Older blog<\/a> 26 September, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nIn\n a survey of modern Western civilization, I asked the students the \nfollowing questions (a question and a follow up) and obtained the \nfollowing answers:
\nWhy do we study history? “To avoid repeating past mistakes”
\nWhat do we learn from Napoleon’s invasion of Russia? “Don’t invade Russia during winter”
\nWhat is the West? “West of the Mississippi River” or Silence
\nIs Russia in the West? “It depends”
\nAre you Westerners? “Yes sir”
\nAre Chinese-Americans Westerners? Silence
\nWhy do we mostly study the history of centralized states? Silence
\nWhere are the poor people in history? “They are inconsequential, so we don’t need to include them”
\nThis is part of my continuing effort to define the Job of a Historian.
\nLower-division survey classes are probably more important than \nupper-division ones because students there accept what they learn \nwithout questioning.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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