Why is the east's great history mostly ignored by the west ?

Answer 1

history is a massive subject, even the history of the west cannot be covered properly in schools.

i have taught china in the 20th century to key stage 4 students for g.c.s.e., as part of "the schools history project", for many years.

this project takes "chunks" and themes from history, such as the history of medicine, which covers prehistoric, egyptian, arabic, and western medicine. it's very popular with the students.

other than that, i have taught mogul india with year 8.

there is a tendency to go into a lot of detail these days, which cuts down the number of topics one can cover.

when i was in school in the 60's, we covered the whole pre-history of the world in the first year at grammar school.

i loved it, it had to be very general, but we covered the rise of civilisations - which were all in the east - mesopotamia, assyria, phoenicia, egypt, etc.

the answer in a nutshell is fashion, and the national curriculum, which restricts any choice of topic the history teacher may have.

fashion dictates that students must learn the skills of an historian, analysing sources, empathy, bias, etc., rather than gain an overview of the history of the world.

i do think that pupils should have some idea how their own country developed, before they learn about that country's place in the world, though..

just let me get my hands on planning the national curriculum!

Answer 2

Assuming that you mean by east the Chinese, Indian, Korean and/or Japanese civilization and by west the Greek, Roman and Western European Civilization in general, I would say that according to my limited experience, both regions tend to overlook each other when it comes to teaching history.

One example: I did not know who was Zheng He or Babur until a I read about them a few years ago, but I knew all about Marc Anthony or Hannibal Barca since High School. Both regions have such an interesting past, that it is easy to overlook the other region because they center mostly on their own history. What happens is that if you are a descendant of Asian or Indian immigrants living in the melting pot that is North America today, you will probably hear all this great stories from your ancestors and wonder why you don't learn about it at school? Fortunately, the world is becoming more aware of each other. Also, the East is rising again to take its equal part next to the West, and I believe this is a good thing, because we can learn a lot from each other. (Remember, for many centuries it was the East that was the center of civilization while the West was struggling through the middle ages)

Answer 3

It's been my experience that most people treat history as a class they are being forced to take. Very few people care about the history of there local, much less anywhere else. In that context, most people take a couple of histories in high school. The are state history and U.S. history. The later gives a bit of background into European history because that were are roots are.

In college, most degree programs require one or two more. Though the student gets to choose, that choice is almost always the overview courses. These are Western Civ before 1500, and the same for after 1500.

So I'd say Westerners ignore Eastern history is because they are not forced to learn. Most of us wouldn't know anything about our own history if we weren't made to.

Answer 4

Mostly because of language differences. Very few of the source documents of Eastern history have ever been translated into occidental languages.
The other main reason is that historically the major empires of the East have tended to be self-absorbed introverted societies, whereas those of the West tended to be founded on far reaching international trade, and international religious and political strife, with all the consequent need to record and understand data which becomes history.

Answer 5

This is a subject that I was just recently discussing at home. I feel that the major reason is that there are too few eastern history books in English. To the contrary, the rest of the world seems to have been disposed to learn English and therefore have availed themselves of western history through books printed in English. I also think that is a function of the far reaching effects of the British Empire that stretched around the globe and then those cultural changes were reinforced by American hegemony.

Answer 6

I had not seen it. Thank you so much for posting it! I have really been a fan of his for a long time. I was especially pleased when he turned his impressive intelligence towards world events. I think he has sized this up absolutely on the money. Problem is the Bush haters will side with terrorists if they oppose Bush! I just don't understand that kind of hatred, but I think the "Palestinians" do.

Answer 7

Probably for the same reason they likely ignore much of the West's history.

Answer 8

i guess its the same as why western culture is seen as the culture to follow , the more powerful you are , the more say you have i guess and since the 17th century i think the west has been more powerful and colonised most of the east and tried to erase most of the eastern history in order to control the eastern population more easier.. i guess only ....

Answer 9

By the east, do you mean islam? Perhaps because their greatness was long ago, and now they are just wackos with a screwy religion and a low level of culture.

Answer 10

it isn't...i learned a great deal about the 'east' in high school and college...why didn't you?...and btw...i'm SURE that the history teachers in the 'east' dwell endlessly on western history in sharp contrast...