Thursday, July 4, 2013

History Lessons: the Strange Mix of Memory and Forgetting

This is a marvelous post about a nation's history curriculum and how unnatural selection in what we teach, and what therefore comes to pass as "common knowledge" is shaped.  Religion, race, nation itself.  Knowing sources.  Thinking we know any answers is the point at which it is impossible to truly understand.

Nuanced understanding, even when new and unexpected perspectives don't persuade, is the most important part of any discipline.  Read Katherine Langrish's post if only for the quote from Robert Bellah.

I'm reminded forefully of this piece of Frankish myth-making ...

“Let us set out the beginnings of the kings of the Franks and their origin, and also the origins of the people and its deeds ...  Priam and Antenor, two Trojan princes, embarked on ships with twelve thousand of the men remaining from the Trojan army.  They came to the banks of the Tanis River.  They sailed into the Maeotian swamps, penetrated the frontiers of the Pannonias, and began to build a city as their memorial.  They called it Sicambria, and lived there many years, growing into a great people.”
--Liber Historiae Francorum, author(s) unknown.

Okay, now, go!  Read!

No comments: