How do you access History? (1 Viewer)

[jes.h]

This is basically the fundamental question for my history extension project, as it falls under the dot point "an interdisciplinary approach to the study of history of a personality, issue or event". I'm incorporating some of the methodologies I've learnt in Society and Culture, and plan to focus on some of the fundamental components of the course. I'm trying to write a survey atm, and therefore would like some help for the "tick-the-box" section. I just need your answers on how you learn about history, what do think is the most reliable forms of history, and how you access it. And why you would learn about history from a source that you do not deem as reliable. I posted the same question on the Yahoo!Answers site, with the following:

How do you learn about history? For example, Do you research it on the net, or watch a movie? Read a history fiction novel or ask an educated person? Play video games or watch a documentary? Read a non-fiction book or watch a docudrama?
What forms of history do you deem as being more reliable? A movie or a internet site? A documentary or a non-fiction text?
Why do you access history? To better understand the future? To understand the past? Because you're curious? To be entertained? To be educated?

I'd really appreciate any help I can get for this!
Thanks!

 

[-may-cat-]

This is basically the fundamental question for my history extension project, as it falls under the dot point "an interdisciplinary approach to the study of history of a personality, issue or event". I'm incorporating some of the methodologies I've learnt in Society and Culture, and plan to focus on some of the fundamental components of the course. I'm trying to write a survey atm, and therefore would like some help for the "tick-the-box" section. I just need your answers on how you learn about history, what do think is the most reliable forms of history, and how you access it. And why you would learn about history from a source that you do not deem as reliable. I posted the same question on the Yahoo!Answers site, with the following:

How do you learn about history? For example, Do you research it on the net, or watch a movie? Read a history fiction novel or ask an educated person? Play video games or watch a documentary? Read a non-fiction book or watch a docudrama?
What forms of history do you deem as being more reliable? A movie or a internet site? A documentary or a non-fiction text?
Why do you access history? To better understand the future? To understand the past? Because you're curious? To be entertained? To be educated?

I'd really appreciate any help I can get for this!
Thanks!

you could be a little clearer in what you are asking but i'll answer the questions you gave:

1- I learn about history via school and soon to be uni, but apart from that, mainly i read books. I like documentaries but rarely watch movies for their historical aspects.

2- er.. movies and websites are usually pretty bad in terms or accuaracy... i wouldnt rely on either. Books i find most reliable, then documentaries.

3- I access history cuz its interesting! its enjoyable to know where we came from and why we are the way we are. Different ways of thinking from our own and different ways of veiwing the world, its just appeals to me.

 

[Kujah]

1. How do I learn about history?

Non-fiction and fiction books, documentaries, researching the Net, newspapers, docudramas, discussions etc etc

2. Hmm, well as you go through the Extension course, you learn that public history is a form of history that can be manipulated and twisted by certain elements for their own gains. Keith Jenkins discusses this in one of his post-modernist books, and outlines how epistemology, methodology and ideology can have an impact on how history is written. Generally, I'd trust academic history that contains accurate and reliable footnotes, references, bibliography and many other elements, and one that has been sufficiently scrutinised by other historians and/or peer-reviewed. Generally, anything that follows the Rankean or Elton empirical method.

3. Once again, this is up for question. Depends on your own context, beliefs, methodology etc etc. A modernist could say that history is progressive, and that reason and logic can be utilised in the writing of history to allow present and future students to gain valuable lessons and experience from the past. On the other hand, post-modernists can argue that history is there to tell a fragmented story about the past and that it can be 'used and abused' by certain elements of society. History can be used to entertain, to preach, to instruct, to warn etc etc. For me, I access history because I am curious and I do think that experiences and lessons from the past can be valuable, even though history can, technically, never repeat itself.

 

[roar84eighty]

Yeah there is a whole spectrum of what history is and how historians believe it should be approached and presented. Lots of reading to do lol.