What are some factors that affect the way people view certain events in history?

Answer 1

There are many factors but sociological and physocoligal factors are a great influence. The place you were living at the time of the event and your age would also be major factors.Also, race,religion,your past experiences,your education etc. Take WW2 - Hitler for example. If you are British or American your view will be totally different to that of a German and the way you remember events will obviously be different as a result. Whether you are a soldier or a child evacueee would be a totally different experience so how you would view events would be from a totally different perspective. Whoever you are, you choose what is relevant and important to your own circumstances. To view things and events in the clearest light you would need to study a historic event from as many different perspectives as possible.The result would then be totally different to all of the individuall accounts as it would be based on a collation of other peoples experiences.

Answer 2

The number one thing that affects a society's perception of an event is whatever the difference is between the person or group (or who ever is percieved) that cause the event and the people who observe the event. That might be religion, race, class, authority, gender, intelligence, or any number of things. For example, 9/11 sparked some theories that the government actually allowed or performed the attacks on this country. But it just so happens that the people who first stood up and started these theories are known political adversaries of the party of the government.

The Jews of the time saw Jesus as a person who was claiming to be God and deserved to be punished for it. But they had certain qualities they were looking for. They were looking for a literal King to rule them. The Gentiles saw the scripture as saying he would be their King in a spiritual sense and they saw him as the messiah.

Another thing that might affect the way people percieve events is the limit of knowlege at the time of the event. Ancient history from all over the world records people seeing dragons in the sky, yet we have never seen any, nor have we seen any fossils of them. Antheropologists suggest that these people may have been seeing lava flow down a mountain, or spew from a volcano, meteors, or some other things. But since they didn't know much about their environment at the time, there was no way for them to know, so there was no way for anyone to record the true event.

People will obviously believe the leaders they follow when an event hits. The Nazis didn't see anything wrong with the way Hitler ordered things in Europe. A billion people see the same event on 9/11, are presented with the same evidences, and live in the same times, yet that group is split right down the middle about what happened...those that are conservative believe it was a terrorist attack. Those that are liberal generally believe it was a conpiracy or that something was covered up.

It's so hard to be objective about anything, if you've got diffrences in your beliefs on all dimensions of life.

Answer 3

As a rule, records of past events, such as wars are written by the people who won (the losing side often getting obliterated), and it their opinion on what happened. They will therefore may embellish reasons for being involved in that war, to make them seem more justifiable. They may also vilify their opposition.

Historical records will always reflect the culture of the people who writes them and often the social class. In times gone by, this will always be the ruling elite class as they were the only literate class who had access to making historical records and the means to store them.

History is agreed upon, if several historians concur that an event happened and have historical records/evidence to back it up. each may have a slightly different view point/opinion, depending on that persons culture, social class, political view-point and level of education.

Answer 4

There are thousand of factors, proximity, age, education level, level of exposure to the event, its prevelence in cultural references, etc. Could you be more specific about what you mean? How people view events that happened 1000 years ago or events that happened 1 year ago? How people view the same event differently throughout history (ie. how people in the 14th century viewed the fall of the Byzantine empire versus how people view it today)?

Answer 5

History as they say is written by the victor not the vanquished, so push come to shove the important factors beyond that depend on who's side you are on past present and future. History is only the rumour of what has transpired yet the way we react to it can very much modify the assumed meaning of that epic.

Answer 6

In short, it can be narrowed to one factor: The SOURCE from which they are learning. This is the single most important factor which affects how people view history and accordingly draw conclusions.

Answer 7

I agree with the first answer. It also has to do with how certain stories and events from history are passed down from one generation to another. For example, my family is Native American so I had to really fight to keep from calling the school when my son's teacher told him that settlers gave small pox to the indians, by accident and they were trying to be nice and just give them blankets. My view on this particular situation was much different from his teacher's.

Answer 8

Wow, the solutions are quite operating the gamut of weirdness in this one. the position did the Creationism debate come from? I agree that maximum instructors are probable no longer Marxist, yet commonly in tutorial circles there's a huge variety of interest in socialist economic structures. even as i do not connect Socialism or Marxism, i imagine that Capitalism is in worry-free words the most proper gadget that we've got here across yet. i imagine that it really is powerful to favor for ever recuperating economic structures to assist more beneficial positive all of mankind or maybe as an excellent variety of lecturers imagine that that more beneficial positive gadget lies a minimum of interior the area of Socialism or maybe Marxism, i imagine it really is a lifeless end.

Answer 9

Race, Religion, Cultural background, Nationality, ect.

Answer 10

War. Usually the victors wrtite the history.