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History 1 - Introductory Questions (What is the difference between history…

- - - - No details are censored due to national pride, likewise no victories are overrepresented due to over inflating national pride
- - - - This is because the government has a large role in the educational system, dictating which events of the US past to glorify and which ones to shy away from.
      - As a result of this, many US school children can recite every victory won by the Americans during the War of Independence, while they struggle to recall America’s messy and dodgy South American activities during the Cold War.
    - - In the IB for example, history is more focused around the exploration of concepts, such as conflict or geographical conditions.
        
        As such, an IB student can easily bring up a historical event to support an argument, yet will struggle to recall the specific details of that event.
- - - - Some reasons for revising history are slightly better than others.
        
        What are common criticisms of revisionism?
        
        sometimes revisionism is complicated - eg: when the descendants or modern incarnations of the wrong (or good) doer get involved.
        
        A common (and often memed) example is the sensitive topic of the Armenian Genocide. ==> Between 1915 and 1917, the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey) was undergoing a horrific event known as the Armenian Genocide. More than 1.5 million were believed to have died during this time, yet the Turkish government continues to deny any allegations of the event.
        
        Revisionists have included it in most historical works, but Turkish schools never cover the event.
        
        For example, if we find that an entire nation or organization did things they claimed not to have done (or vice versa), then clearly for the benefit of people who might’ve been impacted by the event it is best to revise the history.
    - - This revisionist lens often comes in three different formats:
        
        the fact-checking perspective
        
        the negative perspective.
        
        the social/theoretical perspective
      - this practice can lead us to question judgements based on historical facts, or even the reliability of the historical sources we listened to in the first place.
      - example from the website linked in the prompt. eg
        
        Thomas Jefferson is widely regarded as a hero for the United States, after all he penned the Declaration of Independence and served as the Third President of the US.
        
        However, a recent DNA study has confirmed the (uncomfortable) biographical fact that he had a slave mistress by the name of Sally Hemings, and the two had children together.
        
        For revisionist, this could’ve been viewed through the lens in three different ways.
        
        The social/theoretical lens allowed historians specializing in African-American history to explore the earliest interactions between the two races in the United States.
        
        The fact-checking lens meant that evidence of the affair and child were enough to spur authors to explore this relationship further in more recent biographical works about Thomas Jefferson.
        
        The negative lens skeptics claimed that before evidence of this affair, the rumour was simply a falsehood meant to undermine the reputation of Jefferson.
- - - - WE NEED TO LOOK AT IT FROM BOTH SIDES to understand the whole situation