MJ Barrett History MWF 10:30

The Nature Of History

Franzmann

The way we have always learned to study history is through our teachers, parents, and notebooks. In order to catch a broader view, we need to not be so close minded. History isnt just something that we learn in history books, or in the classroom. History happens every day of our lives. The meanings of history are very complex ideas of philosophy that have been archives throughout centuries of life. History has a variety of meanings and used the word history has several meanings in English. At first thought when you see the word history you think of the past. The past doesnt specifically mean a certain time. Examples of this would be as recent as the falling of the twin towers, or as late as the fall of the Roman Empire. As humans, we always like to picture perspectives as something small so we can be comfortable with it. When we learn about a subject, especially history, we like to think of it as just that. An example of this is when we learn about World War II and all of its gory details. When we learn about just that, sure, there was a holocaust. Sure, there was a Hitler that controlled an enormous superpower that we were trying to put an end to. Do we really know what went down? Perspective is something completely larger than what we make it out to be because its comfortable for us. We liked to see things as a whole, rather than pick it apart. This also has an upside, though. As long as people have learned from history, it cant be repeated. As it says in the article, The past does not show us how to oppose Hitler tactically, on a given day, but reveals the danger bowing the neck to tyrants and argues for opposition to tyranny even in the face of great odds History also gives us a feeling of protection and gratification sometimes. Even in the heat of moments, history can be used as a weapon. An example of this is the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. It extended a feud to extensively that some would say its extended into our own time. Martin Luther was a target of many catholic historians, claiming that he was a useless

MJ Barrett History MWF 10:30

The Nature Of History

Franzmann

priest and nothing more than a fake. Another example of this reaches back to the 19 century. Many historical scholars felt like their people were being mistreated and demanded historic right to political independence. In eastern and southern Europe, this was a bigger problem than most areas. Historical literature has always been around through centuries of research. There are two types of ways you can distinct a piece of historical literature. The two ways are narrative and analysis. Narrative is a written story of sorts, sometimes with description that nearly means analysis, and sometimes with a great deal of it. Analysis is the examination of certain topics, groups, or ideas with slim to none attention to an individual topic. Individual events are important because you can gather a bunch of different topics thatll help you analyze. When youre studying a narrative youll come to find out that a narration has little to do with analysis, and analysis has little things to do with narrative. Narrative history is important because it links the scholar easily with the public. Most of the narrative writers focused on creating a feeling for the public so that the public can understand the great men and the good deeds that they accomplished. Analysis is the basic principle of having an idea of what occurred and ratifying it through works of literature. People like to claim they know something and do the work themselves to be more accurate than others. History is not always perfect. Historians and scholars are also human, and they mess up too. Some historians dont just state facts; they also add their own personal beliefs and values. This can be a bad thing because it makes it to where philosophers are burdened by trying to interpret certain details. Failing to state the facts, and just the facts, results in confusion to others reading. Ideas are easily switched around and philosophers are easily confused. An example of this is that the historians culture, personal experiences, and environment can affect the way the

MJ Barrett History MWF 10:30

The Nature Of History

Franzmann

narrator translates a story. Another example is that it really depends on the type of historian and the way he writes. A modern day historian might have a little trouble interpreting the way the Romans fought the Persians in the great wars of their time. Over time, historians have been trying to decide whether history is a science or humanity. The scientific aspect of it is that how did things happen? What exactly made them happen? Other philosophers try and think like the minds of the historic figures to guess what happened. Most scientists that study history think how the past could link to the present. Mostly all think that there is some time of merger between the two. A true historian really focuses on the historical context of things. He tries to understand what exactly is going on in our everyday lives, differences, and problems and compares it to the past. Despite the differences of philosophers and scientists, historians ultimately benefit. So much energy and time is placed into different hypothesis and methods that it is easy for historians to use it. Over time, many other ideas and philosophies will continue to flow from history. As time goes on, people will keep coming up with more and more ideas and more conspiracies. History will always exist as time moves on, and so will literature. Everyone is always going to have their own opinion on things no matter how solid the history is and that will keep things interesting.