Does you think books are an outdated way of learning history?

Question

I have purchased several books on history and I swear, I cannot sit down and read through them. They seem so tedious. I dont like the fact of depending on one author's opinion or telling the story either. I also dont understand why somebody would want to read a 700 page book on something on one specific subject. What the hell makes the book so big that it needs that many pages to recount the history of , say the French Revolution? How does the author know that manhy specifics about it??
In short, I like encyclopedias. I think that is the best way to learn concise facts and recounts or records of history. Who the hell has time to read that much anyway. I think books are outdated, who else has an opinion on this?

Answer 1

Yea I hate books too...especially history books. Encyclopedias are the way to go..they get straight to the point.

Answer 2

It is that tedious, detailed, and volume of information that gives us the knowledge we need to know what happened and avoid the same mistakes in the future. It is true we seem unable to learn from those mistakes but the opportunity is still there.
How does the author know so many specifics about it? By pouring through other books, letters, documents, and diaries of the time. In other words by spending time reading and learning. For general purposes concise information like encyclopedias is helpful but if you want to know or need to know the whole or at least a larger part of the story you need books and nothing not even the "vaulted web" will replace them for they contain life, emotion, and warmth that nothing else can come close to matching.
Who has time to read that much? Someone who does not spend hours watching television, playing video games, surfing the web, and partying. Most of all, however, it is someone who wants to know, to learn, and who cares about who they are and where our world, nations, and people have been.
By no means are books outdated! What has happened is education and parents have failed to develop a love of learning and the ability to learn in students and children.

Answer 3

Books are probably the single best way to start to learn history. In fact, without them, we wouldn't have a history to learn about in the first place. Think of the limited contemporary information we have on human history prior to the advent of writing, and the limited information prior to the advent of the printing press. In terms of a historical bias, every media will have it whether you learn about history from an encyclopedia, TV, living history, books or from individuals recounting their experiences.

To appreciate a 700 page text on a specific period you have to appreciate that someone has taken the time to preserve for posterity a collection of evidence and presented it in a way that is meaningful, perhaps with a particular argument over events. Bias in history is accepted and a historian will always consider it when they read a text. Your appreciation of the book depends on your appreciation of the historical subject. If the subject bores you, whatever the topic, the book won't grip you.

For me, the text is the beginning- I will look up portraits, visit the locations described, and investigate the social mores of the time which brings its characters, events and contemporary attitudes to bring it to life and give it meaning to me.

A TV programme cannot be re-read and retained in your memory in the same way a written text can. An encyclopedia gives you the briefest knowledge but offers little that you can take away to help you form an opinion. That's fine if you want to be a 'jack of all trades & master of nothing' but perhaps that approach wouldn't suit everyone. Only a good book can put forward the information you need to say 'I'm informed about that and have an opinion on the events'. I guess that's true about everything and not just history- changing a tyre doesn't make you a mechanic, eating cod doesn't make you a fisherman. To enrich your experiences you have to emmerse yourself in it for a while.

Who knows where technology will take us in terms of learning, but for now, the book contains all the written history of mankind for posterity.

Answer 4

Much of history is NOT yet on the web. A good historian will NOT rely on one source, they research various sources and synthesize the information. Also, good historians will stick to facts, leaving out opinion unless noted as such. If you are looking for topical info, the an encyclopedia is the direct route. If you want the details, human, societal, economic factors, etc. then there is no short route. It's like the rules of football. You can probably give me the top 5 rules, would I know how to play the game?

Answer 5

The best way to learn about history as a hobby is to find a subject that you like and research that particular one. Most books that are written for educational use are boring, however if you like American History I can thoroughly recommend the 'Major Problems' series, as they contain primary sources which you can use as a starting point for any sort of research.
Encyclopedias stimulate your imagination and are a useful tool for getting the background of a certain historical subject, but are no good as historical tools.

Answer 6

Using an Encyclopedia for information is like eating a cook book.

Answer 7

It depends what type of learner you are.
I learn better by writing notes.
but I even I haven't got the willpower to read a boring book I put it down immediatly if I don't get intrested by the second chapter.

Answer 8

if you are wanting a more current view of a particular time in history i suggest scholary journals. a serious historian will never use an encylopedia for research, but a combination of journals, books, archived manuscripts. if you simply do not like readin, then i strongly suggest you do not major in histroy, anthropology, or the like which you will be doing a plethora of.

Answer 9

in my opinion i like books. i'm getting under pressure if I spend too lots time in front of my video show. yet I additionally agree that i like getting to grasp suggestions online to boot. playstation . Wikipedia could be edited by everyone surprisingly lots, so which you will possibly desire to take the suggestions on there with the comparable grain of salt which you will possibly desire to take the rest. sure, you will hit upon some solid documents out on there, yet consistently be sure to get a minimum of two extra sources before you quote it simply by fact the tip-all, be-all answer.

Answer 10

Point taken - but books will never be updated - you just need to get used to filtering out the stuff that you need. Just as you would do on the web etc...