History is not made up, like a fictional novel. It is factual, and what has happened can't be changed by someone now. people can't take away what has happened, but they can remove knowledge of it. fiction is a man made creation of ideas that might have had inspiration of events in the past; literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people (fiction definition).

Terms:

As you read consider the following questions:

Important Terms:

As you read consider the following questions:

Important Terms:

As you read consider the following questions:

Important Terms:

This quote is saying that the past is just a story that we tell from our own perspective. I think that it's true, but there is a clear difference between just a “story” and “history”. A story could be told by anyone in any way that they want. History is also a story, but instead from just one person's point of view, because it's not told from just one person. Many people have different experiences with different historical events. That's why it is important to be open to other people's points of view in history because they could know more than you do about certain parts of history. When there are other people's perspectives and points of view, it adds more information than what just one person would know. Instead of just history through one person's eyes, it comes from a bunch of people's experiences. When people create false “history”, it spreads false information about what actually happened and is only from one person or group's point of view just to make that group/person be seen as good.

History is taught and learned as part of the past. There are many books, stories, articles, and much more that tell different histories. Histories can be told from a different point of view depending on what side you have a bias or what part you have learned or taught to believe. 

Histories should be told not as an opinion because then it becomes biased. They can be someone’s personal history, history of a battle, of a time period, and/or many other meanings. People can see it in completely different ways from each other.

As you read consider the following questions:

Important Terms:

History can be whatever we believe it to be. The truth is, we cannot change the past, but some may be able to alter our perspectives on it. There are always biases and prejudices that comes with recalling of the past, but history is so much more than that. This article refers again and again to different instances that historians have either altered the truth or fabricated a whole new story all together. In some instances, all we have to rely on is the written word, and accepting that is a daunting task. “Maybe it just feels different—more profound—to read what we believe to be true (an idea assented to) than what we believe to be false (a fancy):” This article also talks about the very fine line between fact and fiction, and how appealing it is to read something that is claimed to be true. 

I know that intersectionality tells people in America what a “perfect” person or what the “master narrative” or life is. But this makes others who don’t fit into those specific categories shunned, put to the side, viewed as not important, or valuable. 

This affects America in many ways by having a ranking that puts certain people on top based on their traits, not who they are as an actual person. 

So this term and idea is something that should be changed because it’s only looking on the surface and not looking for the more important things deep down. 

It will be hard to change this but we need to realize that like in the article “we will all be minorities” and we just need to try to understand that and not just look on the surface. Instead to do the work to learn and find out more about the world, other people, and the community. 

were American history.”

That quote right there really spoke to me for question number two because I think people forget that America was not discovered by white people but by Native Americans and definitely that shows because we have a whole day dedicated to Christopher Columbus, who indeed did not discover America. And it is still crazy to me that it is on world calendars and recognized, even though Indigenous People Day is up there,but more and more people are not recognizing it as Christopher Columbus day but as Indigenous People Day

 

were American history.”

To me this quote says that people need to stop viewing immigrants as something separate from American citizens, because they are just as much a part of this country and as much of a citizen as anyone else in the U.S. This reading talked a lot about the reality of the lens and stereotype that white people put on people who don't "look" American in their eyes.

They affect Americans in many different ways, some positive and some negative. There are many different communities that help raise awareness for unfair treatment of those groups of people. People can connect to their pasts and history through meeting people who have similar stories to them. It's so important for there to be representation so that peoples stories can be shared around the world and that people can have a new perspective that they may not have known before. Some people, or for example, companies, judge people based on their race, gender, religion or class. Someone who has a perfect application for a job could be rejected just based on if they are transgender or if they were jewish. It's as if they care more about the reputation of a big company than the skill level that someone could have in their job that they are also passionate about.

Especially now, more people are being judged for what they look like, what they are, or what they have. 

Throughout American history, the story of how this country was founded and settled by Europeans when they traveled to the United States has been widely spread. This story, while being the most prominent, has many inaccuracies. For years, the Master Narrative has caused many people to overlook essential parts of history. We have been substantially impacted by this, and faults in historical writings can still be observed to this day. The Master Narrative forces people to look at only one side of a very complicated story, which can very well be detrimental. Usually, people don’t even know they have fallen into this trap, but nonetheless, many ideas that they have been taught about American History have had multiple inaccuracies.

My old school didn't celebrate Columbus day, but they didn't give us an exclamation about what it was. At that age, I only knew that it was a day to celebrate Columbus “discovering America,” and that it was how we found the land. Looking back now, I wonder if they didn't really address it because they knew the real history and didn't want to give us kids false or information that would scare us. It wasn't until about 6th-7th grade when my mom told me about what actually happened. She also read a bit of the book “There, There” to show me the reality and story of thanksgiving that no one talks about. 

It is important to think about omission and emphasis when reading anything about history because it can alter the reality of the subject based on the authors biases. It is always important to think about this, no matter who the author is, as every person has biases. Omission and emphasis are very easy to overlook when reading, and can severely alter the content of an event.

People care about certain facts more than others for many reasons. It could be based on their biases, what is commonly known or taught, and the importance or weight of the fact. 

If you had to choose between two facts to know about someone you would pick based on your interests, what you have been taught, or how you have grown up. 

In history historians have to pick between facts based on importance for the future. This is because if you pick a fact that is small and only matters to one or a few people versus a whole group or more. You would probably pick the bigger one because it affects more and most likely could make a bigger difference.
Our care could depend on our separate interests or if it affects you personally. That is based on if you have a connection in some way to the fact.

Omitting certain parts of history can be just as detrimental and lying about specific events or stories completely. It may seem less damaging, but in reality it can cause serious problems. If you choose to leave out certain details essential to the retelling of the story, it can become something vastly different then it was originally. Another subtle thing historians can do to alter a story is to make largely important things seem substantially less important. This article talks about the fact that Columbus was put on a pedestal, and not held accountable for all the horrific things he took part in. This is yet another example of how retellings of history can be twisted in a way that is beneficial to some, but harmful to so many others.

It depends on the historical event. For example, the story of thanksgiving was told that the pilgrims had this huge celebration for finding land with the native americans, when they actually killed a lot of the people originally there. They made that story to make it look like they were the good guys instead of focusing on the fact that they stole their land. But what makes history HISTORY is having multiple different views and stories, so with the perspective of the ancestors of the native americans killed in the massacure, we hear their stories, and not just the view from the victors. 

When certain individuals are presented with the task of attempting to explain historical events, they can tend to focus on one aspect of the story. This does not mean that they are twisting the truth, but rather that their own personal beliefs are clearly depicted in their retellings. If some part of the truth resonates with that individual, then they will consciously or unconsciously prioritize that piece of the story, rather than unbiasedly stating out the facts without any personal agenda getting in the way. 

Based on this quote, “All history, whether written, oral, pictorial, or performative, relies on narrative form, that is, a story that claims to represent the past through some kind of chronological device. (Page 4)” there will always be a perspective when someone writes about history. This is because you need someone to tell it in an order and that comes from someone’s perspective no matter what you are writing about. So there is no “how it really was” because everybody sees history from their different perspectives and the event or story could be filtered and changed based on what they remembered or said. 

It is difficult to find truth in just one piece of historical writing, but when you look at the bigger picture, everything starts to become more clear. By using different fragmented pieces of stories, we can then come across the whole truth. Finding historical accuracy can be challenging in the hands of just one person, but if we tie together the remains of many different stories, we can start to figure out what really happened. I also think she means that even though stories can sometimes be inaccurate, actual remaining pieces of history cannot be ignored or denied, because that can help influence factual interpretations, and in turn, help to uncover the truth.

I think that she means that we can find out more in-depth about the past when there is physical evidence of something from the past that researchers and historians can study. For example, the Colosseum in Rome. It's a huge structure that was used for entertainment purposes like gladiator fights and shows how the people of Italy spent their time for fun.  Another example is world wars, in two different ways, one being the survivors who fought in wars and have a story to tell, and two the artifacts, objects, and items of value from those times. 

The importance of studying history even though it is impossible to predict is to have an understanding of what has happened, if there have been any patterns, and have a bigger understanding of the world. 

It is important to know what has happened in the past because we can see if there have been past situations or events that have happened. Also to see that there are so many problems and the different ways people have dealt with them. How we can learn from our mistakes, move forward, and have a better understanding about the world around us. 

fork off into the future. Some of those paths are wider, smoother and better marked, and are thus more likely to be taken, but sometimes history - or the people who make history - takes unexpected turns."

This quote stuck out to me because I think it's true that when we learn history the goal isn't to try and predict what might happen in the future, but to have a bigger understanding of the moment right now. We cannot calculate what will happen in the future, but we can understand that there are so many possibilities for our generation and our future.

Determinism is appealing because it can give you the most simple option, which requires little to no complexity or struggle. It is the safest option, and so it may be easy to accept that it is the answer and move on without any further contemplation. This concept, however appealing it may be, is not how history works. History is complex and multifaceted, and cannot be explained simply. History is also unpredictable, and even though everything would be easier if it were, we have to live with the fact that history is not as simple as we would prefer it to be. 

This quote makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve never really understood how historians know the things they know, especially when it comes down to specific things someone supposedly said or incredibly detailed stories that happened 400 years ago. It’s also incredibly easy to misremember things or let bias affect the way you portray events, so even if it’s not intentional fabrication, false history happens all the time.