History is so boring!

[Bunny]

I'm a history major with a plan on becoming a high school teacher so I think my thoughts on the subject of liking/disliking history is pretty clear.

US History is my least favorite subject within history. It isn't because I find it boring, though admittedly a good portion of it is. Anything pre-20th century is awesome though. I just prefer Ancient Civ, Islamic, Japanese/Chinese, and religious histories more.

[Shorty]

I find American history intensely boring, but history from other cultures fascinate me.

It seems to me that a lot of people tend to feel this way about the history of their home country, and I suspect it's because said history is usually - and I use this word loosely - taught in a repetitive and shallow fashion. Yay we're good. Brits learn about what we did in WW2 but we're less enthused to teach people about our perfection of the Concentration Camps during the Boer War. Yanks sure love themselves some "We saved the world like nine times!" but they're less keen on debating Grenada. So you get a few years of that same basic tit over and over and it impresses in a negative fashion, both because it's another boring-ass school subject and because it's always just a big lacking.

But when you really dig into it American history is fascinating. I mean, I'm a huge fan of all history; I devoured Pike's book on WW1 when I was over there, then a book about the history of the vidya, then a book about the Civil War, then when I got back to England went through a book on the history of violence in the media. Now I've just started re-reading Mark Mazower's Dark Continent, which is 20th Century Europe. But Americans have a pretty uniquely breakneck history. Y'all went from being a bunch of upstart colonists on the edge of the world to the paramount military, economic, and political force on the planet in a little over a century and a half. Starting from before the Revolutionary War, through that, the expansion westwards, conflicts with the natives, the Benevolent Empire/Second Great Awakening, the Civil War, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the Depression, both World Wars, the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, the Space Race, Watergate, actually I could really just link you to this for the 20th century.

All this in two centuries. All this in a country that is still trying to figure out the promises it makes to its people and how to deal with the world as it is. It's a breakneck ascent to prominence.

In short, Shorty, you are wrong and American history is great.

Most of my education on American history involved how the marmons got from Missouri to Utah and what happened after that in various ways of retelling those events over and over. Even in public school, this is mostly what was focused on and repeated over and over. And then some stuff about mountain men and the west and the rocky mountains and ner ner ner. So really, Huxley, the worst parts.

[Laddy]

I had a really awesome dream about being a scholar in the Abbasid Caliphate and my colleague and I philosophized on metaphysics, particularly on whether or not humans can personally experience an objective reality.

It was cool.

I personally enjoy Islamic history, sub-Saharn African history, and 20th century history.

[Jiro]

Dude that is nerdy as smurf xD

[Mercen-X]

Nice essay, but I give you a C for purple prose.

Then why did you give me a C? In my experience, that's a good grade.

There's just something I want to add:

spoilerBetwixt the eras of the poet and the scribe, there were bards to sing of the whispered rumors among the nations dared not be spoken for their "benefactors" to hear. From lost eras wherein people were so far apart and knowledge could only be spread by word of mouth to now with world-wide-web-interconnectivity, history has been shared in one form or another. How accurate these tales have been comes down to the deliverer's measure of how willing his audience had been to listen. Sometimes, a simple story had to be spiced just a bit. History, sadly, is boring, as it repeats itself again and again. From the birth of a life, to the emotional and physical struggles to maturity, to the eventual death which befalls us all, there is no originality in history. Just look to Christopher Booker's "Seven Basic Plots" (found here: Denis Dutton on The Seven Basic Plots) and you'll also see that there is no originality to the plot of literature either. You can go to tvtropes.org to see that every conceivable twist, turn, tunnel, turbulence, and truism (cliché) has been done over and again.

Strife and chaos rise because someone is unhappy with the present. That someone feels there is something missing from "life," unidentifiable as it may be. Sadly, without strife, there would be no forward momentum. We would be amoeba in a puddle. Some people are satisfied with the security of the familiar. Others desire a threat to their security (albeit subconsciously) so that they can appreciate life's charms.
But by and large, the cycle continues and the waves of the ocean continue outward toward the shore and the stars in the night sky continue ever outward as years pass. Perhaps someday new life will emerge, something we've never seen. But then that lifeform will begin it's own cycle. It will certainly be interesting to watch while it lasts, but as I've said twice or three times so far, history repeats.

I'm gonna guess wildly here: you didn't actually add anything, did you?

(history is boring because it's) taught in a repetitive and shallow fashion.

Now I've just started re-reading Mark Mazower's Dark Continent, which is 20th Century Europe.

Exactly. History is not the past. History is a SUBJECT which is taught typically by droning idiots with no real interest in the subject themselves. Our past is interesting. History blows!

Naturally, anything written in the form of a novel is going to be interesting. It is incredibly difficult, however, to muster an ounce of enthusiasm over reading longwinded and often unrelated text supposedly detailing stories of incidents past.

[Bunny]

Exactly. History is not the past. History is a SUBJECT which is taught typically by droning idiots with no real interest in the subject themselves. Our past is interesting. History blows!

This kind of angers me, to be honest. I have been studying history academically for roughly 7 years (four high school and three college) and have taken at least one history class every semester during that time frame. I have never had a bad history teacher. I have, of course, had ones that are less stellar than others, but I cannot say that any of them have been outright bad or "droning idiots."

Droning idiots and bad teachers are not limited to history. Every subject has them. You cannot single out history as being bad simply because you've had a bad time with some bad teachers.

[Pike]

And then some stuff about mountain men and the west and the rocky mountains and ner ner ner. So really, Huxley, the worst parts.

What no, those are the best parts.

[Shorty]

Not when you live in the west and also at the base of the rocky mountains!

[Pike]

But that is where I live!

[Clo]

Nice essay, but I give you a C for purple prose.

Then why did you give me a C? In my experience, that's a good grade.

Well, it's not. People have been telling you it's good, but they lied to you.

[escobert]

History is awesome!

[Sephex]

I was actually discussing this with friends last night. We all basically agreed that the reason why so many people find history boring is that most teachers obviously simply go through the motions and follow a strict, boring outline. It's a shame too because history classes can easily be taught open and fun like just about any art class.

[escobert]

Exactly! If you just read from the text book all day then, yes it's boring. But, if you get into it and get interactive with it it's very fun and interesting to learn about.

[Mercen-X]

Bart Simpson really took a shine to "everyman" Harry S. Truman..

Aside from Abe being a vampire slayer, Hitler being the bride of Satan, and Kim Jong Il being an alien bent on exploding Earth, nothing in history particularly stands out.

[iceman00890]

I had the best history teacher so history was never boring. He threw a Lego house at some popular girl once because she was mouthing off. He didn't even have tenure. He also told us that he didn't like sitting in the back of movie theaters because he didn't want to get a sexually transmitted disease. Yeah, history was so great.