What happened to HISTORY?
Community
Contributors to this thread:
I have two nephews that I am very proud of. They know history very well and one teaches at a university. His brother will get his Masters Degree this coming week. My brother will be heading to New Mexico to watch the ceremonies. The one even teaches reloading in college. They both shoot all the time and are NRA members. The older brother is a storm chaser when his teaching job is over at college and he has degrees in all kinds of weather stuff. They wanted me to move to Texas or New Mexico to enjoy all the shooting available. I'm too damn old to move. My wife says she can't believe the difference she sees in many college kids when compared to my nephews. They went to school to learn, not party, and got great educations in Virginia, New Mexico and Texas. If they are like my brother they will never stop with education.
American History, carved in clay, is a forever moving target. Geography, joined at the hip with history in learning institutions, is hard copy fact that is undeniable. American History penned with the quill to the typewriter is subject to introspective denunciation and fact manipulation. I was a student of American History and believed all things that previously had crafted America, that is, until I recently found that the quill and the typewriter had their own built in eraser to suit the readers own individual and PERSONAL beliefs. Who am I to question history, not confined to America, but most prevalent in America than elsewhere so it seems. Hey, the Chinese invented spaghetti. That went over big in our neighborhood in South Philly. The "chinks" paid dearly for that one. ;-) I know, I know...PC.
The Rock
History can't be changed, unless you lie, or just don't tell the true story. I love history, especially the times around the Civil War. It's hard to believe it was only forth teen decades ago and look at all that has taken place since then. It amazes me how different we are now as a nation and people.
Foxbo, the guitar player that I played Bluegrass with for 25 years is the most savvy Civil War enthusiast I have ever seen. He can tell you every battle and all the officers in the war. He has studied it for many years. He would mark all the battles on a map and then calculate how soldiers marched from one battle, or encampment, to the next. He would go to farmers/land owners, and ask permission to hunt for relics. Most got to be very friendly with him. You wouldn't believe all the stuff he found. I was at his house one day when he came home from a hunt and showed me a Confederate officer's belt buckle. He sent it down South to get it authenticated. He was offered $3200 for it but turned it down. They said that particular buckle was very rare. It is hanging in a frame on his wall. He has hundreds and hundreds of bullets. I told him that a lot I was looking at had never been fired and he said on long marches the lead was heavy and many were thrown away.
Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Seapower in history. Theodore Rex LOVED that book. Mad Dog
Seapig@work's Link
Some of American History hurts feelings so it has to be removed...
Sea,
The tip of the iceberg about American History. I demand that any and all literature remotely related to this period be extinguished INCLUDING slavery. Every word from A-Z. Let us see how well that goes over. That would effectively end "you owe me and mine" and institute " find your own way out without government intervention " as all other people had to endure. Watch how fast Robert E. Lee would go back up.
The Rock
beat me to it Seapig. Maybe one day we can erase the Obama years. I find them offensive and unbecoming a great nation like the US
Every year I was in school, from first grade through high school, we had history class.
One year it would be American history, then the next year it would be world history. Then the cycle would repeat.
To this day, I can not only name all of the states, but all of the capitols and the biggest cities in each state as well. I can also name all of our Presidents, IN ORDER, from Washington to Trump.
In college, my major was in Political Science, which is heavily about history and my minors were in history and economics, which is also a lot about history.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.".......... George Santayana
II never had a single American history class in college, and that was a long time ago. I guarantee that most of the history I know never came from any textbook.
Do you know why older people are more interested in history?
They are closer to being part of it.
American history was a requirement when I was in college.
There were 200+ kids in the class and the stuff was so redundant to what I already knew, after a few weeks I quit going and had a friend tell me when the quizzes and the tests would be.
The tests consisted of some True and False questions, some Multiple Choice questions, and some Short Answer Essay questions.
Going into the final exam, I knew if I got scored 175 out of 175, I'd get an A+ for the course.
The good news was you could score more than 175 if you chose to answer more than the required amount of short answer essay questions.
I blew through the Final Exam and after knowing I'd gone way past the 175 number, turned in my exam and left the room long before anyone else did.
I ended up getting a Final Exam score of 213 on the 175 point exam, which turned out to be the highest score any of the 200+kids got, even though I finished before every one of them.
You just can't stop yourself from showing the class what an asshole you are, can you, freeglee?
He may be an asshole, but he's a funny asshole! He must pay someone to write his better stuff for him though, because it's actually written so you can understand it and not in "imbecile-ese" like his original blathering is.
History.... bad enough to suppress and deny it...... facts and reality aren't things meant to shape around feeling good or bad about. Unless you live in Unicorn Land where fantasy is deemed the equal of facts and reality.....
Civics, a form of history IMO, has always been my windmill...... I don't know all that much about the workings within this REPUBLIC compared to some..... but I know leaps and bounds over Freestuff and the legion of LIV he represents who have no CLUE as to how this country is designed to work. And the really sad part.... they don't want to know....and the liberal/leftists who "teach" them (like one of our recurrent dishonest posters are) don't want to confuse their pretty li'l heads about it..... they pretty much don't teach it anymore.
Very sad when the citizens are clueless about the division of power/responsibility in the branches (they have TREES in the guven'ment?) or even how the smallest law gets passed. "Whoa Dude! I just heard they're gonna drop a nuke on Congress!"
History always bored me, for some reason.
One day, I asked my American history professor about the practice of Eugenics (controlling undesirable populations thru forced sterilization) in the US. It's a well-documented, but not often talked about part of American history. He denied that it ever happened.
From that day on, I took every history lesson with a healthy dose of skepticism because I knew I was only getting part of the true story.
Matt
History is becoming more indexed to comfort than reality. In Charlottesville, VA, the city council recently voted to take bids for removing a statue of Robert E. Lee and have declared plans to rename Lee Park and Jackson Park. I believe the parks will be renamed by a write-in campaign. Makes me physically ill.
I have always been a history buff. I especially enjoy coming across those little items of history not found in texts...
Mouse,
Are you sure it's OK call her a 'she?'
How do you know she didn't identify as a man? Or maybe she was trans or 'cisgendered' or whatever they call it now.
Freeglee would know the correct terminology, I'm sure.
And then you dare refer to a "Mae West!!!" You sexist pig!
You're defining womyn by the size of their breasts, you misogynist!
It's a good thing you're retired from teaching. Otherwise you'd be sent to re-education camp!
History is not necessarily the truth....except for a few basic facts it is mostly all made up.
What parts of history are made up? All of it or just some of it?
That is pretty much up to the person writing the history.
Soooooo...the moon landing only occurred because someone wrote it down? The Roman empire only existed because someone thought it was a great story?
Come on, if you are going to say most history is made up, you have to have some examples...
Which part of the Holocaust was made up?
Written history can be made up/distorted/cleaned, but what actually happened will not ever change. That is the true history. Finding it can be very difficult though.
History? Meh!
Literature? Hated it!
That Bay O Wolf sure wasn't what I was expecting.
he he he :-)
I'm not saying that historical facts are made up....just how those facts are incorporated in the historic narrative is the subjective part.
For instance....historians in Russia look at World War II significantly different than historians in the west. I think to get a true picture you need to read both accounts. I've recently become interested in the history of the Roman empire and I can assure you that you do not get an accurate picture of that interesting time just looking at the works of the Roman historians.
It is true that one must read more than one source to get the whole picture of past events. Different view points tell different stories. Much depends on ones perspective.
That doesn't mean that much or most of history is made up.
I always loved history, but what of all the facts about our history that are not addressed? As an example: There have been discovered,all over north america, human skeletons of abnormally large size.
Have you ever seen anything in a history book relating to this?
No, and I have not seen any evidence of these giant skeletons either. Only rumors...show me a skeleton...8^)
I did recently read an article where they have found mastodon bones that appear to have been collected and broken open by humans using rocks as hammers and anvils. This is down by San Diego. They have been working on the excavation for 20+ years now. If true, it will re-write the history of North America as the bones and tools are being dated to over 100,000 years ago. Most believe NA has only been inhabited maybe 12-20,000 years ago...
Well now, THAT proves that climate change is man caused! It was the heat from the flint friction of man making stone tools! TAX ME, TAX ME, TAX ME!!!
History is 100% factual, but all accounts of it are in error to some extent. Some of the errors are entirely accidental. Some are accidental, but caused by bias of the recorder. Some are outright lies with the intent of promoting the agenda of the recorder.
thank you Henry. Exactly what I should have said.
I was only giving you a hard time SA...I knew you really didn't mean what you originally posted...or at least didn't mean what it sounded like you meant...That would have put you firmly in the total wacko group and I know you better than that...8^)
I think...8^)
wait.....are you saying I'm not firmly in the wacko group? When we have our meeting on Saturday you are going to have some explaining to do...
Pfftt.....most people can't even agree on the facts of current day events, why would we expect a consensus on history?
Matt