Introduction to Historical Methods

I am glad to say that I am making progress with my research paper. I finally started digging into my T.E. Lawrence primary source (better late than never) and I am finding great information in it. I had already began to form my argument regarding their relationship and their work just by reading Bell’s primary sources. I have to say my project is taking a slightly different turn based on Lawrence’s portrayl of Bell. At times in his letters, he almost seems frightened of Bell. Frightened that she might publicly critique his work (as she often did in private) and make him look like an idiot. Underneath this fear, Lawrence held a great deal of respect for Bell. She was his toughest critic, which would lead to his best work. In one letter, Lawrence describes Bell’s reaction to his latest book. Bell supposedly said “Approved: all but the libellous untruthful description of yourself”. Bell is pretty much attacking the “Lawrence legend” which I discussed in my lit. review presentation. The relationship between these two is becoming more interesting as I dig deeper into my sources.

Quote from:

The Letters of T.E. Lawrence. Edited by David Garnett. New York: Doubleday Press, 1939.

As the title says the time has finally come to write the paper which i have been researching about for more than three months now. The biggest problem, for me at least, is how exactly am I actually going to do this and not completely suck at it. So…..I have had to do a lot of thinking about how to actually write this paper. As most people who have actually heard me talk about my topic at length will realize it is something that i actually believe in and at this point to write something like this and actually have it be worth a damn you have to be.

So what I have been thinking is that this paper needs to make the person reading it understand why I feel the way I do, but with facts. You cant really look someone in the eye and tell them they are wrong for thinking a way just by putting words on a page. Throughout our history, great writers have been able to do what I seek. You have to try and change the ideas that the reader has from the begining and try to open their eyes to a new way of looking at things, which is never easy. So in my search to do this, I am also trying to remember that nothing in the world is black or white. The all knowing ‘grey area’ is everywhere all around us. While the firebombings of Japan and Germany were war crimes, at the times, we have a great way to justify them. I have been playing around with that idea in my mind for weeks and came to a great conculsion. Anyone can justify murder, if they are crazy enough to think it is okay.

-Nick

I’ve finally sat down and started to pick through my primary sources. This process has actually helped me come up with a formal thesis, which I have been struggling with.  I believe that my paper will argue that the not only was the UN effort a failure, but that it actually made things worse in Bosnia. I’ve found tons of testimonies from Bosnian citizens on thier experience with UN soldiers and Bosnian officials who wanted UN troops to acually leave Bosnia.

       Palms sweaty, heart racing, face heating up, and the room closing in, all symptoms of presentation freak out!!

I guess my best advice for a great, semi-stress free presentation would be to come prepared, know your subject well and be flexible on the content, in case your running over the time frame (something I learned from our recent presentation).

The biggest mistake a presenter can make is letting the audience know that they have made a mistake. Giving a presentation is kind of like performing, if you mess just keep smiling and move on, most likely the audience won’t even realize what happened.

Other than this short list of helpful tidbits, just remember that you are not alone, there are 20 other people in the classroom freaking out just like you. This thought usually reassures me before I’m called down to the gauntlet.

so fall break gave me a little time to think about my paper and how I should approach my thesis.  the economic factor of how the Iranian Revolution effected the United States is no longer the central issue to my paper.  I am more interested in the events leading to the Iranian Revolution and how American intervention after World War II created tensions between the two nations.  I may want to get one more interview in before the end of this week as another primary source. my goal by the end of this week is actually to formulate my thesis and to be done with my literature review of my secondary source on the social origins of the Iranian Revolution.

For as long as I can remember, whenever people have asked, “What are you going to major in?” the answer was always history. There is so much to be learned from the past. No matter what a person is interested in, whether it be religion, politics, gender, etc, there is a precedent to be found in studying the past. I suppose that’s why I enjoy it so much; no matter what I’m interested in at the time, regardless of what I’m pursuing and researching, I can always find it in history.

History has patterns, links, connections; some blatant and some hidden. The joy comes it bringing those together. For me, when I’m able to establish that, there’s really nothing better. And I suppose that’s what I enjoy most about history. There’s always surprises and more to discover. It provides for endless options and endless paths to take.

“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” – George Bernard Shaw

From the small age of about ten I have had a genuine interest in the study of history. It was always me best subject in school. When told to go to the library to get books to read, looking back now, I realize the large majority of the books I chose were related to history. I was captivated by the Romans, the Greeks, and even things that had happened in the 60’s. I think my parents encouraging me to learn as much as I could had a large amount to do with this as well, as little as they may realize it.

Although I had always maintained an interest in history, it wasn’t until I reached high school that a two of my teachers over my time there were able to make me realize how important history really was to me. On the first day walking into freshman history, my teacher had written on the board, “Those who do not learn from the past, are doomed to repeat it.” I had heard this before but it wasn’t until after I took his class that the depth of that so well known statement really began to stick with me. During my junior year of high school I was graced with an amazing teacher, a man by the name of Kevin Trent. He had been my long time swimming coach for years, but I was now a student in his class. I never in my entire high school did I discover a teacher her was able to teach and encourage his students to learn more. It was after this that I realized what I had to do. I had to teach.

Finally I had discovered what it was I was supposed to do. I would help to try and show the youth, the so called “future” of every generation that we don’t have to keep repeating the same mistakes like we have. Many will look at this and say, not everyone has the influence to change the decisions of a nation, or prevent people from fighting wars over the same topics such as religion or lack of resources. The response I developed to that line of thought was that it is not just something that we have to do if we are in power, everyone has the ability to do this in their lives. Every now and then stop and reflect on the past and see what you can learn from that, to take your life in the direction you want to, and to maybe not make that mistake a second, third, or fourth time. I am a strong believer that without our past we do not know the complete image of who we are, due to the fact that the decisions every day effect the human we become. I feel a need to help students learn that history is not all about old white men in wigs or names and dates, but the facts and events that shaped how each and everyone of us are today.

“He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future”

-George Orwell 1984

I am a history major because of two books. The first was this stupid “Royal Diary” about Elizabeth I I read when I was 10. It was for pre-teens, and therefore light on historical accuracy, but there was some historical information in the back, and I remember thinking “Well, Elizabeth is interesting enough, but that thing about her dad having six wives is really interesting.” And that began my love of history. It also spoke to what sort of history I’m interested in; I’ve always been drawn to the more gossip-y, tabloid history. Whenever I hear people talk about the declining state of morals in today’s society, it’s comforting to go back and look at the reign of George IV, who is said to have had the doors of Westminster Abbey shut in his estranged wife’s face during his coronation. I love reading about things like that. I love the crazies, the weird marriages, the hundreds of royal mistresses. I love history if only for the selfish reason that it’s really fun to read about.

The other book that made me love history was Sarah Vowell’s Partly Cloudly Patriot. Vowell is an essayist who writes about family, history, and politics, and this book contained an essay called “God Will Give You Blood to Drink in a Souvenir Shot Glass.” It was about her visit to Salem Massachusetts and was about how one deals with tragic history like the Salem Witch Hunt. I know that sounds like kind of a downer, but it was a very funny essay. It was also the first time I had ever read something that said “Loving history may make you a ‘nerd’, but life is so much more interesting that way.” I had always loved history, but up until that point I hadn’t thought that reading weird stories about the past was an option. I knew that history was fun, but I never thought that it could be professionally fun.

So, to sum up the above rambling, I’m a history major because I love reading interesting stories, and history is just one big interesting story. I want to spend the rest of my life doing that.

I am sitting in Hyperion. With a short mocha. Listening to the Decemberists. Blogging. I’m even wearing glasses. Now if only I had a Religious Studies book beside me.

On second inspection, I have found that I, too, I have one of those.

I am a double major in History and Religion. But because this is a History 299 Blog and not a Religion 299 Blog, it is my decision to be a history major that requires some explaination. I decided to become a history major for two reasons: Mr. Marr and Mr. Savino. Mr. Marr was my sophmore history teacher at the Humanities Specialty Center at my high school. He was the first teacher I ever had that taught history because he was passionate about the subject. He would grow angry and incensed at what he saw as horrible historical occurances, and he would become fascinated and appear almost child-like with wonder at those individuals in history that were able to overcome, outlast, or outlive. In short, Mr. Marr lived the history he taught, and instilled that same passion in his students. Not to mention his penchant for revealing some of the more violent or scatological aspects of history that other teachers would frown upon.

And Mr. Savino. He was my 20th Century American History teacher my Junior year in high school. It was an entire class devoted to a step-by-step, chronological narrative of the History of America in the 20th Century. Savino also had a passion for his work, although it wasn’t as fiery. Instead, Savino instilled in his students his passion for history through his impossibly objective point-of-view. From the factors that lead to WWI to the attacks on the World Trade Center, Mr. Savino was able to teach his course through an objective lense that was nevertheless colorful and entertainning. He was able to step-back and deliver, as Joe Friday requested, “just the facts.”

These two educators inspired me to choose History as a major.

And as I sit here, enjoying a beverage that will keep me wired long into the night, I am kept grounded by a single, solitary fear: What am I going to write my History 299 paper on?

 Last year, I took two classes with Professor Moon: History of U.S. Sexuality and U.S. History and Popular Culture. In these two courses, I wrote papers on Wonder Woman and Captain America respectively; research choices that came with the personal caveat that the resulting papers had to contain more than simply rehashed fanboy antics. And, despite my personal fandom, being scholarly came easily. Yet I would be amiss if I didn’t tell you that writing papers on the aforementioned topic feels like an uphill battle.

    For instance, when was the last time you ever heard of a scholarly article containing an in-depth study of the evolution of Batman’s relationship with Talia Al-Ghul? Or a Professor delivering a lecture on the finer points of Kryptonian civilization as depicted in the Silver Age of the Superman title? Or even a well-reviewed book explaining the femenist ideology apparent in the early years of the Wonder Woman title? I’ll venture a guess and say “never” on all three counts.

   And therein lies the problem. American comic books, as pervasive as they are, are not seen as legitimate forms of historical documentation, nor are they seen as legitmate forms of art, and that includes both the written and drawn aspects of the medium. And even for those few wizened souls who see comic books for what they truly are (Modern Mythology in so many words; Our own Pantheon of Gods, who have simply traded in their togas for brightly colored spandex) there are a plethora of naysayers and cultural critics who snub their noses at the very idea of such ” pulp trash” being passed off as worthy of any meaningful historical study.

Perhaps a decision of this magnitude requires another coffee.

I guess the reason I chose History as a major is the same reason I chose Art History (see post below).  I had a fantastic group of history teachers in High School.

History was always my best subject, but it wasn’t until I got to Hermitage HS that I really got into it.  Henrico County Schools has what is basically a magnate program for various areas of study at each high school.  there’s math and science, visual arts, foreign language, and etc.  The program at Hermitage is the Center for the Humanities.  Admission is on an application basis and students at the Center spend all four years of high school with at least three class periods with the other 30 or so students in their grade at the Center.  The three classes are basically taught as one and include English (more emphasis on literature), History, and a Humanities elective which is basically Art History.  For example, in learning about the history behind the French Revolution we would also be reading things like Diderot and Voltaire while looking at paintings by artists such as David.  Instead of learning about historical figures, we’d actually read what they wrote.

This emphasis on understanding and learning instead of dry memorization made all the difference to me.  It made history seem all the more real and important and I really don’t think I would have recieved this kind of intensive education in normal history and english classes.  I know I wouldn’t have learned nearly as much (or anything) about art.  At the Humanities Center we learned to make connections from the past to every day life, and we learned not to take everything we were told at face value.  One of my teachers, for example, would mark a test question correct if you could argue convincingly that your answer made sense.

We learned how to present effectively and argue our points according to the Socratic system- just about everything we said had to be able to be proven within the context of what we were reading. High school at large seems to be about being able to regurgitate whatever the instructor tells you.  Instead, we learned why something happened and what it meant.

Anyway, I’m getting a little long winded. I guess I like history so much because it offers explanations. And for every explanation it offers, it presents two more questions.  Thanks to my high school experience I feel prepared to answer those questions and to in turn question those explanations.