Filter of History :: essays research papers

     History is told through a filter. Whether it is the filter of a persons mind or of a writers pen. Events such(prenominal) as the assassination of JFK, or for my generation the explosion of the Challenger have a way of impatient themselves in our minds. We hatch where we were, what we were doing, even what we were wearing. One would think that the details of such an event would remain fairly accurate from person to person, however this is untrue. As in the example given in the reading selection afterward the Civil War ended some people only chose to remember the bravery of the white soldiers, not the reason brother was against brother. Some in the South tried to pretend that nothing had changed with the Lynch laws forcing slaves back onto the plantations. It seems that neck of the woods as well as human thought was the influence of these ideals. A person can chose to remember an event as something that is painful or concentrate on the good of the event.&n bsp    As with a persons memory of record being a filter so is that of a historians pen, even though the reasons vary. This can be traced back nearly to the first-class honours degree of written story, though most examples are taken from the early Catholic Church. Furthermore, factors of politics, region, and public opinion almost always have an effect on what becomes written history. History came to play a major role in propagating this modern orthodoxy, particularly in the United States. And scarcely because their national history was so integral to Americans identity, the new orthodoxy became part of the political conflicts generated by industrialisation (Appleby et al.,132).     In contrast to remembering and writing what is more pleasant comes the historian who wants to tear down the pedestals that some of our great figures have been placed on. Charles Beard, a preeminent progressive historian set out to do just this to our