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history and literature (in my mind, these two go hand in hand)
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But do not confuse the two. They are not the same thing. The objection that I have to history being viewed as literature is that you end up viewing the texts that we have as works of art rather than as records. Once that happens they become meaningless because you spend too much time analyzing the text itself rather than what they are trying to tell you about the events they are recording. Granted, we don't know that the texts are accurate, but if people are not willing to work with what we have then why even bother. These are (at least as far as a human can tell) records of real people and events. They are not works of art that you can view and then skew to suit personal paradigms, issues, or prejudices.
This is a trend that I have personally noticed in history education, and I don't care for it much.
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As far as history being focused on the great and powerful, that's what history textbooks teach---a long recitation of facts and dates that deal with the rich and powerful who are in control at the top.
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For my next un-PC statement, aside from the whole money/power/leisure matter, another reason why history focuses on the rich and powerful is that they are the ones who have made the greatest difference in history. (I'm not saying that this is right or the way it should be, but it is.) The rulers and the wealthy are the ones who traditionally have had the power to enact (or inflict) great changes on society, and this is still true today. True, there is more leeway for social rising in modern times (sort of) but the fact remains that if you can accomplish something revolutionary as a result of this action your status, wealth, and/or power tend to rise until you are part of the wealthy ruling group. (What we are doing now for instance. The makers of this revolutionary technology have generally done well for themselves. And most of them will probably be better known to history than they are to us.)
[ June 02, 2002: Message edited by: Kuruharan ]