So You Want To Study History: Defending History

This is no ordinary history blog. Sure, there will be posts about how to research, studying tips, how not to hate your research topic with a passion that could rival a thousand hardcore middle school girl grudges. More importantly, this is a blog about getting people interested in history and not dread learning about events and people that have come and gone (and those who are still alive and active today). You will find posts lovingly titled "Dafuq?" which will deal with the weirder and stranger aspects of history. Some will deal with the history of certain locations...that may or may not be haunted...depends on my mood. Others will just be about general ideas that are interesting and might need some further explaining. With that said, I can only hope you'll stick around for the long haul.

I know of 3 professors that would love this on their door

So, why the title "Defending History"? History tends to get an eye roll and a sigh of resignation by the general public. It was that subject in school that may have made you want to shove a pencil in your eye to provide some level of entertainment, instead of listening to the droning on and on of dates, people, and places. Personally, I have always been interested in how things happen and why they happen. Getting to the bottom of something is really satisfying. In a few words, I'm nosy. So obviously when the subject of history came up in school, I was attracted to it like a moth to a light (just not the fluorescent light that sends bugs to Bug Heaven). Making posters, creating numerous PowerPoint presentations, even dressing up like the Titanic (not me, but an old friend of mine. I dressed up in winter clothes to "report from Chernobyl"...in May...), anything to help spread the knowledge I had gathered got me really excited. Even when I felt my eyes bleed, hands permanently set into the shape of holding a pencil and my brain screaming 97% of the time, I enjoyed every second of my AP U.S. History class in high school. Occasionally, I do get 'Nam-like flashbacks to furiously scribbling notes in the poor, poor notebooks that currently reside in a happier place (namely a box in my basement) while sitting in one of my history lectures. Many who have gone through this experience generally need years of recovery and possibly therapy after the National Exams are done, but not me. I set my sights onto college, choosing history as my major before I even had my high school diploma in hand.

This is literally what every student looked like after the AP exams in May...

I've met some people in my 4 and almost 1/2 years of being at Point that have looked at my choice of majors like I had suddenly grown a second head that could sing the most beautiful sonatas anyone has heard. Sure, I waffled around my sophomore year by switching to psychology, but my brain melted when I had to take statistics and I fell back into the warm and loving arms of my fellow history majors. The idea of practically living in the library, making a hut amongst the biographies of dead Presidents didn't appeal to me at the time, which is ironic because that's basically my life at the moment.

Harooooooo

"History is a cop-out degree. It's not as challenging as other majors like biology or physics. And since this is Point, natural sciences. All you have to do is sit and listen about dates and people." BULL. SHIT. YO. Sure, history is somewhat easy (at least in my opinion, but I'm biased). We've all heard of these people and events at some point in time of our lives. But history is challenging and demanding. You mess up one date and you've messed up an entire perception of an event.

An example of how tampering with history is dangerous...

History is interpretive in the manner of that you can gather multiple perspectives on an event to get a better, well-rounded understanding of what occurred. But you can bet your sweet ass that if you are not up-to-date with your dates and people, shit will hit the fan. It's not a "hard" discipline, as new information can arise and change a lot of well-known and established facts. You could be in the midst of massive research on a certain topic and another historian who has been working tirelessly on the same idea and suddenly finds a new account or fact about your topic, the very foundation of your research could crumble to the ground.

He's been in there for years...

A lot of the time, people will roll their eyes and say that history is boring. As much as it pains me to say it...they can be correct. There are some...dry parts of the past, that's for damn sure. No one particularly enjoys fiscal policies of the late 19th, early 20th century America, but someone gritted their teeth and plunged head first into the information and explained it to the best of their ability. And within the brain-melting, boring parts of history, there can be and are some pretty fascinating things. God bless that individual who did all the boring, yawn-inducing work for us to know about...uhm...the military strategies of...European...*head hits table, eyes firmly shut, sound of snoring fill the air*

Growing up, I thought Indiana Jones was the man. Someone who goes out and defeats the Nazis with the Ark of the Covenant, who doesn't love that?!

For years, I was convinced this is how Hitler died

Granted, Indiana Jones was an anthropologist (odd, I'm minoring in anthropology...coincidence? NOPE!), he still made learning about people and places interesting. If only he could keep the mouths of his annoying lady companions shut, the movies would have been 100x better.

Just looking at this, I can hear her screeching

I would enjoy Crystal Skull so much more if Shia Lebouf was replaced by Short Round. I love Short Round.

GET THIS MONSTROSITY OUT OF MY FACE THIS INSTANT

I'm going to guess that 75% of you reading this are remotely interested in history. For my 25% minority, do you enjoy video games? Namely...Assassin's Creed? LET ME BLOW YOUR MINDS. Were you aware that the last 2 versions of Assassin's Creed have characters and places that are historically accurate? Feel bad about stabbing some guy through the face now that you know he probably died in a similar fashion in real life? No? Well, you might have a problem then.

Surprisingly not how I remembered the Revolutionary War happening...

Yup...not so much

Maybe you do like history, but not the 'normal' type. Like baseball? HISTORY OF BASEBALL. BOOM. Like music? HISTORY OF MUSIC. BAM. Like condiments? BE AN EXPERT IN...oh...wait...