John Fea attempts to answer the question posed in the title of his book, “Why Study History?” He answers this question in eight chapters that talk about the different aspects of history. In chapter one, Fea talks about the role of historians as “revisionists.” Though history can be revealed through simple facts, it is meaningless without a story. Historians try to identify the story behind the facts by following the five C’s: change, context, causality, contingency, and complexity.…
My two primary sources is about 9/11. My first primary source explains, "What happened that day?," "Who attacked us?," "How did America respond to 9/11?," and "How did America change after 9/11?" (PS1). My second primary source goes more in-depth about what happened on 9/11. It also include photo's that signified that important day.…
History is a subject based on story telling. Sometimes, it is based off letters and written documents. History is not written down for others to learn in a nonbiased opinion in the present moment. Historians must go through these documents later and decide what is biased, and what is not. They must read about an event from multiple perspectives and try and pick out what happened and what is an opinion.…
In Chapter 7, Land of Opportunity, Loewen discusses social class throughout US History. For the most part, people will stay in the same social class for their whole life. If you were born in the lower class, you will most likely die in the lower class. Same for middle and upper classes. This is because of opportunity.…
Are you familiar with what a primary source is? A primary source is a story that comes directly to you from the author who lived that story a long time ago. An Egyptian might have written a story, and that story today would be a primary source. In class, these past two weeks have been full of primary source stories. The stories are “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” by Olaudah Equiano and “La Relacion,” by Cabeza de Vaca.…
A Midwife’s Tale is the story of Martha Ballard’s life based off her diary written from 1785-1812. The film depicts what the life of Martha Ballard was like, including sickness, birth, and death. The film showed the life of Marth as a town midwife and doctor in the 18th and 19th centuries. The film was told through reconstructions of the past based on Martha’s writing throughout her life. Historian Laurel Ulrich told the life of Martha Ballard based on the primary source, Martha’s diary.…
In conclusion, primary source is more reliable to use than the secondary source for information. As the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a secondary source that has time and fact difference with the primary source, letter written by Paul Revere, and a descriptive poem that can exaggerate and distort the facts, it is not a reliable source to use when compared to the writing of the man who was actually…
Primary sources are meant to be revealing about past events as a result of directly being tied to the event. In this instance, we have the letters about Tuskegee, in which the experimenters detailed information about the study to others involved and the autobiography and Sims. Both have pros and cons as primary sources. It is very easy to make statement in hindsight and Marion J. Sims is guilty of this. Sims is only able to make some of his declarations because he was successful in his experiment, I doubt he would have been as confident about his experiment as he writes during the time he conducting them.…
A pro of primary sources is that they are the most reliable way to gain information about opportunity in early America, but even still there are many challenges and downsides to using them. Primary sources are generally unbiased, but a promotional tract meant to convince people to go to America more than likely gives inaccurate information. An issue with primary sources is still distinguishing whether the information is fact or opinion. Documents such as 7-11 depict a great picture that we can assume to be honest based off of the map and records about wealth and land distribution. These are assumed to be accurate primary sources that are unbiased and give us the information we need to think about opportunity in America.…
Historiography, which is the study of historical writing, allows an individual to research many different viewpoints of a historical event, in order to develop a more objective understanding of that time or event in history. Historiographers, those who practice historiography, play a crucial role in developing the history that is studied around the world. In this practice, historiographers are able to avoid the compromisation of accuracy and simplicity created by language and perspective due to the methods of investigation. For example, high school textbooks are created in order to educate students on the history of a certain subject, whether it be 19th Century European History, or Ancient Rome during the Trojan War. When writing these books, authors work to create the most objective account of the events being discussed, through the integration of various historical accounts, as they are able to consider the loss of data over decades and century, while considering the various primary sources available to the public, whether it be written or verbal accounts of history.…
Carr represents an alternative path for the academy to become more inclusive of other histories, whereas Elton’s model relies on the perpetuation of old ideas. Moreover, Elton’s model only allows for a single, universalized understandings of historical texts. This is very counterproductive to understanding history, as that would only allow for a single perspective to be taught and disseminated. Elton likes to approach sources uncritically, and cherish the “truth” within them without contextualizing where it comes from, etc. to the point where Carr refers to it as a “fetish”. Yes, sources are important.…
As someone with a major largely based on science, I have found myself sometimes wondering why it is important to take a history course in college. However, as my time in History 101 comes to an end I have come to understand how beneficial it is. This course helps to remind us where everything once started and how far it has come. It teaches what worked and did not work for society so we may learn what to do to make the present and future more prosperous.…
When most people think of a history class they imagine sitting in a dark lecture hall taking notes off a PowerPoint presentation, memorizing a few dates and people, repeating it on the test. Truly studying history, I learned, is more than memorization of a previously told story and accepting it as true. In this class I have learned history is about actively engaging the material, picking apart the details and nuances, creating and using timelines, finding deeper meaning in the material, asking questions, then looking again and digging deeper. It is not a passive study and not about memorization as I believed at the beginning of the semester. History is about asking questions and looking for answers, not just accepting what is already there, but…
Primary and secondary sources are both very important pieces of information that have been used to help support history throughout the years. Without our primary and secondary sources we would not have information to base off of. Primary sources are actual artifacts or documents created during a specific time. Some great examples of primary sources are things like journals, diaries, newspapers, speeches and even things like art and music.…
Before taking this class, I had a whole different outlook on what I would be learning, but I am grateful that the instruction I had made me reflect on the kind of classroom and practices I believe are important especially when it comes to teaching social studies. Practices and approaches that I would have never considered including into an elementary classroom curriculum such as research, flooding a terrain model, and role play have opened up my eyes and created a very different vision of my social studies classroom. In thinking about what children need and keeping their interests in mind, I honestly do believe that when students are learning about social studies, they need more than to just memorize names, dates, places and to worry about…