A History Lesson...

Hello fellow histrophiles!  Today, we are lucky enough to have a special guest writer join us for a post.  As a fellow high schooler, she joins us today to share her incredible wisdom and her amazing intellect.  She writes a captivating food blog, show check her out at thefoodmood7.blogspot.com!  Ladies and gentlemen, here she is, Baby Chip!

When a student reads a history textbook in class, they tend to assume it is the absolute truth.  It is straight up facts, has no bias, and is a fantastic learning tool.  I most definitely fall into this category, for ever since about a few years ago, I assumed that everything in my history textbooks, or any textbooks for that matter, was to be taken as the truth, no questions asked.  However, upon further examination, this does not seem to be the case.

I have now learned that someone must choose what things to include in history textbooks.  Everything that is put into textbooks is put there for a reason, whether it be because it actually was a historically important event, or because the author believed it to be a significant event.  Either way, students must learn to realize this process of deciding which facts to include and which to leave out.

It is often stated that history is told by the "winners."  We learn about Columbus and his "peaceful" voyage and about World War One from the point of view of the Allies.  In this regard, we often don't hear the perspectives of the so called "losers," and miss out on their points of views.  For example, last year in my United States History course, we primarily learned from our textbook, A People and a Nation.  However, when our teacher deemed it necessary, we read chapters from a book entitled A People's History of the United States by author Howard Zinn.  This book claims to tell history from the perspective of the "losers," or those who were taken advantage of, lost wars, or didn't have political dominance.  By reading both of these texts together, I feel that our class had a better, broader understanding of the history of the United States, for we were exposed to multiple authors and multiple perspectives.

Textbook companies are not evil, however, it is important to understand that they are flawed.  In order for anyone to get a better understanding of any historic happenings, we must take into account multiple perspectives.  It would be like only listening to the murderer's, who is pleading guilty, side to a story, and letting him simply go free because of this one perspective.

Titanic Moments

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the HMS Titanic. One of my best friends loves the 1997 movie (Titanic) that chronicles its demise, and -- although, personally, I find it sappy and long and historically inaccurate to some degree -- I went with her to see it in 3D for her birthday.

I've seen it a bunch of times, but something struck me for the first time while I was watching it this weekend. I realized that I didn't really know much about the actual sinking of the actual HMS Titanic. So, being the nerd I am, I did some research, and there were fascinating effects of the famous disaster (hyperlink to coast guard blog). The US Navy was immediately sent out to patrol the coasts for icebergs -- a job that the US Coast Guard and 13 other nations now share -- after the Titanic went down. In 1913, only months after the Titanic sank, the first Safety of Life at Sea Convention was held, and it's standards still stipulate many of the international safety regulations for maritime trade and travel. Did you know that the sinking of the Titanic is considered by some to be the first international disaster ever?

What does all of this remind you of?

The first thing that jumped into my mind as I read the information was September 11, 2001. I thought of how the airport regulations implemented shortly after are not all that different from what came out of the SOLSC. I remembered the international outcry after America was attacked by terrorists. But then there were other days I thought of: December 7, 1945; August 29, 2005; April 26,1986; November 22,1963. Days of disaster. National disaster. Global disaster. Natural disaster. Human disaster.

People remember these dates.

They stick with us because they are tragic and they bring us together.

They become part of our history.

Our national history. Our personal history. Our global history.

And they repeat, like the parallels between the Titanic and 9/11. And even though new generations are born and people die and forget and personal experiences are lost through endless time and graves and funerals, we're still affected by things like Chernobyl or Hurricane Katrina (to differing degrees of course). Mostly for the reason that they give us all a shared experience of loss -- something easy to bond over.

What do you think tragedy does for the ties of a people, nation, group, or community?

< Histrophile >

Don't Forget About the Fishies!

I absolutely adore aquariums. I love everything about them: the people, the animals, the atmosphere. They might, in fact, be my favorite type of attraction! So, as you can imagine, I was extremely excited to visit the Shedd Aquarium, my favorite aquarium of all time, last week during our spring vacation.

As you might imagine, while gazing through the glass into the underwater world of the smiling and swimming sea otter, my innate histrophile struck me: this little marine mammal also has a history. He has a mother and father, grandparents, and a whole lineage of other sea otters. They come from different places, have done different things, and have made an impact on the greater sea otter community. We, as humans, are not the only species who have a history, that can trace back our existence for hundreds and hundreds of years. So can Mr. Sea Otter here, as he flips on his stomach and smiles at his many spectators.

Ergo, I thought about the history of animals in comparison to our own history. Every species on our planet has their own unique story with their own unique past. And although most species have no way of recording this story, it is still of utmost importance. A pack of wolves is just as devastated when their head wolf is killed as our nation is when a president is assassinated. A herd of giraffes suffer just as much as a town of people would during a famine. Global warming can have the same effects on a pod of dolphins as it can on us.

We are not the only ones with a history or a meaningful past. Ergo, it seems necessary to learn to respect and appreciate the histories of others. What would life be like if Mr. Sea Otter wrote could write down his story, his history? What would it say?

But most importantly, what would we have to learn?

< Histrophile >