Summary Of In The Strange Death Of Silas Deane

Throughout my career as a student, I never gave much thought as thought as to what was the meaning of history. To me it was the study of past events, the boring ones, the gruesome ones, and the embarrassing ones, but after doing some readings assigned to our class, I think I came up with my own personal definition of history. History is the study of things that happen in the past, the previous day, that present day that could matter tomorrow. To me history is everyday that you live, somewhere in the world, there is history being made, it may not be noteworthy but there is history there. History helps establish an understanding as to why things are the way they are and why our governing system is the way it is. Events that happen today could affect our tomorrow, for instance, when the horrific situation that occurred on 9/11 went on to impact airport security all the way up until now. This is why I believe the definition I came up with defines history to me. Every small thing that happens is a big thing in history. …show more content…
Asking questions about small facts are what helps us determine what is history. Throughout the paper the authors pointed out things that I and maybe others may tend to look over. Such as when the author began to ask questions about Silas Deane’s possible suicide, prior to that conclusion an array of questions were put out such as “did Silas eat breakfast?” or “when did he leave the table?” (Deane, 4). Not only do the authors help establish this, but also explain why they matter. To these authors “the past is not history; only the raw material of it” (Deane,