Essay On Historical Memory

Great Essays
WEEK ONE- Introductions
After attending class for the first time on Wednesday, August 24th, I can honestly say that the topic of historical memory had never crossed my mind. In previous thoughts I had always imagined history and memory as synonymous. In order to better understand my thought process, I have broken down memory and history and what they meant to me before and after our first class. Before class started my definition of memory by itself was simply remembering thoughts or actions from the past. In class we all made a mutual decision that memory was the recollection of past events, but after reading the article by David Thelen I would add something about how memory, unless classified, is an individual recollection and is susceptible
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Therefore, I would have to say that collective memory and historical memory are similar in definition because they seem to be the least biased and both rely heavily on what can be factually proven. Aside from memory and history, we also discussed how Abraham Lincoln was conveyed in today’s society. At first thought I would describe Lincoln as humble, storyteller, the Great Emancipator/ freed the slaves, tall with a top hat, kind-hearted, login cabin-raised, and self-taught when it comes to reading. I feel like people use these stereotypes of Lincoln and modify them for their needs. For example, I have seen this done is car commercials. I am sure as the semester progresses that I will notice his use in our society more and more often.

WEEK TWO- Foundations I Following suit of last week, several new ideas were introduced to me through the readings and class discussions. Three main topics emerged within this week: Altercation of history for personal or political needs, Mr. Everyman, and the past (history) as influential to the future. Sense of History by David Glassburg opened my mind to the topic of manipulating history. I feel like I have known or seen this topic be used without actually realizing that it is

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