One of my goals for this class is to take a more active role in how I process history. Our class discussions about political theatricality and the importance of perception has led me to reflect more on my background and my education. In the same way that implicit biases affect how we process new information, I am realizing that my biases and those of the system in which I was educated have impacted my view of history. As elementary-school aged children, most of us are inclined to accept the information we are given without much thought. I don’t think it would have occurred to me when I was young to question how the source can introduce subjectivity. Perhaps this was innocence or simply that this kind of critical analysis was a little beyond my abilities at the time. This class can be, for those of us who need it, the opportunity to revisit the major historical events we are discussing prepared to take a harder look.
2 Replies to “Perception and Subjectivity in History”
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I definitely agree with you and can say that I am very excited to see how the different texts and plays that we read can help me to reframe and have a more thoughtful analysis of the time frame and all of the different people, perspectives, themes, and attitudes of the time. I had very limited exposure to the 60’s in the US in my 10th grade US History class and have had no exposure to this time in Ireland and so I am very ready to see what people at the time thought and how they used the medias of their time to express those perspectives. Right now I have a very shallow and narrow perspective and so I think I have certain ideas/biases whether they be about the Black Panthers as we have discussed in class or other movements and so I think it will be very beneficial to broaden the sources I use and have more conversations with others to help me have a better picture of what occurred during the 60’s.
I agree with you, this class should provide a lot more depth to our knowledge of the 1960s. At least for me, my only history class time spent on the 1960s was literally one week in 8th grade which doesn’t amount to a whole lot. I don’t know if you agree, but learning about the 1960s through critical analysis and active questioning of the objectives behind everything we will read makes 1) it more fun to learn and 2) much easier to remember as opposed to simply memorizing from a textbook. I too am excited to take a harder look this semester!