History 1 final paper

Akther 1

Akther 2

Sabiha Akther

Professor Amy Bell

HIST 1302.82008

05 March 2021

United Sates History

History is the study of the past events connected with a particular person or event. When studying history therefore, a specific person or event is considered thus enabling the learners to understand what happened in the past about the person being referred to or the event. It is important to study history because it enables one to learn about the past and how the happenings in the past shaped the current events and people. Since history is aimed at providing the events of the past, then it is necessary to ensure that the facts of all the events and people who are discussed are highlighted. Avoiding some information about the events or the individuals will not give clear and accurate information about the individuals or the events and as a result, the learners will not get the real picture of what happened in the past.

The stories about Christopher Columbus, Native Americans, pilgrims, or slavery have been distorted in that some details are omitted. This changes history because it allows learners to read knowledge that suits them, but it hides some details. The learners will therefore think they know much about the past yet, they know only the event that has been selected and considered suitable for them. An example of the distortion is that Christopher Columbus is considered to be the one who discovered America yet when he got to America, Native Americans existed and there were other explorers who had visited the nation before him. The good side of people who are discussed in the history is only considered while omitting their negative deeds. It is better if all the deeds are featured in history thus enabling the readers to understand that even those who did good things, they also had weaknesses that made them to do bad things. But history books try to describe them as perfect beings who have only done good things (Stille, 1998).

The act of avoiding some details in history by the writers has complicated the learning of history because it is clear that what is taught is not the truth since some information is hidden. It is difficult therefore for the learners to trust written materials because not all information is available in them. Writers should consider providing facts to make historical reading easier because all information about individuals can be obtained. But due to the fear of the content about people having a bad influence on the readers, the writers opt to omit the information. But it is important to include all the details about people considered as historical figures because it will help the learners to understand that even these people had weaknesses and failures, but still they managed to succeed in some areas. The act of not including the failures of the historical figures makes the learners to conclude that one has to be perfect to succeed. This conclusion contributes to the history being complicated since the readers do not expect successful people in the society to have failed in some ways.

The history lessons learned differed with the topics learned in this class in that the history lessons would only highlight on the positive side of the people who are discussed. But these themes highlight the failures of those people, and therefore show that the historical lessons learned in the past omit some information. Since elementary school, I have been choosing the content provided to learners, thus depriving learners of the opportunity to understand well people who are discussed in the history. When the readers skim through the bad side of the people discussed in the history, it changes the whole history since the readers will realize that they have been lied to all along. The readers will therefore doubt the content of history books since they do not provide all the information about the past (BALES, 2012).

The far-reaching consequences of how history has been taught is that it will not be easy to trust any history reading material because one is aware that the content has been customized through omission of the content that is deemed unsuitable for the members of the society to know. When all are aware of this fact, then they will stop taking seriously the history content given to them because they know that some information is missing. It is important therefore to ensure that the history reading materials has all the information about the past without filtering out some content that is considered not suitable for the members of the society. This issue should be addressed because when the majority of the members of the society are aware that the information available about the past is not complete, then they will stop having the desire to read more about the past. With time, the members of the society will be aware that the history books do not contain all the information and thus will discourage the learners from using them since they do not reflect what happened in the past fully.

Works Cited

Stille, Alexander. "The Betrayal of History." The New York Review of Books, 11 June 1998, www.nybooks.com/articles/1998/06/11/the-betrayal-of-history/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2021.

BALES, KEVIN. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. 3rd ed., University of California Press, 2012. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pp4n3. Accessed 6 Mar. 2021.