This week’s podcast presented me with an idea that I have never thought about before. The idea/realization that not everything in history has been/is recorded. There are parts of history that we simply will never know because nothing exists on that topic. A lot of this is by choice. Like Bezio touched on, thousands of white men were praised and written about over the course of time. On the other hand, women were nowhere near written about as much as white men. There were no laws of equality or laws that stated that everything had to be written down no matter what. Moreover, there are parts of history that we will never know about. Another thought that popped into my head was the old saying that history is written by the winners. While it might sound cliche it’s true. There are so many pieces of history that we will never fully understand because of the lack of evidence of all parts/sides of an event. My main takeaway from this podcast was that it’s okay to question what we hear and see. It’s encouraged, but most importantly necessary, to understand a situation from all angles to the best of your abilities.
Critical Thinking
I 100% agree with everything you said and would even take it a step further. I think when so much of the common history we have learned has been told from one group of people’s perspective, it is necessary that we try to read other perspectives to gain a more full picture of what really happened. I was skeptical at first, but after Bezio’s 101 class, I am definitely more aware of the fact that history is pretty one sided, and the only way to combat this is to try to read, watch, and learn about less heard voices.
I really appreciate your last sentence – I think it is very easy to get sucked into one viewpoint/argument. I think that’s where higher education is so important as we are all pushed (semi-forced) to look at things from various views in order to fully understand what is going on. I think we all become a bit more skeptical about things we hear and see from our college courses as they do teach us to question what we are hearing, where it is coming from, and potentially what is being omitted. This is also the area that we can improve upon in society as a whole as we would all be more tolerant/understanding and be better able to progress forward if we understood various view points.
I really resonated with this realization. I think AP US History is one of the most misleading disservices we do to American children when it comes to historial education. It’s crazy to think that there is very little regulation on textbook production in terms of historical accuracy. What many people tend to forget is the fact that those who write textbooks are doing so with an aim at being published. Although this means historical accuracy is important, so is emotional appeal. During the time when many history books have been published, an author may have felt that their negative talk of the US wouldn’t “sell”.
I agree with this idea that we should question what we’ve heard, for our history intentionally has written out the experiences of women, POC, and individuals who are LGBTQ+. With this acknowledgment, I think it is important that we look now that as we write and teach history that we focus on acknowledging and educating about people who are not just straight white men.