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Anonymous
Modern impressions of history 2017-03-01 09:31:03 Post No. 2438578
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Modern impressions of history 2017-03-01 09:31:03 Post No. 2438578
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I think we can all agree that history isn't exactly popular among the general population. Most people groan and yawn at the very mention of the word. My question is: Why? Why is the discipline of historiography, something actually very fascinating and useful, looked upon by young academics so unfavorably? What can be done by schools, universities and the community to get people interested in their own heritage, traditions and history as well as those of others? Is there any hope? Or is the chronicling of the happenings of our species and planet, a pastime that will forever dwindle in obscurity among the very few special individuals who feel the draw? Is that how it should be perhaps?
I offer one specific explanation, which while rather trivial may explain some of the unpopularity. Period portraits. There's a lot of them, many of them framing very interesting individuals indeed. But do they ever 'appear' to be interesting to the general population, solely in terms of aesthetic? I would say no. Almost every portrait shows a rather dreary and depressed or serious individual posing static and moribund. Almost as if the key message of the painting is to remind you that this person is dead and they are not relevant anymore. Is this true? Are there more vibrant and interesting portraits of happy looking individuals out there, perhaps painted in a more natural state? If there aren't, could this be one such problem for why history seems so irrelevant to most? Are people missing out on a great narrative because the 'proverbial poster' for the story that is the portrait simply isn't pulling in an audience?
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Maybe, I think a big thing too is that too many people only interact with their grandparents twice a year growing up. They have no frame of reference.
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Cultural Marxists
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>>2438578
You're making up shit. Medieval period is probably the most attractive to the average Joe and their art/portraits looked like drawn by a 10 year old.
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>>2438601
>Medieval period is probably the most attractive to the average Joe
That still doesn't mean it IS "attractive to the average joe." The average joe would still regard it as boring and uninteresting.
Also, Ancient Greece is obviously the most attractive to people. Simply because the Greek statues we often see.
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>>2438607
No, it absolutely is attractive relative to other historical periods, other than perhaps WW2. The average pleb will care about knights and medieval castles and crusades and Templars way more than about say, 17th century and 30 years war
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>>2438578
Incorrect entirely as another anon pointed out regarding medieval art.
The real issue is people teach history with zero passion. History is a humanity and needs a human element and to have relevance for us to give a shit. In math and many other sciences you can get away with dry facts (but even then some passion helps), but in history that does not work. Because if all you are gonna do is rattle of dates and names, I don't have to know. History isn't a necessity and we could advance fine without knowing why some empire fell in whatever year.
The only relevance history has is context to our modern world (what we can learn from it), and as the story of humanity (our rises and falls, good and bad). Dry history is useless except to autists because if history did not have those things I wouldn't miss a beat in my daily life and all this modern tech works fine without knowing who made it or why.
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>>2438578
Its because all they teach in schools are boring wars and all you do is memorise years for wars, it doesnt actually tell you the social and economical conditions of the countries
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I guess it has to do with the way schools teach it
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>>2438626
Excellent explanation.
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