In this first chapter, Wineburg makes the case for a balanced approach to engaging with history. He begins to explore the questions of, “why study history at all?”, “what is history good for?” and “why [and how to] teach it in schools?” Wineburg astutely notes that “history holds the potential, only partly realized, of humanizing us in ways offered by few other areas in the school curriculum” and that “history can bring us together rather than … tear us apart.” It is from this viewpoint on history that he offers the reader four stories that help to illuminate his points and provoke the reader to engage in metathinking both about our approach to history and about what history can ultimately teach us.
Considering Wineburg’s background in psychology,
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Neither of these extremes does justice to history’s complexity…” This section caused me to pause and consider my outward approach to history more in depth. In my original response to the “history quiz and questions” assignment, I took a position that largely explored how the past is relevant to now and how much we have in common with our ancestors. It’s worth noting that in my experience, I’ve often found myself in a position of arguing for history’s relevance or feeling the need to show how, although we are separated by time, the past is intimately interconnected with, and applicable to, the present. I often make the case that the people of old are not entirely foreign and “unknowable” in effort to bring greater balance to conversations. Wineburg’s writing really made me stop and consider how my original response and default position in conversations about history leans very heavily towards “the familiar” and “proximity.” There is a lot of truth in saying that a polar approach is not enough to bring about an accurate view of history, so this has called some of my habits into question. That said, I still believe there are some nearly irrefutably evidenced fundamental aspects of human nature that persist across eras and cultures (such as the desire …show more content…
He incorporates both “his present knowledge and the circumstances of the past.” (As a random side note, I love the phasing Wineburg uses to describe Alston here, “He was an expert at cultivating puzzlement.” Ah! Such lovely wording!) Wineburg describes Alston’s overall approach and accomplishment as, “[requiring] skill, technique, and a great deal of know-how. But mature historical cognition is more: it is an act that engages the
“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves.”(Diamond 25) This statement is the thesis for Jared Diamond’s book Guns Germs and Steel the Fates of Human Societies.
“Why Western History Matters” is an essay adapted from a speech Donald Kagan delivered to the National Association of Scholars, and was reprinted in the December 28, 1994, issue of the Wall Street Journal. Throughout Kagan’s essay, he describes the essential need for the college course, Western History. He does so by examining older cultures and explaining why they were quintessential to the past and to our future development as a society. I strongly concur with Kagan’s standpoint of the necessity of history, and the realization of how exactly our flourishing society came about. History is a key constituent in determining who we are; for to determine who we are one must first know from whence they came. In the words of George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
It is almost unanimously agreed that most students perceive History as the most boring subject in schools today and maybe since the beginning of time. In Lies My Teacher told Me, James Loewen explains why he thinks students hate history. Loewen believes that because teaching history is dominated by textbooks that if one were to change the way textbooks are written it history would be less boring. He exclaims that we can blame a huge part of the problem is context and accuracy of the past (or lack thereof) impairs the quality of American history. Loewen states,”Most authors of history textbooks don’t even try for melodrama. Instead, they write in a tone that if heard aloud might be described as ‘mumbling lecturer’.”( Loewen p.386-387) ) Would
...s of the Americas, what was their life like, and how did it change when Columbus arrived ,’ wrote a student of mine in 1991. ‘However, back then everything was presented as if it were the full picture,’ she continued, ‘so I never thought to doubt that it was.’” Most students after high school, fail to analyze controversial issues in our society. What citizens know about our past is what they have learned in high school history courses.
Unfortunately, American history does have a habit of covering up its history for the sake of offering its younger generations a progress model. In a book titled Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen shows how the progress model mode of history telling has covered up many important events in American history to the point that children in public education are graduating high school with extremely warped views of history.
...and walked home.” Collins contrasts the students’ misbehavior with the teacher’s ignorance, thus implying a relationship between the history teacher’s inability to teach his students and their ensuing misbehavior.
James Loewen wrote the book ?Lies My Teacher Told ME? to help the students of the United States become aware of their true history. This book attempts to show how and why American history has been taught the way it has without regard for the truth. Mr. Loewen had compared twelve different history textbooks they are: The Great Republic, The American Way, Land of Promise, Rise of the American Nation, Challenge of Freedom, American Adventures, Discovering American History, The American Tradition, Life and Liberty, The United States ? A History of the Republic, Triumph of the American Nation and The American Pageant. Loewen has argued his cases for Heroification, Euorcentrism and the first settlers, and Racism in our history. He has done this knowing fully that most people do not want to know the harsh realities of our nations past. The United States has tried to maintain a positive image throughout history. Unfortunately, it has many skeletons in its closet that need to come out to heal this great nation on many levels. If the public at large new the real role of racism in our nations infancy and how men tried to pursue their way of thinking as opposed to what is good for the country they would be ashamed at what the United States has stood for in the past.
The patterns of living that the world witnesses today are greatly influenced by history. This is because of the fact that history plays an immense role in forming one’s future; the abundant interactions socially, economically, politically, result in repercussions that can hardly be unraveled. However, this does not in anyway mean that one cannot trace today’s state of affairs back to its roots. Tracing today’s occurrences back to their origin is possible due to the fact that the agents’ (nations) origins are known.
As the first chapter in this long analytical book, chapter one serves as the foundation for the rest of the novel, with a basic premise that “history textbooks make fool out of the students.” It shows how portrayal of historical figures and events in the best light for the reputation of United States leads to biased and distorted historical education.
This book is written from a perspective foreign to most Americans. Historically, American students are taught from a single perspective, that being the American perspective. This approach to history (the single perspective) dehumanizes the enemy and glorifies the Americans. We tend to forget that those on the opposing side are also human.
One of the questions I’ve always asked in my history classes, is “Why do we need to know about all this stuff that happened so long ago?” Last year, my history teacher, Mr. Slater, gave me an answer. He said we need to learn about history, or we will be doomed to repeat our past mistakes.
In Graham Swift’s Waterland, Tom Crick says, “Children, it was one of your number, a curly-haired boy called Price… who once… asserted roundly that history was ‘a fairy-tale’… ‘What matters… is the here and now. Not the past… The only important thing about history, I think, sir, is that it’s got to the point where it’s probably about to end’”(6,7). It is very likely that we all have come to a point in our education, at one time or another, where we have encountered sentiments similar to those of Price. In most schools the subject of history is treated more or less in the same way- as a recounting of events, an examination of how the past has led to the present. This seems to be a good definition at first glance, but perhaps it is lacking in that it fails to account for the “here and now”(6). In Waterland Graham Swift not only addresses the problem of the fears his students face in the here and now, and the prospect of a nightmarish future; but, he also gives an unlikely solution in Tom Crick’s theory of history as explanation and personal story.
As Berger says, “the art of the past is being mystified because a privileged minority is striving to invent a history which can retrospectively justify the role of the ruling classes, and such a justification can no longer make sense in modern terms” (157). The upper class mystifies us to stay in control; without being able to see things in our own way, we are being deprived from our right to understanding ourselves and placing ourselves in a role of society.
All throughout history, we see this dichotomy between tradition and modernity. On one hand, we have tradition, the force living perpetually in the past and refusing to change. On the other hand, modernity leaves tradition behind in favor of progress. These two concepts, much like oil and water, dare to divide but coexist as a debatable founding solution. Not only are the themes Western ideas, but they have been present and are found in literature all around the world, from China to Africa.
Though our history may bring back horrible memories of the ?grimmest dimensions of human nature? (Limerick 472), it is necessary to have a good historical background. History gives us the ability to improve future outputs, satisfy our unending need for knowledge, and understand how many policies and regulations have come to be. Without history mankind would be very primitive and ununified. Our complete molding of the world today is almost completely dependent on the fact that we study our history. Without history present day humans would be nothing more than cavemen.