Beyond Journals and Essays: Examining and Interacting with History


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While Images are not needed  in order to understand the significance of battles, decisions, and cultural trends through time, it helps out. Trying to understand what the past looked gets historians closer to the people who lived in the time they study which makes websites, like that of UCLA’s Mapping Indigenous Los Angeles, valuable. This can be seen when understanding the website’s mission which is, ” not presenting a historical narrative that begins with the maps made by the [Spanish]…but rather hope to show that many Tongva have had consistent occupation in the region, not just those associated with the [San Gabriel Mission]” (Mapping Indigenous LA: Placemaking Through Digitial Storytelling). This exposure also goes beyond that by showing people, not familiar with historical literature, to sources like O, My Ancestor or even to festivals held by groups that want to maintain and share their culture with others. Rdaigh also weighed in on the usefulness of websites as he stated, “I also appreciate that the website gives you the ability to insert videos to give further information so you don’t intimidate your audience with too much information” (Historical Discussion…again). Thus websites can be a jumping off point for people and help educated them more about the world around them. Yet only websites like that are the beginning as some interactive media forms can be used to help spread knowledge of history. The best example of this in action is Sid Meier’s Civilization video game series which Jeremy D. Popkin, in From Herodotus to H-Net,  mentioned as allowing players, “to experiment with different decisions and see what the consequences of their actions are. Instead of being passive consumers of representations of the past…, video-game players take an active role in constructing notions of the past” (184).  While mainly for entertainment value, certain video games can be just as useful in exposing people to history as educational websites are as it can lead to the development of critical historical thinking skills when it comes to various factors like understanding the importance of resources to why nations may justify wars. This shows the necessity of going beyond journals and essays as seeing and interacting with history is just as important as writing about it.

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