The Most Memorable Take Away From Middle School History

As we study American history we see that the saying, 'History repeats itself' reveals much truth. As we look closer at the American Revolution and the American Civil War, we can find many similarities between the two. Another saying that is made known is that 'We learn from our mistakes,'; but even the greatest men and women of our history did not follow. The main causes for both wars were the fight for liberty. If we are to analyze this issue in both wars, we see that the conclusion of one war leads to the beginning of another. As Semisonic sings, 'Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end.';

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.

Edmund Burke once said “Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.” Unfortunately, it seems that many people who have impacted the world have had a bad history teacher, as history continues to repeat itself to this day. One of the most prime examples of this is seen in the Middle East; where the Palestinian people are fighting against the Israelis over territory in which they both believe belongs to them. It has been a dispute which has resulted in loss of homes, loss of life and loss of money. However, this is nothing new. Eugene O’Neill’s statement, “There is no present and no future, only the past happening over and over again, now” applies strongly to the situation of the past 70 years in the

It has become blatantly obvious that history repeats itself similar events reoccur and have nearly identical outcomes. The rise and fall of civilization comes as the ocean, rising to its highest point and then falling down to its knees but only to find itself climbing back up again. The book Anthem shows the extent a government and its citizens are willing to go to preserve the idea of a perfect society. But with this great society come sacrifices and challenges the people must find ways to accept, examples are, having complete trust in authority figures, the idea that the group as a whole is more important, and they must accept that there is only one way to achieve this “perfect” society. Through fear and propaganda, the citizens begin to have a closed mind and only see what they are told to see and question nothing.

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.

History is often fabricated and told in a way that is appealing to youth and descendants. History is often told from “white eyes” Loewen suggest that it be told through red eyes to provide true insight in what has formed our country. “One does not start from point zero, but from minus ten” (Loewens 93). High School students are presented information in a biased way. Students are not always taught how to view a situation through another perspective. Students are only able to view a situation based on how they have lived or what they know best. When teaching history of the world teachers often teach harsh situations from the past in ways that are fabricated. “If we look Indian history squarely in the eye, we are going to get red eyes” (Loewen 95). In this statement Loewen suggest that if a reader looks at a situation “squarely” the reader will develop “red eyes” that open the reader up to reality of our decedents and the

Government throughout history and throughout different cultures has changed from one system to another. People fight for power, and a steady government means usually means more prosperous times. When bad times come, power levels may increase, overthrows are enacted, and sometimes the system itself changes. Societies often go about this differently, and patters may be hard to find. However, one thing that history seems to show is that rich people dominant the government. Social classes have always been a part of society, and those who already have more money, education, and resources tend to be the one’s ruling over those who have less. Most people who rule are given extra resources and valuable because they rule. But the pattern that is seen throughout history shows people who already had much, getting power, instead of an average person getting to power, then becoming rich.

There is no doubt that history repeats itself and even though it isn’t direct if we look a little deeper we can see the similarities. No matter how hard we hide history will discreetly fined a way to

History does repeat itself. If we would just read the notes of wisdom our ancestors left us called books, maybe we wouldn’t make the same mistake over and over again. But then again, maybe ignorance is bliss. We are taught since the time we could walk to do good.

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.

“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.”

The lifeblood of these regimes is the dissatisfied citizens, the unimpressed masses who desire revolution and freedom from poverty, which is propogated to have risen out of Capitalist involvement in the Americas. Capitalist economies, on the other hand, believe that it has nothing to do with their involvement and instead sees these stages of development as natural, something that every economy will go through, if they have not already. Despite the appeal, it is untrue to say that every developed nation has gone through stages of development that todays underdeveloped nations are going through. As Andre Gunder Frank puts it “the now developed countries were never underdeveloped, though they may have been undeveloped” (104). This goes to show that the playing field was not even for all, and that today's developing nations had a headstart in developing.

Now and days every person must take at least two years of history in order to pass high school. Many people, including myself, ask the question,“Why must we take history?” Well the answer many of us get is, “ So that history does not repeat itself.” The real question of the matter is, Does history repeat itself? History has repeated itself over and over again. An example of this would be the genocide that occurred in the Ottoman empire in 1915, nearly 88 years later another genocide has occurred in Darfur in 2003. These two events are both similar and different in ways, but none-the-less are proof that history does in deed repeat itself.

The 20th century philosopher George Santayana (1905, p.284) stated "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. Indeed, history is a great educator. Therefore, China has every opportunity to learn from the progress made in quality in Japan and the West.

George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Following this quote, I would be expected to discuss some of the terrible actions committed in our history and that if we don’t learn about these events, they are bound to be repeated in the future. Well I slightly disagree; let us repeat history. Although our nation has endured dark and shameful times, our history is also honorable and full of progress, innovation, patriotism, and triumph. The United States’ history should not be confined to the worn pages of textbooks or preached only by teachers across America. It needs to be shouted from rooftops by all citizens so that we may, yes, repeat it, again and again.