Why do we only study "big events" in history?

Question

small personal histories or and day to day events are not studied and it seems like its all male based.

I mean in 200 years they will study the iraq war and terrorism etc but really that doesnt say much about what 'our lives' were like.

Answer 1

~Well, Gary Stonwalling died of yellow fever while working on the Panama Canal in 1907, but who gives a crap? All it really in the general scheme of things is that some worms had some extra food for a few weeks.

Answer 2

I understand what you are saying. Through elementary, middle, and high school, history courses covered the events that most clearly impacted the world today. Students, it seemed, were rarely interested in knowing much else. However, it must be taken into account that history is generally writtern by the winners. Since so long ago, the documentation was vastly different, and history was passed down through oral traditions, and then the written word, it was easily changed, and manipulated. Then, what was correct was not the story of the oppressed, but the story of the conqueror, the winner. And also - were women really that powerful throughout the history of the world? I can name a few, but generally, males were in power, were the "winners," and wrote history how they saw fit. I think what will be different about today's history is that we have so many ways of leaving our mark on the world. The internet is a huge factor to consider, with blogs, and MySpace, and the like. If you were from the future, and were researching our time, think of the amount of viewpoints you would be bombarded with just from looking online, or in the papers, or in the news. I guess what has changed is the way we communicate, and thus the way we live will be preserved in agreement to that. Anyway, that's my contribution.

Answer 3

I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude, but you obviously don't know much about the current state of history as an academic discipline.

The fact of the matter is that historians DO study the "small personal histories" you are talking about. It is true that historians USED TO study the "big events", and some still do, but there has been a major shift in history departments across the country in the last 20 years or so, towards what is called "cultural history", "social history", and history of everyday life.

There is a reason why this type of history is more difficult, however, and that is that regular everyday people do not leave behind as many written records as do powerful, "important" people like politicians and wealthy people. Historians traditionally use written records to explain the past.

But cultural historians use alternative means of learning about the past from the perspective of everyday people. They use things like cultural artifacts, clothing, photographs, advertisements, magazines, music, architecture, furniture, and other non-text sources.

In the future, cultural history of everyday people of our present generation will be made easier by the fact that everyday people can now leave behind written records on the internet. This is truly a revolutionary development.

Your question is a good one, but I strongly encourage you to look more into the field of cultural history, because I think it will answer many of your questions.

Answer 4

WHY? Because teachers have only so many days and hours to cover ALL of history - a lot has to be left out. Often what gets covered are only the highlights - kings, presidents and generals, all of whom happen to be dead white men.

You are wise to realize that what you hear is only PART of the true story. The truth is much more fascinating than what you get in history class - and takes much reading and research to discover.

History is full of thousands of men, women, children, yes and animals who all were a part of bringing our human civilization the where it is today. Each of them were living breathing people like you and me - but history class only talks about their few public things they did in critical moments.

But I will advise you this: if you are in grades K-12, whatever your history teacher says, YOU BE SURE TO GIVE THE SAME ANSWER BACK ON YOUR TESTS. Only in college do some teachers begin to be open-minded about "other interpretations" of what actually happened in history.

I was raised a Yankee in the north- I was taught in history that the Civil War was about ending slavery. In Texas my wife was taught that the Civil War was about tariffs and states rights. In a way both are correct - but I still do not believe that 1 million Yankees went to war for 4 years (more than half were volunteers) to fight for higher tariffs on goods imported from England to the South.

Answer 5

Historians do study the "little things", that is their profession, but do you know how much time would be spent studying history in a classroom from even just modern history, if we studied all the small details? We'd never finish!

Answer 6

I prefer to study ALL events, big or small.
If there were more women writing about history, it would not be "all male-based", would it? Try reading any books by Barbara Tuchman. I have, and I recommend them.

Answer 7

That's the beauty of blogs - you could help contribute to the history or herstory of our times for future generations.