While I was reading “The History Craze” of MacMillan, a traditional phrase in our country, Mongolia, “The man who does not know his history is the same as a monkey who is lost in the jungle”, has come into my mind, which made me agree with her argument. It is almost impossible for a monkey to be lost in its own jungle. If the monkey is truly lost in the jungle, it could be assumed that it has both lost its memory and intuition or sick and disabled. Regardless of the situation, there is no pathway for a monkey but to become a food for predators or starve to death. Likewise, it is also impossible for any man not to know his history. History is not only a chronological index of past events but a combination of one’s memory, cultures, tradition,
What can the past teach us? This is a very widespread and very used question, but if we think carefully of this question that seems so simple and innocent it has so many meanings and importance to mankind, the present and what may be the future. The past can teach us many things, where we come from, who we are, who were our
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
Have you ever heard the saying “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” and “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.”? These quotes come from George Santayana and George Bernard Shaw, these men tell how it’s common for people to repeat past mistakes. However, if people learn to look back and understand history, it’s harder to replicate disastrous actions. History is full of wars and brutish words, yet the source of all these problems come from a single issue: power. Leaders seek power in every crevice they can find. In the book, “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, Napoleon is a cruel dictator who successfully takes over a farm after running off its competitors. Major, an old pig, told the farm of a new way of living. However, after he died, Napoleon steadily took over the farm. Therefore, taking the time to understand history’s past and mistakes can be an effective weapon against repeating the same mistakes. Failure to learn outcomes in a repetition of history, as Napoleon proves, as shown in today’s life, learning from history helps resolve futures issues, and only suffering comes from problematic actions of the past.
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.
This paper deals with ways history can be interpreted and influences different interpretations have on society and individuals. This is explored through
"The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or
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
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.
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
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.
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,
“One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.”
How does the way history is told have power in our understanding of the past and present?
To know the past is to know the future. In his essay Knowing History and Knowing Who We Are, David McCullough argues about the importance of studying and teaching history. In his essay, he explains that there are three main points about history: character and its effect upon destiny, our failure of teaching the future generation, and the importance of learning and listening to history. David McCullough strongly advocates that audience should start to listen to and teach about the past in order to learn about the way a person’s character can affect their destiny.