harvey19 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 There's nothing wrong with getting an overall view taking into account the good and the bad on all sides as far as documented evidence can show. It's just about honesty. I don't understand why you think that acknowledging uncomfortable truths is being ashamed or demonising. It's entirely possible to stand back and have a dispassionate overview that is neither jingoistic and in denial, nor self-flagellating and dripping with guilt. As I pointed out in my first post, there are indeed those who go the other way, but play exactly the same distorting blame/denial game as those they accuse. But many people are able to get past that polarised thinking. It's not a healthy filter through which to view the world. Quote 30 illustrates my point that different writers write different versions of history. Of course we should be objective in assessing information and drawing conclusions but we have to appreciate that some of the history we use to draw conclusions may have been written subjectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitch_1980 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 If your looking at how screwed our history is.....look at "Sir Francis Drake". How many people people think he is great for "being the second captain to successfully sail around the globe, which paved the way for England's expansion into the New World. He also served as a vice-admiral in the English fleet during the sea battles with the Spanish Armada in 1588" The fact he was one of the biggest slave traders and essentially a pirate hired by the then goverment seems to get lost in history lessons these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvey19 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 An example of how history can be written in a subjective way is illustrated in the way quotes and threads are removed from this forum because a moderator deems them to be unacceptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splodgeyAl Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 The aspect of the 'potato famine' which is side stepped by many historians, is the way that the conditions which caused it were deliberately created through a long term policy aimed at controlling the Irish through - among other things - the wholesale confiscation of land, which was then turned into vast estates for the private profit of titled individuals, many of whom ran their 'concerns' through agents, without ever even setting foot in Ireland. When the potato crop failed, many Irish were already on the brink of startvation, as that was the normal state of affairs.Looks like we've refused to learn this lesson of history Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagel Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 not really because most people in England don't know eye surgery, heart surgery and hospitals came from Islam. They don't know that camera is an Arabic word and that shampoo and soap was invented in Baghdad. Camera is Latin for a room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildcat Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 History is old news. Over time with distance it is possible to be a bit more objective, but only a bit historians create the stories they want to from the evidence they pick just as journalists do today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvey19 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 History is old news. Over time with distance it is possible to be a bit more objective, but only a bit historians create the stories they want to from the evidence they pick just as journalists do today. And many of the stories today are from press releases issued by corporate communications depts. and not from interviews or investigations by journalists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAC33 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 the food faminine was a way of getting Irish Catholics to populate America. http://www.irishholocaust.org/britain%27scoverup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harleyman Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 From what I know of the modern way of teaching history great emphasis is placed on the injustices suffered by those who were victims of western expansion. I cant speak for England but any American school child is well aware of the history of slavery, native American displacement and the eras of segregation and racial inequality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent Orange Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I think the real question is... Do you trust any account of historical event(s)? I don't think the English have an exclusive right of omitting certain historical facts from it's history. Every country, including Ireland, will have bent the truth or conveniently forgot vital truths in their histories at one point or another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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