Older blog 26 September, 2009
In
a survey of modern Western civilization, I asked the students the
following questions (a question and a follow up) and obtained the
following answers:
Why do we study history? “To avoid repeating past mistakes”
What do we learn from Napoleon’s invasion of Russia? “Don’t invade Russia during winter”
What is the West? “West of the Mississippi River” or Silence
Is Russia in the West? “It depends”
Are you Westerners? “Yes sir”
Are Chinese-Americans Westerners? Silence
Why do we mostly study the history of centralized states? Silence
Where are the poor people in history? “They are inconsequential, so we don’t need to include them”
This is part of my continuing effort to define the Job of a Historian.
Lower-division survey classes are probably more important than
upper-division ones because students there accept what they learn
without questioning.
al-Jumhuriyya
