Lesson ThreeWhy Historians Disagree.pptVIP

Lesson ThreeWhy Historians Disagree  Introduction to the author: The present text is a much condensed and adapted version of the preface to the book called Conflict and Consensus in Modern American History edited by Allen F. Davis and Harold D. Woodman, professors at Temple University and Purdue University respectively, who also wrote the introduction themselves. Discussion Section 1. How do most history teachers introduce the subject to their students in high schools? What do they usually require their students to do? 2. What is the purpose of studying history? Do you like history? Why or why not? 3. What does a good history book tell us, apart from dates, names, events, and statistics? Introduction to the text: In this essay, the two authors discuss the definition of history, the role of the historian and the reasons why historians disagree. They point out the common misunderstanding that history is just names, dates and statistics of the past, and the historian’s job is to find and remember as many of them as possible. They tell us that historians do not just collect facts. They give meaning to the facts. And because they have different interests and a different understanding of human motivation and human behavior which in turn is due to their different background in age, sex, race, class, education, religion, politics, etc, they tend not only to be interested in different facts but also interpret the same facts differently. The Organization of the Text: Part I (Paras 1-3): Students and common people’s misunderstanding of the study of history and why historians disagree. Part II (Paras 4-12): The definition of history and explanation of why historians disagree in details. Part III (Paras 13): We cannot eliminate all disagreement. Words and Expressions approximate v. to come close to; be nearly the same as 靠近；同…一样接近 e.g. His description approximated to the truth but there were a few errors. 他的描述与事实已经接近，但是有一些错误。