Should the field of history be mainly left to the professional historians to research and debate among themselves, or is it important for everyone to study history?
In my opinion, everyone needs to learn the history and not leave research and debate over it only to professional historians. Every person should know the history of their native country as well as the world. This knowledge is necessary to understand the present better and even make some predictions. Determining whether the history one is studying is accurate and unbiased is not an easy matter. Probably the most accurate facts and historical items are kept in the museums. Therefore, it is recommended to include museum visits in the curricular (Marcus, Stoddard, & Woodward, 2017). There, students can observe authentic things related to some historical periods and significant events or their close copies. Also, museums may offer old books of their replicas from which it is possible to learn about history as it was recorded by witnesses.
However, it is not possible to verify whether the chroniclers were unprejudiced and honest when writing down history. Sometimes, ancient writings contain the wrong facts or right facts but in the wrong order. In this relation, chronicles are close to movies that are also frequently employed to represent some historical or historic events (Frost & Carr, 2018). However, even though film scenarios may differ from the original events, they are still a rather good method of teaching history since they combine audio and visual effects and reflect the historical periods through carefully selected clothes, language, and atmosphere. Personally, I find it rather crucial to know whether history is subjective or distorted. I prefer to treat the events and processes of the world’s history in an unbiased way, and I want to know the real causes of these events.
With regard to the imperialism in practice in the early twentieth century around the globe, which do you believe to be the greater driving force: the West’s technological superiority or their feeling of cultural superiority?
Throughout the history of civilization, there have been many efforts of one nation to prove its superiority over others and controlling the perceived inferiors. Such a complex set of actions and ideas is regarded as imperialism, and it is particularly about Western civilization (Pavlac, 2015). The new global domination of the West’s advances became possible due to its outstanding progress in technology as well as pride in its culture at the beginning of the twentieth century (Pavlac, 2015). However, each person views these achievements differently, having individual concerns related to the driving force of imperialism in the 1900s. Personally, I find the technological superiority of the West a more significant factor affecting its position in the world’s division of power.
Without any doubt, the feeling of cultural superiority that pertains to Western civilization allows nations belonging to it to consider themselves better than the others. However, it is their enormous breakthrough in several technological spheres that gave the world a possibility to develop better and faster. Therefore, I think that the role of achievements in the fields of literature, religion, and art is less powerful in global evolution than the function of the West’s technological accomplishments. A great number of inventions in the spheres of medicine, science, mechanics, communication, and other spheres made Western civilization feel that it is superior to other countries. Probably, they do have reasons for such an opinion about their power. After all, the whole world relies on technological progress achieved by the West, and many other contributions made by other civilizations could have been impossible without the primary achievements that were made by Western civilization.
References
Frost, J., & Carr, H. A. (2018). Teaching history with message movies. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Marcus, A. S., Stoddard, J. D., & Woodward, W. W. (2017). Teaching history with museums: Strategies for K-12 social studies (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Pavlac, B. A. (2015). A concise survey of Western civilization: Supremacies and diversities throughout history (2nd ed.) (Vol. 2). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.