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Those who can, teach history

historytoday.com

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Re: Those who can, teach history

#11

Post by hagbard_c »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #6
Anonyneko wrote: post #2

Tangential, but what resources would you recommend for learning world history (preferably including the non-Western world as well)? For someone who is not aiming to be an expert or work with source records, but wants to improve their general awareness and erudition.

Honestly, just start with Wikipedia. It's better than most popular books and completely free. If you find yourself wanting something better, the next steps up are any of the numerous world history books from Oxford/Cambridge university presses. Beyond that you should really be picking more narrow areas/periods to go into.

Wikipedia is emphatically not the place to start for this field. For chemistry, physics, mathematics and parts of biology, sure - any field which has not (yet) been politicised generally is covered quite well on Wikipedia. History has always been politicised and coverage of historical subjects on Wikipedia reflects and is fully dependent on which faction has captured the subject at hand. Even the ('perennial') sources allowed to be used on Wikipedia have been heavily politicised. If you want something resembling an objective take keep away from Wikipedia for anything which is in any way politically sensitive no matter whether you happen to agree to the factions which rule the roost or whether you oppose them. If you're looking for confirmation of your biases, sure go there but keep in mind that what you're reading there is not history but ideologically biased historical fiction.

Re: Those who can, teach history

#12

Post by hulitu »

Anonyneko wrote: post #2

Tangential, but what resources would you recommend for learning world history (preferably including the non-Western world as well)? For someone who is not aiming to be an expert or work with source records, but wants to improve their general awareness and erudition.

Wikipedia and the CNN and BBC.

Re: Those who can, teach history

#13

Post by coffeefirst »

prangel wrote: post #4
Anonyneko wrote: post #2

Tangential, but what resources would you recommend for learning world history (preferably including the non-Western world as well)? For someone who is not aiming to be an expert or work with source records, but wants to improve their general awareness and erudition.

There are so many good podcasts for this. Top of my list are Empire, Fall of Civilizations, The Age of Napoleon, The Rest is History, Saga Thing.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, Revolutions + History of Rome, Land of Desire (a remarkably talented hobbyist show on French history), Patrick Wyman's Tides of History which is wrapping up soon after about a billion episodes, American History Tellers, History of India... there's a show for everything, but I think you have to try a few to get a feel for how granular you like and what sort of style calls to you.

And I find podcasts gradually lead me towards books. It's just harder to read a book while walking my dog.

Re: Those who can, teach history

#14

Post by hagbard_c »

noelwelsh wrote: post #8
setopt wrote: post #5

Those who can, make history

But do they? Study history and you'll learn about the Great Man theory of history ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory ) and its problems.

Sure they do, not on their own but they are often the ones who set in motion things which are later described in terms of 'making history'. When an orchestra plays a symphony it is often the conductor who receives the praise even though he is not the one actually playing the instruments. Without them he'd be standing there waving his baton without any results. Without the conductor the musicians would certainly be able to produce music but it is unlikely they'd be making history as an orchestra. The conductor gets the praise because he's the one who brings the musicians together to 'make history'. Battles aren't won single-handedly by generals but they are lost without them. Coaches do not win sports competitions but teams without good coaching are unlikely to win. This does not diminish the role of the individual musician, soldier or athlete but it does show that it often takes someone to gather these individuals into a coherent group and point them at a target to 'make history'.

Re: Those who can, teach history

#15

Post by johngossman »

iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #3
Anonyneko wrote: post #2

Tangential, but what resources would you recommend for learning world history (preferably including the non-Western world as well)? For someone who is not aiming to be an expert or work with source records, but wants to improve their general awareness and erudition.

It is, but it is a useful question. What you really want is not resources by being able to meet a threshold for: - logic - critical thinking After that, depending on your particular bent, you want some facility with languages ( some already dead ). In other words, it genuinely may not be for everyone.

For someone not wishing to be an expert or read source material, like the OC, facility in languages is absolutely not necessary. And history absolutely is valuable and can be accessible to everyone.

Re: Those who can, teach history

#16

Post by johngossman »

Anonyneko wrote: post #2

Tangential, but what resources would you recommend for learning world history (preferably including the non-Western world as well)? For someone who is not aiming to be an expert or work with source records, but wants to improve their general awareness and erudition.

While I agree with the list of recommended podcasts, you may be a reader. It is easier for me to make notes and backup and review when reading. A good history book is a story book as interesting as any novel, with the added benefit of being about real people and events. Fortunately, there are a lot of good popular history authors, but unfortunately there are a lot of bad ones too. I looked at Goodreads and this list is pretty good:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/world-history

Re: Those who can, teach history

#17

Post by throwway262515 »

Anonyneko wrote: post #2

Tangential, but what resources would you recommend for learning world history (preferably including the non-Western world as well)? For someone who is not aiming to be an expert or work with source records, but wants to improve their general awareness and erudition.

Wanting to learn world history is like wanting to create one's own programming language.

A more feasible start would be to ask, "What is my world? What trends brought us here? When did they begin and how did they evolve?"

Re: Those who can, teach history

#19

Post by schuyler2d »

Anonyneko wrote: post #2

Tangential, but what resources would you recommend for learning world history (preferably including the non-Western world as well)? For someone who is not aiming to be an expert or work with source records, but wants to improve their general awareness and erudition.

Not even kidding - the AskHistorians reddit. I use their Sunday digest links as a magazine: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/search/?q=title%3A%22...

It's filled in both so many gaps and made me increasingly curious about many periods/places that I previously felt disengaged about -- and led to much more reading of actual history

Re: Those who can, teach history

#20

Post by keiferski »

Anonyneko wrote: post #2

Tangential, but what resources would you recommend for learning world history (preferably including the non-Western world as well)? For someone who is not aiming to be an expert or work with source records, but wants to improve their general awareness and erudition.

Pick a country that you've been to, or want to visit, and delve deep into its history: wars, neighbors, food, culture. Personally I find that a lot more interesting than the broad survey-type podcasts and courses.
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