Category: February 7 Assignment

02/7/11

which is the truth

After reading the review of “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory”, the book sounds interesting to me. Author, David Blight mentions that there are different memories about Civil War caused by the political motivation. For instance, in “emancipationist view, the war is bringing a rebirth of the republic in the name of freedom and equality, but reconciliationist memory is to emphasize what the two sides shared in common”. He says that “race” is an important fact for politician to modify the truth of Civil war in American memories and illuminate that the history we learned is a bias made of the ‘winer’. Therefore, I think reading the book will benefit to everyone.
The other example is Nanjing Massacre. This is a sad memory for everyone. 18 September 1937, Japanese invaded Nanjing. Japanese soldiers raped and killed 300,000 Chinese civilians during one week. Those soldiers played a game that is who kill most Chinese people and treat Chinese people lower than animals. As a result, Chinese government makes Nanjing Massacre as national disgrace and every Chinese people learn the history when they were kids. However, this unhumanized action of Nanjing Massacre was denied by the Japanese government. They stop teaching the history and eliminate the truth on textbook. Additionally, Japanese officials worship the war murders as heroes. Now, Nanjing Massacre still is a controversy between Chinese and Japanese governments.

02/7/11

Remembering What Was Meant To Be Forgotten

How America remembers the Civil War or any other historical events, is always going to be based on who wrote history.  Mostly on someones documented memories.  Using primary documents that historians have gathered.  Each with enough supporting evidence to draw up a valid conclusion.  “Valid meaning, each piece of evidence supports the conclusion that certain events occurred, but doesn’t necessarily makes it true or sound.

The review that Eric Foner writes about Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory” by David Blight showed that many people remember the Civil War differently.  Everything from the cause of the war,  political views,  rebuilding, and how it should be looked back on was different; causing drifts and segregation.  It actually made me want to read the book.   I mean I was actually shocked to discover how the celebration of Memorial Day was started, and even more by whom.  It use to just be a day off from work for me.  I can honestly say that has changed a bit.  Funny, while speaking to some friends about it, none of them knew that was how that national holiday began.

The review helped solidify my view of what in history is actually available to you.  How much of the truth do we actually know? How much are we allowed to know?  The people in power make the laws, and the people in power write history.  One should think that judging from what we know about that past, you can come to appreciate, and really thank those people who are able to seek the truth…as they saw it.  The black soldiers that died in the war, could have easily been left out of the memoirs, letters, and documents from those time.  Foner even mentioned how Blight “…gives black Americans a voice…denied in work of memory…”  This to me, shows that historians can choose to omit a lot of the past, if they haven’t already.  This would have completely stolen the voices of black America, and kept us from knowing about the past that many would wish was forgotten. Our current war on terror, is an example of history, though not very distancan be views as being very  politically motivated.  Why are we in the war?  Is it because of the 9/11 terrorist attack, oil, weapons of mass destruction’s, and/or war profiteering. This list can grow longer depending on who you ask.

02/7/11

What really happened?

Eric Foner’s book review of “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory”, by David W. Blight, shows that it would prove to be an interesting read.  It sheds light on the fact that history should not be accepted for its face value.  As Napoleon once said “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon”.  The result of a battle is quite simple, there is a winner and a loser; and the only side of the story that is heard is that of the victor.  This creates a bias and a convenient addition/deletion of certain facts and events.  The picture that results is therefore a distorted image, not an accurate representation of the actual events.  The people who would most benefit from reading this book are students, for the reason that many believe that what they were taught in grammar school is the way it actually happened.  This book would teach them to other half of the story, and perhaps get them to begin questioning other historical events, encouraging them to discover the truth for themselves.

An event that is remembered in many different ways is the concept of Manifest Destiny that the United States used to expand westward.  Many believe that the government relocated the nation’s Native American population in a fair manner and that they agreed to actually move in the first place.  This is an ideal thought but, the reality was much more brutal and violent.  In reality the Native Americans were essentially told move to a designated remote location, with useless land and die there, or stay and fight the troops that would be sent to “relocate” them i.e., get slaughtered in battle.  In the case of the Native Americans, the moves taken were absolutely rooted in political agenda.  In the case of the North Vs. the South, the moves taken were also based in political dominance.  The north wanted to erase the fact that the country had been divided so they tried to tarnish the image of the South in as many ways as possible.  This included rallying the Northern voters to only vote for their politicians by “waving the bloody shirt” — reminding voters of the war — during election campaigns”, essentially guilting them into voting the way they were told.  Elections may have been rigged and power was unfairly distributed, but in the end we never heard about it, because remember “we won the war”.

02/6/11

“Who controls the past, Controls the future” -George Orwell, 1984

What was so interesting about Eric Foner’s review was his remark about what goes in historical memory can have political motives. It eerily reminds me of the book “1984” by George Orwell and how history is manipulated by the party to keep check of what is being remembered. And we know from Neurology and psychology that what we remember plays a fundamental role in forming the basis of our reality.

Foner mentions the dichotomy between the views provided by the North and South about how the Civil War should be remembered. One was the “Emancipationist” view provided by the North which emphasized freedom and equality for all men. The south embraced the “Reconciliationist” view which accentuated the commonality between the two sides and the bravery of the individual soldiers. The Reconciliationist view downplayed the role of slavery as the cause of the Civil War and Foner also mentioned how the South still embodied the with supremacy view even after the Civil War. David Blight’s book does seem to render important facts about how we remember the Civil War, but I am not so sure if it would be an interesting read for me, I had rather read the condensed review! But maybe serious history students and historians might find the book useful. Another event in history I think is remembered differently is the War against Iraq in 2003. The two most prevalent views is that the war was caused by the threat of WMDs in Iraq, while the other view is that the prime concern was taking control of the huge oil reserves in Iraq. Both view might have political agenda and that the democrats may advance the latter view to portray the Republican party as composed of greedy capitalists.  

02/6/11

Some events is not over

Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. By David W. Blight. I think this book is very interesting because it brings history back to what happened in the Civil War. It refreshes people memory, what we learned in the history class. But just read the review, we can found a lot detail that we did not learn in the class. So this is very good book to read if you want to know more about the Civil War. Everyone can benefit from the reading because the civil war was the most divisive war in the American history. Most American died in this war than in any other.  So people can get more detail in the book. This book review shows that race is very important part of the civil war, I think  African –Americans  should treated equal than white, because they are sacrificed their live just like white people, they are also the hero of the America too.

The one of example remembered in many different ways is Nanjing Massacre. As a Chinese; this is first thing come to my mind. On December 13, 1937, during this period, hundreds of the Chinese civilians and disarmed solider were murdered and 20000-80000 women were raped by solider of the Japanese army. This is terrible thing in the Chinese history.  People in that time, like live in the hell, people worried their will die soon, or their family. After short time, Japanese government try to clean up this history, they are pretending no things happen. So this never mention in Japanese textbooks.

02/6/11

A War to Remember

In the book review of “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, ” by Eric Foner, it sheds light on the distorted memory of the Civil War. The Civil War may have ended, but the battle of how to remember it is still going on. When asked about their opinions on the war, a Southerner will most likely give a completely different answer than a Northerner. This is primarily because of politics. Both the North and the South wanted the memory of the Civil War to be favorable to them.  In addition, our perspective of the Civil War depends on how racial relations are in present day.

This is an important issue because historical memories are valuable sources to understanding the past. If memories are manipulated, it will present a biased, false impression of the event. There are many instances of historical happenings that result in different experiences and views. For example, the truth about the first Thanksgiving. In American textbooks, the first Thanksgiving was illustrated to be happy and harmonious. The story goes that the Pilgrims met a nice Native American, called Squanto, who taught them how to plant corn.  Out of respect, the Pilgrims invited the Native Americans for a Thanksgiving feast. However, the truth about Thanksgiving is that Pilgrims did not come up with it. Indians had been celebrating Thanksgiving for centuries. Pilgrims were never actually part of it. In the 1890s, the Pilgrims started to be tied in with the tradition after Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday.

The book is interesting because it reveals the forgotten heroes and repressed memories of the Civil War. It is a useful opportunity to enlighten the people, who previously held certain biases or reservations regarding the war.

02/6/11

Forgive, but never forget

David Blight’s new book, “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory”, talks about political motivation behind the different history memories of the American Civil War. This topic gets my attention immediately since I have experienced something similar myself. Being a Korean Chinese, I learned both Chinese and Korean History. One thing they have in common is that both countries suffered deeply from Japanese invasion early this century. Generations after the invasion, however, students of these three countries have a very different idea towards the war.

Once I had a conversation about history war with one of my Japanese friends. He insisted that the invasion of Korea was to help the Korean people since that’s what he was taught at school. He said the occupation of Korea and part of China was just an ‘expansion’, was to build ‘a better East Asian.’ For me, my history textbook talks about how Japanese army killed Chinese in the number of millions.

Just like explained in the “Race and Reunion,” some Japanese want to gain their political influence by changing the way to remember the war, portraying their criminal ancestors as heroes. Textbook has power to reinforcement an ethnic community and be proud of one’s country. People distort history to make young generation feel proud while they are learning “great” commitments their ancestor did.

To be fare, I don’t think they are the only one who remembers history politically motivated. Korean and Chinese governments emphasize the killing to remind their people that, as bad as the governments can be, they are way better than the foreign invaders.

 

 

Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall

02/6/11

Truth behind biased historical events

I find David Blight’s book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, to be very incisive because he brings back the unheard voices and memories of neglected African-Americans who participated in the Civil War; in order to bring forth the truth behind the biased history imprinted in our culture. African-American soldiers should be honored and given credit to because they are also heroes who sacrificed their lives for the Civil War just like the White soldiers. Everyone would benefit from reading this book because there are always two sides to a story and we get to know the other side of the story of those who also participated in the war but was neglected. Blight’s book shows the importance of historical memory because there can be politically motivated bias in historical events, in this case he brings to light the truth behind politically motivated bias of historical events that took place in the Civil War.

One example of a historical event that is remembered differently is the Rape of Nanjing. Many Chinese men and women suffered from barbaric treatment by the Japanese invaders. Many thousands of women were rape, brutally injured, mutilated and killed. However the Japanese are in denial of these actions. Japanese school textbooks, historical works, or newspapers never mentioned anything about the Rape of Nanjing. This shows that Japan is putting this historical event under the covers and pretending that this massacre never happened, their actions prove that this is most definitely politically motivated. Japans’ denial prevents its whole nation from facing history and the truth.

Rape of Nanjing Memorial Hall

02/6/11

Fake Memory… Revealing!

The saying, “history is written by winners,” proves that history is not always accurate as what people think. In fact, history is accurate at all because people have their own views of history, and difference between them is whether they are close to accuracy or not. I think the book “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory” by David W. Blight sounds very interesting because what he does in the book is to reveal the different aspects of how we remember the Civil War. Race, religion, culture, region, and other factors affect how we look at the history. Not everyone is historian or has the interest to discover the “real” history. The major source of where our knowledge about the history comes from text books, which might not provide enough details about the certain events. Therefore, I think everyone should read this book and will eventually take something out of it. Blight gives several examples that memory of history can be made up by somebody else. For instance, a memory that was once promoted by the Southern Historical Society claimed that slavery did not exist in the South and the African Americans were just faithful servants to their white masters. We all know that this is untrue because we have all the evidences that can prove it. 

The war between Americans and Native Americans was another piece of memorythat is remembered in different ways. The peace was broken when British came and took over Native Americans’ homeland. This was not the end of the exclusion. When the U.S was formed, Americans started to expand their territory to the west, which many of Native Americans had been killed because of the expansion. On the face of it, Americans were saying to civilize those savages. But in fact, they were taking their lands and lives away. Eventually, they were forced to move to the Indiana Territory. The memory for Native Americans are painful because they were driven out of their mother land, and many of their people were killed because of the enforcement. On the other hand for Americans, it might not seem as bad as it is in Native Americans’ eyes. Most people think they have a better life under the U.S. Government’s control and they are well protected. As what it says in the review, “the Civil War is not over.” It might seem it is over, but the gap between people is getting bigger. Discrimination, prejudice, injustice, and stereotyping are signs of this continuous war. I think many of the memories are politically motivated because the government will always try to adjust their figure positively, which many of the improper facts can be potentially hidden. 

 

02/6/11

Racial Propaganda

Eric Foner did a wonderful job of making a brave and insightful book sound painstakingly boring. His review was written as a monotonous summary void of any important historical implications that the book itself has. As to the book itself, I would see it as a study into racial propaganda, although neither Foner nor Blight seem to mention or point this out. Blight did a great deed in revisiting Civil War memories, simultaneously reevaluating our modern memories of history. Using “Race and Reunion” as the median, Blight was able to synthesize the past and present, showing us that memories need to be analyzed and studied just as thoroughly as historical evidence, and even more so as memories are more susceptible to alteration.

The book review alludes to the importance of historical memory and how memories may shape history more so than events. Foner showed us that memories were able to push the South’s agenda in a more effective manner than the North’s war victory was able to suppress it. Even to this day there are numerous events, whether it be America’s suppression of Native Americans, or Fascist Germany’s murder of Gypsies, gays, Russians, etc, or America’s invasion into Afghanistan and Iraq, and China’s censorship of Tibet, where memories of people, push personal agendas to the point of blinding us of objective facts. Memories are subjective and as such may very well be politically motivated. Leading me to think that had Blight written a book on historical memories and used the civil war as a chapter in a book full of historical examples of how memories shape history, he would’ve done the world a much greater service.

02/6/11

Remember the History

The book review “Race and Reunion” by David Blight sounds like a interesting book. This book is interesting because people can know how others remembered the history of the Civil War. Just like what the review said, these studies is the conviction that memory is a product of history. It is being constructed and in many ways political. I think that most people can benefit from this reading because we can learn about black Americans that were often denied in works. Blight believes that “how we think about the Civil War has everything to do with how we think about race and its history in American life.”

This book review shows how race plays an important role of historical memory. During the Civil War, Northerner fought for the freedom of slavery. The  Southerner fought to keep slavery. In the book review it says how slavery was not part of the Civil War. This shows two different sides that people saw during that period.
Another event that was remembered in many different ways was the Vietnam War.  During the Vietnam War, the United States fought North Vietnam in order to contain communism and stop it from spreading to South Vietnam. Many believe that if we did not fight this war communism might have spread even further than Vietnam. The other point of view is that many Americans thought it was a waste of our military soldiers and a waste of time. U.S.A spent many years in Vietnam and lost a great deal of soldier during the war only to have lost. I think that some memories are politically motivated since we have different points of view can may motivate others.

02/6/11

Things Remembered

The book sounds pretty interesting to me. In the book review, Eric Foner says, “‘Race and Reunion’ is the most comprehensive and insightful study of the memory of the Civil War yet to appear.” It gives a lot of information to people who get to know Civil War history straight forward from text books. As a foreign student, I would be one of them. Before coming to the Unites State, I’ve only read about Civil War from the text books when I was in school, I only knew that Civil War was about Americans from the north and south fighting over slavery and trades. However, I could get more details and facts from many other books like Race and Reunion.

The book uses Civil war as an example to emphasize how important historical memories are. Eric Font indicates that Blight has used some historical events to debate what happened during some other historical events. For example, “The origins of the reconciliationist memory, Blight argues, can be traced to debates during Reconstruction, when Republicans made a commitment to legal and political equality for the former slaves and then abandoned it in the face of violent opposition from the white South and a Northern retreat from the ideal of equality.”Eric Foner also uses the examples in the book tells us to view historical events (like Civil War) by different angles and ways.

Talking about similar examples, as a Chinese, the first thing come to my mind is the Nanjing Massacre. It was probably one of the cruelest massacres against humanity in recent history.  In this event, an estimate of three hundred thousand Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers were murdered and 20,000 women were raped by soldiers of the imperial Japanese Army in the city of Nanjing, during the years of 1937-1938. The massacre also involves political elements; some Japanese nationalists argue the massacre was fabricated.  While the Japanese government has records of the number of casualties after Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, the Nanjing massacre perpetrated by them seems to be a forgotten issue. The exact number of killed Chinese civilians will never be disclosed as evidence was destroyed shortly after the Japanese surrender to the invasion war. Historical facts remember the massacre, while political manipulations try to clean it from the record.

02/6/11

Remembering The Past

David Blight’s “Race and Reunion” seems to be a very good history book because it shows that some historical evens can be remembered differently. There were two opinions on why the Civil War started. The emancipationists believed that slavery was a cause of the Civil War. The reconciliationists dismissed this thought and claimed that the Civil War happened because of the disagreement in the state rights. What i found very interesting is that the book overthrows the concept that winners always get to write history. Even though the South lost the Civil War, the reconciliationists “won the war over memory”.  I think politics probably played an important role in ensuring that the Southern view of history would prevail.

Another example in history of a shared experience that is remembered in many different ways is the origins of the Cold War. People disagree over the question of who was responsible for the breakdown of American-Soviet relations. In addition, the debate over what resulted in slavery in 17th century is another example. Some people say that  slavery was a result of white racism, while others claim that racism was a result of slavery.

I believe anyone with an interest in the Civil War will benefit from reading this book because it provides both sides of the story. It is important for people to know how history gets distorted in an absolutely unfair manner and how some books don’t speak the truth.  It is not fair when important events and people who deserve recognition are left out of the history.

02/5/11

Memory is More Influential than Reality

Here is an over-used quote: “History is written by the winners.” An impossible mission for the historians would be to make a politically unbiased, empirically true, and objective record on a specific event. Given the right to write about a topic without restrictions imposed by the government, which is a privilege that’s not given in many nations, historians still experience many hardships in recording a historical incident by researching on possibly distorted data and opinions. Therefore, a book on the “reality” of a historical incident, such as the civil war, could possibly just become another voice in a great debate, whose conclusion may be impossible to reach.

This is why David Blight’s “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory” might be very interesting and practical. Although Blight may avoid the challenge of searching accurate data and interpreting biased opinions, he can spend time and effort on the reactions and influences of the people with different perspectives on the war. If that’s what Blight did in his book, this book would be very beneficial to the people interested in politics.  Rather than scrutinizing the actual events, politicians may be more interested in how the events influenced the development of our system. Eric Foner has already explained why the historical memory is important: historical memory great affect the politicians when they carry out major reforms, such as racial movements and feminine movements. The book review mentioned Wilson’s action as an example of the actions taken by politicians with different perspectives. Another example of shared experiences that is remembered in different ways would be the Iraq War, in which some people is remembering it as America’s invasion of a nation for the oil, while others remember it as proper actions needed for national security.

In a nation of democracy, many memories may be political driven, and some memories are shaped by the speeches delivered by politicians. A book on the historical memories would reflect the attitudes of our citizens than a book that recorded the reality that occurred.

02/5/11

not a choice, slavery must be abolished!

Civil War should be remmebered not only by its devastating affect to the country, but also be remembered with heroic soldiers who sacrificed their life to win the war and save the union despite of their race. From the David Blight’s passage, I understand many causes of descrimination in post civil war era. There were 50,000 African American soldiers who fought in the war while  only white soldiers were being monumented and remembered which showed aspects of white supremacy. Segregation will eventually take place which was the affect of white supremacy. I think the book is interesting because civil war was a war where the succesion of southern states from the union resulted in a battle that really fought over issues of slavery. I also think it will be interesting to understand how African Americans were treated after the war, if they were honored as much as the whites. Historical memory should be rememebered in the right way.

What I find ironic about later passage is that President Wilson, being a peace maker by mentioning to form a League of Nation during his fourteen points speech, he actually supported slavery by supporting the existence of Ku Klux Klan. I think it is important that history should be rememebered and told to the future generation in an unbiased form. The Vietnam war was a historical event that was being rememebered in a different way or somehow biased. It was viewed as a successful war at somepoint because the US had contained the spread of communism from South Vietnam to North Vietnam. It was also considered a failed mission because US had lost massive amount of soldiers in Veitnam, and the war lasted many years that did not unify Vietnam into a democratic country. I think with political left and right wing manipulating the American government system, there is always two sides with one side always trying to attack the oppostion in the hope of gaining more control over the other in this most democratic country.

02/5/11

His-story

David Blight’s book, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, sounds extremely intriguing. He offers another view to the Civil War, and brings in the impact of African Americans. When we learn about the Civil War in school we are told a certain story, a story that usually omits certain truths. By reading this book one would gain a whole new prospective of our history. This book helps bring to light the power of written history, and the fact that history is just one person’s perspective about what happened at a certain time. No matter who is telling the event there will always be some bias. Everybody would benefit from reading such a book, because it shows us that what we learnt in the past might not be true. We all know that every person has his side of the story, and that when you put both sides together you usually get a story close to the real one. By bringing in the importance of African American’s in the Civil War we begin to learn about our history from a different lens.

An even that has many different viewpoints around the world is the United States’ bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. America and Japan each have a different memory of this event. In America’s mind they were just retaliating to the horrible attack at Pearl Harbor. America was minding their own business, and out of nowhere Japan decided to bomb our naval base. In the Japanese minds America is evil. They went too far, and it was uncalled for. They unleashed the first nuclear weapon, and they responded much harsher than they should have. These different viewpoints over the same event are obviously politically motivated. America wants to show that they are right, and that they were defending their homeland. On the other hand, Japan wants to show that America is a malevolent country, and that what they did has no justification.

02/4/11

Truth of a Nation

The voice of David Blight in the book Race and Reunion:The CIvil War in American Memory sparks certain interests in the history of the civil war because he attempts to uncover the truth to what many people try to leave behind. Many people seem to believe that slavery was not a big enough problem to have caused the division in such a powerful country. A number of people took enormous amounts of actions to make things right; some even risking their lives. Among those individuals were African Americans and those who were trying to aid in their emancipation. Blight does not overlook the heroism taken by African Americans during the Civil War. In fact, this is his central theme. Their roles ranged from fleeing from captivity in large numbers to fighting in the war for their freedom. Indeed slavery was the central problem and the cause; therefore Blight is able to bring this to the forefront in a tasteful manner and give credit to those forgotten.

Everyone would benefit from reading this book because we all should know the truth about what occurred in the past. In this day and age, people have a tendency to forget events as time moves on. Politics aids in this lack of memory by showing favoritism to certain races in America, predominately the white population. A prime example in this time was the event of Hurricane Katrina. This event was remembered in different ways by many people. The truth behind this devastating time was that aid took a long time to reach New Orleans because it was mostly populated by African Americans. Although some people would want to argue that the conditions were horrible therefore other plans had to be thought up in order for help to get into the state; others may argue that the president of the country was unaware of what was going on in the country he was running and there was no plan thought up in case of emergencies. Until this day, New Orleans is still not repaired to the beautiful lively area it once was; still leaving many African Americans homeless and forgotten.The book review sheds light on the fact that American History is very significant and all of the what may seem to be small details should be recognized because such events as Hurricane Katrina which happened many years after the Civil War will continue to occur and certain people will continue to be forgotten or left behind.

02/2/11

Assignment due 2/7

1) You are responsible for previous assignments, even if you are just joining the class.  See the “Assignments” tab on the course site for assignment details.

2) Read the book review at http://www.ericfoner.com/reviews/030401nytimes.html

3) Write a 1-2 paragraph post in response to the Eric Foner book review.  Give your post a unique title, and answer the following questions:
a) Does the David Blight book sound interesting to you?  Why or why not?  Who might benefit from reading it?
b) What does the book review tell you about the importance of historical memory?
c) Can you think of another example (in American or world history) of a shared experience that is remembered in many different ways?
d) Are the different memories politically motivated?

02/2/11

When we become the past…

Internet is like Times Square.  People go online to shop, to socialize.  Social networks are just like clubs.  There are millions of people doing different activities online in every minutes.  It is difficult to keep personal information private because there is no law enforcement to protect the information.   The best way to protect the personal information is not to post too much personal information online.  According to the document, the government is taking records of people activities online for future reference.  Many people are worried about their privacy in future.  As I have stated, any information posted online should be expected to be view by others regardless of present or future.

Yesterday is our history.  Time is not waiting for us.  So as technology will not wait for us.  From radio to portable computers, technology has surpasses human working capacity in efficiency.  Everyday living is completely different from the past and future is definitely different from now.  Soon enough, everyone in this generation will become the history and study by the future historians.  It is very person’s option for leaving their information for the future.  Internet is just public.  People has the option to leave their trace behind for others to see.  Freedom is on people’s hand to control.  In this case, government is just like a recorder.

02/2/11

History and Transparency

Are we in a world of too much transparency, or too little has always been the question people have argued and debated. It seems like people like to pick and choose what they would like to know more about and what they would not like to get public. Many individuals preach privacy and the right to privacy as something which should be upheld and maintained for the sake of citizens, but why do we still seek transparency in issues where national security is involved? These issues time and time again are questioned and debated and there never seems to be a solution or one set decision on what should be done. Reading these two articles “Archiving Tweets” and “WikiLeaks and the Historical Community,” made this opinion of mine even stronger?

When it comes to our personal lives, we prefer and expect to have our privacy, but if we as individuals are comfortable enough to update every breathing second of our lives on social websites like twitter-we should not be concerned about the decison of Library of Congress’s to digitally archive public tweets. In today’s date, most individuals are machine driven, or technology driven. We always have access to the internet and social networking websited like twitter and facebook on our laptops, desktops and even cell phones!  We are constantly seen walking down streets balancing our walk and our typing speed on blackberry phone keypads. If this is the case, then it may certainly be a wise decision to record the behavior of humans and how they maintain a craze to have their voice heard and get noticed via these meduims of socialization. Historians may in fact come across a lot of jergen and incomprehensible tweets, but I would certainly agree with one of the commentators on the “Archiving Tweets” article, somewhere or another historians will find what they are looking for.

History is not something which remains constant and neither are the means in the way history is both taught and studied and read. If this is the case then technology has already started making the process for both historians and students different. We have more means of doing research and collecting data then we may have ever had before, in addition the ability to archive public human activity on the net, could help conclude on many other things concerning perhaphs human activity, performance, sociology and politics. The wikileaks incident dumped many government classified documents out in the public, whether this should be a national security concern within itself is very important to realize. Where do we find the balance between openness and secretcy? Who makes these decisions? Well I wish there was an easier way to find the answers to questions like these, however, incidents like these which happen once in a while do nothing to aid in answering these questions. I would have to agree with the author, K.C. Johnson, document dumps like this one only complicate the situation even more.