History As An Interpretation Growing up in a conservative environment I was taught that what everyone said was the truth and if you were told something about the past it was to be taken as a fact. To me there was not a single argument to the fact that the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. But as you get older you start to understand concepts and motives and to not be so naive. As I grew up my grandparents always told me to take everything “with a grain of salt” which meant to not eagerly accept every detail as a fact but to look at everything from a different perspective until you can formulate your own ideas on a certain subject. This new way of thinking helped cure some of my adolescent naiveness. When I first signed up for this class I had no idea what to expect; I knew it was an honors class and I wanted the challenge, but as far as the class structure would go I had no idea as to how things would be run. Immediately I knew this was a different type of class because most classes I had taken in the past would look at a pre-approved book and we would memorize and accept everything it said down to the letter. This unfortunately, as I learned through this class, presented an incredible biased view and opinion on various subjects. For instance I was taught that the war with japan was basically us saving these savage and cruel beasts. It taught of the horrors of torture to American P.O.W. and the sucker punch Japan delivered during the attack on Pearl Harbor. To me it was obvious to see that they attacked us and it was only right for us to drop a bomb on these soulless people. Only when researching my paper did I come across the horrors the American soldiers and people did to the Japanese; the carving of of bones of dead Japanese soldiers. To a people that valued and respected death like the Japanese did this was the ultimate form of disrespect. This was a shocking revelation to me: could Americans be just as cruel as I was taught the Japanese were? There is a saying that says “history is written by the victors” and this is incredibly true because whenever you look at an American history book and you read on the American Revolution it is this huge dramatic battle where the courageous Americans overtook the British and won their independence. Every kid knows the stories of Paul Revere and “the redcoats are coming, the redcoats are coming!” and how these brave American fighters fought against the oppressive taxes of the British. But believing this without questioning the source is ignorant because you are not taking the opposing view into account. If you were to read the British take on what happened it was nothing more than a small skirmish. These are completely different accounts of what happened, so how could I possible know what to believe? The answer is both. All views and interpretations have some value because it helps you see the whole picture and be able to construct your interpretations of what truly happened. History books in its purest form tell what happened but it is up to the reader to see the different views and perspectives and find out why it happened. Another one of the main things I learned this year was about the religious beliefs of our founding fathers. Being in public school I was taught all of our father were strong christian men and that was the end of the argument. A cool thing about this class is that you gave us the materials to formulate our own opinions and let us run with it. Making your own opinions is always more impactful on learning then just telling us what you think and us accepting it. When I started the assignment I didn't know what to expect and being impatient I wanted to know if he was a deist or not and be done with it. But as soon as I started to look at the letters to personal friends and documents he constructed it was not as clear cut. Human beings are notorious for not being exactly one thing or another but a small mix of many things. After looking at the files and looking at the definitions of Deism and a timeline for deism in started to see what he truly was:a Deist at heart but he acted christian to the public. Just like no one is perfectly democratic or republican, Jefferson was a “Christian” Deist. He observed practices of both schools of thought and being an intellect he mixed a lot of deism and free thinking with his childhood foundation of Christianity. Overall, I will take away from this class the ability to dissect any historical circumstance and look at both sides and formulate my own opinions. Because the more I learn about American history, there is travesties committed on both sides of war not just the enemies. Knowing this can help understand how the other side feels and may help subdue some extreme nationalism felt by fellow Americans in times of war and crisis. I felt this was a very useful and interesting class and enjoyed the change of pace and how I could make my own opinions and not just be force fed generic watered down history. This makes for a much more enjoyable time in history and helps you teach others how to approach new facts and events in history and how they can go at it with a non-biased view. This was a great preview to what I hope the rest of college is like: making my own opinions with the materials and resources at hand and doing my best to make an educated interpretation on what is happening. Lastly, it helps to shed light on the fact that I don't know as much as I thought I did on various historical topics and maybe I should go back and reform some interpretations on history.