So many people have told me that history doesn’t matter.
“It’s already happened so it doesn’t matter.”
“It’s just a bunch of stuff about old dead guys.”
“I took history in high school, what more could I need to know?”
I feel that even though I am knowledgable about some things historical, I am incredibly not. I know such a small fraction of all the history that is out there. There are a lot of stories that go untold or are told with a few omitted facts or people. A famous saying is that “History is written by the victors” and thats honestly so spot on. Most of history (especially in American education) is EXTREMELY white washed and male-centric. History needs to be said like it is. It is ridiculous that I had never heard the word genocide applied to the Spanish landing in the Americas until my second semester of college.
History is something I am incredibly passionate about and I believe it is of the utmost importance that we study the past and learn from it or we will just end up repeating in endless cycles of the same horrible mistakes. But we need to learn more than battles and old white men sitting around writing laws. History is dynamic and the perspectives are infinite.
This has been a question that has been on my mind for a few years. I think to begin being able to answer this question I have to broaden my base knowledge of history. I need to get a wider perspective of different cultures and the history that has made the world the way it is today. I want to incorporate some anthropology and sociology. I think theses would give me a good basis to connect the historical content to the broader themes of human contexts.
We need to hear the unsung songs of unheard of heroes.
We need to tell their stories.
Key Words: history, women, POC, authors, who writes it, historical, discrimination ( I actually had a very hard time getting articles specific to my topic. I just couldn’t figure out what to search for. What I did search for did not get me exactly what I wanted. I need to think about the separate elements of my question in order to better find information.)
Sources:
