Meg's hsitory notes

Political

having to do with government, law, or power

Social

having to do with people in groups (status, class, relationships)

Economic

having to do with making and distributing goods/services (money, trade, jobs)

Culture

art, music, and literature

Empire

a large territoy with different ethnic groups ruled by one leader

Revolution

a fundamental political, economic, or social change

Rural

of or from the countryside

Urban

of or from the city

Primary source

document or object created by someone who was an eyewitness or participant

Secondary source

account of an event written afterward by someone who was NEITHER an eyewitness or participant

What experiences in Howard Zinn’s lie make him “lose the desire for objectivity” in writing about history?

He was in the military, had worked in a shipyard for 3 years, and had been assaulted by a police officer.

According to Zinn, “history could only be a way of understanding and helping to change what is wrong in the ___.”

“world”

What are two ways historians can be dishonest?

Letting their own biases/beliefs judge what they do or don’t emphasize or highlight, and failing to acknowledge those biases.

What is a “marketplace of subjectivites”? Do you think this is a valuable way to study history?

the marketplace acknowledges all of historians certain biases so you can look back on history with the info that some details may be more highlighted than others, depending on if the historian writing the history deemed it more important or less important. (IT IS VALUABLE)

How is history partial or biased?

History is partial because what is written doesn’t encompass everything that has ever happened, and it is biased because there are some things that are emphasized and deemphasized which means that historians are choosing to highlight one thing over another.

What do most textbooks say about Christopher Columbus and why does this bother Zinn?

textbooks act like Columbus was a hero for discovering the western hemisphere, but they don’t account for how he committed genocide to the friendly locals that welcomed him to their homeland. (bothers Zinn because they chose that him being a hero was more important than the innocent lives lost for his own glory)

What is a real life example of ways in which people can be influenced by the way something in labeled?

Art that is marketed for a higher price, whether it’s the same as another painting, may be seen as being of higher value because it is “worth more” or in a museum

Selective history

historians choosing to highlight one thing over the other because they deem it more or less important than something else.

Subjective history

“history is an interpretive process rather than an exploration of objective truth”