Each week in Tracy Penny-Light’s class we had to read a few articles or journals and report our feelings on each reading. Here lies my reading log #1.

For this particular reading we had to read an article that discussed the basic concepts of history, how to write it and what it means for each community and culture.

 

Reading Log #1

 

There are many main arguments of this reading. This reading is mainly talking about writing history. It discusses how to determine the validity of sources or people claiming to know about previous historical events or basically anything to do with history. It talks about how every community and generation has their own history and that it doesn’t matter the size of the community or how big of a generation was affected, all history matters. I think this article sheds light on different ways to determine if the history is valid that’s being discussed or if its false. Such as, making sure the main source who is providing us with the historical information is trustworthy, and has a good reputation for providing truthful historical information. I thought the argument was very convincing, especially when it talked about how all history matters, no matter how big of a community is it. Before when I thought about the word history, I thought of the big things that have happened in the past, such as, the holocaust or the confederation of Canada. I didn’t think of all the small events that happened in the past as history, when in reality it all matters and it is all part of Canadas history. The part of the reading that I thought supported the argument of the paper was when Belshaw discusses how in Western tradition, Herodotus was considered the “Father of History” yet he wasn’t alive when the historical writing in China occurred 500 years before he was born. I think this article was good however, as I was reading it I found it to be a bit choppy. For example, at first the author was talking about the writing of history, and how to verify sources that claim to know about history. Then the author went on to talk about the different generation and such. I found myself a bit confused about what I was reading.