History Final paper
American History
Prashant Khadka
Amy Bell
HIST-1302
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Khadka
Khadka 2
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Khadka
10/08/18
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What is history and why should we study it?
History is a study of the past or events of the past. This can be done via research of documentation from or written about these past times, archaeological operations, interviewing of people who were alive in these past times and many other ways.
The fact that these events already happened – in some cases several hundred or even thousand years ago – the only way to truly understand history, one is forced to depend heavily on these materials to gain required knowledge. Whilst archeological evidence holds significant credibility, when it comes to human narration of history (via documented text or verbal communication) however, there exists many factors that could effectively taint or alter these fundamental truths. These can range from bias to impaired memory; and in some cases, the dark events in history are watered down in an attempt to create a different light on a particular person or group of persons as protagonists to the tale.
The birth of Protagonists
The documentation of history has had the common feature of creating protagonists essentially making certain key figures with whom historians would want people to relate to into great men to whom people would relate and adore. The downside to this is that whilst they not only create fallacious praises, but also, they undermine true history and with it the history of the world and of men who lived during and before the era of this ‘protagonist’.
Christopher Columbus for example is one such hero with reputation so profound there exist nursey rhymes to his name. The traditional accounts given about the hero in textbooks in schools and the rhymes we sing are, however, fabricated to benefit the general epoch of Columbus and endear him to us. The praises of how his bravery and zeal for adventure changed the world in terms of the development of the Americas is farfetched with other evidence suggesting that voyages into the Americas had been made prior to 1492 (Loewen).
There is also a clear aversion to the mention of the interactions between Columbus (and his crew) and the natives he met in the land he travelled. The voyagers treated these natives as obstacles and the documentation of these events denotes to a land devoid of settlers and of people roaming the great lands. This text undermines the American natives as early settlers in the land by saying that the lands were unoccupied where Columbus and his crew encountered people already living (Loewen).
History of Thanksgiving
The first Thanksgiving is often mistaken as the event that marks the first settlement of America. This event however took place in 1620, therefore it alludes to a clear understanding that settlement would only be interpreted to mean arrival of the White man (Caucasian American) who arrived as the pilgrimage (Loewen). The understanding that the Pilgrims are the first inhabitants of America excludes to a huge extent the colonial settlement of British North America that had inhabitants in the form of the Spanish (periods in the 1500s), the Dutch (around 1614), the French (also present as early as the 1500s) and even the British whose first settlements can be recorded as early as 1606 (Loewen).
Loewen in his book states that the way the story of the Pilgrims has been documented, depicted and taught has only served a single purpose – the development of ethnocentric belief in young Americans. It has purposefully deleted or ignored the true history of Thanksgiving as a Native American culture and tradition and has painted it as an invention of the Pilgrims. Dark natures on the relations between these two groups is also altered or not recorded whatsoever. This has thus caused strain on cultural relativism practices and approaches by young Americans owing to this programming.
History of Slavery
The history textbooks of the 1950s depict racism as a fundamental social construct that benefitted both the white and black man without any real harm to any one of the parties. These books strived to paint a picture of racism as a necessity in society that all people consented to as important to socio-economic sustenance and this was the trend in publishing until the Civil Rights movement began (Loewen).
Loewen explains that for a huge period before the Civil rights movement, the way slavery was handled in the textbooks was in a way that diminished the effect it had on the slaves and mostly went on to empower the practice with topics such as the economic benefits that could be enjoyed from their labor output in the cotton fields to many other uses. The Civil Rights movement served heavily in the reduction of segregation in America and whilst racial tensions existed still, African American history could be documented accurately. This led to documentation on the truths about the Civil Wars primarily being about slavery (B.). Historical texts are also notorious for shying away from the mention of founding fathers and more especially presidents who had slaves even whilst in office. These books also avert mention of slavery in North America (B.).
Textbooks and History
The study of history is instrumental to social life understanding and development; thus for some aspects and principles, history was introduced into the classroom for the young to learn. These textbooks are loaded with the same accounts that have been fabricated in efforts to promote a certain sense of pride; mask past atrocities or to endear these children into certain beliefs. The problem with this is that this greatly undermines the material’s value as a worthy example as when the circumstances to the story change then so does everything else around it and the significance of the historical event vanishes with this doctoring.
Textbooks complicate the study of history as they all contain mirrored information with texts going so far as to use the same wording and documenting the same accounts. This means that the material that is offered is all wrong and altered in a medium that is publicly available and used actively in class across the borders (Loewen). The young budding citizens of the new world are brought up in deceit where core principles and beliefs that they are dependent on are product of fabricated accounts. This becomes an even greater issue when textbooks seek to ignore proper analytical procedures on all circumstances and usually pick one direction and over repeated publishing across all books, this detail becomes fact (Loewen).
W.E.B. DuBois suggests in the excerpt that in our studies of history, when we skim over the bad parts, our histories begin to lose their value as “incentive and example.” What is meant by this?
The value of an example is heavily, if not fully, dependent on its relevance. In the altering or doctoring of history before presenting it to the learner, this value is already compromised. History is worth more when interpreted objectively as per its occurrence and facts rather than when it is presented from a subjective point of view that is shroud with bias and myth.
To skim over the bad parts would be to create myth which would serve no purpose other than to mislead where precedence is meant to guide. If the bad parts of our histories are eradicated, society cannot grow or develop for the better as feelings of complacency and self-pride on having successful pasts may settle in where feeling of revolt and change of norms should be developed in attempts to right past wrongs. This interpretation of history debunks its validity and weight as incentive to do better in the present and future.
Consequences of the ways in which history has recorded and taught
The way history is recorded in books (especially textbooks) and how it is taught in schools effectively changes how young minds look at the world. Where history has been altered to endear young minds towards certain parties, it directly influences their subconscious mind into rejection of the other side of the story. History that is construed and interpreted in a subjective sense to favor a particular side for example to hide their dark pasts, eliminate negativity or viewpoints that illustrate particular parties’ involvement in wrongful acts etc. create bias in the minds of the beneficiaries of this education (B.). This can cause a wrong sense of entitlement or pride to develop or an air of discrimination and lack of empathy for the people who have been wronged by these acts of days past.
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References: B., Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution . Belknap of Harvard University Press, 1992. Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me. 1995. Document (pdf.). "Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress." Libcom.org, libcom.org/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states-howard-zinn/1-columbus-the-indians-and-human-progress.
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