History Final paper

May 11,2018

Semester in a nutshell

This class has been one of the most interesting and eye-opening classes of this semester for me. Unlike in my previous semester, I took western civilization history but it was just a lecture and pretty much boring. But this class was quite different than any other classes. The first thing which I learned from this class that made me quite satisfied is the things about the board of education, how they have kept us in dark from the exact history of America. The history books publishers have become so impaired as they just take out anything they don't concur with regardless of on the off chance that it changes history.

When I first registered for this class, I randomly picked Professor Amy Bell. I thought that the class is going to be normal like the other classes. But, from the first day to the end day of this class, I enjoyed this class a lot. This class was more like the discussion board. Professor Bell was one of the greatest enthusiastic and curious professor who always gives her best and tries to find out if her students are learning or not.

Talking about the history of America, from the discovery of America by Columbus to the Civil War, I came to know many false assertions from so called textbook publishers and historians, and I learned many facts and information which were totally new to me. From the beginning, the textbook publishers have altered and manipulated our history a lot in a way they want us to study it. All these lies and the false information about history are the reasons for History being one of the disliked subject of the students.

From the very beginning, I was taught that Christopher Columbus was the man who discovered America. He was considered as one of the American heroes. But, the truth was hidden. Before his arrival, millions of peoples were already living in America. This surely implies that Columbus was not the first man to sail to America and to discover the land. Columbus was in fact a very bad person whose main motive was to explore the treasure not to discover the land. When he arrived in America, he seized the land and living of the native people and enslaved them. All these things are hidden from us by the textbook publishers. The one good thing about this history class is the textbook “Lies my teacher told me”. This book explained us about how we students have been taught by our teachers and the textbook publishers about the History. After studying this book, it made me think that most of the information in the History textbook are fake and they tell nothing other than the incomplete and irrelevant information.

Besides that, thanksgiving was another thing which was totally new for me and I learned its true value and meaning from this class. What I was taught about Thanksgiving is that, it is celebrated because the pilgrims of Mayflower came to the New World and found religious freedom. But, it was totally incomplete and misleading information. The pilgrims of Mayflower had already found their religious freedom in Holland and they sailed to the New World in order to spread their English identity and for economical purpose. Most of them were not even pilgrims, they were the sailors whose main purpose was to find the Gold. With their arrival, they also carried a disease with them, which killed more than 96% of the native Americans. Till I took this class, I was taught that Columbus was the one who was one of the pilgrims and who discovered America. But, in the History textbook, it wasn’t mentioned that there were many other people who sailed to the new world before Columbus’s arrival and we can’t even find a trace of their names in the History book. (Notes, Assignment #2)

I had many misconceptions about the US history and the American Revolutionary war. I used to think that Americans fought the revolutionary war for the independence of native Americans. But, the reality was quite different. 69% of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were the rich merchants who had colonial office under England. (Notes, Assignments #9) The revolutionary war was mainly about rich and poor people. Even though the American colonies managed to win the war but the poor didn’t get justice. This war was battled basically for the rich Americans who needed to set up themselves and needed to pick up influence. They utilized destitute individuals to battle for them yet the poor didn't know the goal of the wealth. Prior to the Independence Day, British had control over Land and Economics of the nation. The rich ones believed that in the event that they toss the settlers out of their nation, they would have the opportunity to wander in and take control.

Even about the Civil war and the Reconstruction, there were many misleading information and facts we had studied before. All we know about civil war was that it was fought for slavery. But it had many other aims one of which is to bring the southern states back to the union and establish peace throughout the country. Also, after the Civil War, during Reconstruction period, we were taught that this period was the time of reconstruction of the destruction done in southern as well as northern states during Civil war. But, there was many more in deep. The so-called leaders of Civil war Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson were racists. They were the one who were leading their team but they have also enslaved many innocent people. This is the dark side of our History text book.

Thus, most of the subject matters of the History that we have learned so far before taking this class and after taking this class, has changed my opinion and view towards my learning ability. Before taking this class, I used to believe each and everything that were in the book and that were told by my teacher. In fact, I used to take book as the source of all knowledge. But, after taking this class, this class has just opened my eye, and told me that how much behind I was in learning history. History is not the subject I used to think, it is much more vast and interesting. If we had tried to go through each and every source found in this world about the History, we would have taken History as one of the best subjects.

Reference

1. Class notes, Assignment #2

2. Class notes, Assignment #9