after year, and from book to book.
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
This paper deals with ways history can be interpreted and influences different interpretations have on society and individuals. This is explored through
The second reason why people need to learn past history is to learn how far that we have come
Allison, Graham, and Niall Ferguson. “Don't Know Much About History.” The Atlantic, Sept. 2016, pp. 28–29.
History is a subject that can define a person’s heritage. Each one is different, but can have a few similarities. Each person’s history can explain where their family originated, the culture that they are originally from, the struggles that their family encountered, and so much more. But the most important thing that a person’s history can show, is how they ended up where they are today.
Some people think there is no reason to know about the past, their excuses are “Oh, well it already happened, there’s nothing we can do about it” or “They’re already dead so it doesn’t really matter anyways”. But it really does matter, without learning what happened in the past we will make the same mistakes over and over again. Why do you think we have to learn about all the wars and what caused them? It’s so that everyone knows what mistakes were made so that it doesn’t happen again or what could happen when everyone isn’t treated equally. We basically learn lessons without having to suffer through mistakes that people in the past have made. It has to do with something like when we make really big mistakes, sometimes it haunts us forever and we want to make sure we never make the same mistake again. Without learning about the past, more people would still think certain things are okay.
History is very similar to nature in a way. “It is the universal nature which gives worth to particular men and things.” In nature there is an endless variety of things, but
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
To think like a historian, I think, is based on past, event in history so many questions what happen in the past that cause event who was affected was there turning point decision made in history that affected our past or present. Dating back the pass brings many questions is like puzzle no idea where the event happened, who was involved, what was affected, when did it occur.
In other words, history in all its forms – global or local, conservative or progressive – is bunk, mere stories with greater or lesser rhetorical force contained in texts which are as deconstructable as any other human artefact.’’ (Ashplant,
How does the way history is told have power in our understanding of the past and present?