Posted by The Conversation |
Wednesday 7 April 2021, 05:39 PM (AEST) The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they d like an expert to answer. Zoe, age 10, wants to know how history is written and who writes it. An expert explains. Thinking about who writes history is very important if we want to figure out how it is written. Lots of things influence how we see the world. This includes our education, where we come from, whether we are male or female, rich or poor. All these things affect how historians write the history of people, families, communities and societies in the past.
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Curious Kids: How Is History Written and Who Writes It?
How is history written and who writes it? – Zoe, aged ten, Glasgow, Scotland
How is history written and who writes it? – Zoe, aged ten, Glasgow, Scotland
Thinking about who writes history is very important if we want to figure out how it is written. Lots of things influence how we see the world. This includes our education, where we come from, whether we are male or female, rich or poor. All these things affect how historians write the history of people, families, communities and societies in the past.
How is history written and who writes it? – Zoe, aged ten, Glasgow, Scotland
Thinking about who writes history is very important if we want to figure out how it is written. Lots of things influence how we see the world. This includes our education, where we come from, whether we are male or female, rich or poor. All these things affect how historians write the history of people, families, communities and societies in the past.
For a long time, the people who wrote history were mostly educated men: from the “father of history”, the ancient Greek Herodotus who lived over 2000 years ago, to medieval monks such as the Englishman Bede, and 20th-century university professors like Eric Hobsbawm. Often, they wrote histories about great men, great wars, and empires that set out to conquer the world.