History is always about perceptions. Therefore there are generally two sides of history: the “winner´s” and the “loser´s” side. As history is normally written down by the winners, which is called grand narrative, only few people know which experiences the losers, or…
“Multiple, conflicting perspectives are among the truths of history. No single objective or universal account could ever put an end to this endless creative dialogue within and between the past and the present.”…
Samuel P. Huntington is the author of the theoretical book “Clash of civilization”, which caught people’s attention after the 11th of September attack. The book questions the future, and what will be the cause of a World War III, and who will be the next enemy of the nation after the cold – World War II. Huntington main point is that the world will not be divided by ideology or economic difference but by the cultural and ethnical differences between countries, or more specifically the West and the Muslims, which will be the cause of a Clash of Civilization. Huntington’s text is interesting but it is monolithic and many of the details are conflate, which causes confusion. Also some of the historical evidences are weak, and the writer doesn't focus on the internal…
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” (The Outline of History, Ch. 41)…
"Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person " the world today" or "life" or "reality" he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever." (Knowles, 32)…
Because of the rise of the rest, the world has encountered its third shift of global power in the history of the Modern World. The rise of the Western World was given precisely at the moment of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, when classic knowledge was rediscovered. The importance of the 3 rises is immensely important to the development of modern society.…
• It can be said that all forms of nationalism look to the past, rather than the future. This is…
Beck, Roger B., Black Linda., Krieger, Larry S., Naylor., Phillip C., Shabaka, Dahia Ibo. Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction. McDougal Litell Inc. 2006…
In 2012, the concentrated eruption of disputes in East Asia, the continued conflict between Pakistan and Israel both suggest that the haunting history has been and even is increasingly to be sources of distrust, hatred, and thus conflicts in the world. As the 20th century passed away, the 21st century has brought us a difficult task as how to deal with our tumultuous past. I hope that the world in the new century would be a world that can be at peace with its past---it would not be mired in the historical grievances, but would instead look into possibilities of the future.…
World History in Context, written by David Christian (2003), questions the context of world history as well as the complexity of human history and the societies with which they live. In Christian’s article he argues that looking at world history in its global context, rather than one specific moment in history, is the way it is intended to be interpreted and allows historians to recognize reoccurring patterns and themes. World history is meant to be an unbiased account of only one specific species, humans (Christian 2003, 437-438). Historians often struggle with this challenging topic and tend to produce works extremely biased, usually towards stable ‘western civilizations’ and Eurocentric cultures. It is important to note that every community is included in the definition of world history whether they were literate and civilized or not (Ponting 2000, 1). Christian also criticizes the lack of exploration into the context of world history and emphasizes its importance for the discipline (Christian 2003, pp. 437-438). For example, it would be impossible to distinguish the relevance of the 19th century workers’ movement without fully understanding the industrial revolution that initiated it because it would be taken completely out of context. The unique feature of world history is its ability to ‘interconnect all past events’ within each other, without world history we would have little understanding of ourselves and how we came to be. It is world history, when told correctly, that gives us a fluent story to look back upon (Harman 2008, pp. i-iii).…
Like the old adage "history repeats itself", the world seems to be in the early stages of a something like the 19th century's…
Ancient societies were bold in rejecting the ideologies such as scientism, positivism, and rationalism (Kinna). The modern generations have embraced this three aspect and often demand more. It is evident that the utopian ideologies are real in the modern world with technology taking the center stage. Globalization has taken over the world, and the society has eliminated conservative traits, and now an invasive culture in the field of politics and other forms of social interaction are evident. The past ideologies in the fields of philosophy and politics had recorded failure, a factor the utopia was out to condemn. Some authors have argued that the failure of utopia in the past were as a result of oppression. Utopia had predicted that politics would take another turn and adopt creativeness and coexistence. The concept is evident in most of the nations where politics plays the main role in distribution and allocation of resources. The creativity is evident in both the communist societies as well as the capitalist states. Marx had earlier suggested that utopia had failed to address social issues, but the argument would not be considered when describing…
The struggle to find truth in telling the stories of history has been a source of constant debate amongst historians and intellectuals. With the emergence of religious rejection during the seventeenth and eighteenth century Enlightenment, the influence and undoubted supremacy of the heroic model of science provided historians with new ways for obtaining truth—absolute truths—through the dispassionate eyes of a “heroic” observer. Although this remains unchallenged for many generations, with the cultural changes and the democratization of education, the idea of an absolute truth—a universal story of national progress which neglects to encompass the diversity of America—is challenged by post-modernity. In all its pessimisms towards absolute truths and objective knowledge, post-modernism illustrates the importance of and sets the foundation for questioning historical accuracy and the idea of objectivity. Can there be truth when the words and language of the “objective” observer is unintentionally dripping in their own personal, social, and political agendas? Through the works of Foucault and Deerdas, who get at the heart of this very question, historians are encouraged to reject the Enlightenment project, and look deeper into historical evidence to interrogate the structure and organization of the text, its vocabulary, and hidden assumptions. Although, post-modernity—a critique of the Enlightenment ideals—creates the framework for the questioning of historical accuracy, it is very important to recognize its inability to formulate its own solutions to this historical dilemma. Fortunately, with the succeeding ideas of practical realists, there is a sense of hope and optimism for the future of history and the all-encompassing truths that it can uphold.…
Control of the past gave rise to ancient civilizations in the east (unlike the need for control of nature which prevailed in western civilizations)…
From our vantage point in the present, historical events sometimes seem almost inevitable. Because we know "how the story ends," we assume that the course of history was somehow determined, almost fated. But this is not true. Events and human decisions in the past shaped history just as the events and decisions of our time will affect our future.…