Historiography

The Freedom Riders is one example where the truth was either hidden or revealed through the news. Bias where strong in the south where people were segregated meaning that African Americans were usually passed off as troublemakers compared to others who saw the acts of segregation an act of cruelty. The trick to get pass bias is to interpreting the document to discover what is fact and what is fiction. It would deem best for one to gather multiple primary source documents such as first hand…

When looking at secondary sources one must take a different view than when analyzing a primary source. There are several credentials that must be met for a truly reliable secondary source. First, who is the author, are there any authors, or was a university or nonprofit responsible for the source? Second, who published the source, is it a website, a journal or a book? Third, who is this source geared toward and what does it want its audience to know or understand? Fourth, what makes this source…

After reading the article I now understand that a primary source is a document or piece of writing that was written by an individual who was alive during the time period of interest. However a primary source is not limited to paper, but can be classified by things that were around during the time period such as weaponry and materials. Primary sources prove to be important when studying history, because we need them to help our understanding of what truly happened. Looking back into our history…

Video documentaries are popular secondary sources. Secondary sources are one of the many instruments of knowledge that historians examine and interpret to gain an understanding of history. Vikings is documentary series release in 2012 that was written and narrated by Neil Oliver from the BBC Network. In the documentary, Oliver analyzes the massive history of the Vikings from prehistoric times to the end of the Viking Age. A large emphasis is place on artifacts and travel since Oliver is an…

The Journey of Growing Old The American writer Betty Friedan once said: "Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength." It was interesting to have the opportunity of interviewing someone in the late adulthood stage because it gave me insights to understand my mother and the challenges she may be facing during her journey of growing old. The person I interviewed for this paper is a white male age 58 named Wayne. Wayne was born in Seattle, Washington. He was raised in a…

Over the semester in this course, the sole focus was the Crusades. The Crusades is not a proud history for Christians. The brutality used and the amount of death that resulted in the acts of the Crusades has left its imprint on history forever, but there is much more to the Crusades than this. From this course, the most important concept learned from this course is the fact that the Crusades is something that is not easily understood or explained. There are so many components and concepts that…

Throughout the course of the existence of mankind, events concerning many individuals have been able to drastically alter time. The causations of crises, whether they were accidents or fate, shape history—the study of past events— and many groups of diverse individuals from all around the world. While others argue against the importance of history, and the necessity to study it, others boldly defend the significance of analyzing the past. Countless historians, such as the five authors of the…

Andres Resendez’s work A Land So Strange interprets Cabeza de Vaca’s journey across America as “an extreme tale of survival” in which he was able to bridge two different worlds in order to survive. Resendez’s central argument is that Cabeza de Vaca transformed over his journey across America from a conquistador with conquering intentions to a medicine man that advocated for diplomacy and alliance with the Indians. Resendez’s interpretation of Cabeza de Vaca’s transformation and commitment to a…

The classic way of studying history in high school and many college courses is by memorizing facts, regurgitating them, and throwing in a little analysis that was also memorized. However, history is more than just dates and facts. History is the why behind the facts and events. History is how people felt about the events, and whether they were expected or unexpected, and what the responses to those events were. And studying history is more than just textbooks. Classically, history relied on…

Presentism is the the ideal of judging past events based on modern-day morals and values. Author Douglas L. Wilson discusses presentism as a concept that is best used on historical figures due to the drastic changes in social structures and societal expectations. Wilson defends Jefferson, saying that because of certain societal and social notions, Jefferson could not have been expected to free his slaves, and would have actually been doing more harm than good if he had freed them. Wilson…