Ellen Whyte: Malaysian Paper Advises On Studying History
Studying history is like being a detective; you have to sift through different stories and make up your mind as to what actually happened.
Take for example the eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in Italy in 79AD. The disaster buried the towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and Torre Annunziata.
For many centuries, the eruption was largely forgotten. But in the late 1600s, an architect called Domenico Fontana discovered the buried ruins at Pompeii.
Today's archaeologists are still hard at work uncovering relics, each of which is telling us lots of interesting things about how people lived 2,000 years ago. Pompeii and the surrounding area has been declared a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) World Heritage Site.
What do we know about events in 79AD? Apart from the physical evidence, there are eyewitness accounts from people who saw Vesuvius explode into action, and stories that were passed along from person to person before being written down.
Who should you believe when the tales disagree? The eyewitness who barely escaped with his life? The observer across the bay?
Another consideration is that history is constantly revised. Cynics observe that history is written by the victor, and this is often true.
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A famous example of events changing interpretation of action took place in France in 1815. Napoleon, the brilliant general and one-time ruler of France, escaped from the island of Elba where he had been exiled on Feb 26, 1815.
Le Moniteur, the official French newspaper of the day, headline read, "The Beast Is Out of Its Cage".
By April 4, Le Moniteur's respectful headline was, "The Emperor at Versailles". By April 9, "His Imperial Majesty Will Enter Paris Today!"
Take for example the eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in Italy in 79AD. The disaster buried the towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and Torre Annunziata.
For many centuries, the eruption was largely forgotten. But in the late 1600s, an architect called Domenico Fontana discovered the buried ruins at Pompeii.
Today's archaeologists are still hard at work uncovering relics, each of which is telling us lots of interesting things about how people lived 2,000 years ago. Pompeii and the surrounding area has been declared a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) World Heritage Site.
What do we know about events in 79AD? Apart from the physical evidence, there are eyewitness accounts from people who saw Vesuvius explode into action, and stories that were passed along from person to person before being written down.
Who should you believe when the tales disagree? The eyewitness who barely escaped with his life? The observer across the bay?
Another consideration is that history is constantly revised. Cynics observe that history is written by the victor, and this is often true.
...
A famous example of events changing interpretation of action took place in France in 1815. Napoleon, the brilliant general and one-time ruler of France, escaped from the island of Elba where he had been exiled on Feb 26, 1815.
Le Moniteur, the official French newspaper of the day, headline read, "The Beast Is Out of Its Cage".
By April 4, Le Moniteur's respectful headline was, "The Emperor at Versailles". By April 9, "His Imperial Majesty Will Enter Paris Today!"