Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Make Some History Today

That's because there is more to tell than time to tell it in.


It is often said that history is written by the victorious. How true (or otherwise) do you believe this to be, and why?

“He Who Forgets the Past is condemned to Repeat It.”

In different times history was written by different types of people. History is also written from perspectives held by the writer who presents the manuscript.

If the monarch of a society ordered his historian to present a record of a specific battle the outcome may have been slanted to make the ruler look good. The writer may have known where his rewards were coming from or just, “Off With His Head” if the writing did not please the recognized head of state.

One way to find the truth is to study different manuscripts of the same historical subject. Different perspectives can reveal the truth. We are blessed, in our age, with people who study languages, then study old manuscripts. Many historical writings are being translated into many languages so they can be read by anyone.

In our more reality based society, print journalist often draw, close to accurate, historical pictures, by researching specific subjects from the writings of many different sources. Then, writing the results in a subjective book.

Why do students say, “History is so boring?” I don’t believe the mind, that is bored by the thought of reading something historical, is an open searching student, who is looking at life, with presence of mind. Sorry if this steps on some toes. But, I have found the subject of real history to be fascinating because of the misconceptions, that students have been fed over the years. They, don’t call this the age of Information for nothing.

A good example from my own life is the misconceptions I held about the Crusades. From minor book readings in grade school I thought the brave English Knights were sent by the King to fight. I also believed the Anglo's won the Crusades. As K would say, “Just goes to show what thought did for you.”

What was the short of this tale? Mostly, any knight going off to fight was sent by the church. Of course, sometimes the king was the head of the church. It was the promised land they were fighting for after all.

On the down side. The knight who went had to supply his own fighting tools, horses, armor, passage to the area of battle, food, clothing, camping equipment. You get the picture. It was usually to get the knight out of the land so his home castle could be confiscated, his women married off to other people etc. He lost everything and if he was captured his relatives had to pay the ransom.

Oh. And guess what. The Muslims won the Crusades. They ransacked Jerusalem and the whole of Israel. But they probably did not get much since the Romans had already desecrated, ransacked the area, and murdered thousands of Jewish and Arab residents. This is just the short version. The long version reads like “Game of Thrones.” It includes medieval thinking in Europe during the time of the crusades.

From an article in the Huffington Post, “The Problems with American History Books” by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick I found this quote,”In terms of history education, we face two basic problems. First, as the Nation’s Report Card indicates, students know very little history. Second, much of what they do learn is extremely partial or flat out wrong.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oliver-stone/the-problem-with-america-history_b_20... The article has a reference to the real story behind the Atomic bombing of Japan. It is very informative and may help you understand more about war and the way it really plays out.

So, I ask you with so much at stake how can we even dare to think that the history of the human race is boring? Have we repeated history? The way we live, the way we kill, the way we heal, the way we die, its all history in the making.

(the end)

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